Getting back to normal…….
Our boxes from Australia arrived last week (a little
earlier than expected) as did our dining chairs, so there is now less of a
feeling of “camping out”. For those who have asked to see what the house looks
like now we have some furniture, here is the living room at the back
overlooking the garden. The rest of the house is still building.
Shipping through the UK is good from an administrative point of view, but will add to the time for delivery of your goods. It remains an important consideration depending on what you wish to take with you.
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| still living out of boxes ! |
One more thing to tick
off the “to do” list….........Le Tour
On Sunday we decided to drive
down to Bagnères de-Bigorre at the base of the Pyrenees to see the finish of
stage 9 of Le Tour. After a 3 hour drive and a long walk from the carpark we
found a good spot to wait along the main street and in the shade of a house.
Despite it being 30 deg we appeared to be the only people wearing sunhats - Europeans
don’t seem to understand about skin cancer. The “caravan” of sponsors took
about 50 minutes to roll past and a bevy of attractive girls (Graham noticed)
threw promotional give-aways at us. At least it was entertainment and added to
the carnival atmosphere with lots of loud music and cheering from the crowds.
Exciting to finally see the riders streak past us so fast that it was difficult
to identify anyone and had to watch the reply at home to find out who won!
Great fun and hope the route brings them closer to us next year so we can do it
again.
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| The Pyrenees in the background are snowcapped |
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| Yes, we were there |
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| a bit fuzzy but GO CADEL |
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| Le Tour loot |
The local community…………..
What do you do when you want to become part of the
community?
On Friday night the town held un repas (a community dinner) on the
bridge outside our house (see our photos below). The local mairie (town hall )
closed the approaches and set up trestle tables and everyone brought their own
food and drink. Lots of loud music, a local Spanish dance group and then a line
dancing group performed, then the local French couples got up and
danced after dinner (the english and australians not really into this). In
order to get to know your local community and also to become part of it, it is
wise to take part in these types of events. A beautiful evening as the sun set
at about 10.00 pm and there was a cooling breeze blowing down the river. We sat
between an older French couple whose accent was extremely heavy and we couldn't understand though they were friendly and we all shared our wine, and a family
on holiday from Taiwan. You never know who you will meet here. All in all
another interesting experience on the night.
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| The Dordogne River from our bridge |
In order to also fit into the community, Graham
went down to the local bar on the corner to watch the rugby on Saturday. Fortunately
they run the rugby on TV and serve a half decent beer. He was not happy about
the result but it was good to know that he can watch with the local boys.
à bientôt
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