Bonne année / happy new year

2018 has been quite a year - ups and downs like most years but overall we continue to have " never had it so good".

We have now lived here for 8 years and have never once regretted our decision to make our retirement years an adventure in French life. When we came I certainly thought it would be for a limited period and then we would "go back home". Now this is home, even without the issue of brexshit, the thought of going back to live in the UK holds no appeal. We miss family and friends of course but we still see them and spend quality times together sharing our wonderful life here.

Every year we seem to get busier, Trevor is playing more and more music and his band is doing great, we do traditional occitan dancing several times a week,  I have enjoyed doing some bilingual calling for celidhs, I still take the English class in the library on Wednesday afternoons ( a fun version of teaching) , my patchwork obsession continues, the garden is doing well and during the summer months we have a constant stream of visitors (the aforementioned family and friends).

Breaking my shoulder by throwing myself off a stepladder could well have brought everything to an end - I was lucky to get away without more serious injury or worse. Thankfully after 5 months of physio I can move my shoulder well and have only occasional aches. If this accident rates as the lowest point of the year the highlight has to be Anna and Martins wonderful wedding festival two weeks later. It was a wonderful day, full of music ( including musician friends from France and from Stoke) , so relaxed and informal and it was so nice to see Anna and Martin so happy. It was certainly a day to remember and a wedding like no other.

The worst part of 2018 has without doubt been watching the brexshit fiasco going from bad to worse to ridiculous. Another decision we have never regretted is getting our French nationality secured last year, but despite being in a secure situation personally it is just so heartbreaking watching the future of UK being sacrificed to placate the nationalists, the racists, the selfish, the misinformed and the Tory right.

this cover from 2016 has not been bettered!

So we enter 2019 with some trepidation but with plenty of things to look forward to in our family and friends bubble. At the end of January it will be 50 years since Trevor and I "became friends" - we have had some great times together and are fortunate indeed to be spending our "freedom years" in our own little paradise.

                              aiçi sén pla

when the mob rules

I believe I am a socialist, I believe I am a democrat but populism / mob rule worry me .

It has  given us brexit, it has  given us Trump, above all it has given us the threat of the extreme right and fascism. Despite the fact that many of our leftish French friends have supported the gilet jaunes protest I have failed to relate to the cause. It started as a protest against fuel taxes but developed into a mass movement of people united in but one thing - they were pissed off - mostly about Macron,  but also almost anything else - everyone could think of something.  No leaders, no organised campaign, they were always going to be manipulated by extreme factions working for their own ends. The only published "demands" included some that were extremely suspect,  racist / anti semitic and definitely antidemocratic. The influence of social media is also worrying - fake and old videos circulating on both sides to stir up further discontent.

I feel for people in this area who have been put out of work this Christmas, it is also sad to see towns already struggling losing out once more.There are, and will always be, inequalities and injustices to be identifed and fought against, and campaigns to be fought - I believe they should be carefully and thoughtfully chosen. Campaign yes, protest yes, march yes , withdraw labour yes  - but bullying, threats, intimidation, vandalism and incitement to violence are not the tactics of  civilised and democratic people in this land of egalité, fraternité et liberté.

brexit means brexshit

I hate Brexit

I hate all that it means and all that it stands for.

I hate the self serving politics that started it.

I hate the ignorance and bigotry that swung the vote.

I hate the self serving politicians  who could not/would not face up to what needed to be done to stop it.

I hate the way it has made racism and intolerance acceptable.

I hate that people's lives are being torn apart and thrown into turmoil

I hate the fact that I have lost friends who suddenly feel free to make ill informed slurs against my decision to live in the part of Europe I chose.

I hate that my family have to live with all that will follow.

Most of all I hate all the hatred.

It's a difficult time to feel positive but at least I can say I am French too.

A Franglais day

The "été indiene" is continuing and despite an early morning nip in the air we are having some lovely sunny days - Trevor is continuing to swim ( at 18 degs I'm giving that a miss) - and the recent rain has softened the ground enough to plant bulbs and the garlic so we have had a busy day outdoors. New window boxes have been planted up to replace the fading geraniums and some serious pre winter tidying has begun.

Yesterday I decreed was my  "stir up Thursday" so today  the Christmas puddings were steamed - all very English I hear you say, on the other hand the other task today ( and decidely more French) was bottling the nut wine - a local treat made with green walnuts (traditionally collected between the fete de St Jean and 14th July) and red wine.  It's not to everyone's taste ( someone once described it to me as tasting like Benylin) but I really like it especially when used to make fénelon.

So tonight's aperitive was the first fénelon du maison of the year ( nut wine , creme de cassis topped up with red wine) - and very acceptable it was too.

