Busy week

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This has been a week of achievement. The 2 back windows, tatty in the extreme, have been replaced and not only look better, but give more light, more I the way of views. Back door renewed, garage/front door replaced. Our house, like many down here, has no glamorous front door giving onto a spacious and gracious hall with a welcoming carpet, a few well-chosen pictures and an umbrella stand. You quite simply go in through the garage, with all the clutter you might expect there, and troop through to reach the rest of the house.

However, the blinds that accompany the windows, ordered with them since last October, simply have not yet arrived. No explanation. Oh well, tough, we’ll hang onto our money, and they won’t get paid till it’s all complete.

Curtains have been made and hung, pictures put in place (YOU try drilling these walls…..), and today, something we’ve been waiting for since the day we moved in 5 years ago.

Paul, our friend and neighbour, a plumber, has been promising to get down from high on the kitchen wall the huge (200gallon) water tank which the previous owners of the house, who were butchers, used in their charcuterie preparation. It’s hung there, a huge and unedifying presence, looming over the whole kitchen. He was always promising to come and do something about the thing, but somehow it never happened. Till today, when with no warning, he unexpectedly arrived at half past 10 with a friend to get started. Mal would have helped, but we were going out, and actually I think he might have been in the way, and it was all gone on our return….apart from the dust. Tomorrow Paul will make a start on the stewed knitting which is the mess of pipes in the kitchen, which now mainly have no purpose. All that’s left then is the huge boiler in which Mme Verge boiled pig’s and cow’s heads to make various delights of charcuterie. Perhaps it ought to stay. I was brought up knowing how to boil a pig’s head and all the trimmings and convert it into wobbling bowls of glistening brawn. No wonder I'm a vegetarian.

We’ve done more exploring in the area- visiting the little known and thoroughly gorgeous Val de Doctouyre for a walk last Saturday. This was a wonderful afternoon which ended with our at last visiting the Romanesque church at Vals near Pamiers. It’s cut into the rock, as well as being built above it, so is charmingly original in its design. It’s set in rather Tuscan countryside which we saw at its best in the late afternoon sun.

This evening was disappointing for me. Someone had told me about the Lavelanet Chorale - I’d been looking for a choir to sing with. So I felt rather brave setting off to join them for the start of rehearsal at 8.30 p.m.

I was back by 10 to 9. Not a light in the building, not a car waiting outside. I concluded that because it’s held in the Ecole de Musique premises, it may keep school terms, and now it’s half term. Next week then.

Tomorrow it’s another planning meeting for Laroque Autrement in the Cantonale elections on March 9th. Mal’s picture was in the paper the other day, together with his colleagues on the list. Luckily for him, you can only see the top of his head. There’s been TV coverage too, so things are hotting up

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Photos

The kitchen before improvements
It's not MUCH better yet, but the huge boiler top right HAS now gone, thanks to Paul

A final view of the old garage doors
This is not interesting for you, but IS a reminder for us of The Old Days.

So much blossom out at the moment
This was a view on our Saturday walk

The church at Vals
It's partly built into the rock, partly above it

Inside the church....
It's on several levels, all looking down towards the altar

And the view from the church tower
The Pyrenees are in the distance, barely any longer covered in snow