Our French life - It is nearly here

Our French life - it is nearly here

Well as you will have noticed the need for putting the old ink down has eluded me for some time so I thought if I were to get back in the swing of writing my beloved blog then Christmas and indeed the onset of the brand new year which is almost upon us would be as good a time as any...

Christmas... We had planned to spend Christmas on our own this year as John had mentioned that it might be nice for a change but as the year went on and our friends mentioned the usual gathering of the clan we thought it might be better to share it with good friends, we couldn't invite everyone as we all would not have got around the table comfortably so we kept it to 6 of us...this proved to be enough and it took John and I all day on Christmas eve to prepare all the veggies, make two stuffings, chestnut and sage and onion, pigs in blankets defrost half a turkey crown (brought by our friends who have a couple of houses in our village and were here for Christmas) plus a piece of pork, then I made a trifle for one of our guests who doesn't like Christmas Pudding, I did have some Christmas puds but Pauline our very good friend and one of the guests had made one in October so we had that,...this all done we collapsed in our chairs Christmas eve night thankful of the rest (we can't do the entertaining like we used to) getting on a bit now..

Christmas morning and of course John's Birthday we got up fairly early, we had a leisurely breakfast and John opened his birthday presents, we do try to make it special for him, in fact I had mentioned it on a Facebook group I am on and some of the lovely ladies had sent him a card which was quite exciting for him to open cards from ladies all over France and not having a clue who they were (Thank you Ladies of LIFT)

At 11h30 we had a phone call from two of our guests to say they wouldn't be coming as they were both unwell, not to worry we said and speedy good health, then we thought of two other friends who could have come in their place but felt it too late an hour to call and invite them as we thought they would think they were second choice...now the remaining friends would be able to stay overnight and thus enjoy a drink...

We didn't have a starter as such but had Amuse bouche thing's, french pork pie, prawns in little bowls with Mary rose sauce, olives, cornichon and smoked salmon, this filled us up more than we thought so we waited quite a while before eating the main course but thoroughly enjoyed it when we did, we pulled our crackers and put on our silly paper hats, read the jokes and spent some time trying to piece together the puzzles from within, of course we couldn't manage the cheese course and decided to leave the pud until later when we would really enjoy it which turned out to be 5pm.
The weather was extremely warm in fact we didn't have any fires on, it is so different today as the frost has arrived and we have -7 degrees

We all settled down to an evening of TV and chatting then off to bed and it was all over

Boxing day none of us could face a cooked breakfast so just had toast and at 2pm we were all off to another friends for drinks and aperitifs, I was the non drinker/driver so we had to be back before dark, it turned out to be the drive from hell as the rain was of biblical proportions and visibility was non existent, we were indeed glad to be home, there was enough food left from the day before to plate up another meal so after devouring that we both fell asleep in front of the TV :)

Sorry there are no pics as we didn't remember to take one over the whole period.

And so it is almost 2015 and I sit here wondering what it has in store for us (hope it's all good) and I also hope to keep you posted as it happens
   

I would like to thank you all for reading this blog and to wish you all.....

 A Very Happy and Healthy New Year.

Roz & John x

Our French Life - At Last

"At last I have done it"

It is with some pride that I post today, something that to most is very easy to me was until now one of the Bane's of my life, the thing that had eluded me for so long is perfect coleslaw, I know I can hear you all now saying "what you can't make coleslaw, it is one of the easiest things in the world to make".
I have chopped, grated, processed but the mistake I have been making is to follow instructions from the Internet and no matter what I did it would always be a liquid runny mess, certainly no good for sandwiches and we do love a cheese and coleslaw sandwich, I have always been the type of person that doesn't learn very well from written instructions but if someone shows me how to do something I will do it, well that's what happened yesterday, a friend showed me how she made it and today I followed exactly what she had done and Voila perfect coleslaw which we have thoroughly enjoyed in a sandwich for lunch, I will be having some more with my chicken salad for dinner this evening...

