Hello to you all from a very windy SW France I wasn’t sure if this blog would get written. I joined Max in the séjour for a cup of tea and another slice of his delicious birthday cake (more on that in a moment), and he suggested I wrote my blog from the sofa! A change from the kitchen table where I have taken up residence until we sort out the top floor for my son to move to and we get our office back. This sounded like a great idea, especially if the fire was about to be lit (the wind is making the house very breezy to say…

Bonjour à tous I hope you are all well? I am late again with this blog. The weeks just seem to whizz by, always with new challenges and jobs to do. It would be lovely to press pause on day-to-day life, catch up and then press play again. C’est la vie I guess! The news continues to be grim from Ukraine but the people there have shown themselves to be a force to be reckoned with. I am sure you, like me, feel a little helpless, but we have occupied ourselves sorting out rooms, should our accommodation be needed. I mentioned last week (see post: What’s in an address) that…

Hello again everyone, I hope you are all well in a week where the news continues to be dominated by the awful invasion of Ukraine. What a terrible situation, which just seems to get worse each day. I can’t imagine the terror and anger people in Ukraine must be feeling. Like many countries, France is keen to welcome Ukrainian refugees. The Mairies (town halls) up and down the country are co-ordinating help. Our Mairie has been contacted by the Préfecture in Albi, our departmental administrative centre, to see if anyone could offer accommodation. Given that we have quite a bit of space here, we have put ourselves on the list.…

Bonjour à tous, I hope you are all well? In a week where sensible precautions against Covid were scrapped in the UK along with free tests, where another person died as a result of being shot by a hunter here in France and we woke up on Thursday morning to the news that Putin had invaded the Ukraine, I have stopped feeling sorry for myself and changed what I was going to write about. I am going a little off-piste this week and not writing about the minutiae of our life here in France. I had also thought to give you an insight into changing rural addresses in France. However…

Hello All I hope you are all OK, especially those of you reading this in the UK where I understand the weather is atrocious? I hate to say it but after torrential rain here, a lot of which managed to get into the house, we had a couple of warm sunny days – almost spring-like! The rain then returned, but hopefully not for long so the wet floor gets a chance to dry out a bit. Last week was a week of disruptions, nothing new there. In between work and helping our neighbour with trips to the vet as her cat was unwell, and collecting some friends who have returned…

Bonjour à tous I hope you have all had a lovely week. My week has been challenging for various reasons, including a battle with Instagram and some family issues. For that reason not much has progressed renovation-wise, although I have done my first kitchen job in between work meetings, clearing off the old shelves above the sink so Max could remove them. Now they are down, the next job is Max’s – filling the many cracks in the wall! I did also finally paint the last in the set of 3 wicker boxes that will act as storage places for socks, etc in our bedroom, and also made the latest…

Bonjour à tous Happy February to you all. The last official month of winter. This year I am counting the days to warmer weather as it has been so cold. I love each season for different reasons, but in an old cold stone house with a serious lack of comprehensive heating, winter has taken on a different dimension – mainly the numerous layers I have to put on each day to stave off frostbite, the chilly bathrooms, seeing one’s breath as you work and chilblains! The days we have had of sunshine and frost are truly glorious. I have bored you with the photos as it is all so magical.…

Hello everyone How was your week? Mine was cold! Just for a change. However the weather is lovely – freezing but sunny most days. The deep chill continues. Today it was still -2°C at lunchtime. The views are stunning, the air crisp and cold, energising but making you catch your breath too. Even our water is colder than usual, which makes sense really but bracing for my morning splash of cold water on my face! The sun breaks through early mist each morning, the lake freezes overnight, the surrounding countryside is painted white each day by the hard night-time frosts. The garden is like concrete, so no potager digging for…

Bonjour à tous I hope you are all well and enjoying January? The weather here at the moment is so cold. Each night the thermometer dips to minus figures. We had one night, the first in ages when the temperature stayed at 0°C – a cause for celebration! We have had cold crisp sunny days, freezing fog days where everything is shrouded in a bone chilling cold, a light dusting of snow greeted us on Wednesday morning and hard frosts daily. We wake most mornings to a white landscape, each and every blade of grass and leaf frosted, glittering in the sunlight. Quite the most breath-taking sight, like magic fairy…

Hello Everyone Early last week we were basking in 18°C sunshine, by Wednesday it was 6°C at best during the day. We had snow last week, briefly, a light dusting like icing sugar sprinkled on a cake, not really enough to say it had snowed, but pretty nonetheless and a new experience for the 4 rescue cats. They lasted outside for a while chasing snowflakes, trying to work out what the cold white stuff was that was settling on their whiskers. Then one by one they came back inside, the pads on their paws swollen with cold, fur damp, and they snuggled down by the roaring woodburner in the kitchen.…