Frogs, fruit and flat tyres

Bonjour!

Wow it is hot at the moment, heading for 42°C today and tomorrow. I think we would all like to spend the day submerged in the pool, although it is only shady from mid-afternoon. I have been making jams and chutneys in the kitchen – not the ideal time but essential to preserve the huge amount of fruit our trees are offering. We will appreciate the compôtes of plums and pears in the winter, especially knowing the fruit came from our garden.

On Sunday morning we had ‘Operation Pool Frog’ as we have a guest in the pool. You would think it would damage the delightful little creature but it appears to love it. We have relocated him/her several times but back in it pops. Apparently you can’t take them too far away as they try to return so we have chosen a damp area of the copse for now as it is so hot. However no matter what we do, back it pops for a cool dip, understandable in this weather but not a good long term plan.

As ever, our week has not been without adventure and mishap! Would we find life dull if there wasn’t some kind of challenge to overcome? I wonder…!

Before I thrill you with tales of flat tyres and unexpected days out, in between all of this we have had one of my nieces to stay, enjoyed a wine tasting and a fun meal out, as well as, finally, this weekend some restorative time in the pool. I think she enjoyed the pool too – we are so lucky to have this, especially when it is so hot.

Last week started well with work and a fun evening playing pétanque in the village. My team lost, again, but I seem to be improving a little. My niece arrived on 15^th August – a national holiday in France for the Feast of the Assumption, one that even the supermarkets, often open on holidays, take seriously so everything is closed. The next day Max and I set off to collect my son from his Dordogne location, all beautifully planned, an early start for the 2 ½ hour drive, a quick turn around and a promise to be back by about 2pm for a swim and meal out. Or so we thought! First of all we were a little tired courtesy of the gîte guests next door having decided to party very loudly until 2.30am. We are normally pretty tolerant of the occasional noise but there is a limit and this went way past that line! No amount of asking them to stop succeeded until eventually there was a lull in YMCA, they responded, informing us that they were off to bed. No apology! Coffee breaks were a must on the journey.

Anyway I digress. About an hour and a half into the journey the car informed us that the pressure in all the tyres was faulty – hooray. We were, of course, on a winding country road at this point. Then the computer told us which tyre was really the problem. We stopped and checked, all seemed to be OK, so off we set again, this time in search of a garage on our route to check the tyre pressure. It is August when typically everything closes for the holidays. We passed a couple of places, both decidedly ‘fermé’. On reaching the next town, Montignac, we found someone to ask who pointed us in the right direction, alas too late. The tyre was by now flat, people were kindly pointing it out, so we had to stop, half an hour from our destination. When did car manufacturers decide that spare tyres were not vital? All we have is some product that supposedly fills the tyre while you aim to get it to a garage, which apparently ruins the tyre anyway! One and a half hours later the breakdown truck arrived and took us and the car to a local garage, closed until 2pm as it was now midday and lunchtime!

Off we wandered back into Montignac and chanced upon a little Greek taverna – as you would. I couldn’t resist the blue and white chairs, the Greek menu, so we ordered lunch. This took a while as it turned out the taverna was run by one guy who was chef, barman, and waiter and, in his words, accountant too. The wait was fine, we needed the time to breathe and laugh at the latest turn of events. The food, when it arrived, was amazing, a little taste of authentic Greek food in the middle of a town in SW France. We called the garage at 2pm, no joy with the tyres, and were told it is August and it might take some time, but he would call back. He didn’t, so we walked up to the garage in the mid-afternoon heat, only to be told it would take 8 days to get the same brand of tyre but maybe only one day to get two different tyres! It is illegal to have two different tyres on one axle, so it was either one tyre the same, or two new tyres, annoying as our tyres are not that old! Meanwhile my son was waiting to be collected from his campsite about 25 minutes away! To cut a long story short, two tyres were found, delivery was secured for the same afternoon and a promise made to have the car ready by 4.30-5pm. Off we went back to town for an afternoon of exploring, a delicious ice-cream (mine a heavenly white peach sorbet) and a lot of sun. Back at the garage at about 4.45pm we found the car untouched and no-one prepared to tell us what was happening. Eventually the breakdown guy who had picked us up at lunchtime started changing the tyres. We finally got to my son at about 6pm, instead of 11am and home by 10.30pm instead of 2pm! Not quite the day we were expecting, but when is it ever? We also bumped in to our pool guy at a motorway service station – small world!

The car’s Controle technique (MOT) was the next day. I fully expected it to fail but bless her she passed. A great positive after the previous day and a relief as the tyres had been quite expensive. Wine tasting with my niece in the afternoon and a meal out in the evening meant everyone else got to do something too. Not exactly the visit I had planned for her but life moves in mysterious ways and we had some time together.

We spent Friday in Toulouse, dropping my niece off at the station for her onward journey and inadvertently stumbling on a ceremony to mark the liberation of Toulouse in August 1944. Fascinating and educational, as it made us look up what happened and the huge role the resistance played in freeing the city. We had a relaxing day wandering around, finally visiting the parks we had wanted to see. The weather was very hot so a shady park was perfect for lunch. An iced café liegoise at the cat café rounded off the visit perfectly.

I had set myself the goal of reaching 1km of continuous swimming this year, which is about 84 lengths of our pool. The most I had done was 50 lengths, which seemed a lot to me. However on Sunday I decided to keep swimming lengths until I ran out of steam, aiming to reach the magical 84 lengths if I could. I did it and then continued to 100, as I was enjoying the swim so much. I am rather pleased with myself and surprisingly did not feel any after effects the next day.

On that note as this post is running late as ever, I will bid you au revoir and à bientôt from an extremely hot office in the Tarn.

Ali xx