Greetings from Canada

Currently sitting in my daughter's living room at silly o'clock in the morning drinking a hot lemon drink as I have managed to catch a nasty cold for Christmas. We set off for Canada via the UK last Saturday morning at 4am, worried about the snow that was forecast and how it was going to impact our journey. However we made great time through France, avoiding Paris, and took an earlier ferry across the Channel.

As we reached the English coast however we were in the thick of a snowstorm, so thick you could see the shore at all. We slid off the ferry (yep -absolutely no attempt by Seafrance to grit/clear the ramp or the route out of the port). Good god - these people are in the business of moving cars around. It was shocking. Then a knuckle clenching 5 hour trip from Dover to Gatwick. In that five hours we did not see one gritting truck, plough or policeman. Shame on those who are in charge of these things, knowing that this storm was coming no-one seemed to have made any effort to prepare. Not even hills were gritted, lorries jack knifed all over the place. Anyway we did make to the hotel with minutes to spare, just in time for the Strictly final - yes I have to admit I got totally hooked on this programme in the last few months and missing it was not an option !

We spent the entire day Sunday at Gatwick airport, i.e. 8.30am to 9.15pm, with thousands of other people on tenterhooks all day watching the departures boards as there was so little information and you really weren't certain whether anything was taking off or not. Once in the airport you didn't even know if it was still snowing outside. It wasn't! Turns out it only snowed for about two hours on Saturday lunchtime! We listened to announcements from various airlines for example Easyjet, just saying X, Y and Z flights are cancelled, will those passengers please leave the airport and re-book online! No apology - nothing. I am amazed there weren't riots!

Anyhoo finally arrived in Canada at 5am French time - picked up the rental car and made our way home and collapsed into bed. Never going to travel to Canada via UK again, too much margin for problems all around.

But we are safely here and I know many hundreds of people haven't been as lucky so we are duly grateful. It is wonderful to be with family again, Annika has grown up a lot in the past three months and we are taking every opportunity to babysit. Our daughter is loving the in-house babysitting service.

I wish everyone else a wonderful Christmas and happy and safe New Year. Back in 2011.

Winter has arrived!

A couple of pictures to tell the tale....

Yesterday we had a little dusting, but it was bright, sunny although definitely on the chilly side - that's our little house with the blue van out front

Then today the snow is really coming down, it is grey and wet out there

It is very hard to tell, but there were huge fluffy snowflakes falling when I took this. And to think I thought I had left this all behind on the other side of the Atlantic! I think it might be time to put away the sunbed........

Early Riser

I find that the older I get, the earlier I wake up. I have always been an early bird rather than a night owl but it is getting worse. Usually I am awake and up (because I cannot stay in bed!) by 6am. Here in deepest rural France it is very dark at 6am, currently I think sunrise is around 7.45am.

I was just letting the dog out and opening the shutters when I heard the 7am carillon from the church bells here in the village and it struck me that I have already done the following:

Re-set and re-lit the fire

Hung up the overnight wash (indoors as more rain/damp is forecast)

Swept through to get rid of all the firewood mess and dog hairs, a daily if not twice daily chore

Checked my emails

Made the first cup of tea of the day

Oh yes....and written this blog

Is this sad or industrious?

I mentioned in my last post I have started on the bedroom and here are some photos of my progress:

The before shot, lots of mud and dust everywhere

The during shot. I love the look of the stone in this state but due to structural, cleanliness and insulation reasons we have to point it. That will be a learning curve for us so stand by for the after photos. The brick on the chimney is not very attractive so we are going to render that to give some contrast.

The rest of my day shapes up as follows:

Shower, dress, breakfast, walk dog, post Christmas cards, drive to next village for bread, maybe pop into neighbour on way back for coffee, then back upstairs to carry on painting the bedroom.

Little by Little

I cannot believe it has been a month since I last posted! I have been keeping myself busy so I thought I would post a few pictures ...... I painted the living room before all our "stuff" arrived on 2nd November. It is a warm cream colour and just having all the walls the same colour made a big difference. Here is the before..
And after...

It is a lot nicer snuggling down here after a hard day! I have to say the black and white checkerboard tiles are getting me down though, just too busy so we are going to change them for a uniform terracotta tile. So as usual two steps forward, one back!

My next job is to do the bedroom, which needs the un-plastered chimney wall taken back to the stone for rendering and pointing. A very messy job. So I have today packed up the bedroom ready to start that, then the beams and A-frame need brushing down with a wire brush, treating against infestation and then oiling with linseed oil, before I start the marathon job of painting all the walls and varnishing/waxing the floorboards. Somehow I don't think we are going to be sleeping up there for a while but there is still a bit of a deadline as our builder is due back around Christmas to install the ensuite bathroom fittings and fixtures.

This is the bedroom before .....

Let's see how long it is before I can post the after photos.

As I mentioned all our stuff arrived safely, goodness me, two weeks ago tomorrow. We had shipped our car as well as some furniture and belongings and getting the car OFF the container was causing a bit of a headache. It had been driven on off a loading bay in Canada but no such thing exists within 20 km of our village so we had to improvise...

As always our great friends came to the rescue and we managed to borrow a low loader from the local builders' merchants and some 3 metre long ramps, those together with some planks and lots of ingenuity, the car made it safely onto French soil.

