Printemps c'est ici??

Yes I am very late with my blog. My apologies to my two readers ha. It is late for several reasons. One, we have actually had a bit of a life lately and been out and about to some social events meeting some locals. Admittedly mostly expats of one form or another but still it has been nice. The weather last week was amazingly good. If you're not a farmer anyway. It was clear skies and positively balmy with several days getting up to 18 and 19 degrees. The area needs rain though so luckily this week we have had a little. It has been back to pretty normal chilly days again now. Makes you happy that spring is on it's way though. I have some bulbs sprouting in my garden that look like they grow a couple of centimetres every day - and my wisteria has shoots on it. Everyone seems to be planting new fruit trees and the vegie patches are all getting worked on so we think it might be the right time to get some more fruit trees and start a little orchard going.

We have also been doing quite a few journeys in our now trusty van. One involved carting some outside pavers for our friends that we worked out to weigh quite a bit over a tonne - Paul was like wheel standing down the road and it was a very cautious
slow trip home. We did have a little hickup a week or so ago when Paul had disconnected the alternator and forgot to reconnect it before we left and so when we stopped in for supplies at our local Lidl it wouldn't restart. It wasn't embarrassing at all push starting it down a quite busy street in Gourdon!! Lucky for me Paul could manage to get it to roll without me getting out so I just sat (or hid) in the front seat and laughed at him.. good times.
We have got some cool stuff for the house from our trips out and about. Including these lovely old doors.

We got them from about 2 hours North of us - a couple of days apart from private sellers. I had seen them online so off we chugged for hours in the van. Lucky they are worth the hassle. The couple we bought some new front doors from were very lovely and wanted us to come and have a coffee with them but it was getting late and Paul finds the language barrier a little scary. He has found a new hobby or interest here that may help with that though as he met some English people who spend their Thursdays volunteering at a local tractor museum - fixing tractors. There are lots of French guys doing it too so hopefully he will start to pick up some lingo from spending time doing something that interests him. They all eat together and have a wonderful very French meal that has been prepared by the president of the museum. Him and his friend Yves went and checked it out last week - didn't do any work but had the cheap lunch and had a great time. He is off early tomorrow so it might turn into a regular thing by the sounds of it as he is very much into that sort of thing.

We also went to another vide grenier or brocante market looking for stuff for the house last Sunday. Lucky we had our French speaking Belgian friend Kathleen with us to help do the bargaining. Although I did lose out on a particularly amazing item because a. I was too tight and b. I was too slow. It was this fantastic antique clock that would have looked great on our kitchen wall but after the seller had told me how much he wanted (150 euros) I panicked a little and went to find Kathleen
so she could help negotiate but when we got back someone else was buying it - for 100 euros! Damn it. Oh well - I could say we'll find another one but I have never seen anything like it before and don't think I will again. Lesson learned..
We did get quite a few other things though.

I am writing this from the familiar comfort of the une petit lit in our caravane. My parents are currently here from Australia so we have made them stay in the attic as we didn't think they would cope too well with the cold French weather - understandable since they have come from extremely hot weather at home. Mind you it is very cosy here in the van with a heater going well it would be if we didn't have a pair of cats coming in and out all night! Mum and dad are well and truly earning their bed as they have been flat out helping out around the place. Dad has been helping Paul finish off the sub floor on the second floor ready to start putting up wall framing. Here is the floor pretty much finished and ready for the next stage.

We did do some touristy things today and I took them to Domme and Beynac castle - the menu du jour at lunch nearly did them in though - four courses can do that sometimes. Dad had a goose stew which was a bit heavy for him - I hadn't tasted goose before and it wasn't bad actually. Lucky we had a pretty hard core up hill walk after lunch up to the castle.

I have finally succumbed and admitted that my jeans aren't just a little bit tighter then when we got here - they are now unwearable! So hence - no more yummy stuff for a while. Not fun when we have vistors but it has to be done. I am also going with mum and dad on a coach tour for a week in Switzerland next week - good luck with staying with the regime then..