
Derailed by December!
Bonjour Everyone
I do hope you have all had a lovely Christmas? Ours was not quite as we had planned.
I often seem to start blog posts these days with an apology for my absence. I had planned everything and was all set to post every fortnight and had prepared lots of extra bits on wine and our renovation to share. However December was having none of it. Why let life go ahead as planned when a few bumps along the way make it all so much more interesting?

Where to start on what has been an eventful final month of 2023. My father died on December 1st, alone in a care home. A sad end to a tumultuous life. The ensuing weeks were challenging for various reasons, work and personal. The funeral was set for 20th December, my sister had to get there from Australia and me from France, less of an issue but a busy time to travel. My son arrived from the UK on 18th and I left on 19th – timing!
I returned from 24 hours in the UK to my husband with Covid! We really are pretty careful and I had yet to have it. Who knows where he caught it. He had to isolate and sadly missed the fabulous meal at Alchimy in Albi for my Mother’s birthday – we all checked that we tested negative first of course. The restaurant was somewhere we had long planned to visit and it was well worth it. Delicious food, including a café gourmand and even a sparkler for the birthday girl.


The next day I drove to Plum Village which is near Bergerac to collect my eldest son from his retreat. Alex and his girlfriend came along for the ride and spent the day exploring Villeneuve sur Lot, which looked lovely. I continued on for a spot of lunch and car packing up, meeting some of Johnnie’s co-retreaters too. We set off to collect the others rather later than planned, eventually getting home in the evening, minus a rather nice umbrella sadly. Market day on Saturday saw us up early collecting bread and vegetable orders and topping up the fab cheese collection for the festive season.
Then things began to get trickier. I guess the combination of a trip to the UK by plane, albeit masked, Max with Covid, and being really quite exhausted, there was a big possibility of something going wrong! Well of course I tested positive on 23rd. Off to isolation with my husband – well at least no more sofa bed for me which is where I had been sleeping while Max had Covid. Alex and his girlfriend stepped into the cooking role, making the supper that day. That was not the end of challenges. Too easy.
Early on Christmas Eve morning Alex woke us up with the news that my mother had fallen and was in agony. They had got her to the bathroom and back to bed but all was not well. An ambulance was duly called and she was rushed off to Albi hospital, at that time with a suspected fractured femur. Johnnie had to accompany her as obviously I couldn’t. Meanwhile I was beginning to feel really ill, temperature, etc. Long story short they found Mum had broken her hip but also had some heart irregularity so they couldn’t operate straight away. She eventually had her operation on 28th December after many days pain relief and monitoring.
Christmas kind of collapsed, I slept, Alex and his girlfriend kept the food plans going with recipes and instruction from the sick bed. I hadn’t finished decorating the house, nor shopping, nor cooking. A trip to St Antonin market on Sunday didn’t happen much to their disappointment and I just continued sleeping a lot. That said we had bought Christmas trees and semi-decorated them, Max and I did manage a vin chaud or two as well as a rather lovely Thé gourmand before Covid struck. The mistletoe was hung but the greenery remains in a bucket!



So we have not had a great time. Of course it could have been worse but for once both my boys were here and we had so many plans. The turkey didn’t make it out of the freezer, gifts incomplete and poor Alex and his girlfriend basically spent Christmas alone, whilst on food duty for everyone. We are now waiting to see how Mum’s recovery goes and possibly having to rethink our plans. This house, mid-renovation, may not be suitable for her now.
Let’s see what 2024 brings….
Normal-ish service will resume and a round-up of 2023 will appear on 1st January. Somehow I would love this blog to survive the various curved balls it has weathered.

Meanwhile enjoy every moment. You never know what is around the corner. Enjoy the last bit of 2023. See you next year!
Best wishes and à bientôt
Ali xx
PS The cats have enjoyed every minute of this – me being in bed for a week! They have made themselves very comfortable indeed.


