A visit to the lavender fields

When Dean and Kathy arrived Dean told us that he had a wonderful painting from Provence hanging in his office. It is of lavender fields and is called 'The road to Sault'. I told him that Sault is a small town less than an hours drive north of us, we had been planning to visit sometime, and so we set off this afternoon to see if we could see the setting for the painting. We knew that the lavender would not be exactly blooming but we thought it might be lovely anyway.

The best french lavender grows in the hills so our drive took us up to about 3500 feet where there are acres of lavender. There was only one problem as you can see from the photo... the lavender was covered with snow, in some places perhaps as much as a couple of feet! If you looked carefully, you could see patterns in the snow to indicate the presence of rows of lavender but it was not quite the same as Dean's painting! He took some photos to send to the artist and we had a lot of fun imagining what it might be like in the height of the summer. We had to be content instead to sniff the sachets and look at the postcards in the little town of Sault instead. The town itself was delightful and we were not sorry for the drive but we all want to come back one day to see the place alive with colour, instead of today's black and white version.

An "unusual" winter

Well this morning we woke to a very unwelcome sight - snow! It is not a lot of consolation to hear the locals tell us that this is very unusual, I guess the winter is "unusual" everywhere and we would still rather be here for now than anywhere else. So the big hike that we had planned was off and we put the coffee pot on for a second round and we did what we had to do... play scrabble! The snow was gone by early afternoon and it is only on our hill and not in the valley but still we would prefer not to see it again.

We have just got in from chopping wood "Canadian style" for our neighbour Marie-Johanna. We don't have much in the way of appropriate tools for many things and although we bought a big axe, the pieces are so large that the axe is inadequate on its own. So Gord devised a system whereby I held the axe on the wood while he hit it hard with a heavy log. (His invention of a splitter and sledgehammer.) Gord certainly got a workout, I was grateful to escape with all my fingers and MJ got her wood cut so it was a success all round.

While chopping we met another neighbour. His name is Jean-Marc and he has lived in a shack in the woods near the mill for the past eight years with a menagerie of cats and a dog. He told us that he is a "Mountain Mystic Man", but MJ tells us that he was homeless on the streets of Paris for many years and that he says coming here saved his life. We have seen him around the village a lot with his little black and white dog, Movie, and it is nice to now be able to call him by name. He is always talking, (quite unusual for a mystic I think) either to the workers in the village but more often just to himself. I am not sure how he survives but at the end of wood-chopping he came by and offered Gord a beer from the six pack that he had just picked up so he obviously has a kind and generous heart, although he looked extremely relieved when Gord declined his offer.

We are piecing together more about life here as we get to know each new person. We are learning a lot about the history of the area and the character of the people from this part of France, which we will tell you about another time. Now I have to go get ready for our next guests, Dean and Kathy Taylor from California. I hope they don't freeze!

Beware!

Today for our daily walk we left home and took a different route and came across some lovely country homes and beautiful views across the valley. The day was sunny but cool but as there was no wind it was very pleasant. We did a loop and were back at the edge of the village sooner than we expected so we set off again. We were in an adventurous mood and as the first part of the walk had turned out so well we decided to leave the road and forge a new path. We figured that the land was probably private but as we had no evil intentions, we saw no harm in crossing it. We had not gone very far when we saw a charming little house with a large notice on one shutter. Gord went over to read the sign and was about three feet away when he called out what he saw but although we recognized "danger" we had no idea what the other word meant. We continued on our way and were surprised to come across a couple of hunting 'blinds' - small huts that are camouflaged so that big tough men can surprise little unsuspecting creatures (sorry Peter!!). We talked loudly between ourselves and I was glad to be wearing my bright green jacket but as we were walking on a Tuesday, not on Sunday, the day reserved for the trigger-happy hunters, we thought that we would be okay.

As soon as we got safely home we pulled out the dictionary to see what it was that we were supposed to be wary of only to discover that the sign that we had seen at the start of our cross-country exploration had said "Danger! Traps!".

Our French Angel

(Our French "angel" who didn't want her picture taken!)

A couple of years ago Steve was having a hard time at work and we prayed that God would help him to cope. At the end of the day he came home and told us of a very encouraging visit that he had had from a college friend. "Steve", I said, "she was your angel that God sent to encourage you." He laughed and said, "Who would have ever thought that Brit would turn out to be an angel!"

