The pace of life in the French countryside

The heavy rain showers continue, and storm Austen passes by, further north of us thankfully, but the winds still reach 70 knots so Roger keeps a keen eye on the big branch overhanging Les Palais des Bois. We stay close to home, with the fire going but by today, Saturday, its time to venture forth to Le Marche. It seems all the locals are up for a chat. The little old lady stood chatting to our bread man for 5 mins while we patiently waited. The local police municipal, were doing the rounds of Le Marche in the name of goodwill, handshakes and chats with the vendors, and then on the way home passing through our nearest village, Landes, we come across a little white van stopped in the middle of the crossroad, window down, chatting to the guy in the car travelling in the opposite direction, but also stationery. When we pulled up behind said white van he merely put his hazard lights on! so with that we skirted around him and went on out way.

The topic of conversation was an unknown, perhaps it was the weather, perhaps the civil unrest in the country, or maybe it was the 'chasse en cours' - a sign just ahead announcing a hunt in progress. We saw the guys in their fluoro vests, heard the horns and tin banging, so we are waiting for the arrival of the perdrix seeking refuge in our garden.

The rain and wind continued all weekend, we put our clocks back an hour so the sun is now setting at 5.59pm!

On Monday our plasterer/painter, Sebastian arrived. Here was a real 'Aussie' tradesman, white overalls, an esky with coffee and lunch and a transistor radio which played quietly in the background while he taped and plastered. The only thing missing was a ute and a dog. He finished his work on Friday, whilst the 'creppi' (external renderers) had picked up stumps on Thursday - the machinery is still here and it was a beautiful sunny day so we figured they had scheduled a bonus long weekend!

The forecast weather was fickle, cloudy and overcast but thankfully not raining or windy. We had a glorious sunny day yesterday so we fired up the chainsaw and filled a bit more of the woodshed. It was a good decision as today we woke to 4 degrees (real feel 1 degree!) and the fog has still not lifted although its 1pm in the afternoon! A visit to Le Marche as usual this morning and now the fire is blazing and we've settled in for the afternoon. It's time to put the oil heaters on.Read more