Halloween

A Halloween meal with the local undertaker and his wife. Beat that if you can! It was really too funny for words. We were afraid that the lipservice that we'd paid to Halloween would be pretty pathetic in comparison to everyone else but no, apart from on other woman who could have been a real witch ( not very sisterly of me, I know) we were the only ones of the 30 or so folk whould made any effort. When I tell you that some of the others arrived with zimmers you'll get the picture. The meal was mussels and chips, no I won't go on, suffice it to say that the evening was saved by Patrick and Jany who are good company and we'll leave it at that.

Harvest Festival

Language exchange in the morning and it's started to be too cold for the terrace of the bar so we've moved indoors to one of the municipal committee rooms. More people have joined since I've been away and it all seems to be going well. Still manage to go for a wee after-meeting refreshment with Maggie, Terry and Anne. In the evening the "garden girls" assembled at Linde's for pumpkin soup made from the only pumpkin that we produced! It was good, there was wine, talk of lessons learnt and future projects.

Soirée Antillaise

Valérie and Fred are due to go back to Guadeloupe at the end of the week so they laid on taste of the Antillies for 16 of us. Acras (something like a fish pakora) with a mean rum punch to kick off the evening followed by chicken colombo (curry) and a dessert selection (chocolate, coconut, ginger) which was my contribution. Valérie even gave me a dance lesson but you aint going to see the photos! A great evening with really nice people. It's good to be back.

Good to be home

Did nothing more than have coffee and a catch up with Michelle while Christian picked up where he left off at the Mairie.

Normandy

23nd - 27th October
With all the family away at work/school we went for a very blowy walk along the seafront in Fecamp. What you can't see is that there were a group of hardy( or should that be foolhardy?) souls taking a dip in the sea. Air temperature was about 8°. We contented ourselves with a luch of seafood at the restaurant we ate with Pierre and Marie Christine back in January. For once we didn't go rushing around the countryside visiting people "midi et soir" but just caught up with folk at lunch times; Valérie et al Friday (24th), Kathy and Sylvain Saturday (25th), Janine Sunday (26th) after having an apéritif with the Malo's. Evening we spent with Christophe, Valérie and the kids. Monday, Valérie and Christophe were heading off to Barcelona for a few days so we left too. The drive down was fine despite the heavy rain as far as the bridge and we made it home in one go to warm weather.

On English Soil

16th - 22nd October

The crossing was ok , the traffic could have been worse as we hit the M25 at rush hour and our fish and chip supper could have been better. Still in a bad mood. Grhhh! Arrived at Jill's where as usual we were made at home and the mood started to lift!

For once we had pleasant autumnal weather and the village looked particularly pretty with the sun on the leaves and the honey coloured stone.

Went to see Dad everyday which surprised him. He looked better than I'd anticipated and was quite chirpy, ready to put the world to rights, so no change there. He wasn't fit to go out for a meal though, so we had a Chinese take away instead.(19th) There were two trips to Stratford for Tesco and Marks and Sparks and couple of meals out. The Bell at Alderminster which was excellent (17th) where Christian and I had lunch by ourselves, Tesco's with Mum, no comment and the National Herb Centre with Mum and Barbara which was diappointing. Jill did a buffet for us , my neices and their husbands as a warm up for the X Factor, no comment and Rosie did a great Autumnal meal for us (20th) when we had the pleasure of meeting my nephew's girlfriend. He also showed some of his Uni work. He's doing car design and I guess has inherited his artistic gene from Chris. We also went to view Chris's building handiwork. My wee brother, really is very skilled as you can see from the photo.

Apart from that we went into Moreton with Mum, took her to see the doctor who thinks that she might have laberynthitis, took her to Stratford with us and the garden centre where all the Christmas decorations were out and had lunch with her most days. Our last evening, Jill put on a really nice meal for us so that we could relax and take it easy with a glass of wine or three.

The drive down to the ferry passed without problem and we arrived in time to have a meal in the new Warfequays complex at Café Rouge. Well, we need to get back into French mode. The development looked impressive and well worth visiting in daylight. Spent the night in a reclining chair which wasn't too bad, arriving more or less on time in Le Havre.

Mother has landed!

8th October - 16th October

The usual scurry around preceeded an evening trip to the airport to pick up Mum.

Thursday ( 9th) and it was the language exchange in the morning followed by an apéritif at the bar . Chutney making in the afternoon saw the end of 2kg of green tomatoes. That reminds me of one of my favourite films, "Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café". Anyone else see it?

