
Don’t cross the motorway!
A long overdue bonjour from our corner of the Tarn
This blog has really taken a bit of a back seat to life lately. Sometimes you just have to let go of some things to vaguely cope with everything else. So much has happened this year that I seem to have been thrown right off the blog writing track. A while back I said the posts on this blog are a bit like buses, you wait for ages and then a few turn up at the same time. Well, that wasn’t entirely truthful. The buses have had a complete shutdown! I am hoping that normal service will resume now. There is so much to catch up on, loads of news to update you with. The summer saw many visitors which was great, I made several trips back to the UK catching up with family and friends and spending a few lovely days with my boys by the sea in Brighton. We also made some progress on jobs in the house, the kitchen is taking shape, slowly but surely, in spite of many breaks to deal with unexpected problems! However rather than wade chronologically through countless weeks of life here in France, over the next posts I will pick a few moments, starting with our most recent adventure this week. Life is nothing if not eventful.


My younger son has come to visit and we picked him up on Tuesday from Toulouse airport. His journey started early with a connection in Paris, all on time, stress-free and quite relaxing. We nipped in to the supermarket en route to stock up. An hour and a trolley load of goodies later, we loaded the car and continued to the airport. Not the most ideal way to do things but practical – or so we thought! Barely were we on the motorway when the car indicated that it was getting a bit overheated so asked that we slow down to allow the engine to cool. It did and we continued. Up popped the same message and we stopped at an aire (motorway rest area) for a short while. All good until a bit further down the motorway, the same message again! With nowhere to stop we slowed down, hazards on as cars came hurtling past, hoping to get to the next service area. Alas the car had other ideas and just slowed down of its own accord. The accelerator did nothing so we drew to a nervous halt on the hard shoulder. I have never broken down on the motorway in all my driving life, which is now quite long! Quite scary as it turns out. With cars speeding past, we donned hi-vis vests, grabbed our coats and hopped (not literally) over the barrier, which to be honest doesn’t really feel that protective. In France you call your insurance company when you break down, but as we were on a motorway they couldn’t do anything, so off I marched towards a distant SOS phone, navigating waist-high grasses, brambles, slippery slopes all to stay behind the barrier, until that too disappeared and it was just me, the verge and some very speedy vehicles. Eventually I got to the phone, which it transpired was out of order. An amusing note on said SOS phone warned the user not to cross the motorway if the phone was out of order (really??) but call the gendarme nationale on 17. Wish I had known that before I hiked down the hard shoulder risking twisted ankles or tick bites! The police were very helpful, but suggested I stay where I was which sadly was not an option given that Max doesn’t have the best command of French so might struggle with the recovery people, plus getting them to collect me from 700m+ away. Back I trekked, slightly scarier as I was now facing the very speedy traffic! I entertained my now-arrived and waiting at the airport son with some colourful language and a promise of an eta some considerable way off from the expected.
After a bit of a wait a van turned up to indicate to the traffic the hazard that we were and keep vehicles away from us. The guy driving the van, who bravely stepped from his vehicle into the path of cars (not sure I would do his job!), did tell us that many of the phones don’t work now due to a change in technology to save money which hadn’t quite gone according to plan. Next time I will know. Eventually the recovery vehicle arrived, the warning vehicle now manoeuvred into the slow lane of the motorway, again the guy exiting his vehicle on the traffic side, somewhat foolhardy in my view given the speed of the traffic! The car, the shopping and the two of us were quickly loaded up and then the fun continued. The insurance company wanted all sorts of details from the now driving recovery person. I had to negotiate a trip to the airport and a hire car, rather than an immediate return home. Meanwhile the recovery vehicle started taking us back in the direction we had come from, stopping at one point to help another broken down vehicle. A very helpful recovery service, although the texting while driving not hands free was a little nerve wracking at times. We and the shopping were deposited on a petrol station forecourt to await a taxi, which we had been told would take at least another 30-40 minutes. Thank goodness for the shopping which gave us some crisps to snack on while we waited, supper a long forgotten plan! For some reason I hadn’t packed cutlery, plates, etc for our journey, expecting to arrive at the airport at 5.35pm and be home by 7.30pm.
The taxi finally appeared, a helpful man who loaded the shopping into the boot a little too rapidly (you should have seen the state of some of it when we got home!). A large crack across his windscreen made me slightly nervous as we broke all records for the time it takes to get to the airport, hitting 146km/hr on several occasions, speed restrictions being clearly for others even on the airport approach road – a 50km/hr then 30 restriction zone approached at 80! Shopping reloaded once more, this time onto luggage trolleys and we headed off to the rental company and finally to meet up with Alex! The fun was not over – Max’s driving licence had a problem so whilst they had agreed to add me to the rental, they would not change the name to mine! Back to the insurers who had to reissue a rental request in my name! Then another wait for the car that was apparently being prepared, only to find it had been parked near us, ready all the time! Customer service! In the moment I completely forgot to take any photos, so I will leave each of these scenes to your imagination.

The car is a rather smart hybrid Citroen, so modern you need some sort of degree to drive it! It is not, however, self-charging like the one I have driven before. I’m not sure the rental guy was that familiar! One thing I found a little unnerving was its need to keep me in lane, to the extent that if I strayed even a tiny bit it seemed to take control of the steering wheel and get me back on track – quite surreal especially on narrow country roads where staying ‘in lane’ is quite a challenge! A comfortable but highly complex car. It was only the next day that we managed to work out whether we had been in electric or petrol mode.
We eventually got home at 11.15pm. Alex had left home at 7.45am – a long day for all. We dreaded the news the next day from the garage. Fortunately it seems a pipe had broken so thousands of euros is in fact hundreds – not great in its own right but it could have been much worse. Given the horrors in the world, this is truly a minor issue!
The weather is all over the place, 24°C one day, 14°C the next, sunny then storms. We have had 70km winds, now torrential rain, so much that the pool is rather over full! At least we can re-vacuum it without having to fill it up again! Late harvests have meant lots of dust and debris in the pool, which really needs closing now sadly.
More soon and updates on the house. A sneak preview of one corner of the kitchen, indulging a passion for red. I would love to hear your thoughts – a shelf is still to come.

Lastly, a new addition to the house – don’t worry it’s not another rescue animal! A wonderful book stack with a lamp, a gift from my talented husband – one of his creative makes and something that has been on my ‘One day’ list for a very long time. I have to confess I slightly spoiled the surprise, spotting it in his attic workshop but it didn’t make it any less exciting. Christmas come early. Most importantly, apart from the cable and bulb, it is entirely made from recycled bits and pieces left over from other jobs or repurposed from abandoned items! Now to find the perfect spot for a reading nook…

Enjoy the coming days.
A bientôt
Ali xx

