Ozzy Cat Rules!

Blessed with ignorance, our rather large cat, an Australian short-hair-Maine Coone cross (so she tells us!), has cruised her way through the global pandemic blissfully unaware of the chaos around her, spending time exploring, protecting and defending her new territory. She has made herself very unpopular with all the other local cats. She hates them and they hate her! There is a distinct lack of entente cordiale in these French-Australian relationships! Whenever another cat strays onto her kitchen windowsill she emits a low rumbling growl and flings herself at it with wild abandon - safely protected by the window in between of course! 

She is about twice the size of the petite and delicate local cats, but she is outnumbered by them by about 12 to one! These odds make her reluctant to go outside when they are on the prowl but happily she has a number of comfy and not so comfy indoor resting places - she's recently taken over a wooden chopping board, using it to sharpen her claws but also to sleep on! No point spending lots of money on accessories for this kitty - her favourite toys are straws, and she completely ignores the scratching post and rechargeable flapping fish we bought her for Xmas! Aaahh, but she's worth it! 

Stand off! She looks like a giant!

Waiting for dinner!

What a beauty! Who could resist?!

A Year of Lockdowns and Curfews

First post in over a year! What does that say?! As for many people around the world, 2020 didn't really go according to plan, and here we are in March 2021 still a long way from "normality". It's nearly a year since France went into its first, very strict two-month lockdown, followed by a period during which public places - cafés, bars, restaurants but also including beaches and lakesides - were still off limits unless you kept moving. Things opened up again in summer but there were none of the usual fêtes and festivals, and mask-wearing and social distancing remained in place (as they still do today). 

Another strict one-month lockdown followed in November, and since then, all the places that we go to gather socially and amuse ourselves - the bars, cafés, restaurants, cinemas, cultural and tourist venues all remain closed, so there's basically nowhere to go except for shops. Just as well we like walking! We are lucky not to have caught covid, that's for sure, and we are lucky to be living in a relatively sparsely populated place at this time. But it has been an isolating time, and it has taken a toll. 

During our strict lockdowns, we were only allowed to go out once a day for exercise, for up to an hour and within 1km of home. An upside of this is that we have discovered two or three local "lockdown loops" that we probably wouldn't have otherwise found. 

My definitive "lockdown loop" photo from first lockdown

We also had to take an 'attestation', a sort of "exit permit" justifying why we were out and about, even if it was just to the local shop to buy a baguette! There was suddenly a lot to remember whenever you went out: on top of the usual wallet, keys, shopping bag etc, there was now also a need for a mask, hand sanitizer, an attestation, ID, and a proof of address. Phew!

Another lockdown loop with "attestation" in hand

Despite all these constraints, life goes on, and we were still able to accomplish things. Richard completed a two month full-time french course, albeit mostly by Zoom so not the greatest when you imagine a bunch of pseudo-French speakers all speaking at the same time with their microphones left on! We also both trained as Property Sales Agents for an Anglo-French web-based estate agency. A highly stressful steep learning curve but it was probably going alright in the circumstances until Xmas when the UK went into a strict lockdown, variants emerged and the French-UK border closed until at least mid-May, effectively cutting off most of our potential clients at source. Throw in Brexit, and the closure of the local airports from October until at least May, and it has become trickier than anticipated. I have now also started an online course to teach English as a foreign language to diversify our income-earning options in these uncertain times.

On the plus side, we are still alive, and we still have our health as do friends and our immediate family.  Thanks to the lockdowns, we have now had plenty of time to sit around and appreciate the wood-burner much talked about in earlier posts - it has done a fine job of keeping us warm and cosy! The Ariège government has been busily installing fibre-optic internet throughout the area so our house will soon have a mega-fast internet connection - a far cry from our early days when we used to have to leave the village to get an internet connection! 

Much to Richard's delight, we now also have a large, flat-screen TV (became a must before the second lockdown!), and we also have our Bose Soundtouch for music and radio. This was one of the sorely missed items in the ill-fated parcel that Chronopost kept sending back to Australia (see earlier post) . We had to reroute the parcel from Australia to family in the UK as Chronopost were determined not to let us have it, but because of covid, we have been unable to travel to the UK to collect it. With Brexit and border chaos looming, we eventually arranged for the Soundtouch to be delivered by courier, hoping to avoid the disastrous Chronopost service again. Thankfully it arrived safely and works perfectly, unscathed from traveling around the world at least twice! What a joyous moment that was! 