Well, we just had coffee with our french angel and who would have ever thought that it would be Marie-Johanna from down the road, the lively french character that I have described in this blog. She heard about our troubles with the government and read through the paperwork and has just now left to write a letter to them on our behalf. She is obviously a very bright woman who taught political science and has studied law and is so frustrated with the legislation in this country that she is delighted to be able to help us. She told us a little of her life and her struggles and, as we suspected, she really has a heart of gold. She is totally unorthodox but she does make us smile! I only hope her letter contains less colorful language than she used at our kitchen table! She is returning tonight with the letter that we will send off by registered mail in the morning and then will phone the office to tell them not to expect us at the appointment. We are so very grateful for her warmth and her help, even if she could not drink more than half a cup of my "*&%*$#@" coffee!

As to the other matter of the house, we are at peace about this too. Gord had a really good talk with the tenant who has been put in an intolerable situation with his company and I do believe that we will have a solution there very soon. It looks like they will be leaving at the end of this week but we are grateful to have Steve and Billy living in the basement and we will take this one step at a time. We feel absolutely no need to return home before the middle of May as we can leave the house in their capable hands.

Our friends left yesterday and we have a few days on our own to get organized again before Dean and Kathy Taylor arrive on Thursday. The house is 'under construction' as we get a new roof and we need to get some plaster work done in the guest room as soon as possible so we will not be sitting around wondering what to do, but the sun is shining again so we will first take off for the hills, with a much lighter heart than we had before the visit with our 'angel'.

Difficult news

Interesting timing! In the last blog I wrote that we really feel like we are settling in and this week we got thrown a couple of curve balls. We got a letter from the French government asking for a lot more money and requirements in order to be able to stay. This is totally out of the blue as the consulate in Vancouver had told us that we had satisfied all the requirements necessary for our stay. The same day we got an email from the people renting our house in Vancouver to say that they needed to break the lease and return immediately to Ontario. Both were a bit of a blow but we will deal with them. We will let you know how it works out!

In the meantime we are having a great time with Gord and Penny Cooling from Vancouver. Except for one day this week, the weather has been glorious, cool but with dazzlingly blue skies.

We have visited medieval villages, castles and markets, hiked in the woods, had picnics, sat in little cafes, and explored new places together. We have tried to give them a true provencal experience, and the more we show others around, the more we fall in love with this place.

Settling in

We came home from Portugal to both cold and warmth. We found out that while we had been away there had been a lot of snow in our village with icicles almost a metre long. We were left with a residue of snow (and a very cold house) but the worst of it was definitely over for which we were very thankful. I hear it has been the coldest winter in England for fifty years so I suppose some of that has to spill over to us but, once again, we have been very fortunate to have been in Portugal at just the right time.

The warmth was the welcome from our neighbours! We had a lovely note in our maibox from the two Australians we had met just prior to leaving who have now "commuted" back to jobs down under, and all three of the people on our street that we know stopped to check on us, MJ even going so far as to knock on our door to enquire about our trip - the first time anyone (friendly!!) has knocked on the door. We have also met a scot who has lived in the village forever but, like another Glaswegian, my Mum, he will never lose his accent! He was helping us with an internet problem that we had and I was so thrilled to speak in English to someone who had the potential to help us with a difficult problem that I hugged him on the spot - he certainly didn't seem to mind! Gord and I feel that we are just beginning to get to know people here and it feels really good, perhaps we had better stay for a couple more years!

We are having a good time with our friends Gord and Penny Cooling, another recently retired pilot and his wife. It is fun to be able to show friends around to the special places that we have found over the past few months. The difficulty is in fitting in all that we want to see and eating all the traditional provencal meals that I have planned. I want to give them a 'taste' of this wonderful place to see what we have come to love. Yesterday we took them on a hike up in the hills to a walk we have found. Unfortunately part of it was a real mud bath as a large pack of dogs must have gone through there on a hunt. By the look of the path we were really grateful that we had not run into them going the other way! It has been a little cool but we have had glorious sunshine for the past couple of days which has been lovely, and spring is around the corner.

Company's coming!

