Coffee and Chocolatines is back!

Bonjour/Hello

It has been ages; I have missed writing of our tales (or is that sometimes trials?) from the Tarn. So much has happened, perhaps too much, so this blog took a very back seat for a while, as I tried to navigate my way through a mountain of things. As far as the blog is concerned, after months of disarray – perhaps exhaustion really – it is back. There is so much news to share with you all. Bits of renovation have been done, rooms have changed and some of the enormous pile of projects have been attended too. We finally have a new working cooker. We have even managed to paint the post box (purchased some time back) and set it up on its regulation post.

The post box is a story in itself. As I said it is now in its designated spot, at the top of the drive for the post people to use, sited so they can just lean out of their van window to pop letters through the flap. I am sure they are really relieved as our old box was tiny and hopeless, so too many times they had to stop, get out of the van and walk down the long drive to the house. It was not that straightforward – when is it! We removed loads of huge stones while digging the hole for the post, the paint took a while longer than expected to dry but my first attempt at concrete was not bad. We have also finally added our new house number to the wall. Last year rural French dwellers living in places called Lieu-dit …. (which means place known as …. ) were given new addresses. A Lieu-dit is usually a small group of houses all of which had the same address, but it could also be one house on its own! Very confusing if you don’t know where you are going. The thinking behind the address change was to make it easier for the emergency services to find individual addresses, which makes perfect sense. However, the house numbers are done measuring the number of metres from the road so really only make sense if you know that. Our Lieu-dit has two houses and our numbers are 59 and 60 – not sure where they measured from and to as that doesn’t really work here either. Our neighbour across the way lives in a house on its own at the end of her lane, which is now numbered in the 400s, so you see what I mean! At least we ‘conforme’ now with our Post Office approved post box in the right location and our required house number affixed for all to see. Here, obviously aside from the post lady, it is mainly the wildlife that get to see it, but the important thing is that it is there in all its brown glory! (I mention that because there was a choice of colour including a very stylish cream with dark red writing. Each commune/village could choose and our village council chose brown, very in keeping with the rural tones).

I can’t believe that I last published an update in March. I can only apologise. I have started several posts but was, as ever, overtaken by events. In April I turned 60 (a big event) and spent a week walking part of the Camino de Santiago, well actually the Camino del Norte in Northern Spain from Bilbao to Santander. Max and I, along with two very dear friends, walked 130km in 5 days – what an achievement. A great way to celebrate a new decade for me and my friend – we share a birthday and have known each other since we were 9! The area was beautiful, stunning beaches and scenery, the food and wine great and weather wonderful. A few blisters were experienced across the group but overall it was such a fabulous experience and a great stress reliever even if some of the days were hard going. We did take the easy option, having our luggage transferred to the next hotel each day, so not the whole real pilgrim package but it was a birthday trip and we felt we were pretty good pilgrims really. We have plans to continue this route next year, stage by stage over the coming years until we reach Santiago de Compostella.

Back in January when I was full of plans, I promised to post an update once a fortnight on the comings and goings of our day-to-day life, along with all the unexpected happenings along the way and interesting elements of life in France! Features for 2023 were to continue to include a monthly seasonal food and recipe post, an update on renovation projects featuring our many brocante finds and doing them up/putting them to use. I also promised that as we begin to finish rooms and get a final house plan in place (it has taken a while and changed many times) we would reveal all, showing you the start and end of room projects and the fun along the way as our little chateau takes shape. It will be just wonderful to feel like we actually live here rather than the current camping approach!

I have enjoyed introducing you to the various places we have visited. There are so many gorgeous towns and villages around here, so to tempt you to visit look out for further information. Long promised is more about the local wine – Gaillac – one of the oldest in France and not short on great wines, many using some less well-known (to me anyway) and very local varieties of grape. I also love French houses, their architecture, features and history.

So, five months into the year, two months after I turned 60, I am going to renew those promises! I hope I can persuade and entice you to return to follow our slightly haphazard story. At the start of 2023 I said we should try to value every day we have. It is so easy to get pulled in different directions and get absorbed by the minutiae of life. We all do it, however hard we try not to. We are, after all, only human! However, as I read somewhere ‘our tomorrows are never guaranteed’ so make the most of each and every day, for what it is and for what it could be. Life is short – enjoy.

On that note I will bid you a happy end to the week and a relaxing weekend. The weather here is glorious one minute, thundery the next. The pool is reaching a good temperature and it is such a luxury and pleasure to be able to regularly swim again. It still feels slightly unreal that we own a pool! Nothing starts the day better for me than either a long walk – preferably by the sea (not possible here!) or a swim.

Look out for weekly updates from our petit chateau, monthly seasonal food and recipes, and much more. I will be posting each Friday, just in time for the weekend, as well as popping in some extra features, including one on shutters – I’m a huge fan which is lucky as we have a few here!

Do get in touch; it is always lovely to hear from you.

A bientôt

Ali xx