Admittedly though, when the going gets tough, there are times when we have looked across to the other side of the world, to our old home in Perth where they are virtually covid-free and living near normal lives (apart from not being allowed to travel overseas) and thought that maybe we would have been better off staying put a little longer. I guess the grass always looks greener ...

Peugeots and turbos

For some reason the French really hang on to their cars. The second hand market in France is much more expensive than in Australia and the UK.  It was quite a shock to see the price that was being charged for old battered and tired cars.

For an example we sold our old 2013 Mazda 2 privately in Perth and was quite pleased to get $8000 (€5000) for it.  It had 90000kms on the clock but was in very good condition and had every service meticulously logged. A similar car here would probably be around $12,000 €7300) mark.

Anyway, we look around for something in the €3000 and quickly realised there was very little if nothing that wasn't over 20 years old. Most had dents and various bits peeling or falling off.  We were going to have to pay more for something decent.  Dealers were very expensive so we decided to look on the Le Bon coin website.

After a week of searching a new car came up for sale  - 2012 Peugeot 308 station wagon.  We didn't really need a station wagon but the price was right even if the km were over 200,000.  I did a bit of research and apparently well maintained diesels can go past 300,000kms easily.

The car was in very good condition.  It had recently undergone a €1000 service where the timing belt was changed and injectors replaced.  Didn't know what that meant, but again google is your friend and it seems that once a car has reached 200,000 kms the timing belt should be changed.

We took if for a couple of test drives and it drove well.  The turbo gave a lovely little whistle as I accelerated. It reminded me of the Saab turbo my father used to own which did the same thing. Very cool I thought!  We said if the controle technique was ok we would buy it.   It went over the pits and passed with flying colours.  The following week I was holding the carte grise ownership papers in my hand and whizzing around the Ariege countryside.

All went well.  We went around the local area for a couple of weeks and had planned to visit Michelle's parents in Lodeve for  xmas.  I was looking forward to driving a larger more comfortable car on the motorway.  Stick on the cruise control at 130kph  and eat the road up!

We had the car all packed up for a week with Michelle's parents. Even the cat was coming.  Off we set joining the motorway péage in Bram.  Ok, Richard enough of the D roads its hammer time!

All was going well.  I had found out how to pair my phone to the stereo and had radio 2 xmas songs blaring out.  There is only so much radio Pyrenees I can take!   Look said Michelle as we passed the cité of Carcassonne, but I was busy making good time.

The first hint of a problem came soon after as the cruise control dropped out and the speed dropped considerably. Despite valiant efforts I couldn't re engage it.  The second hint was via the rear view mirror. It appeared like our car was on fire! Plumes of white smoke were trailing behind the car.  We were now limping along like a downed Spitfire.  Eventually we found a lay-by with a phone and were able to call up for breakdown assistance.

We fortunately had breakdown cover.  After about 30 mins the tow truck arrived. We were a bit worried as the car didn't have the warning triangle and the yellow vests.  All we needed was the local police to stop and fine us.  The tow truck driver had one look inside the engine and made a sign that the turbo unit was broken.

We were towed back to the breakdown yard and told the car would be taken to a garage that cold do turbo repairs the next day. Fortunately for us and the cat, they had a hire car but by this time we were getting sick of the expense of these things.

To cut a long story about changing garages and finding cheaper quotes elsewhere we ended up forking out over €1500 on a new turbo for our car, which no longer whistles as it accelerates.

All in all a very expensive trip to the in laws.

Chronopost!!!

This post is more cathartic than really about France.  Its a cautionary tale with a bit of a rant but we can all hope for a Saturnalian miracle to happen!

OK....deep breath.  Before we left for France we organised an express delivery box via Australia post.  This express service would ensure we had the vital stuff we needed - ugg boots, wireless music system, warm clothes..etc. to be delivered soon after we arrived.  Always nice to have some music for xmas!

The box had a tracking number so we could see its progress.  It left Australia on 14th October on a five day door to door delivery.  It  arrived in Paris three days later....and then didn't move for a week.  The frustrating thing was with this tracking number we could see exactly where it was.  After a number of calls to Chronopost it finally made it out of Paris.  In fact a week later it go all the way to Toulouse.  There it had a 'dysfonctionnement' and was promptly sent back to Australia.