Today I finally got round to hemming some curtains for the guest room as we are about to enter a season of guests. My sewing kit consists of a pair of embroidery scissors (with which I had to cut off the bottom of the curtains) seven needles and a spool of fairly thick white thread. This was the first time that I had picked up a needle in several months and it did feel good, even though my resources were not quite as extensive as at Taylor Made! After a long time on our own we are getting ready to have our first set of guests arrive tomorrow. We figured out that we will have been on our own for 48 days and evenings, and three meals a day. (I can hear some of you saying "How blissful!" and others saying "Aaaghhh!").We have had no one to talk to for more than a few minutes but each other, except on the telephone which has been a lifesaver. We have not read a newspaper, listened to the CBC (or in fact any radio that we can understand - Gord thought he heard them say "with" the other day, but he is not sure) not watched TV but for 10 minutes of Who Wants to be a Millionaire in French. We have loved the peace and the solitude, the discovery of new daily rituals, but mostly we have enjoyed being reminded that we still love just being together after almost 29 years of marriage. We have grown closer together as we have walked through this experience. We have loved our quietness, both the expected and the unexpected, but we are ready for company. We are anticipating about seven sets of guests who will all spend about a week with us and lest any of you who are coming rush out to cancel your flights, know that we are so looking forward to spending time with each of you. We feel very blessed to have dear friends that are willing to fly half way around the world to be with us and we are looking forward to sharing our little corner of heaven with you. So, the curtains are hung, the food is bought, the firewood is stocked, the place is tidy and clean (at least for five minutes - I have never seen dust manufacture itself so quickly!) the sheets are washed and the beds are made, the hot water bottles are ready for you brave souls who are coming soon. We can't wait to see you!

Leaving Portugal

We got back tonight from our wonderful trip to Portugal. We loved the warmth of the people, the honest simplicity of the food (the BEST sea bass we have ever had) the beautiful beaches and the refreshingly low prices on accommodation etc. However, with the low prices also comes the reality that this is really a poor country. We were saddened to see how hard the people had to work to make a living. Our waiter one day told us that he worked from 6:00 am to 8:00 pm every day and that this is not uncommon. The paid highways are in beautiful shape but the back roads are not. We were amazed that many roads in the country, even in the big cities are not even paved but made by laying rocks down close together. It was sad to see that their national monuments were in such poor shape and the whole place really needs a good scrub. It constantly surprises us to learn that although these European countries are so close together they each have such a uniquely distinct personality, with very distinct regions, each with their own customs and foods. We are so used to getting whatever we want anywhere in Canada but here a pastry might be not just special in a region but only made in a particular town! It makes us appreciate the moment and if we like the look of something, try it now because it might not be available in the next place.

We spent our last night back in Nazare, a fishing town right on the coast that we had enjoyed on our way south to Lisbon, and it was probably our favourite place. It was wet and windy when we arrived but by the time we were to leave in the morning it was sunny and beautiful and we were loathe to go. The beach is gorgeous and looked so inviting for a long stroll. The breakers were wonderful and the colour of sand, sea and sky will leave a lovely picture in our minds for years to come.

Portugese women

We stayed two nights in a delightful fishing town called Nazare in about the middle of the coast. The Portugese women are one of the delightful aspects of this town. The traditional outfit for women of Nazare (and they ALL seem to be following the tradition) is a short full skirt with seven petticoats, black stockings or wild knee socks, or both, an embroidered apron, (every women in Portugal wears an apron ALL the time! I wonder what they are keeping themselves clean for???) a shawl and a headscarf over hair that it in a bun. The rational for all the layers was that they were to keep them warm while they waited for their husbands, the fishermen to return from the sea. I think they would have been a lot warmer in longer skirts but then no one asked me. There is no attempt at color coordination, anything goes. The only exception is for the widows who wear black for the rest of their lives after the loss of their husbands. It is not uncommon to see a whole line of laundry that is all black. Speaking of laundry, it is everywhere! It hangs from every window, on fences, bushes even on a castle wall. We even passed one little street where the women each had a washtub outside their doors. These are hard working women! They work all day while waiting for their husbands to come home from fishing, then they clean, dry and sell the fish while the men stand around gossiping and wait for their next chance to escape back to the sea.

"A widow will remarry"

We feel very fortunate to be in Portugal this week as most of Europe is in a big freeze. Our little village in France is cold and icy while here we have mostly been blessed with blue skies. We woke up on our first morning in Nazare with wild winds, much stronger than any we have seen in our supposedly windy Provence. The weather has been unseasonably cold here but still it is around 10 - 12 degrees which is a lot more pleasant than elsewhere. This morning we are staying in Cascais, near Lisbon, and it is wild and rainy and we are having a lazy morning waiting for the weather to clear a bit before we venture into Lisbon. We have seen a little rain, often accompanied by sunshine which causes the Portugese to say "a widow will remarry". I like that! Life is usually a bit of a mixture of the rain and the sun, I just choose to see the sun most of the time!

PS The wind died down and so we went into Lisbon on the train later in the morning. We were amused to see literally dozens of carcasses of abandoned umbrellas. The wind had been so wild in the morning that one or two of the umbrellas had even blown into garbage cans! The rain had not let up however, so after several hours of tramping our way up and down hills to visit the various historic districts, when the amount of water in our shoes equalled the amount that was coursing down the gutters we gave up on Lisbon and headed back to our base in Cascais. Lisbon is an interesting city, geographically it is a little like San Fransisco, complete with cable cars, but as it was too wet to even pull out the camera, it will have to remain a soggy image-less memory.

