After the beautiful weather for the motor races last Sunday, things started to get greyer with each passing day. Autumn has surely arrived! Monday began well but turned grey in the afternoon and as a Grand Finale degenerated into a crashing thunderstorm that night. About 25mm of sorely needed rain fell and the on/off drizzle continued all next day On Tuesday night, we had a massive windstorm which threw the trees around and rattled the shutters. The scaffolding erected to (one day) repair the loose slates on the church steeple hummed and sang all night, but nothing came loose which was a blessing. In the morning we discovered that the only damage around here had been done to our own garden as a huge branch had come off the linden tree and had fallen on to the one pergola, while other smaller branches had strewn themselves right across the garden. Once Neels had used axe and saw to clear the big branch, we could see the full extent of the damage – the pergola supports were broken off at ground level. So far we have not done anything more than prop them upright again as it is going to be quite a big job to do.
Toulouse Airport was our destination for Thursday, to drop off Nicky who was going for a giddy week in Paris. Not really! She has long-time friends who live near Paris and others in Normandy who have been begging her to come and stay, so she decided to take two weeks away and see them both. We will collect her from the airport again on her return.
The garden now has delicious figs and grapes to offer into the village barter system, so we took a mixed bowl over to Ady and after enjoying a cup of coffee with her and a fairly understandable and lengthy chat, we came away loaded with tomatoes, courgettes aubergines and green peppers. With those ingredients added to the onions and garlic from our own garden, I managed to make a pretty good ratatouille!
Saturday turned into a major shopping day! In the beginning, it was just a shortish trip to exchange a faulty dust buster for Nicky at a large supermarket in Vic Fezensac . We had allowed ourselves plenty of time as we had heard that ‘after sales service’ and ‘exchange of faulty goods still under guarantee’ is not a strong point in France. How surprised were we then, to be greeted cheerfully (although we quite obviously had something to return) and to be given a replacement immediately with any further fuss. No filling out forms, no quibbling; no details of why and how the appliance didn’t work. Just a very pleasant man who took the one machine and dashed off to find a replacement and that was that. So much for all the rumours!
Of course, we were now inside a fairly big supermarket so it seemed a pity to let it go to waste so we wandered around finding a couple of things that we possibly didn’t really heed, before discovering the clothing section. This is something we both need. Winter stock is just coming in and is exactly what we will need when we return next year. However, we were unlucky at this shop and walked out without any new shirts or jerseys.
Reluctant to come straight home seeing that the weather had cleared up into the most stunning day, we went, first to Eauze where Neels needed some hardware bits and pieces. It was around lunch time by now so we had lunch in a café on the square and watched the world go by. Eauze is a major stopover point on the Route de Compostela, and the Café de France, where we ate is a favourite with the pilgrims, so we often have lunch or a coffee there and listen to all the different languages being spoken. After lunch we explored parts of the town which we had never seen, before taking off on yet another huge detour to get home. Quite fortuitously, this happened to go right past the biggest supermarket we have ever seen so we just to go in and have a look. What a treasure house! Everything one’s heart could ever desire is for sale there, and I suppose one could only compare it with Game in SA but with groceries and perishables. The clothing section is immense and there too, new stock was being packed onto shelves and rails. What fun we had! And came away with jerseys and shirts suitable for a European winter. Or we hope so anyway.
On Sunday the weatherman had changed his mind again and it was cloudy and cool but this didn’t worry us as we were off to watch the Italian Grand Prix on the television in the house we will be occupying next year. It was a good race, and the house was cosy which bodes well for our return.
We have got into the habit of buying a newspaper which comes out monthly called the “French Paper’ It is written in English with news about France and plenty of articles which are of interest to non-French people staying here. On the back page though, are the puzzles and two are our favourites. One is a multiple choice, 30 question quiz about France and French affairs. This is always fun to do and shows just how little we really know! The other is a crossword puzzle with a difference. It is cryptic; some of the answers revolve around a particular department of France (which changes with every puzzle); and to make it even more interesting, if the clue mentions French or France, the answer could be a French word! So the two of us sit at the dining room table surrounded by dictionaries, map books, guide books and anything else that may be of use until we have battled our way to the end. Actually it isn’t really so hard because the answers are on the next page, but we try not to look at them until we are completely foxed! It certainly keeps the unemployed employed!
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