Month: January 2019

I started the week with a trip to the doctor. Nothing wrong (well apart form the remnant of shingles but thats another story), no, I had to get 3 blood pressure measurements because my BP measured in Paris for my visa was high. My own doctor thought this was nonsense and wrote with a history of measurements of normal BP over the last 5 years. So I duly emailed this to Paris and got a reply that I needed 3 separate measurements on 3 separate days. Back again to the doctor who was very accomodating and now I finally have an all clear, medically speaking, as far as the visa is concerned at least.

Its been a cold week, making the prospect of an Aussie heatwave seem very attractive. I’m sure I’ll tire of the heat eventually but after 63 years of grey European winters that may take a while. Cold, rain, snow… We wondered if the pub quiz on Tuesday would be cancelled but it wasn’t. We were partnered with a couple we had won with about a year ago. And bugger me, we won again! The food was good though the dessert was a bitter caramel creme, not to everyone’s taste but alternatives were offered.

Our moving process continues; The garage is almost clear of junk but oh it hurts getting rid of so much “useful” stuff. We had some items on a list that we had shared with friends and even sold some. But after two weeks I thought we needed to expand our “market” and I put them on Facebook Marketplace. Delia didn’t realise that I had put them ALL on at once. It was very busy for a while. Delia wasn’t quite ready to part with her dressing tab++le and was not happy with me that I had agreed for someone to buy it today (S unday). I did have to add a proviso that fridge and freezer wouln’t go until the end of February!

I’ve been compiling a set of photos of Beaulieu that I want to put into a photo book. I want to give a copy to some of our neighbours. They’ve been good to us and we will miss them.

From the photo I think most of you will be able to tell where I’ve been this week – yesterday (Friday) to be precise. Yesterday was an early start for Pat and I as we awoke at 4:30 am and were in the car by 5:00 am on our way to Limoges to catch the 6:04 am train to Paris. Thankfully we had made ourselves some coffee and brought a couple of croissants which made the just over 3 hour journey a lot more tolerable (and cheaper than buying from the cart on the train).

We arrived in Paris to then figure out the ticket machine for the metro, a dash up to the platform and jumping on the train that was waiting to discover it was the wrong train – so off at the next station and we backtracked and then got ourselves on the correct train.

We were heading over to the 7th arrondissement for Pat to do some of his Australian Visa medical things and for me to explore the Musée Rodin and then for the two of us to have lunch and then head to the Eiffel tower – something I actually haven’t done before. I thoroughly enjoyed the Rodin Museum. It was a gloriously sunny day and even though part of the gardens were closed (the museum is housed in Rodin’s home and gardens) I started with a wander around the parts of the gardens I could get to and enjoyed it alot.

Then into the museum itself, which is a wonderful building with work by Rodin and some works by other artists he owned – I came across a painting which I loved – L’ete (Summer) by John Lavery painted in 1904 – it is a big painting but something about it really spoke to me (maybe because I’m in the middle of winter?). He was an Irish painter and after googling him I don’t recall seeing his paintings before, but I do like them. Please note that this photo does not do the painting justice.

I then met up with Pat once he had finished with the doctor’s, we headed over towards the Eiffel tower near where the laboratory was for his blood test – this didn’t take long and off we went to lunch. We both decided to have just the plat du jour and a glass of wine – however after watching some of the desserts passing us by to go to other tables – dessert was ordered – we both felt incredibly full after our lunch of bread, steak, chips, salad, red wine, water, cheese cake and coffee! We then walked our way to the Eiffel tower. My original plan had been to go to the very top of the tower and have a glass of champagne but we had discovered that the top was closed during January for maintenance. So we thought about having lunch on the 2nd level, but because we didn’t know what time Pat would be finished with his medical stuff we just decided that we would chance it and see if we could get a ticket when we got to the tower. Unfortunately with it being a lovely (but cold) day the line to get the lift to the 2nd level was too long. So we just explored around the tower, and even just doing that was worthwhile.

So we then had to do the journey home, a stop at the train station for picking up a sandwich to munch on the train journey back to Limoges. We eventually arrived back to our house just after 8:30 pm. A sit down and a glass of wine before crashing into bed and sleep at around 10:00 pm. This morning we slept in and then headed off to get Siena from our friend who looked after her while we were in Paris.

While I may have another trip to Paris before we head back to Australia but if we don’t, and this was my last trip to Paris – I’m more than satisfied.

For now, à bientôt, from our wonderful part of France – Delia

Things do seem to be accelerating. I went over to the place we were considering to rent to check the internet. Its twice the speed we have here! So now that we have a definite place to go once the final sale of our Beaulieu house goes through, we seem to spend much of our time at the tip or loading the car to go there. Hoarding is an issue – I had at least a hundred different power supplies. Yet in the past I have given up trying to find the exact one in the pile… voltage and amperage might match but the plug to go into the device is wrong. In such cases I have given up and bought one from China – perhaps 4 weeks away but at least it usually arrives. Anyway Delia was quite impressed with me just tipping out the whole pile into the “little electronics” recycling bin.

The tip (or decheterie – sounds like a French dish) isn’t very photogenic and the only photos I have been taking are of things to sell. So by popular demand I am not posting pictures of our dented chest freezer or our nearly new petrol lawnmower.

My Franco-Brittanique Rencontre group had a post Xmas “bring a plate” (they call it a ‘repas espanol’ or spanish meal – I guess its like tapas?). Lots of French spoken but a lot of English too. An Aussie couple have come back recently having been back and forth as visas permit. It was reassuring to me to speak to an Aussie male with no interest in any sport. But then he was Tasmanian!

The food was varied – slices of melt in the mouth beef fillet, sausage rolls and scotch eggs too. Mostly flans and cakes (along with wine of course). We spread our news around those who hadn’t heard of our plans and received much regrets and good wishes.

So as not to disappoint here’s a shot of our garden in Feb 2018 hopefully not what we have to look forward to!

Well it is cold! Silly cold, but the sky is blue and we have been out and about on some lovely walks over the Christmas/New Year break. However, it was back to work this week. Always hard to get back into the routine after a lovely relaxing time off.

Pat and I have spent the last couple of weeks madly trying to find a place to rent. Looking at if we want furnished or unfurnished, if the place has internet or not. We think we have found a place – not that far from where we currently live which has 2 bedrooms and internet. Pat is going to do a final check of the internet on Monday and if that is fine, we’ve a place to move to. We’ve also started the dreaded clean out – getting rid of things that aren’t needed (large amount of clothes off to the clothes bank today) and getting rid of those items that just haven’t been used in a long, long time (cocktail glasses!).

I am trying to make sure that this blog doesn’t turn into a “moving house” blog as I don’t think that would be of interest to many people, but you never know. I am looking forward to our trip to Paris later this month and also I’ve started planning my other trips. We are heading to Prague in May (I’ve always wanted to take Pat there) this will be a romantic long weekend away for Pat’s birthday. We then have to factor in Berlin and Amsterdam – 2 places high on my list to visit. One friend has also suggested joining her in Dublin at the end of May (long weekend as bank holiday in UK) so that may also be happening – there is just so much to see and do!

Our Christmas tree will be coming down tomorrow, I’ve really enjoyed our tree this year, it has so many items on it which hold memories – the wooden fish from Contis Plage, the bauble with water lilies (Monet’s garden) the Viking ship from York and of course the Venetian mask from Venice. It is lovely to have these reminders of the places we have been. I’m willing to take any suggestions of places that you think are a must do in Europe.

For now, à bientôt, from our wonderful part of France – Delia