Maya and Will earn the right to go to the playground!
- luckily washing the car is still fun to them!
Thursday, 24 May 2007
Wednesday, 23 May 2007
17 May
17th May
Thought you'd be keen to know what has been happening here this week. Well the cold windy weather is back, after a glorious weekend....have had the heater on today and we just had a tiny powercut, which caused a flury of activity as we found our torch...but lights flicked back on soon after...phew.....not so good with fuse boxes so glad it wasn't us.
The benefit of this cold snap is to see the snow capped Pyrenees in the distance...breathtaking.
Maya is loving school. I cannot believe how well she has adapted to it. She is learning new words all the time, and even Will ( just turned 2) can now count to 10 in French. We love the school and the teacher Gerone speaks English (to me) and has been very helpful. She is making some Friends and is very happy.
John has been away the last 5 days and got home yesterday, the commute to London went well and he is off again tomorrow. This probably sounds dreadful, but he has lots of blocks of leave whilst we stay here to break this up...so gives him light at the end of the tunnel.
The weekend was great apart from gorgeous weather.Friday night the church at Montlaur had the Carcassone choir, and a special guest being an opera singer from Paris Opera. It was fantastic. Didn't know if I could juggle getting there, and the Mayor had kindly invited us when bumped into him ..so really wanted to go as good PR .....anyhow Kayleanne was happy to stay at home with the kids so made the most of it, and went alone. It was magic. And great to feel part of the community.
Kayleanne and the kids and I went to the market at Lagrasse and supported the local vendors, had coffee at the restaurant,also went to 'Beverly Shorts' boutique. A very tall english woman, been here for 20+ years . Bought a fab dress from her shop which was very reasonable, she has given us some excellent retail recommendations for the region, and I am now dropping in English Vogue Magazine's, House and Garden's, and Newspapers that John brings home to her.
Sunday did the Vide Greniers...this translated is 'empty antic' and are huge garage sales that the whole village has, so evryone has a stall outside their front door. Great idea. Headed for a couple in and around Ginestas..about 45 minutes away on the Canal Du Midi. They were great fun and saw lots I wanted to purchase and pack up to take home. The prices were very good. I remained restrained. I did purchase a bedside table for the house which goes with the others here for 3 Euro...so John and I now have a place for the cup of tea...all we need now is the peace to drink it.
Whilst looking for the Vide Greniers we came across the Equestrian Centre on the outskirts of Ginestas...Kayleanne being a horserider, got me to stop and we had a look around. Very impressive establishment and the owner is an Irish woman and therefore speaks English. Anyhow, returned today after the market at Lesignan ( this was excellent) and we will be starting Maya there next week for riding lessons....if you join the 'club' ends up very reasonible at 10 euro a session...so will do this scheme starting next Wednesday. We had planned to look for this opportunity out of Windsor when we returned to the UK...didn't think we would be doing it here. I am very excited about this so hope it all works out.
I think this spot around Ginestas is lovely, especially the villages around the canal...also spotted Gliders and an airfield on the way home. Mat and Roger will be very interested in this when they visit in JUly
The drama with the car still goes on.....it began to puff a lot of smoke 2 days before I left Newcastle ( after having it serviced and all repairs made)....grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!. And hence smoked the 1400km to Montlaur.
Took it to the very friendly mechanic in Lagrasse. Monsieur Foucher has been most helpful and it seems that it is only an airfilter and pipe causing the problem. It seems that the parts may be hard to get, but we can at least drive without this...although not keen to venture too far...so Spain and the Cathar castles will have to wait. I have spoken with Madame Charlton ..and english lady from montlaur who is going to speak with Mr Foucher and help us communicate. John could possibly pick up a part from London...we'll see....fingers crossed.
All in all we are very happy. We have had very good experiences with the French ..so far as French telecom, the post office, the mechanic etc,, and have all to be very helpful.
The house is fine...no problems.
John flies back to London this afternoon so we will all head to Carcassone airport.....It is a public holiday today (don't know why)..may check out some of the shops by the airport, as they have some strip malls out that way and a luch at MacDonalds for the kids...he will be away for another 5 days. Kayleanne and I are hoping for the fine weather to return.
The beautiful town Lagrasse down the road ( one of Frances prettiest villages) has flamenco at the Abbey this Saturday night which we would love to go to, if we can juggle things.
There is also a Canadian woman who lives in the next village...she is a real-estate agent and runs a local chat site and exchange service for books DVD's etc for english speakers in the area ...really keen to met with her ....our plans for the next few months are slowly evolving.....................
The benefit of this cold snap is to see the snow capped Pyrenees in the distance...breathtaking.
Maya is loving school. I cannot believe how well she has adapted to it. She is learning new words all the time, and even Will ( just turned 2) can now count to 10 in French. We love the school and the teacher Gerone speaks English (to me) and has been very helpful. She is making some Friends and is very happy.
John has been away the last 5 days and got home yesterday, the commute to London went well and he is off again tomorrow. This probably sounds dreadful, but he has lots of blocks of leave whilst we stay here to break this up...so gives him light at the end of the tunnel.