There are some cooler nighttime temperatures forecast for next week so it won't last but this week I'm enjoying the burst of late summer roses and outdoor lunches.

                                Aiçi sén pla

when lives intertwine

It's been a memorable summer in more ways than one . I did my best to ruin it by throwing myself from the top of a stepladder and breaking my shoulder but it has not all been bad news. 

The highlight was the wedding of the year when our daughter and her partner of 18 years finally tied the knot - literally.

They had planned it to have the atmosphere of a music festival -  it worked ! Starting on the Friday and right through the weekend. Saturday itself was just perfect - so relaxed and happy, full of music and laughter, children playing, everyone enjoying a day out in beautiful sunshine.I can't thank our friends and family enough for being there and sharing it with us. 

 







There was something very special about having old friends from England and new friends from France there joining in with the music making together with Anna's new friends.



Watching videos and looking at photos brings back all the emotions of the day - this is an occasion which will stay in my heart forever.

Anna and Martin now regard their visits to see us as also an opportunity to join in with our music making. Anna looks forward to singing at folk'n'jazz ( something I never thought I'd see as she was far to timid to do such a thing when younger) and also to playing along with Celidh Marmite.

It's great that we can share our life, friends and music  with them and everyone left after the final soirée with a " see you next year". I second that!

put that stupid woman in a straightjacket

I look forward to the summer months with a passion, dreaming of summer gets me through the bone cold , three jumper days of winter . I love the signs of its arrival in the Spring and can never summon up much enthusiasm for its demise in the Autumn.

The summer this year was a little reluctant to get under way but June ended fine and July was doing well - outdoor meals, barbecues, late night swims, garden in full flower - perfect! I was just getting into the flow of it.

Not a good idea then to have an accident and break a shoulder bone meaning 4 weeks strapped up in a foam and nylon straightjacket.

The fact that it was my own stupid fault only serves to make it worse of course, what the **** was I thinking of climbing to the top of that stepladder anyway! The problem is I get annoyed at having to ask other people to do things - and now look where that's got me.

Anna's wedding next week just adds to the mix  but how lucky was I not to be more seriously hurt or worse. At the moment the doctor thinks it will mend without an operation.

Believe me that straightjacket is extremely hot and we have had temperatures well into the 30s this week. I have bought a second version so that one can be washed and also I can dip in the pool to cool off at least. Next weekend I intend to have a few hours "out" so I don't spoil the wedding photos!

Over two more weeks strapped up and I feel I am wishing the summer away - I hope swimming will be deemed good physio in August!

Proud to be French

Yesterday ( one year after our citizenship ) we went to an official ceremony to mark the event. In a packed room (132 new citizens plus family and friends) watched as people all ages, colours and religions ( including us) were welcomed as French citizens into their adopted country in a true spirit of liberté, égalité and fraternité.

We were welcomed alongside  youngsters still in education, young people in work wanting to progress in their careers, families starting new lives three old soldiers decorated with medals ( not sure where from) and of course other Brits like us who have chosen their own personal paradise and want to make the committment to their adopted country and remain proud Europeans - just how lucky are we to have the choice.

As I have said before, although overjoyed to have been accepted as a welcome French citizen,  I am acutely aware how lucky are we to have the chance to even think about choosing where we want to live - our personal paradise - when there are so many less fortunate displaced people around the world, and here in France, just desperate to find a safe haven to escape real horrors and persecution in their homelands  - another and much more important story for our times.

Added to this the revelations  in the British news of the despicable behaviour of the home office in recent years towards people whose parents were asked to come,  immigrated perfectly legally and have lived all their lives in England puts into stark contrast our experience here.

How about this for a difference too , I looked at what would happen at ceremonies before going yesterday and came across this gem about an British version: 

You'll be invited to book a place at a citizenship ceremony if your application is successful and you're over 18. You're usually allowed to take 2 guests. You must take your invitation when you go to your ceremony. There's a ceremony fee of £80.
 
Our ceremony was free, people crammed into the room with children and other family and friends, everyone was spoken to individually by the prefet. 
 

In the speech by the prefet there was a great deal of emphasis on French values liberté, égalité and fraternité - now those are values to be proud of - I am proud to be able to call myself French and European.

There are people I know ( none of them French) who regard this move as unpatriotic and believe we should be in some way "struck off" the British list but I am also still British and always will be, I was born British, my family is British, I pay a good proportion of my taxes to England and there is much I love about Great Britain but so much that I hear about at the moment that I cannot be proud of. I worry for its future and the isolationist , nationalist road it seems hell bent on following.

