May 21st - Time flies …

Potential visitors will be delighted to know that we are now fully double-glazed: insulated against draughts, church bells, sirens, scooters, dogs, neighbours and all manner of other Gallic nuisances. The whole job took M. Fuchs just under three weeks, working alone, with occasional help or hindrance from his erratic daughter. As well as a spectacularly good job with the windows, John and I benefitted from daily French lessons from M. Fuchs (pronounced foosh, in case you were wondering), in the form of a hearty and convivial midday repas: two courses, one of which was often provided by Mme Fuchs, and wine. However, I must confess to a certain lack of motivation, blog-wise, brought about by mental exhaustion as a direct result of our lunchtime conversations.

The first visitors to benefit from a peaceful night’s sleep were John’s cousin, Theresa, and her son, Daniel. What a reprehensibly long time it has been since we visited them in Co. Clare. When we went over to scatter John’s father’s ashes, Daniel was about a year old. He is now a very grown up little lad of 10 and a Harry Potter fan, which gave us an excuse for a home cinema showing of “The Goblet of Fire”.

Theresa and Daniel were only with us for one night, but at least it gave us a bit of a chance to show them the area. The following day, we took the scenic route back to their holiday apartment in Biarritz, posing for photos at the Col d’Aspin and Lourdes.

The French, at least, still take VE Day seriously. On May 8^th, nearly every commune of any size stages a ceremony of commemoration like the one in Montréjeau. Veterans of the French Resistance and armed forces, French and Allied, are thanked for their part in freeing France from German occupation. Victims of the war are remembered and children are reminded of the sacrifices of their forefathers. I often wonder why Britain doesn’t commemorate VE Day in the same way that they do the 1918 Armistice on November 11th. The answer could be that Britain was still at war in the Far East until August 15^th 1945. But VJ Day is not commemorated either …

May in France is a great month for jours feriés. There are four: the Fêtes de Travail on May 1^st, the Ascension; the Victoire 1945, and Pentecôte. This year the Ascension coincided with the Fêtes de Travail. In any event, as a lot of French businesses faire le pont whenever a jour ferié falls on a Tuesday or a Thursday, May is not a great time to get anything done.

In the ‘not done’ pile go John’s continuing motorcycle immatriculation woes, and our temporary loss of telephone and internet access.

Triumph, bless ‘em, sent the required attestation immediately. But not, apparently, immediately enough for M. Lavielle, who was away from the office again by the time it arrived.

Our telephone troubles were self-inflicted. Incensed by the true cost of our Orange telephone and internet package, we took out a new contract with Neuf. Very helpful they were too, taking all the necessary details over the phone. The new ‘Neuf Box’ router would arrive within 7 to 10 days they said. Just plug it in and we would be off and running. Exactly seven days later, suddenly finding ourselves without a phone line in the middle of the afternoon, I rang Orange. “You are not a client of Orange”, the not-so charming technical assistant told me, “You must call your service provider”. Call me stupid, but it took several repititions before the penny finally dropped. Neuf had taken over the line from Orange, but the holidays had delayed the arrival of the necessary box of tricks to connect to it. The automated Neuf helpline was anything but helpful. So, we were off-line and out of contact. We might as well have been living in Outer Mongolia. Luckily we had arranged to visit my old friend Alice in Vaucluse for the weekend.

This entry was posted on 21/05/2008 at 11:52 pm and is filed under Uncategorised. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

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