End of a decade

On the the TV after Christmas and during the long post Christmas journey home we watched and listened to many versions of "this was the decade that was". On the world stage, political, and environmental fronts a disastrous decade seeing the rise of right wing populism as the answer to  complex problems. The right wing government in the UK is now hell bent on discrediting the supreme courts of the land - our country back? I think not. History teaches that it may well get a whole lot worse if they continue to get their way.

On the personal  front though the decade has been a huge success. TC retired on 1st January 2010 and our mission " move to France" went into top gear. We spent the start of the year downsizing 24 years worth of accumulated "stuff", selling the house ( not without some ups and downs ) and also making many visits to our holiday home in Bruniquel. We finally moved out of 82 Uttoxeter Rd in July and lived in Bruniquel (dept 82) for three months at first while househunting and then waiting for our purchase to go through, it was a lovely summer. We settled in to French life and started to get to grips with the bureacracy!

Making apricot jam in the sun - a taste of things to come

The intention was to probably spend 10 years having our French adventure and then return home but it did not take us long to realise that this move was more permanent than that. We are now in that 10th year and in no way considering returning to the UK. We are very lucky to have found an answer to the question "what do we do when we retire"  which has made us both fulfilled and happy.

During that 10 years TC has learnt new instruments, expanded his musical talents and is enjoying his music more than ever before. Traditional music and dancing is still a huge part of our lives and we have been able to learn occitan dancing together. It is through music and dance that we have been able to make many friends mostly  French, some English some Dutch and have escaped being trapped in an ex pat bubble. I have taken up ( aka got obsessed with) patchwork and become president of the patchwork club - its really good to have an interest to fill the winter non - gardening days. We have made Segala our home with some changes, we have created a new garden and I have become more confident with a new language ( I can even talk on the phone in French!). In 2017 we became officially French citizens with dual nationality.

Of course we are a long way from family and old friends but many of them we still see as often as before and for better "quality time".  From April to September we operate as a sort of unnofficial chambres hôtes with visitors both family and friends. This is NOT a complaint - I wouldn't want it any other way - we love sharing our life here and showing people around the area we are lucky enough to call home.

painted by our farming neighbour on a farm building in the village

 

it takes a long time to become young

I know that if I had been living in England over the last decade I would have been constantly depressed - radio 4 on all day - BBC news - don't do them here! It's bad enough here where I can filter the bombardment through French news and my facebook bubble - I got  hospitalised with a mega mystery infection when Trump was elected and shingles after the Brexit vote!

So here's to the next 10 years - more music and dancing and less hatred in the world ( I live in hope!)


                              aiçi sén pla

return of the country wife

I detest house work - luckily there is gardening and patchwork!

However I have always enjoyed making preserves, jams, chutneys and the like and here in the French countryside it's a must do activity.

In late summer the aisles of the supermarket and house'n'garden stores have mountains of jam jars, gradually replaced as winter gets nearer, by  preserving jars and special promotions on pork and duck products for making pâté and confit.  My only problem is I get carried away and keep making "just one more batch". Its fun to experiment with new mixes and properly sterilised will keep for a few years.

This year we have pork with ceps and armagnac, pork and duck with fig and duck with foie gras - gonna stop now!

Guess what's for lunch!

celebrating 9 years

Its no good living in an earthly paradise if you don't get out and see it and enjoy it. We moved into Segala 9 years ago today and still we are discovering new places to visit and new walks.

We are in a great location for walking - we can walk from the door but also within a 45 minute drive we can reach all of the prettiest parts of Tarn et Garonne, the valleys of the Lot and Célé in Lot and the western parts of Aveyron - all brilliant walking areas. This autumn we have adjusted our schedule of dancing nights to leave us a free day each week in the hope that this year we will get back into doing more walks. The last two Tuesdays have been perfect for our plan - clear blue skies and temperature low 20s so not too hot

Today we went up into Lot to the valley of the Célé and did a wonderful clifftop walk from Brengues we had not tried before. Fabulous views all the way, varied paths with interesting features to look at and on the way home we stopped off for a quick beer in Cajarc which we always remember as the start of our adventure with this area as we stayed there when we first visited looking for a holiday house in 2004.

             

So 9 years at Ségala - we loved it here on day one - we love it here still

                       aiçi sén pla

events and now for "le rentrée"

Yep it has been an eventful summer as always, very busy , lots of guests, lots of music gigs. This year also very very hot.

September is always a month of mixed emotions - the summer coming to an end, visitors departing, weather cooling - but it is also when all of our clubs get going again.

OOP s - what happened there then - suddenly I find myself president of my patchwork group ! Three years back I volunteered to help on the committee, this year resignations of long serving president and secretary meant the club was in real jeopardy, no - one wanted to take on the responsibility. Then there was me!

Since 2013 Starpatch has become very important in my life - through it I have found a new passion in my patchwork. Scary but I could not refuse to do what I could. I hope I can do the role of president justice - I am elected for a term of 3 years at the end of which according to our constitution we will stage our next exhibition. So far so good - people seem to be responding with some signs of motivation. Over the summer I have done some workshops which have been well received  - fingers and toes crossed we can move on.