I now can see all the mistakes I had been making and will never make them again...
Just feeling a little proud.... is there something you would like to be able to do but just can't get it right?

Faith Restored

Our life in France - Faith is restored

Many of you will know from previous posts here that we have had an horrendous experience with garages and our car and have over the last 5 years spent an absolute fortune mainly at our local village garage, it does not bode well that someone in your own village could rip you off not once but twice but that has been covered enough, today I feel that our faith has been restored in the French garage system.

Firstly we have very large tyres on our car and we needed two new ones, we knew that if we went to a supplier here we would be totally ripped off so we looked on Ebay where we have purchased them before but sadly very few on the English site will bother to post to France so we went to an online Company in Germany called 123 Pneu we got two tyres for 110€ approx £90, free delivery and they arrived in 48 hours, one garage here wanted 168€ for one tyre.

Then of course we had to find a garage to fit them and balance them, well I have to say it instilled fear in me but a Friend a few villages away said he had used his local garage for some repairs and he was very pleased with them, off we went to see this garage man, we arrived and were met by Madame Garage man, she was very smiley and I asked in my best French could they fit and balance two tyres, the answer was yes, I said today, there was a sharp sucking on the teeth and flicking through the diary, she said not today (Tuesday) Thursday was the soonest her husband could do it as he was very tired (bless) so we arranged to go back at 2pm Thursday, as the official lunch break is between 12 -2pm - she quickly said but would this interfere with our eating? we said not at all.

We arrive at the garage at 13h45 expecting to wait but Mr Garage man (who still looked very tired) was waiting for us and ushered us straight in.

We sit in reception where Madame starts to do our invoice and I feel I did very well with all her questions, in fact John looked at me at one point and said "when did your French get so good"?, we even had a laugh because she went in to the workshop to get our mileage and when she came back she said she had got into the left side of the car and there were no dials and she thought "we have a problem" then she realised that it was all on the right side, we all ended up laughing, this is such a contrast to our previous experiences at the local garage where once the owner hid behind a car so we wouldn't see him, I know we have only had two tyres fitted but I feel we can now go to this garage and get a friendly welcome which goes a long way when your French isn't so good and you are feeling vulnerable.

Yes indeed our faith is restored - lesson learnt if a garage doesn't behave quite right towards you go somewhere else, why should they have your hard earned dosh.

a bientot Roz

Our French Life - Counting our blessings

Counting our blessings

As the sun shines gloriously and the temperatures reach well into the 30's We sit with a glass of something fantastically cool overlooking our little pied a terre and count our blessings, we moved to France to give ourselves a better life and I have to say we have not been disappointed thus far, don't misunderstand me there have been many times when I could have quite easily booked a ferry and packed it all in but I am not a quitter and I always like to give everything a good go....we have been here just over 5 years now, we have made many friends, some of whom have become very good mates but sadly as in all areas of life there are the kind of people who you would rather not be part of their crowd but enough said about that :)
Do we have any regrets, yes one that jumps to mind, we are sorry that we didn't make a better effort to learn the language before we came and I would wholeheartedly encourage anyone who is thinking of making the move to do so, someone this last week made a comment saying "how on earth do you manage without being able to communicate" the answer is with great difficulty, one thing I certainly will do if ever I  get my tongue around this language and that is I will be more than happy to help others with translations, we do have several friends who speak French and they help us out when necessary but there have been some in the past who although they are able to help they haven't always been obliging - I guess it takes all sorts.

Do we miss England, what's to miss... well if we didn't have good friends who bring supplies over when they come we would miss things such as -Tea bags, real bacon/gammon steaks, sage & onion stuffing, real cheddar cheese etc; that said if you look long and hard you will find cheddar cheese and of course the supermarkets sometimes have an English aisle but you will have to pay the price.

But the quality of life is second to none and most of the time we feel like millionaires.
This weekend it is our village fete, the marquee's are up, there will be pig roasts, dancing and singing and Breton costumes, there will be a race round the village which runs by our house so we can hang out of the window and cheer them on, a good thing as they go by about 5 times....rather them than me.

