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The best-laid plans..

Hello Everyone

I started writing this in the midst of a violent thunderstorm here in the Tarn on Thursday between power cuts. Wow what weather and what a week! Do you remember I mentioned last week that things often get in the way of our plans? Perhaps I shouldn’t have said that as this week has been one of those weeks when nothing, and I repeat nothing, has gone according to plan – apart from this rose, which has done its best to produce the most beautiful blooms.

Last weekend the weather was great, we swam and we managed to watch the Roland Garros final on Sunday between Djokovic and Tsitsipas – amazing. It is not often I get the chance to sit down and watch a whole programme or match but this time I pretty much did. OK with the odd interruption but I saw most of it. A lovely Sunday, until we lost little Anya, the grey kitten. She had managed to get herself locked into the neighbour’s barn. They weren’t answering their phones but eventually returned at about 11pm and let a very frightened little kitten out. She disappeared into the garden, which made matters worse but fortunately came in after a while. Stressful!

On Monday, after a terrible night’s sleep, we started the week with an early morning swim. Bliss and so good for a stressed out me.

Half the day was spent going to the supermarket and garden centre, not nearby! I did, however, finally manage to get some lovely simple pots for my lemon, fig, olive and jasmine which didn’t cost me a fortune, along with some scented pelargoniums for the garden.

We had coffee with some friends we haven’t seen in ages on Tuesday morning, getting back just in time to take my son to Cordes to have his hair cut. This outing turned into a 5 ½ hour marathon. On setting out we had no idea we would not return for a long time, nor how dramatic it would be. Max parked the car and seeing a lorry approach, pulled the door closed. The lorry was too close and clipped the wing mirror, the door was not firmly closed, so the force dragged the door open and along with the lorry which continued to the junction. One crumpled door later, a bit of a shock and by the time we had realised what had happened, said lorry was gone! Then ensued a 3 ½ hour battle with the insurance company to get us home. The breakdown vehicle was sent to the wrong place, the breakdown part of the insurance company was too busy so it was impossible to get through, the French mobile ran out of charge, and so on. It was 34°C and we spent the afternoon sitting in the shade in the market place car park!

By the time I got through to ask yet again what was going on, the taxi arrived, took us to Albi to collect a natty little hire car. What do you think?

We eventually got home at around 7pm, tired, hot and with a new thing to sort out.

This is the actual hire car, but a girl can dream!

Meanwhile my son in the UK has Covid – seemingly the Delta variant and along with giving him moral support from afar, we spent much of the day organising paperwork for Thursday’s carte de sejour rendez-vous. We have also started on the next part of Lupin – a great series if you have the chance to see it.

The big day arrived and off we went to Albi, armed with our dossiers of possible paperwork. France is big on paperwork so we hoped we had covered all options! We were ushered in for our appointments and a lovely lady looked after us both at the same time – helpful for Max as his French is not quite there yet! Passports were checked, extra paperwork requested, mine being something I had already sent, Max’s to prove he has the means to support himself! Once finger printed and paperwork signed, we treated ourselves to a coffee on the square and watched some citrus trees arrive to replace some rather fun conical conifers.

We then had a wander around Bouchara (a lovely homeware store) where I found some great fabric for the salon potentially – all on sale. Sadly they don’t do swatches, so I photographed it and thought I could return on Friday if needs be. The salon floor has some beautiful old tiles, a bit battered but we are keeping them. They are quite faded but are in greys, black and a goldy/mustardy colour. Not necessarily a colour I would choose but that is the palette I am working with. The 3 fabrics were grey, mustardy/gold and some grey and white patterned fabric. I have plans! I did buy some really cute little coffee cups for the kitchen!

We also happened upon a vintage car rally – parked up for coffee. Fabulous cars.

Max and I picked one each (mine is above) – in our dreams!

We did some shopping for our elderly neighbours and headed home. On delivering the shopping we found that their cat was injured. A vet appointment was made and at 4.45 I duly took my neighbour and cat down to the vets. While waiting in the car, storm clouds started gathering. Amazing to watch as they rolled in over Cordes and onwards towards home. Suddenly the wind whipped up, the rain started falling and in an instant we were in the middle of a violent storm.

My neighbour emerged from the vets, getting soaked on the short walk to the car. We headed off towards home, the roads were littered with branches, leaves and debris, water cascading everywhere. The road home is through some woods, scary in heavy rain and high winds, and probably not that sensible but she was worried about her husband as there would surely have been a power cut. On the approach road to both our turnings, I had to jump out to move a large branch, then we were stopped in our tracks by an immovable tree. I tried to phone home, no joy. We reversed back up and headed to a small hamlet to cut around if we could. We stopped at a local farm to see if we could get some help but the phone lines and mobile signals were out! Luckily we managed to get around the other way and through the woods without anything blocking the road. Cars were beginning to appear as roads were blocked and people, not local, were trying to find their way through. I got my neighbour home only to find my drive was blocked so I abandoned the car and ran through the torrential rain.

Louka, one of the kittens was missing, the storm was overhead and Max and I got soaked calling for him, along with helping move branches as we now had a bit of queue around the house and road! An evening of cat searching followed. I was so worried he might either be terrified somewhere, or had been hit by falling tress. Finally at about 10:45 pm I heard a faint little meow and there he was, a bit scared, soaked and so hungry, and very ready for a cuddle. What a relief!

Our garden is a mess, a huge oak cut in half next to the pool, the plum tree prostrate on the lawn, large parts of several acacia trees that line our drive now wrenched from their trunks. Fortunately the oak did not hit the pool. It was however very precarious as it was standing on its head and would cause huge damage if it fell, so we made an appointment for a tree surgeon.

And Friday – a further trip to the vets with the neighbour – luckily the cat has just pulled a muscle in her leg, not broken thank goodness. I am exhausted and we had the fun job of clearing up after the storm. The garden looks like a hurricane passed through, wrecking everything in its path from the copse down to the house. Bizarre.

The oak is now all chopped up and the lovely tree surgeon has tidied up the remainder of the tree. You would hardly know it had lost half its height. The view down to the house has also opened up following the loss of parts of the acacia trees. Sometimes out of something negative comes something positive – that’s how I like to see things!

What a week, not a flick of a paintbrush, although I did manage to get an extra tin of the paint for the hall in Albi on Thursday. Not a stitch of sewing or any kind of DIY/ renovation at all this week! No chance to return for the fabric either, although I may have blown the fabric money on the tree surgeon.

Remind me not to mention that sometimes things get in the way of plans!

Have a wonderful week ahead. We are bracing ourselves for more storms over the next couple of days. At this rate we won’t have any trees left!

Hope you enjoyed visiting Varen (See post: Places to visit: Varen)?

A bientôt

Ali xx

2 Comments

  • Lucy

    Gosh, ages since I checked your blog and such an eventful week! Glad there was no damage to the house in the storm. Is that your own pool? When can I come and stay? 😉😂

    • Ali

      An eventful week indeed! You are welcome and yes it is our pool. It is amazing to have a pool, great for early morning dips before work, and lazier days – when/if we get them! x

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