Some results of summer " convergence" workshops

summer crescendo

With a bank holiday on the Thursday this weekend was long and intense. Trevor's band played all day on Thursday at a medieval fete,
























Friday evening at a marché gourmande

























and Saturday evening at a village meal.


Three days/nights in a row was tough going especially for those members of the band still working for a living!

















In fact it has been a busy summer all round for the band but who would wish it any other way - certainly not me - it gets us out and about , we meet up with and make new friends, I get to dance and TC gets to play music.




As always there have been far too many fetes and festivals to fit in around the band and other social life but how good to have so much choice ( and do have our annual favourites - as in can't miss /won't miss now)!

Moules a la paille Puylagarde

Chez nous we have had lots of fun with visitors, the weather has been HOT  (too much at times) , folk'n'jazz has had two successful summer concerts so far, we had a lovely few days away in les Landes to see our son and his family on holiday, we have enjoyed time entertaining at home and being on our own at home, the veg garden is being bountiful - altogether a very satisfactory summer season.



I love the influx of tourists to the area and the added buzz they bring to the area
but this week is beginning to mark the end of the season, campsites are preparing to close up, gite and chambre d'hôtes owners saying au revoir to their last guests of the summer. Luckily for us there is still time left to continue enjoying the outdoors, the pool and the fruits ( well vegetables) of our labours, We have our extra season  - l'été indien to look forward to

                           
                             aiçi sen pla

Mad, bad or just foolhardy?

We were described as all of the above ( and doubtless more besides) when we decided to leave the UK nine years ago.

Mad to leave everything behind - "you'll miss your garden" "what about the children?", bad to leave with elderly parents still living ( but they moved to be nearer my sister) , and foolhardy - well we'd soon change our minds and be back when we realised it wasn't like being on holiday!

People have also said we were brave to do it - somehow at the time it didn't seem like that despite the fact that in the end we had to sell up and move before we had actually found somewhere to live. I had not been brave enough to do it when we were younger but when retirement offered us the chance to have an adventure it just seemed like the right time, now or never. We had often thought t would be nice to live in France instead of just holidaying, we loved our little holiday house by the Vere at Bruniquel. I dreamt of living in the countryside and making a new garden. I needed to make the break with the potteries ( sorry Stoke, thanks for the last 40 years and all that  but I needed to get away). It was to be a 10 year experiment and then probably we would return and live out our old age near one of the kids.

But no such thing - it was not long before we knew we had made one of the best decisions of our life together and we were destined to stay. No-one who visits us can fail to recognise it was the best thing for us, we are living our dream - selfish maybe but you only get one stab at life.










We love nothing better than sharing our home and this beautiful region with family and friends who care to visit and there are many who come every year.

We were also lucky to have found a region where traditional music and dance is thriving. We often say that music ( in particular T C's musical talents) have been the key to us meeting people, making friends ( particularly French friends). improving our French language  and integrating. We have loved learning occitan dancing too.









We are incredibly busy, incredibly happy and most of all incredibly lucky to be here. Who knows what the future holds but for now we continue to live every day to the full and appreciate our good fortune each and every day.






So 9 years on we are now proud French citizens ( and well as English of course - but just at the present time it is more difficult to feel very proud of that), we have no regrets, we are "at home"

                      aiçi sén pla

precious family times

It's inevitable that as the years pass and children move on , follow new paths and  have their own families the chances of  holidays with the whole family become few and far between. We are very lucky that at or around Christmas time we still manage to get together and we always have a great time.








This month we have had an amazing  bonus holiday as my son reached the grand old age of 40 (surely not!) and his partner arranged a birthday surprise for him to visit  his top of "bucket list" destination Iceland. To add to the surprise she had not told him in advance and had also not mentioned that our daughter and partner and we two would be arriving in Reykavik for the week as well.

We had a fabulous few days staying in an apartment and driving around exploring in van big enough to hold us all. It was quite a challenge at times finding food and entertainment to please everyone from the teens to fogies but we had a ball and have some great memories to look back on. Iceland was certainly different from anywhere we have been before and not somewhere we would have gone on our own. I would not have dreamt of going snowbiling on a glacier either!

Living abroad for us has only one downside and that is being a long way from our children, however we do see them at least as often as we did when we were all on the same side of the channel and when we do get together we always make the most of the time , much more so than when we grabbed a quick weekend at the end of a working week.



So thank you to my lovely daughter in law for making this possible and including us all in her surprise and thank you to all the rest of the family for being there and being wonderful!

farewell Pavillon - thanks for all the memories

It's done - today we went to Toulouse to sign the final acte de vente and hand over the keys - indeed a bittersweet day as we have been trying to sell for several years but Pavillon has been beloved part of of our French adventure and we will miss having it as part of our lives. It has not been without it's "issues" but despite floodings and robberies we will always look back on our holidays there with great fondness. Without Pavillon and those holidays I doubt we would have ever taken the plunge and moved here permanently .

We are so pleased that the buyers are a lovely couple with two young children who live in an apartment in Toulouse seeking a place in the countryside to escape to at weekends and holidays.  They have plans but not unrealistic expectations and we hope they will get as much pleasure from the place as we did - it will perfect for them. We wish them many years of happy memory building.

Good to think Trevor won't have that grass to cut now too!