Yes we are blessed - we have a small garden which gives us a lot of pleasure and now we have one of those round blow up pools to dip into when it gets too hot...

30 ° and a bottle of wine nom nom

Then in the pool yey

What a day to remember

Our life in France - D Day

Indeed it has been a day to remember, watching all of le débarquement de Normandie (D Day landings) on French television I have to say they did us proud.

French President Francois Hollande has led the D-Day 70th anniversary tributes by remembering those who died on a day that "changed the world". He said France would never forget what it owed them,

It was very moving watching all the old servicemen commemorating the 70th Anniversary and hearing them say it will probably be the last time any of them can make the journey as they are mostly in their 90's, so sad that a generation is coming to an end.



Today I felt so very proud to be British

Lets hope we never forget the ultimate sacrifice these very brave servicemen paid to keep us free.



They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.

Our life in France - Surviving in Rural France

Our life in France -  Surviving in Rural France

I used to think that living in France was the same as living in England but how wrong I was, 
In England whatever I wanted from the shops I could get at any time of the year but here in Rural France you have to learn to cook with the seasons which, when you think about it, it makes so much more sense, we also have grown a lot of our own veg since we have been here and let me tell you there is nothing better than picking potatoes and runner beans from your garden and cooking them, they taste so different,

that said the ones in the shops have probably been grown locally too so haven't travelled too far. 
If you are considering the move over it is a good idea to learn to cook like the French, which believe it or not is different to English, the French ladies are taught from a very early age at their Mothers side how to cook anything from scratch, all ingredients are always fresh and more often than not picked from their gardens, laced always with a perfusion of fresh herbs also from the garden or a pot sat by the back door, so get to know what the locals cook based on the seasons.
every garden here is planted just at the right time and they never seem to have failures, everything grows in abundance, I love to see all the veggies in their very straight rows although the tidiness is beyond me, there is never a weed in sight, The little lady next door who is in her late eighties always grew bigger and better veg and I would weed every day but you would never see a weed in hers or see her do any weeding, maybe she did it in the night. she has since given it up stating she has become tres fragile.

Happy cooking..if you have any french recipes please leave them in comments..

Our French life

Our French life - Bon Weekend a tous

The dreadful weather seems to be subsiding and it is Friday evening, I know I am retired and every day is like a weekend (NOT) even after over a year of being part of the relaxed set (retired) I still look forward to the weekends, it's like two totally different days where we do totally different things, I guess we work on weekdays as in we still have lots to do on the house, Fridays I do the housework so it is tidy and clean for the weekend, we do the shopping on a Saturday (unless it is double points at Super U on a Thursday) Sunday glorious Sunday we look for a Vide Grenier (Car boot sale) a feature of French life where we can stroll hopefully in the sunshine and find some real tresors (treasures)

Friends will be coming to stay at their holiday home in the village so I guess there will be some wine drinking and eating involved although they are bringing 3 grandchildren with them so they will be tied up I think.

So you guys, have a wonderful weekend and will speak again next week...

A bientot

What to do on a Gloomy day

Our life in France - What to do on a Gloomy day.

Well after the storms of last night the gloomy weather has continued to ravage our little part of heaven, we have had some thunder, all be it in the distance, rain, and now it is getting windy, apparently there was a bit of a tornado ripping through most of France last night so I think we got off lightly..that said it did ruin my bearded iris's, throwing them down on the ground, such a shame as they were looking really lovely

So, what do you do on such a day?
Well I am not really a chocolate person, don't get me wrong I love chocolate just as much as the next person but it is not comfort food for me, so when the going gets tough in our house the tough make a curry, lovely hot beef curry and I am sure we have some bike saddle shaped naan breads, might even do some Bombay potatoes, and I just about have enough Coriander growing in the garden, now I can't wait for dinner tonight.
 But of course there is afternoon tea first so I have made scones...

They almost spread into one big scone, Yummy butter and strawberry jam, I will just have the one, but now you see I have forgotten the awful weather. the casserole at the back holds the curry.