And so ........  je suis Française - merci France

And another thing.............

I read recently a comparison of this winter as being like someone storming out of the room and slamming the door only to return yelling " ..and another thing!".

That's exactly what it has been like the last month or so. We have had some glimpses of sunshine fooling us into thinking Spring was on it's way then the cold returns with a vengeance.




The garden has really suffered - the bamboo, which had come through the winter green was hit last weekend and turned brown overnight. The same cold night finished off my early seedlings under fleece in the greenhouse.

The daffodils too have been disappointing having been battered in the wind and rain so much that almost all the stems are broken and they are lying in forlorn patches.










Last year we lost all our fruit to a late frost so I am glad that the fruit trees have no blossom yet - for now the flowering cherries are enough to cheer the spirits especially against a blue sky ( even if the wind is biting cold!)

One sight that did not disappoint though was the wild daffodil display in the woods at Verfeil, just lovely

keeping in touch

How things have changed.

During my teenage years I kept daily diaries, recording almost exclusively mundane daily events and lacking any interesting insights apart from the odd "that boy is fab". I recently browsed through one - searching for  confirmation of a date and one thing did really strike me - letters! My diaries are full of "had a letter from....." "wrote a letter to ......", several almost every week. When away from home I wrote to my parents and to my brother and sisters, each of them separately, and when we moved house I wrote to friends. We had no telephone in the house and of course email and social media were not even dreamt of but it seems I made up for it.

As the years passed I stopped writing my diaries and eventually the letters except for some at Christmas time. These days  I am really glad to have social media  - its so easy to keep in touch with family and friends, especially important when like us you live a long way off. An exchange of photos, a shared giggle, a supportive message - all help keep friendship alive and keep family ties. I also enjoy the "diary" created with facebook - often as mundane as my teenage scribbles but also full of good memories.

So a thank you to all of my on-line friends and family for keeping in touch.

preserving traditions

I have made jams and chutneys most of my adult life, its always made sense to me to preserve fruits when they are in season and if you grow your own fruit and veg even more so. It was also part of my hankering after the countryside way of life.

Around here the tradition continues in a big way, people come away from the market with huge trays of fruits in season and every ordinary supermarket stocks up on jars , pans and other paraphenalia during the summer.

In this area preserving continues throughout the year, for some as it has done for generations. We have a friend who still fattens a pig each year and a dozen ducks. December, January and February is the time when the animals are converted into meat, pates , confit etc etc for the rest of the year - everything bar the squeak and quacks is used.

At this time of year the shelves are lined with sterilising  jars, seals and sterilisers and the meat counters are stocked with supplies for making pate at home ( if you haven't got your own pig or ducks), including the bits you would not expect to find on the everyday butchery counter.







 I have always been nervous of preserving meat products but this year we had a master class in making pate from some friends who do it on a large scale as they are the lucky recipients of a lot of game.

Once  the mystique was gone, I bought a sterilser, stocked up on jars and had fun experimenting with recipes and flavours.

I have rearranged my preserve cupboard to make room for the resulting  stock of pates which should keep us going for the rest of the year although I am assured they will keep several years. Should be very useful once the visitor season starts.

Its always good to learn a new skill!

seven year itch?

Not likely - that's just me pinching myself to make sure it's all true.

A friend whose expat life turned out less well than ours insisted we would get "home"sick after 7 years ( later changed to 10 years , then 12 but never mind). In fact this year has indeed seemed like something of  a turning point but in quite the reverse way. I do get homesick but it is when we are away from here and it is in England that I feel like a fish out of water.


We are lucky to have lots of English friends and family who visit us ( mostly in the summer months) and we have always enjoyed showing them the sites and to some extent being in holiday mode. In the early years for 4 months over the summer found we spoke very little French as our clubs were all closed for the summer and we were in entertaining mode. 2017 it was very different. We still had lots of visitors but we now have so much going on in our lives all year round that our visitors found themselves being included and finding out more about why we feel at home here. Now our lots of French friends and English friends know each other and  have even played music together. We even had our first parties at Segala, bringing back memories of garden parties and bonfire nights - It was a really great summer.

2017 has been a momentous year in many ways. Not without sadness and loss of friends who did not see it's end, politically a Trump/Brexit nightmare, but on a personal level we have become French citizens, become grandparents with our son's adoption of his partner's children and our daughter has become engaged to her partner of 17 years.

We have just ended the year with a pre Christmas reunion with English friends,

























Christmas with our family










and New Year's eve spent with our closest French friends setting the scene for another year of fun, family, friendship and joie de vivre. How lucky are we!

                       





                             

                              Happy New Year


                                               Aiçi sén pla