Hardly Venice and Oxford!

Today we had another glorious day and we explored two towns south of Porto. First, Aveiro, which you can see in the picture with the odd shaped boats called mollceiros. These flat bottomed boats are used to collect seaweed which is used as fertilizer for the area. This interesting little town sits on the edge of the Atlantic in a giant (68 square kilometer) salt pan. It is called the 'Venice of Portugal', because there are several canals running through the town, because of the shape of the mollceiros and because of its similar battle against the prevailing ocean. But while it is very pretty, with lovely little art nouveau style houses, it is hardly Venice.

The second town we visited was Coimbra, which proudly describes itself as the 'Oxford of Portugal'. It is another little town that sits on the top of a very steep hill. Again there was a funicular running to the top but we wanted the exercise. By the time we made it to the top through very steep narrow winding streets we figured that the only thing they probably studied was mountain climbing! The university was founded in 1290, making it one of the oldest in the world. The town was the birthplace of six of the kings of Portugal and for a while it was even the capital city. It has many fine buildings and a lot of the same traditions and history, and it is lovely, but not quite Oxford.

Tonight we are staying right on the ocean in a little fishing town called Nazare. We have a lovely little hotel with a balcony from our room which looks out to the sea and tomorrow we will explore more of the coast.

"Bom dia" from Portugal

We arrived in Porto, Portugal last night and will spend a week touring the country. We started off here in Portugal's second largest city, named after the delicious port wine. Porto is a city that sits on the edge of the Douro river just a few miles upstream from the Atlantic in the northern part of the country. We had a glorious day for our walking tour of the city, crisp and cool but with lovely blue skies. The old part of the city which is pictured here is just charming. The city as you can see is on the side of a steep hill, actually the whole area is a series of steep hills so we got our daily exercise today. We took time to go round a couple of very interesting museums as well as enjoying the lovely architecture of the city and the picturesque little houses. The taxes were based on frontage so the houses are all very skinny and tall. The colours on the outside of the houses comes not from paint but tiles, they are mostly all tiles on the outside! You can see the designs painted on the tiles of this lovely little shop. We are staying across the river in a house with wonderful views across the river. We have been so impressed with the country so far; the people are so friendly and helpful, the place is clean and organized and the prices are delightful! We had a wonderful lunch today that, including coffee, came to less than nine euros. We met a man who not only told us the direction we were looking for but actually walked about five blocks with us to be sure that we found it. Portugal sees less tourists than most of Europe and most of those coming to the country stay in the south in Algarve or Lisbon so the people farther north are very happy to see foreigners. The only real problem is the language... we are so confused! I try to talk to them in French and Gord keeps lapsing into Spanish. It is a good thing that most of them know a little English and are eager to practice on the ignorant Canadians. Tomorrow we will head south and are not sure how far we will get, we have the next night booked and then we will just see what we feel like, but we will let you know!

Neighbours

Last Sunday we were introduced to a couple of our neighbours by the one lady that we have chatted with, Marie-Johanna. We met Stephan, a maintenance man/sculptor and his partner Marie a gardener and went in three cars with them to a vineyard to pick up the some old vines to burn in the fireplace. It was a very muddy job but it was such fun to actually meet some locals. It was hard to chat with Stephan and Marie because every time I asked a question in French, they answered in English so it didn't take us long to get through the basics and just ended up smiling a lot as we passed each other with armfuls of muddy vines. I think I have told you about the colourful lady Marie Johanna, who calls herself 'Marijuana'. We thought that her nickname was very appropriate as there was often a strong aroma from her house and also from Stephan and Marie's. When we brought the vines home and tried to burn them in our fireplace, we realised that in fact it was the burning vines that were giving off the smell. (That's our story and we are sticking to it!) M-J has a little English which is liberally sprinkled with expletives and an amazing array of made up sounds. I cannot even begin to put them on paper but she uses these sounds while speaking both English and French, but given the words we can understand, perhaps it is a blessing that she uses these odd sounds instead! She told me that she does not like the word Lydele as it is too hard to say so she announced that she will call me "Lili". Imagine after all these years of having an odd name like Lydele that I always thought was french-sounding now I find out that it is totally unaccepted over here. What a waste! She calls Gord, "Gaeton" which is a common French name and far more understandable. M-J has a menagerie of cats and a black dog called "Bijou" (meaning jewel), at least that's the only name that she calls him that is fit to print. She dresses in a style all her own, topped off with a large red blanket that she wraps all around herself and she enjoys smoking cigars and loves her whiskey. She is great; a little wild, very cheeky but she obviously has a kind heart underneath it all.