The weekend was great apart from gorgeous weather.Friday night the church at Montlaur had the Carcassone choir, and a special guest being an opera singer from Paris Opera. It was fantastic. Didn't know if I could juggle getting there, and the Mayor had kindly invited us when bumped into him ..so really wanted to go as good PR .....anyhow Kayleanne was happy to stay at home with the kids so made the most of it, and went alone. It was magic. And great to feel part of the community.
Kayleanne and the kids and I went to the market at Lagrasse and supported the local vendors, had coffee at the restaurant,also went to 'Beverly Shorts' boutique. A very tall english woman, been here for 20+ years . Bought a fab dress from her shop which was very reasonable, she has given us some excellent retail recommendations for the region, and I am now dropping in English Vogue Magazine's, House and Garden's, and Newspapers that John brings home to her.
Sunday did the Vide Greniers...this translated is 'empty antic' and are huge garage sales that the whole village has, so evryone has a stall outside their front door. Great idea. Headed for a couple in and around Ginestas..about 45 minutes away on the Canal Du Midi. They were great fun and saw lots I wanted to purchase and pack up to take home. The prices were very good. I remained restrained. I did purchase a bedside table for the house which goes with the others here for 3 Euro...so John and I now have a place for the cup of tea...all we need now is the peace to drink it.
Whilst looking for the Vide Greniers we came across the Equestrian Centre on the outskirts of Ginestas...Kayleanne being a horserider, got me to stop and we had a look around. Very impressive establishment and the owner is an Irish woman and therefore speaks English. Anyhow, returned today after the market at Lesignan ( this was excellent) and we will be starting Maya there next week for riding lessons....if you join the 'club' ends up very reasonible at 10 euro a session...so will do this scheme starting next Wednesday. We had planned to look for this opportunity out of Windsor when we returned to the UK...didn't think we would be doing it here. I am very excited about this so hope it all works out.
I think this spot around Ginestas is lovely, especially the villages around the canal...also spotted Gliders and an airfield on the way home. Mat and Roger will be very interested in this when they visit in JUly
The drama with the car still goes on.....it began to puff a lot of smoke 2 days before I left Newcastle ( after having it serviced and all repairs made)....grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!. And hence smoked the 1400km to Montlaur.
Took it to the very friendly mechanic in Lagrasse. Monsieur Foucher has been most helpful and it seems that it is only an airfilter and pipe causing the problem. It seems that the parts may be hard to get, but we can at least drive without this...although not keen to venture too far...so Spain and the Cathar castles will have to wait. I have spoken with Madame Charlton ..and english lady from montlaur who is going to speak with Mr Foucher and help us communicate. John could possibly pick up a part from London...we'll see....fingers crossed.
All in all we are very happy. We have had very good experiences with the French ..so far as French telecom, the post office, the mechanic etc,, and have all to be very helpful.
The house is fine...no problems.
John flies back to London this afternoon so we will all head to Carcassone airport.....It is a public holiday today (don't know why)..may check out some of the shops by the airport, as they have some strip malls out that way and a luch at MacDonalds for the kids...he will be away for another 5 days. Kayleanne and I are hoping for the fine weather to return.
The beautiful town Lagrasse down the road ( one of Frances prettiest villages) has flamenco at the Abbey this Saturday night which we would love to go to, if we can juggle things.
There is also a Canadian woman who lives in the next village...she is a real-estate agent and runs a local chat site and exchange service for books DVD's etc for english speakers in the area ...really keen to met with her ....our plans for the next few months are slowly evolving.....................
Wednesday, 9 May 2007
First Day of School
The big news this week was Maya's first day at school on Monday. What a sight she made heading off to an all French speaking school (as the photo shows). We were very proud of her to say the least and she had a great day. Class is from 0900-1200 then 1330-1630 Lundi - Vendredi (L'ecole est fermez Mercredi!) - that's my way of saying that school is closed on Wednesday. Send all corrections to..........
The village of Montlaur is the other beautiful photo above.
Settling into village life now with John having had a weeks leave.
Unfortunately the good weather has also been on leave with temperatures 'plummeting' to the early teens!
Thankfully after 8 days it is finally back into the 20's - just in time to go back to work!
Kayleanne has arrived into the chaos that is the Flett household and has already had a close encounter with a scorpion.
We have also come across some of the other local wildlife (cover your eyes now nana Wyn)- snakes! The first one was flat on the road - the second was disturbed on the local playing field whilst playing ball with the dog. Thankfully it was more scared of us than we were of it (though that is debatable).
In other exciting news....
The van is close to being fume-free thanks to a local mechanic - 14 km away - in one of 'the Ten Most Beautiful Villages in France (TM)' , LaGrasse. Denise got to put her French into practice and did very well. Gotta say there are worse places to have to wait for your car to be fixed - especially with a medieval city and abbey to peruse.
Au revoir!
Thursday, 3 May 2007
Back Online
Few Extra Photos -
Including Our Big Two Year Old Enjoying His
Birthday Cake and one of his presents!
Oh and a couple of Kiwi visitors from the last week!
More news - and visitors - to follow...
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)