We could see all this happening, but calls to Chronopost to stop it being sent back were to no avail. It's too late, we were told. The Chronopost agent (one of many, each of whom take no notes so each time you repeat yourself) said that we (not them who caused the problem) to contact Australia post when it arrived back in Australia and have it sent back to France and would then have it delivered to our address.

Australia post said they would intercept the parcel before it got delivered back to our old address and send it back, but they didn't and it ended up back at our old house in Perth.  No-one lives there so it ended up back in the local post office.  Eventually we were able to persuade Australia post to send it back to France. Yay!

It arrived back in France, by this time over a month has passed since it was originally sent.  Again it sat in Paris for a week.  We called Chronopost again and asked why the hold up this time.  We were told it had been sent back to Australia again.  No reason, no explanation!  Bloody hell Chronopost, you admit fault, say send it back and then when it gets back to you return it back again!!!!!

So once again it was sent back to our old address. Once again we said intercept it before it gets delivered back to our old address. Once again they said they would. Once again there is an attempted delivery back at our old address. If only I had signed this box up for frequent flyer points!

Throughout all of this both agencies don't seem to know what the other is doing.  It's only through multiple calls to Chronopost and email chats to Australia post that its got anywhere. Aghhhh!!!

So it's now back again to Australia.  I have now given up on trying to send it to us in France  Maybe,  I will send it to the UK instead and go and pick it up!

Getting wood!

Michelle and I both grew up in the UK, and for me in particular (wife is a soft southerner!) in the bleak winters of Cumbria.   You would think I would be used to a bit of cold.  Obviously not!  It's only November and I am cold...really cold!  It doesn't help that I haven't yet bought a coat.  Well I didn't really use one before.  It didn't get shivering  cold in Perth. At the moment wearing a couple of fleece tops seem to do the job but I reckon by looking at the snow on the not so far peaks that a blast of real winter is only around the corner.

Having said that we are prepared!  On the road between L’Aguillion and Lavelanet we found a timber yard which delivered wood.  Anyway for those interested in this the minimum delivery is 2 cubic metres and they supply beech and oak. The oak is a little more expensive but quite frankly I’m none the wiser what was being dumped outside our house! We asked for a mixture of the two which worked out at €167.

We don’t really have enough room in the house for all this wood so we used the pavement outside. Our French neighbour came out and approved of the quality so apparently it should burn well. Anyway he also told us a particular French law that apparently the homeowner is responsible for his own pavement so it’s our area to use basically.  I’ve never seen anyone walk by as it’s such an odd strip outside our window and the few churchgoers just walk straight out the doors, no real reason to turn right for 10 feet of pavement. We were advised to stack it a little away from the wall (damp) and to buy a bâche (tarpaulin).  If you need one we got our for €5 at Action stores.

We were a bit concerned that the 50cm lengths were not going to fit but they do just and having them bigger means less visits to the wood burner.  The cat approved too!

Back in France and collecting our cat!

Bonjour a tous,
Well, we’re  finally here.  We arrived via Heathrow and then coach to Stansted which allowed us to catch a Ryanair flight into Carcassonne, which is only 45 mins from our house  We have hired a Renault Clio for a month (FYI best deals can be found at Le Clerc supermarket!) in which time we plan to find a cheap second hand car to buy.

We had a couple of days to get over jet lag but on the Sunday (we arrived on the Wednesday) had a rendezvous in Barcelona to pick up our cat, Kitty.  At the time of booking we thought Barcelona would be fine but had no idea of the demonstrations and road closures that would cause such chaos to the region.

Our preferred route alone the A9 motorway was blocked by protestors so we had to take the path over the Pyrenees.  Don't do it unless the mountains are your intended destination or you fancy something in Andorra. It's a pain in the backside,  particulary with a manual car as its constant gear changing and very winding.  Plus the tolls are exorbitant!!!

Anyway the cat was arriving on EK185 from Dubai at around 1:20 pm so we arrived good and early to get all the paperwork sorted.  Once we had found the WFS cargo building near Terminal 2, we had her pet papers processed, paid the duty (around 90 euros for a cat) and was told we had to go to the customs area in terminal 2 to get the papers stamped. We could then return and pick up the cat.

skeleton staff on the weekend!