Friday (10th) after making three batches of cakes in the name of the Association, we went off to our favourite restaurant, treated by Mum. This time it was open and the fine weather encouraged us to have a stroll around the village. Christian snoozed in the car! Back home in time for the opening of an exhibition of photos at which the homebaking went down a treat. Brits also provided the music which as you can see, the kids found fascinating. The photos were good too! Mostly of a single fruit with some interesting titles
Saturday (11th) and it was the village's Autumn Fair and an opportunity to publicise and recruit new members to the Association. The fair was opened by our local Deputée/MP and hasn't our next door neighbour just started to work for her? As well as this photo taken when she visited the stalls, Christian and I had the dubious pleasure of having individual photos taken with her which as she is UMP (Sarkozy's lot), could see our left-wing credentials seriously compromised! Lunch was another giant paella. Christian was on duty all day showing off the Mairie's new website which he's been responsible for commisioning. Reaction has been favourable and we're particularly pleased as it features a lot of photos taken by us. One amusing sight was when the line dancers who were there strutting their stuff joined in with a sardane! Espadrilles, cowboy boots and stetsons, fusion culture has arrived! I was there with the village website hat on (literally) and for our Sans Frontières Association as well which meant that I didn't get much of a break to spend with Mum.. Having started at 7.30am in the morning it was an early night for us all.
Sunday (12th) and another early start to be on duty at the Associations' and Mairie's stand again. Today there was a car boot sale but apart from an electronic translator neither Mum nor I found anything of interest. Lunch today was spit roast suckling pig which was delicious and the fair closed with a concert of Catalan music and song. The group, believe it or not includes a Scot! Rounded off the day with a drink in the bar to revive our flagging energy levels and put a bit of business Jean-Louis' way. Phew it was quite a marathon and I'm feeling a bit guilty that I couldn't be with Mum all the time.

Monday (13th) and Mum was in bed for most of the day having had a giddy turn. Not the first apparently. Think it may be related to her ears and her hearing aid not working. Anyway, she pulled herself around in time to go over to Jean and Françoise's for an apéro. As Jean is a favourite of Mum's , she wasn't ready to miss out. Thérèse managed to come along as well so there was a fair bit of catching up to do.

Tuesday (14th) After Christian's meeting at the Mairie we headed up the mountain's to have lunch at Claude's which was as copious as ever, then it was coffee at Michel and Joëlle's and afternoon tea with Philippe's Mum. Finally we went home to pack and Christian went off to a council meeting.

Wednesday (15th) On the road for 8.30, we enjoyed the warm sunshine up through the Massif Central, stopping at lunch time for a picnic. Haven't quite got into the French style with tablecloth, apéritif and wine but what we had was fine and meant that the fridge was left completely bare. By the time that we arrived at the Millau bridge the cloud had come down, the temperature had dropped and neither Christian nor Mum were ready to get out of the car. We arrive at Frank and Stéphanie's after 7.30pm and Mum was feeling giddy again. Things didn't get any better when we arrived at our Campanile hotel, normally a pretty safe bet, to find the three of us squeezed into a double bedroom. As it was the last available room when we booked and we'd tried several other places, I suppose we have to be grateful we had some where to put our weary heads. I did think that it would be a triple room. Ah well, we were all too tired to worry about it.

The next day didn'y get any better; delays on the road, an expensive, rubbish "breakfast" in a motorway cafeteria, rain, difficulty finding the hypermarket in Calais (yeah, don't snigger) and an even more rubbishy lunch. I wasn't a happy bunny as the saying goes.

a Motley Crew

The Mairie team in all its glory!

We're Back!

Well, as you know, it wasn't many messages ago that I vowed never to leave the blog unwritten for so long and as you know, the way to hell.... Sorry to the faithful few who have had withdrawl symptoms but the catch up starts now in reverse order.

This being the first Monday of the month, Christian and Michel made the pilgrimage to do their municipal duty up in the mountains. Joëlle, Alain, Monique and I, of course, joined them for dinner along with 2 visitors from Guadaloupe. There was some discussion about twinning possibilities. A couple of different faces, another table but the usual duck and banyuls sauce. What will we do when the restauranteurs take their winter break in January and February???
(The first sentence was written on the 7th Oct, it's now the 4th November and I've just arrived here with the catch up - only a month to go!)

catalan apéro

The Associations "Chez Nous" section kicked off in gastronomic style with a Catalan apéritif hosted by Carmen. The sun was warm enough to be in the garden as we ate our way through an array of tasty things. The well known pa amb tomaquet, serrano ham, anchovies, roast peppers, home made wild boar pâté, wine and so on ... We arrived for 11am. I left at 2pm to go home and change for a garden clean up followed by a cuppa at Joëlle's while Christian finally made it home at 6.30pm.

The unanimous verdict was that it was a great success!

Two Square Meals

As it was a long time since we'd been there, we went to the local auberge for lunch after the market which was a bit greedy as we were invited to Jacques and Yaneth in the evening. Yaneth came up with an idea for a joint project which I tell you about later if it seems feasible. Two small clues - she's a journalist and I like going out and about.