One thing that hasn't been blown down so far are the lupins because I had tied them round with string.

This year they are all one colour as you can see but last year they were all different colours, if anyone knows why please let me know.

Bullet points are:- when the weather gets bad make a curry and bake cakes
                            Tie some string around your tall flowers so that the wind doesn't destroy them
                             Make sure you have real butter for the scones

So what have you done today?

Living your dream

Our life in France - living our dream

Well we have been here just over 5 years now and we were talking the other day about if we were faced with the same decisions that brought us here would we do it again, would we burn all our bridges pack up all our belongings shove it unceremoniously into a hire van ( God knows how we got it all in) 

travel with our two wonderful friends all the way here with all the things going wrong that could go wrong, well we can hand on heart say YES we would do it again because living here in France is fantastic, we find it really calm and relaxing. 

Life is not always Rosy and things do go wrong, there are times when I have sat and wept with frustration and vowed I was going back to England as soon as I could book a ferry and the biggest frustration is not being able to speak the language so I very highly recommend that if you are in any way thinking that you would like to make the move across the water and make a new life in France then the first thing you must do is learn the language, I have spent many hours/years learning the language and I can make myself understood but sadly I still struggle with understanding spoken French which I must say is very confusing for the French, just imagine speaking to someone in English and when they answer you say you don't understand them!..

Of course if you have children then you will soon pick it up as they will just want to speak their new found language skill.

We also took many holidays to our chosen area over many years, coming in the dead of winter to make sure we weren't just seeing it through those summer tinted glasses, we bought our house in 2001 it was a village terraced house and structurally it was sound but needed total updating (which we are still doing) it wasn't exactly what we were looking for (we were looking for a more rural spot and ideally a longere but it was such a good price we really couldn't not buy it, we thought we would do it up and sell it on for what we were really looking for but then the recession hit so we are still here.

It took months of working out if we could afford to live here, I was retired but had started a small business which could come with us as it was internet based and would support us until John received his pension, I think the worst thing we do is look at something which is 10€ and think it is £10 when in fact it is only approx £7, we do have to watch our pennies and manage quite well now.

One of the biggest mistakes is not to make sure you are entitled to health cover,.. as a pensioner I was allowed health cover and John was entitled to cover as a dependent until he got his pension, we still have to pay a top up insurance as without it a stay in hospital could be very expensive.
  

So lessons to be learnt 

You will have to be able to support yourself

Make sure you know what you are looking for housewise

If you can afford it come and rent so that you can look properly

If you purchase a project find out how much it will cost to do

A bientot - see you soon

Our Life In France - All or Nothing

Our Life in France - All or nothing:

Yes I know my ramblings have been very intermittent of late, and it is all due to the fact that just over a year ago I completely retired, after working all my life I suddenly had all this time on my hands and it has taken until now for me to realise that I am free, for example: I still do my shopping on a Saturday as that was always the only day I could do it when I had the business, not sure if that will ever change..also there has been some illness in the mix to deal with but onwards and upwards as they say, after all I am in beautiful rural France.

Last year we got rid of the raised beds and put it down to lawn...

Runner beans growing up the gazebo

In the piece furthest away from the house we are going to put one of those inflatable plunge pools, it gets very hot here in the height of the summer and we plan to do a little work either on the house or in the garden then after lunch just sit and chill (in more ways than one) in the cool pool. it will take up most of the space and we will also put a gazebo over it for some privacy until the shrubs grow tall enough.

I still try to grow some veggies in whatever space I have. after all that is part of living the good life in France isn't it? and there is nothing quite like the taste of veg that is picked and eaten within minutes.

My square foot garden with Pak Choi and all sorts of chard - also some sweetcorn which hasn't come up yet

this is an economical way to grow loads of veg in a small space
Well as it is raining here today we are doing our chilling indoors 
and looking forward to a yard arm (Gin and tonic ice n slice)
Watch this space for next posting, may even be the pool up!

We also have quite a few strawberry's, lettuce and cucumbers