Elsien's Traveblogue

Saturday 12^th November 2011

In progress … just about everything! Still no washing machine as we still have no French bank account; the car is still Belgian, so we have to leave it parked round the back – we can have cheap residents' parking but only once we are proper residents with a French-registered car …

However, the electrician is here and is fixing all the dodgy cables, light fittings and sockets, has mounted ceiling lights, so we can switch on when we come in in the dark. We've now got a tremendous chandelier in the living room, to go with the amazing dining table, six chairs and big buffet. Just need a butler now. I'll have to go to Brussels next week, so no more progress then.

It's a little lonely here on my own, with only my e-students, telephone and email for company. I'm really pleased the phone and Internet work now though. I talk to shopkeepers and neighbours, and yesterday and today the electrician, but he is no great conversationalist. Great exchange with a typical (?) Frenchman in the local shop this morning. He was in a wheelchair and asked me to get three bottles of wine for him off the bottom shelf – 1.37€ each! Got myself one to cook Boeuf Bourguignon with! Yes, he said, he liked to sit and have a glass of wine and a nibble of cheese in the evenings. On checking out I noticed he had got a bottle of cheap Pernod as well … Didn't see any trace of cheese.

Food here is superb. I go to the covered market off the main street where they have splendid fresh fruit and vegetables, fantastic fish, nuts and dried fruit and pretty plants and flowers. I love the way French food is still quite local and seasonal, like cooking plums, celeriac, pears, lots of pumpkin and other squashes, mushrooms, asparagus and artichokes, although there are more and more imported things in the market.

posted by Elsien Gale  # 4:44 AM