Now just the registration to get.....remember - this is a vehicle which has come from Canada and was constructed in Mexico!! Fellow importers will understand my trepidation. :)

Keep Busy!

That is going to be my mantra over the next few weeks and months while I get used to life here in rural France. As you know there is LOTS to do on the house, but just on an everyday basis, there are plenty of things to keep me busy.

My new schedule starts each day a lot later than I am used as it is so dark and quiet here! After breakfast I take the dog for a good walk, usually around 45 minutes. The first few days here the weather was gorgeous, starting a little cool but perfect for a walk (always uphill as we live in a valley) but by midday it has been in the 20's so no complaints there. Then I have to clear out the fireplace and lay the new fire, as it cools off quite a bit again in the evenings.

Then there is laundry, or cooking or gardening to do. I am trying to be disciplined about shopping, not wanting to be constantly driving back and forth to the shops, the nearest of which is a 15 minute drive away. So I stocked up well and got gas. This new lifestyle is all about downsizing and becoming more thrifty and green.

Then in the afternoons I have been attacking the very long list of jobs that need to be tackled. The first day I just cleaned the house from top to bottom in an effort to get rid of a lot of dust and cobwebs.

I have sealed the old oak floor in the kitchen, it is not staying in the long term but was in a bad state and never looked clean, it is definitely an improvement.

Yesterday I spent most of the afternoon cleaning up some of the walls in the living room, getting off some very stubborn wallpaper backing, sanding down some beams and getting them ready to paint. I can see the prep work is going to take a while but my goal is to get this one room decorated before our belongings arrive towards the end of the month.

Today I have had a lazier day, after the walk with the dog, I drove into the next town to pay some taxes, and have quick look in the local brocante, it is a great one. Whilst there I spoke to the owner about a broken finial on my lovely old bed and he thinks either will have a spare or be able to make one for me so that was a good morning.

It was very very misty this morning and only 4 degrees and it has taken until mid afternoon for the mist to burn off. It wasn't a lunch in the garden day as it has been the rest of the week.

This afternoon I got the fire going, I do seem to be using a lot of logs - even though I have the woodburner shut right down, about one an hour - can anyone tell me if this is normal? And of course a lovely conversation via skype with daughter and granddaughter (who thinks it is hilarious that Nana is in the computer).

So my next chore it to get some more logs in for the evening! Hubby will be back tomorrow and we have been invited up the road for dinner. And so goes my first week in my new life.

Fait Accompli!!

And it feels a little strange. It is hard to get over the feeling that I am not on holiday and that this is my life now.

As expected it was a very emotional few days, in fact I must admit to feeling a little panicked as the minutes ticked away. But I got my goodbyes and tears done and here I am.

The mission with the dog went a lot smoother than expected, although, as I thought, it is actually IMPOSSIBLE to move between Terminals 3 and 2 at Charles de Gaulle with more than 2 suitcases etc. as it is forbidden to take the baggage cart/trolley/chariot from one terminal to another!! I thought these items were for the convenience of the passengers - apparently not. So I did have to wait for my son in the station between the two terminals so we could take everything off the cart and carry it down in the elevator and get the shuttle train. This was the biggest hurdle in the whole proceedings and why I could not possibly have done it alone. There doesn't appear to be such a thing as a porter at CDG. Anyway it was done and we made it safely down to the house.

My son who works in a nightclub in London had worked til 4am and gone straight to the airport, whilst I had managed to get a little sleep on the plane, so between the two of us we almost made one functioning human being.

The drive down although long due to exhaustion was glorious due to the fabulous weather we are experiencing here. We have had a bit of rain over the last couple of days but Saturday the temperature was in the high 20's. Perfect for lazing about which I intend to do a fair bit of over the next few days, I feel I am entitled after the last few very stressful weeks!

Our son as always is very handy and helpful and yesterday we spent a couple of hours dragging a couple of trees which had fallen over the river back on to our land by chain sawing them into more manageable size pieces. Still no good for the fire yet as very green wood, but in a year or so....

As so life in rural France begins.

The Long Goodbye!

That's how it feels. I leave the day after tomorrow. It has suddenly crept up on me. I am getting more and more emotional as I think about it. In a way I just wish it was Friday afternoon so that I can be happily ensconced in France with a glass of wine and all of "this" behind me.

I know that it great that my husband and I have this great adventure to look forward too, I know it is going to be great fun and we will get a lot of satisfaction out of it, but right this minute I am truly asking myself "why the hell am I moving to France and leaving behind my daughter, son and granddaughter?!".

Can you tell I am getting a little stressed? I am dreading the goodbyes. My daughter and I were in tears when we said goodbye when they left the house in France in the summer and I was going to be seeing them in little over a week! I just keep telling myself we will be back at Christmas (and blocking the fact that I will have to go through all over again then!).

If I am honest it is my granddaughter I am going to miss most. Watching her grow has been an absolute delight so I will treasure the close bond we have formed and will do everything in my power to ensure that bond continues in the years to come, no matter how many miles between us. Thank goodness for Skype.

Of course I will also miss my daughter but she is grown and we have been apart before, but we have become close friends over the last few years, especially since she became a wife and mother. We do spend a lot of time together so that is going to be a big wrench also.

And youngest son ....although I understand he is setting out on his new adventure an that he would have been going his own way anyway. Still it is not going to be painless.