Coffee and Chocolatines

Hello again I hope you are all well? I can’t believe it is December. What a year and how quickly it has gone. Christmas is around the corner – a little different this year. I am sad that we won’t be seeing family and neither Alex, my younger son, nor my mother will be coming over this year. A difficult time for everyone but sensible to be cautious during the festive season. This has not been our most positive week. I’m an eternal optimist but sometimes….! Don’t get me wrong, we love it here but some weeks we look at the mountain of jobs to do, the impact the pandemic…

This week the focus is on food, a subject close to my heart. Whether home grown or locally produced we have been trying out all sorts of things over the last year.   Can you believe it is almost December? What a strange year we are all living through. During the week we were looking back to this time last year when my niece got married and my younger son graduated. Who would have thought where we would be a year on from those fun occasions? I have been thinking about making my Christmas cake, a bit later than usual as plans for the festive season are very much on…

Hello! A busy week with lots of drama and excitement. The kittens have been to the vet and had their first vaccinations (I am recovering from the bill!). We almost managed to get them in their carrier first time – almost. 3 in and Louka decided he was not that keen. We succeeded in grabbing him, not ideal, all hissing and scratching but then the other 3 escaped! The girls were easier to retrieve but then they broke out again. Kittens everywhere, literally, and all stressed out, not to mention me. Meanwhile the boys had turned feral. If it hadn’t been so tense as we were running late, it would…

Hello and thank you for joining me this week. For those who know me, concrete is not something that is high on my list of interests. However this week I am heading off into uncharted territory and learning a bit about the history of concrete! All thanks to these stairs outside our French home. Stick with me, it really is quite an eye-opener. There is more too – a little look at some of the features of the house and a lot of questions about the history. These stairs are fabulous and lead up to the first floor above our kitchen, not to the front door. Although they look like…

Hello again I hope you have all had a good week, in spite of lockdown for those dealing with that this week? I had promised you a completed front hall this week. Well things are not going quite to plan! C’est la vie! My younger son returned to the UK at the weekend, after being here with us in the Tarn for a year. Trying to shoehorn as much of his stuff into a couple of suitcases without going over the luggage weight limit was a little time consuming! I have no idea when I can get over with his things, so he needed to take back as much of…

This week’s update finds us back in lockdown in France, as of last night. We did a quick dash to the big supermarket to get a stock of animal food as well as some things for us! We also dropped in to Mr Bricolage for some paint to do the front door and railings. So we have some supplies and are just working out what will and won’t be open, as it is not quite the same as last time when all but food stores were closed. We are not short of things to do in the house and garden, so maybe, just maybe we will make some progress! By…

I hope you enjoyed reading the first post. Thank you for all your lovely comments. It’s been very windy here this week, so plans to tidy up the garden didn’t make much headway. I did manage to make some jam and chutney from plums that a neighbour gave me, and plant some passion flower cuttings. I can’t quite believe that we moved everything over from the UK a year ago already. I have a lot to share with you, so let’s get started, but this week with a slight detour via tales of our rescue animals! A plan hatched more than 30 years ago to live in France is now…

Hello and thank you for taking the time to read my blog, Coffee and Chocolatines. I have talked about doing this for ages, so although it is a bit scary here goes. I hope you enjoy it – please let me know what you think. This huge old key is the key to our new home! Amazing and pretty impressive. Imagine carrying that around with you. Fortunately we do have a regular sized key, as the old lock doesn’t work at the moment. Not sure we will ever use it as our main key but fun to have and adds to the history of the house. More on that in…