Well, we left the UK on 3rd May last year and arrived here on 4th, so it's our first anniversary! What's happened to a whole year? All in all it's been a wonderful year, but very busy. Fortunately no regrets about the move!
The house progresses (slowly) and we now have a working mechanical ventilation heat recovery system (MVHR in England, VMC double-flux in France) which means we're not in danger of dying from asphyxiation when it's all shut up. This has been a boon because the weather in April has been FOUL! Rain, rain and more rain just like UK but a bit warmer. Fortunately we now have a roof complete with guttering and surprise of all surprises the final bill came in lower than the estimate. That doesn't happen too often I can tell you.
We're now waiting for quotes to do the final render coat - too tricky for us, waiting being the operative word, getting quotes from firms is nearly impossible. We've also started on the bathroom (for guests) and have the dividing walls up and wiring in; plumbing next and the decisions about how to do the tiling. Holiday home well on the way!
Our
plumber called (amazing) to apologise for not having done the solar hot
water system because the weather was too bad to work outside, and
hopefully it will be installed this week or next, holidays permitting.
May 1st and 8th are hols here, as is 17th ... etc. as with plumbers everywhere we are at his mercy.
Still walking and even get the occasional mention in the local paper as 'sympathiques randonneurs anglais'. Did a walking quiz (about 14km and 20 questions en route) and came 3rd because one of our team members was French and knew who to ask for tricky answers.
Needless to say, the walk was followed by a superb lunch!
The fete in the next village where we play quilles (skittles) and belote (cards) was nearly a wash-out with the weather, and we did end up playing play quilles in the rain. Chris had been called up to help raise the marquee, and it was necessary for the meal, which was very good and where we met more nice people. They all think we're totally mad cos we walk home (only about 4km).
Missed one walk by going to another protest at our local (50km away) nuclear power station. Quite a good turn-out and the weather held up. Probably won't make any difference but one has to try.
Afterwards our friend Danielle gave us a guided tour of a famous local village, very pretty.
This weekend we decide to relax and appreciate the anniversary of our move, so Saturday morning we went to support the quilles team (who won) then stayed for lunch (free!) which lasted the usual 2-3 hours then had a quick game (badly) before coming back to enjoy a bottle of bubbly on what will one day be the terrace.
Sunday was a local walk with an amazing half-way 'snack' including wine and Armagnac, then stayed for the village lunch. Monday we worked on the house but because Chris had helped put up the marquee, we were invited for the post-fete dinner, also enormous and copious drinks - free again! And again we walked home - still mad! We seem to have been adopted by the quille players and get invited to everything. Tuesday (8th) was another holiday (Armistice in Europe) so we had some friends round for lunch. Two French, one American, one German and one Fench-Cambodian.
Seems to have been one long round of eating and drinking, but that's life in the Gers!!
What with badminton, quilles, belote, jazz, French lessons, walking, eating and generally having a good time in between building the house and planting the garden, and getting our head around the way things happen (or not) in France, it's a very full life.
As Judy said at one point, we really can't imagine living anywhere else.
