28th September
It was lovely to get back to Castelsarrasin - it is just such a friendly place. A lady who lives near the marina called by - it turns out that she lives next door to the baker and gets the unsold, wonderful cakes that we all drool over in French patisseries. She promptly handed this enormous box over to Paul and said to give what we couldn’t eat to the ducks!!! There must have been about £50s worth!! Profiterole gateaux, fruit gateaux, apple tarts, lemon tarts, coffee things, custard things…..phew!!! We gave an enormous fruit thing to a boat next to us and in return they gave us a bottle of wine! We gave some to the marina office; shared some with the boat yard where havorn is spending the winter; gave some to Dom; ate a lot; and finally the ducks still got their share!! Unbelievable!
So we are now at our house - see your e mails for details. Mucho, mucho to do - some basic decorating and modernisation, some major serious stuff involving cement mixers - real boys stuff. So maybe I’ll make new curtains or something girlie!! Like lunch, perhaps? But, if you would like the opportunity to practice your diy….
Everybody seems to be going out of their way to be friendly, which is really nice. We are the third house to be sold for renovation this year and some locals find this quite fascinating. Neighbours in the village are very friendly and find our French quite amusing rather than offensive _ one elderly chap told us that he could speak English if it was about rugby (he watches it on TV) so he then went on to display his vast knowledge of our mother tongue by shouting ‘up and under’ - we nearly fell apart laughing! He also knew ‘coaching’ and ‘substitute’ - but that was about it. Very funny!
Today we started painting - quite a milestone. We now have a bed. The cooker, fridge and washing machine should arrive on Sunday, we have paid our electricity bill and get the phone connected in 2 days . It’s lovely to open the shutters every morning and look out across the valley. Some days we have been above the cloud level and the valley looks as though it has been filled with concrete during the night. Dom loves his morning walk down the lane to say hello to the cows and admire the scenery. WE share our patio with Black Redstarts [which seem to be the most common bird in the village] and lizzards! The house sits on a famous walking route so we get a few hikers (or Pilgrims) passing by. The bread van comes three times a week; the butcher comes every Saturday! We are also busy arranging for the rest of our furniture to be delivered and will be over to see friends and family in the near future.
And meanwhile…look at Ryanair flights to Rodez. I’ve seen them for as low as 79p. We are only 12 miles from the airport. Aveyron is really beautiful - I’m sure you would love exploring.
But for now, it’s back to the paintbrush…..
So we are now at our house - see your e mails for details. Mucho, mucho to do - some basic decorating and modernisation, some major serious stuff involving cement mixers - real boys stuff. So maybe I’ll make new curtains or something girlie!! Like lunch, perhaps? But, if you would like the opportunity to practice your diy….
Everybody seems to be going out of their way to be friendly, which is really nice. We are the third house to be sold for renovation this year and some locals find this quite fascinating. Neighbours in the village are very friendly and find our French quite amusing rather than offensive _ one elderly chap told us that he could speak English if it was about rugby (he watches it on TV) so he then went on to display his vast knowledge of our mother tongue by shouting ‘up and under’ - we nearly fell apart laughing! He also knew ‘coaching’ and ‘substitute’ - but that was about it. Very funny!
Today we started painting - quite a milestone. We now have a bed. The cooker, fridge and washing machine should arrive on Sunday, we have paid our electricity bill and get the phone connected in 2 days . It’s lovely to open the shutters every morning and look out across the valley. Some days we have been above the cloud level and the valley looks as though it has been filled with concrete during the night. Dom loves his morning walk down the lane to say hello to the cows and admire the scenery. WE share our patio with Black Redstarts [which seem to be the most common bird in the village] and lizzards! The house sits on a famous walking route so we get a few hikers (or Pilgrims) passing by. The bread van comes three times a week; the butcher comes every Saturday! We are also busy arranging for the rest of our furniture to be delivered and will be over to see friends and family in the near future.
And meanwhile…look at Ryanair flights to Rodez. I’ve seen them for as low as 79p. We are only 12 miles from the airport. Aveyron is really beautiful - I’m sure you would love exploring.
But for now, it’s back to the paintbrush…..
posted by Sue at 1:21 AM
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