To say we are absolutely delighted to finally be back in France after two and a half years, due to Covid and the resulting restrictions and border closures, is an understatement. We love France and we love our little house, and have missed being able to travel.
Normally someone who plans months in advance, this trip was thrown together quite quickly, once we realized that a window of opportunity had presented itself. In some respects it was a bit daunting, due the resulting extra level of requirements necessary, when travelling during a pandemic. But, once our decision was made, I researched thoroughly, to make sure we had everything we needed to a) depart Australia and b) enter France. And I made sure we had it in triplicate!

Our flight with Singapore Airlines was unavoidably long, as all flights from Australia are, but comfortable. I even slept for about 6 or 7 hours, which for me, was a miracle. Turns out, Melatonin tablets, pain medication for sciatica, plus tiredness, is a winning combination, so I arrived in Paris feeling quite bright and sparky, albeit still with a very sore hip. We were welcomed by ’La tempête du Diable’, with freezing temperatures, rain and gale force winds of up to 100klms/hour. Thankfully, as I could not contemplate having to immediately jump onto a train, after nearly 30 hours in transit, we’d planned to overnight in Paris, before taking a train the following day. It was a good decision as, rather than having to battle both our luggage and the weather on train platforms and stations, after a quick walk around town (Spring flowers EVERYWHERE!) we settled into our warm and very comfortable hotel. A long, hot bath, dinner and a great nights sleep, while the weather raged outside, was just what we both needed. Jetlag, however, had other plans for us, so we were awake talking, reading, or both at 2am, 3am and 5am. Grrr!! Thankfully I had booked our train for 11am, so we were able to take our time getting ready, in between yawns..

We are very familiar with travelling by TGV in France now. They are fast, comfortable and so, so quiet. The weather had improved only very slightly overnight but, in any case, once we were on our train, we were unaffected by the extreme conditions. The warm carriage and rocking of the train, made it easy to contemplate nodding off, but we were excited, so just sat back and enjoyed the fact that we were on the last leg of what had been such a long awaited return. It was a fantastic feeling. Our friends picked us up from the Gare de Poitiers. It’s normally only a 45 minute drive to our little town, but this trip was somewhat different. While the rain had finally stopped, the wind was still causing havoc, and 20 minutes in, we rounded a corner and came to an abrupt halt. A huge tree had fallen across the road. What to do? Pas de problème, Monsieur Travailleur had arrived just before we did and, very conveniently, had a chainsaw in his van. Jeff hopped out to help, as did 2 other Monsieur’s and the tree was disposed of within a few, short minutes! C’est parti, we hightailed it out of there! It was a tree lined road and the remainder were all bending sideways, such was the strength of the wind. If another one fell, which looked imminent, we may not have been quite so lucky…

Unlocking the door to our maison secondaire, was wonderful. Our home had been well cared for in our absence, the heating and the refrigerator had been turned on, along with the hot water. Our lovely friend, Pat, had bought us some groceries, plus a beautiful bunch of yellow tulips. It was a lovely welcome home.

We awoke the next day, to blue skies and sunshine. The abysmal weather of the previous few days had entirely disappeared, so we had the perfect day to enjoy our house, and inspect our garden, wandering about with a coffee in hand. Our garden in Spring is absolutely beautiful, full of tulips, apple and pear blossom, daffodils, violets and grape hyacinths. The roses and peonies are just starting to bud, so it won’t be too long before I’ll have vases full of their blooms, as well. I had thought we might miss most of the Spring bulbs and blossom, but no, we arrived in time to enjoy it all, so I’m happy.

So, what have we been up to, since we arrived only one short week ago? We’ve been busy, that’s for sure. We’ve had coffee several times with our friends Petra and Sylviane, we’ve had drinks with Bill, Tilly, Sarah and Will, followed by more drinks with Pat, Keith and Hero. We’ve caught up with our friend, Anna. We’ve had dinner several times at their house in the past, so we’re returning the favour – she and her husband Thierry, are now coming for dinner on Sunday. We’ve refilled our pantry at our local supermarket, Leclerc, which apart from being a great supermarket, is a bit of a tourist destination for us, with so much variety of, well, everything! Our Carte de Fidélité at Leclerc had expired due to such a long period of being unused, but I’ve now renewed it, so we can ‘passons notre carte’, (swipe our card) with confidence!
We’ve picked up our hire car (the aforementioned automobile), a very comfortable and nippy, brand new Renault Captur, which has duly been christened Réne. (Réne Renault has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?)

And I’ve purchased the ‘must have’ book of each brocante to be held in our region. It should be on the best seller list, because a brocante should never be missed, a mon avis! We’re off to our first one on Saturday.

Of course, not everything has gone swimmingly, it never does. We had been sent new cards for our French bank account about 18 months ago but, of course, hadn’t yet been able to use them. On his first trip on his own to the distributeur (ATM), Jeff inadvertently typed in the incorrect code ‘et voila’, his card disappeared! Off to ‘la banque’ to talk to my new best friend, Benoît, and we now have new cards arriving next week. Fortunately, we had euros in cash, our credit card and the checkbook for our French bank account (yes, they are still very commonly used here), so we were fine, it’ll just be simpler to have a card.

Our commune produces a small magazine, which details what is happening in our area, or places to visit, supporting local business and producers. An outing to a local goat farm caught our eye, so off we went to L’Office du Tourisme, to add our names to the list. The drive to the farm was via little country lanes which were bordered by fields of rapeseed, flowering in iridescent yellow. Marie, the farm owner, and her husband, explained that they bought the property two years ago and are slowly altering it to be BIO (organic). They want to become self sufficient as well, and have done a lot planting towards that end, already. There’s more work to be done, but they are passionate about changing their lives, and that of their children, so I think they’ll do well. After the tour, we had a degustation of several cheeses, which were delicious. I bought some, of course. They’ll be the perfect addition to our dinner on Sunday…

We went to lunch today, with our friends Bruno and Petra, to a lovely riverside restaurant at Saint Martin de la Rivière. It was a glorious day, with blue skies and sunshine and our table, out on the terrace, offered us a spectacular view over the river. The food was delicious and we were in great company. What could be better? Afterwards, we took a little tour around the local area and found the tiny village of Morthémer, a little gem of a place, with it’s magnificent château and church. It took our breath away.

Bisous