Blogs from Laroque d'Olmes, Midi-Pyrénées, France, Europe

We seem to have achieved this week. On Tuesday, we had a wood burning stove fitted. What a treat. Cosy at last. Hard work keeping the beast fed with logs, but who cares when the heat is so generous and comforting? On Thursday, I enjoyed lunch in Foix with a new friend, and took some Winter-Wonderland type shots on the way home, if only to remind myself that it’s not ALWAYS raining here at the moment. Still the rain has meant we’ve got on in the house. We now have, amidst the continuing grot that is our kitchen, a new and thoroughly hygienic sink and one new kitchen unit, which may come as a relief to those of you who’ve witnessed the previous arrangement. This may seem like an extremely minor achievement, but it’s not. Not ... read more

Although we haven’t been having the most idyllic of times lately, what with waiting for plumbers and other workmen who fail to arrive, deliveries that aren’t on schedule, and weather that’s been, frankly, shocking for much of the time, there’s one thing that’s been a real pleasure. Here in Laroque, Christmas is only just beginning to make its presence felt. Over the last couple of days, shopkeepers have started to decorate their windows, and - great excitement - the Christmas lights were erected in the streets this afternoon. It’s been wonderful not to have Christmas imposed on us every time we go out shopping. Now that Christmas is only a couple of weeks away, we can enjoy getting ready to enjoy the day without feeling frazzled, fed up and a failure for not having already written-and-sent-the-cards-and-bought-and-wrapped-the-presents-and-ordered-the-turkey-and-decorated-the-t ... read more

Well, we had such fun in England, catching up with friends and family, even though there seemed to be far too many friends we never got round to seeing at all: I was very iffy indeed about coming back here at all. But return we did. We had the two cars, both stuffed to beyond capacity with books, kitchen bits and bobs, bookcases, plant pots, paint, porridge oats and golden syrup (for making flapjacks for appreciative French randonneurs)………... One way or another, the journey takes 3 days. That’s if you want to call in on Emily in Leicester, and cadge a bed for the night from Tom and Sarah in London. The only real adventure we had was on the first night in France. We’d booked into a thoroughly inaccessible B&B near Blois which looked good ... read more

Mutterings have been heard that your correspondent and husband do nothing but involve themselves in worthy pursuits such as taking health-giving walks, festival -reconnoitring, and do-it-yourself projects. We wish to refute this with evidence that this week at least, we have done absolutely nothing but enjoy ourselves. This is partly because of the scorching weather we’ve been having, and partly because all that activity repairing the roof has left Malcolm with an extremely poorly back, which is slowly recovering, with the help of physiotherapy down at the local clinic and an indolent lifestyle. Yesterday for instance, we strolled up to the square in the evening for a meal at the local bar which had only recently become restaurant too. We’d taken a while to try it out, suspicious that it might not be up to much. ... read more

By now, most of you must be thinking that our life in France is just one festival after another, interspersed with healthy scenic walks. But sessions of Hard Graft do intervene. Yesterday it rained, seriously. We were both doing different bits of DIY downstairs, so had no idea that the roof was leaking so badly that the water had coursed into the attic and then down again to the floor below, via a fast-running stream from ceiling to carpet. With weather like that, damage-limitation was the only option, but by this morning, the skies had cleared, and ….. we had to climb onto the roof. Our neighbour Paul advised us to clear away any moss, and look for cracked mortar. So for 3 hours, we both did just that. I’m not wild about heights, even when ... read more