Hello again Slight chaos on the posting of updates of our life here in SW France – I will get back on track soon. Life in isolation continues, no market visit this week, no dog walks anywhere but locally early in the morning or late in the evening. The PCR results came back confirming what we already knew – Max is contaminated! Our separate lives continue but as I said in the last post, we can’t complain (even if I do – often). We are so fortunate to be doing this in a spacious house with enough facilities (as in bathrooms) for us all and a big garden. As I…

Hello Everyone I hope you have all had a good week and weekend? The sun is finally shining here and the forecast is for warm weather this week – actually up to 36°C, so maybe quite warm!! I apologise for such a late post and a short one this week. We have had quite an eventful week, some of it lovely, the latter part quite unexpected. We started the week on work and the house – nothing out of the ordinary, so all good. We made one of our occasional (since the pandemic) trips to the supermarket for a big shop (encountering traffic problems on the way!), otherwise a regular…

Hello Everyone Another week has flown by, for me in a flurry of work and household chores. Another week lacking in time! Maybe I need to be better organised. Anyway onwards… It’s August and slowly France is going ‘en vacances’. This blog appears to be on a bit of a go-slow at the moment too. I will catch up! I wouldn’t mind a bit of time off myself really, but staying put is the only option at the moment. In true staycation style we may take a few days off work and renovation/gardening jobs at some point in August and if the weather sorts itself out, head for the pool!…

Hello from a very hot SW France Temperatures this week have been in the 30s, reaching 38°C on Friday – very warm! It is at times like this that an old cold stone house comes into its own! All that moaning during winter about how chilly it was. Now we can walk in from outside and realise why we froze in the winter – so we could be suitably cool in summer. This is also helped by the ritual of opening windows and shutters first thing to let some early morning air in, then closing everything (shutters and windows/doors) from mid-morning to evening. This may sound odd, but it stops…

Bonjour! I have made it to 40 weeks of blog posts, with a few delays here and there. I am really pleased. Not too long until I have been at this for a year! Are you enjoying the ups and downs of our life here in France? The renovation part is moving very slowly. We seem to do so much just to stand still. The house keeps on giving us more things to fix rather than finish! It can be quite frustrating at times as I can see how the house will look eventually and want it all done NOW! I am a total renovation novice with little patience. In…

Doors, doors everywhere with even some to spare! Hello Everyone Another week has flown by, the strange weather continues with thunder, rain, cool days and warmer days. Nothing like last summer. Some great skies though with stunning clouds: Did you enjoy the vegan cherry clafoutis recipe (see post: Seasonal Food and Recipes: July)? Do try the chocolate version – it is delicious! The front hall continues, not finished yet but I do now have the paint I need for the hinges. I think I am a would-be architect, as I may have mentioned before. I am fascinated by buildings and love different styles of houses and décor. When we were…

Hello to you all, In a week where the getting the car fixed saga continued (see post: The best laid plans) and we had our second Covid vaccinations, exciting news our vine has grapes! Obviously this is what you would expect, but last year we had none, and given the late frost this year I was expecting the same. Imagine my excitement when I saw all these lovely bunches of grapes growing. It’s the little things as I frequently say! We also paid a visit to St Antonin Noble Val market and had another coffee out! It is lovely to sit outside a café again watching the world go by,…

Salut Everyone Some weeks just whizz by with seemingly not much happening, even though we have been busy each day – me mainly with work and admin, which is not something I want to write about each week, nor I am sure do you want to read about it! The lilies have all come into flower now, adding a delightful splash of colour to the garden. We were chatting the other night, after I had had an odd and quite sad conversation with our neighbour, when Max suddenly said something really quite funny about blogs on Life in France, of which there are quite a few! He decided they could…

Hello Everyone I started writing this in the midst of a violent thunderstorm here in the Tarn on Thursday between power cuts. Wow what weather and what a week! Do you remember I mentioned last week that things often get in the way of our plans? Perhaps I shouldn’t have said that as this week has been one of those weeks when nothing, and I repeat nothing, has gone according to plan – apart from this rose, which has done its best to produce the most beautiful blooms. Last weekend the weather was great, we swam and we managed to watch the Roland Garros final on Sunday between Djokovic and…

Bonjour to you all. Earlier this week, I was sitting in my kitchen after some hard work in the garden. The weather has been amazing and the pool beckoned that afternoon. As I was finishing the slate edging to another flower bed, I could see the water sparkling in the sunshine – very tempting to just spend the day by the pool. One day… Everyone who has ever renovated a house will know that sometimes you look at the enormity of the project and feel like you will never get there, or you will be 103 and doddering around paintbrush in one hand, clutching the walking frame with the other!…