This morning got off to a damp, grey start and it’s not best warm. Listening to Michael Ball’s radio 2 programme online, we hear the sun’s cracking the flags in Yorkshire. DOH! Still, sunshine is not the be all and end all. S’funny though. Most of you probably know that we loved living in Reeth, the community and the people. It was the weather, the long winters, the wind and the stuff going on in the country in general that made moving to foreign shores more appealing. Now we’ve been in France a while and still very much in love with the country, we’ve been looking at little houses and ‘fermettes’. Just to see what’s available, of course! J Thing is, once upon a time we despaired that we would find the sense of community and belonging in the UK that we’d had even in the brief time we worked in France. Now, we find ourselves comparing the places we look at to Reeth only to find that, so far, whilst some come close most just don’t match up. Interesting huh? If home is a place on Earth, then at this time, Reeth is still it. If it’s where the heart is, that’s here sat in Floozie2. We love this lifestyle and our mobile home. And the best part of it is that we can go where we want, so we could quite easily spend the summers in Reeth and the winters somewhere warm and dry! Or move Reeth 2000 miles south! Not practical I suppose! Easier the first way round!
These past few days have been quiet for the most part. Amanda has spent two mornings in a doctor’s waiting room. The chest infection just wasn’t shifting and there were complications due to the heavy use of antibiotics. She’s had a blood test (whooping cough) and is going for an X-Ray tomorrow (pleurisy). The blood test was interesting. The doctor gave Amanda a number to ring, which she duly did. An appointment was made for a couple days ahead, and a lady came to the motorhome, took the sample and said the results will be ready in a couple of days. All this for the princely sum of €10.30! Which we will get back at some time. The medical system over here is so efficient and patient orientated. That does mean that it could be a long wait at the doctor’s because they will spend time with you. But the benefit is, you do feel that you have been thoroughly looked after. Anyway, she is improving slowly, so hopefully, after five weeks, she’s on the home stretch. It would be nice to think so. It’s knocked her totally sideways and we’ve not done as much as we hoped.
Pooch has also been on the receiving end of the French medical system, vet style. His usual summer malaise of very itchy skin has been very bad and he was getting miserable, so we took him yesterday. The vet was good and has given him something just to ease the itching. However, she needed a urine sample and handed us a stainless steel kidney dish with instructions to take him outside and get said sample. Well, what a performance! One of us holding the dog’s lead, one trying to place this dish under cocked legs to obtain the required liquid, without finding it halfway up our arm! We were nearly in tears laughing. Fortunately, Pooch was desperate to leave his calling card on just about everything, so the task didn’t take long!
We went to Bra
ntome, a medieval village in the Dordogne. Lovely place, great lunch and a river trip with commentary by a card of a pilot! There are photos posted on our Picassa site. Follow the link. We visited the abbey, which was disappointing for the fact that very little was left of the original building. It had been remodelled in the Victorian period and was pretty soul-less. It was also very damp as it’s built into the rocks, so smelt unpleasant and some of the walls ran with green slime. However, the abbey does have the oldest bell tower in France, dating from the C11th, so a plus point there! More at http://www.francedirect.net/brantome.php
We then went to visit a small chateau with a big history, just on the edge of the
old town. For the life in me I can’t remember the name of the place. We went in through the open gate to find an elderly French chap (the guide) and a Dutch couple with a Scots Terrier called Max. They didn’t speak French and their English wasn’t too bright. Our guide decided to do the tour in English for all our benefit. Unfortunately, he did this at the same speed he spoke his native ton
gue! He spoke very good English, it was just so difficult to keep up with him and the Dutch couple were a bit lost. I was having to translate English into English! All a bit odd. Whilst we didn’t go inside the house, we had a tour of the outside and the Troglodyte caves upon which it was built. It was a great history tour – if you could keep up!
Oh, yes, I’ve just remembered! We visited the Chateau de Brie, which is just a few miles away. It’s only open on Sunday afternoons but is a wonderful place. A really nice lad took us round, an enthusiast. Really amazing place architecturally, so I was in my element. The tour was fairly basic, so we had to probe for more detail, which the guide enjoyed. You can even stay there, if you want.