We have also just met a couple of very friendly guys who live in Sydney Australia but have had a house in the village for the past 16 years and come here for 6 weeks every Christmas, but only then. What a long way for a summer cottage! We really enjoyed chatting with them and it was such a treat to have a conversation in English and we are so sorry only to have met them at the end of their stay. The Aussies filled us in on another lady who owns four houses just up behind us, named Marie-Pierre Champagne. She is a most elegant woman with homes in London, Paris and Goult and on the surface she seems really friendly, but we have learnt that there is another side. One of her ex-husbands was Princess Diana's step-father and this is a woman who gets what she wants and if she does not like something she goes straight to the mayor to complain. We made the mistake of parking in front of her house a couple of times and I guess we got off lightly because she only emailed our landlady to complain instead of sending out the entire civic department of Goult (both of them) to challenge us in person.

We would love to know more of our neighbours but I think it would take a lot longer than seven months, and an awful lot more French to get there. This is a real village, full of hardworking folk, (the grocery store and the bakery were even open on Christmas morning) I think they have little energy or inclination to visit with the foreigners but we will do what we can, one neighbour at a time.

Gallette des Rois

As you will have observed, I am very anxious to embrace this Provencal lifestyle fully and to savour every experience that we can while we are staying here. That means that I am more than anxious to participate in any celebration that comes along. There is one interesting tradition that I would like to describe to you now. To celebrate Epiphany on January 6th, the coming of the Three Kings to see Jesus, you will find 'gallette du rois' in every patissiere window. These are cakes, made with layers of flaky pastry, and filled with an almond fragipane filling. With each cake comes a paper crown (explanation following!) There is also a hidden 'fevre', in each cake, a small china ornament. The tradition is that the cake is to be cut into as many portions as there are guests and the person who finds the fevre in their cake is king for the day, gets to wear the crown but has to pay for the party the following year. In order that there is no cheating, as it is sometimes possible to see the fevre when the cake is cut (and this is where it gets weird), the youngest guest is to sit under the table and declare who is to receive each piece as it is cut. Apparently, this is a widely accepted custom! All over France on, or near, January 6th, from schools to offices to homes, you could walk in at any given moment and find someone sitting under the table as the dessert is served.

Unfortunately for Gord and I, we had no guests tonight, but we did not want to miss out on the celebration. We had our gallette du rois and, even though I am far younger, Gord kindly did not make me sit under the table. We also risked the ire of the traditionalists as we couldn't possibly eat the whole cake in two servings, even though it was really delicious (which is why we started a couple of days early). Appropriately enough, Gord found the fevre, wore the king's crown, and he is now the possessor of a small china cow, a priceless memento. He is not only willing to pay for the cake next year, he also paid for it this year too. Now if only he knew that he has to bring me back to France next year to pick up the cake!!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to all our dear family and friends. We can hardly believe that this new year finds us on a long stay in France. We still feel as though we are at a veritable buffet feast of places to explore and new sights and tastes to discover. We are having such a wonder-full time.

We have just got back from our trip to the Rhone Valley. After our visit to Lyon, that I described in the last blog, we spent the next day driving around the countryside north and west of the city, to the Beaujolais region. This is an area of rolling hills, covered, of course, in vineyards, and marvelous grand chateaux and pretty villages. It is a beautiful part of France but one that deserves a second look when the warmer weather arrives. We kept saying "oh, this would be lovely in the spring!" Unlike our part of the country where the lifeless vines are interspersed with vivid green fields, the Beaujolais region is all vines and so it was not looking its best at this time of year. Nevertheless, we had a great time and checked in to our little. most anticipated country inn for dinner and the night. The place was charming, set in a little village made famous by Gabriel Chevalier's novel Clochamelle. There was good news and bad news upon arrival, we had made reservations for dinner but our hostess had called us to tell us that the restaurant would be closed that night, but not until after we had left for Lyon. The good news was that had we been there in time for lunch, we could have enjoyed the set meal for 80 euros a head (about $130 each)! She found us another charming restaurant in a wonderful hotel on the river about fifteen minutes away and we had a fabulous four course meal with a lot of extras for a much more reasonable figure. We had forgotten our dictionary back at the hotel room, a very serious mistake! We had to ask for a translation and fortunately they had a menu in English so we could avoid the frog's legs that were served four different ways! We ended up with a very special New Year's dinner indeed.