On Wednesday went to the market at Piejut-Pluviers again. Met up with Vicky and Daniel who are spending the summer in France in their camper, selling jewellery at markets to pay their way. Interestingly, Vicky has come up with a website called http://www.yourdeathwish.com/ . It is an online archive for what your wishes are in the event of you popping off, all done in a fashion that you should enjoy the process. Check it out. It’s getting quite a bit of media interest, so keep an eye open for it. We had a good, long lunch with them and hope to catch up with them in the near future.
That’s about it for this week. Cheers for now!
These past few days have been quiet for the most part. Amanda has spent two mornings in a doctor’s waiting room. The chest infection just wasn’t shifting and there were complications due to the heavy use of antibiotics. She’s had a blood test (whooping cough) and is going for an X-Ray tomorrow (pleurisy). The blood test was interesting. The doctor gave Amanda a number to ring, which she duly did. An appointment was made for a couple days ahead, and a lady came to the motorhome, took the sample and said the results will be ready in a couple of days. All this for the princely sum of €10.30! Which we will get back at some time. The medical system over here is so efficient and patient orientated. That does mean that it could be a long wait at the doctor’s because they will spend time with you. But the benefit is, you do feel that you have been thoroughly looked after. Anyway, she is improving slowly, so hopefully, after five weeks, she’s on the home stretch. It would be nice to think so. It’s knocked her totally sideways and we’ve not done as much as we hoped.
Pooch has also been on the receiving end of the French medical system, vet style. His usual summer malaise of very itchy skin has been very bad and he was getting miserable, so we took him yesterday. The vet was good and has given him something just to ease the itching. However, she needed a urine sample and handed us a stainless steel kidney dish with instructions to take him outside and get said sample. Well, what a performance! One of us holding the dog’s lead, one trying to place this dish under cocked legs to obtain the required liquid, without finding it halfway up our arm! We were nearly in tears laughing. Fortunately, Pooch was desperate to leave his calling card on just about everything, so the task didn’t take long!
We went to Bra
ntome, a medieval village in the Dordogne. Lovely place, great lunch and a river trip with commentary by a card of a pilot! There are photos posted on our Picassa site. Follow the link. We visited the abbey, which was disappointing for the fact that very little was left of the original building. It had been remodelled in the Victorian period and was pretty soul-less. It was also very damp as it’s built into the rocks, so smelt unpleasant and some of the walls ran with green slime. However, the abbey does have the oldest bell tower in France, dating from the C11th, so a plus point there! More at http://www.francedirect.net/brantome.phpWe then went to visit a small chateau with a big history, just on the edge of the
old town. For the life in me I can’t remember the name of the place. We went in through the open gate to find an elderly French chap (the guide) and a Dutch couple with a Scots Terrier called Max. They didn’t speak French and their English wasn’t too bright. Our guide decided to do the tour in English for all our benefit. Unfortunately, he did this at the same speed he spoke his native ton
gue! He spoke very good English, it was just so difficult to keep up with him and the Dutch couple were a bit lost. I was having to translate English into English! All a bit odd. Whilst we didn’t go inside the house, we had a tour of the outside and the Troglodyte caves upon which it was built. It was a great history tour – if you could keep up!Oh, yes, I’ve just remembered! We visited the Chateau de Brie, which is just a few miles away. It’s only open on Sunday afternoons but is a wonderful place. A really nice lad took us round, an enthusiast. Really amazing place architecturally, so I was in my element. The tour was fairly basic, so we had to probe for more detail, which the guide enjoyed. You can even stay there, if you want.
On Wednesday went to the market at Piejut-Pluviers again. Met up with Vicky and Daniel who are spending the summer in France in their camper, selling jewellery at markets to pay their way. Interestingly, Vicky has come up with a website called http://www.yourdeathwish.com/ . It is an online archive for what your wishes are in the event of you popping off, all done in a fashion that you should enjoy the process. Check it out. It’s getting quite a bit of media interest, so keep an eye open for it. We had a good, long lunch with them and hope to catch up with them in the near future.
That’s about it for this week. Cheers for now!