So we traipsed over to Terminal 2 and found the Customs Office.  After 10 mins a lady came to see us. She told us that before the cat could be released a vet had to sign off.  So to retrieve your  pet you need three different people from three different departments to give three different stamps who reside in three different buildings!   This is where the problem started as no vet was on site at the airport on a Sunday!   They knew our cat was arriving but no-one seemed to take responsibility for making sure the vet would be there.   A vet had to be called. She  didn’t turn up until 5pm.  Eventually at 6:15pm the poor car was released to us.  Oh, and then the vet came back saying she couldn't be released as we didn't have the original health certificate.  I turned out to be glued in a sleeve on top of her cage, but had it not it really would have been the final straw!!    It's a common old rescue cat for f@#s sake  (excuse my French) not a bloody endangered Bengal tiger!

It was now dark so it meant we would have to drive the four hours back to France in the dark. On the plus side the motorway was now open, but on the negative side is quite badly lit for a 130kph route, especially with a complaining back seat passenger. Poor Kitty had been trapped in her cage now for probably 12 plus hours and was complaining loudly in no uncertain terms about her treatment the entire trip back stopping her meowing every now and then to break wind with a stench that could strip wallpaper! Fair enough, I would probably have done similar or worse under the same circumstances.

Ok, now it gets real!

As those who have been reading our infrequent posts we bought a little house in the Ariège, and for the past few years have been staying there during the summer and gradually bringing it back to life.

Each time we went back to Perth if felt like we were leaving a part of us behind.  We locked the place up, put the shutters up and went back to our drone like existence in Perth.  Well, I suppose there is a time when you simply need to take the plunge. We have therefore made the decision to pack up and move to France and see where the pieces fall!  As a brief aside I suppose we have a bit of form for this, having done exactly the same in 2010 when we moved to Australia.  Well its been nearly 10 years living and working in Perth so I'm not sure we can be called 'flighty' just yet. We will finally have our French xmas and get the log fire going as the appropriate time of the year!

So its goodbye to loading planes!

Michelle’s French is excellent whilst mine is more rabbit in headlights panic as soon as someone speaks to me.  I've been flitting around like a verbal bee between various French apps attempting to improve.  I think though that the only way I'm going to get any real progress is to throw myself wholeheartedly into the mix.  For this reason I have told Michelle I will do the hard yards and spend a minimum of 4 hours each day in a selection of local bars listening and engaging with the locals.  Now this may involve me having the odd glass of beer or wine but I'm prepared to put the hours in for the greater good.

All is basically now packed up. The hardest decision we had to make was what to do with our cat. It would have cost $2500 to bring her back with us.  The sensible approach would be to give her to a friend and we had a kind lady all lined up  (thanks Rachel) but because we are both pathetic we relented and now have her arriving a few days after us in Barcelona.

Painting

Yup, it's a three pronged attack on the house.  Taking no prisoners. This time we are leaving the house complete!  One of the things that wasn't completed last year was the painting.  We got one side of the house done with two coats and it looks great.  Around the side was a bit of a different matter, as the painter ran out of paint so it only had one coat and the top part was not done at all.

We managed to get in touch with the Dutch company that made the original paint and were able to order the exact same colour.  I suggested to Michelle that the side bit wouldn't matter so much, but from the look she gave me it obviously does.

Sometimes we forget the sorry appearance the house had when we first bought it....what were we thinking!!!

...there was no way I was going up there!

Electrics!

When we planned for Michelle to go back to France for a month in April we thought it would be a simple job of doing a bit of plastering in the kitchen and fixing a couple of sockets.  Enough time for her to check on our house, see her parents and maybe get an internet connection sorted.

Well on the plus side we did get all the internet sorted, but it did come with quite an effort of drilling through stone walls and rewiring the inside.  Old houses again.

For the past 12 months we had been waiting for our builder to reconnect one side of our downstairs electrics, install a new light and switch  and fix a hole in the wall that he had previously created in trying to install said new light switch. As we were only visiting once a year it wasn't a big deal but it was quite a pain not having one side of the downstairs having power, especially with a small kitchen.

Finally able to use the old sockets again!

Eventually we realised we would have to engage a professional electrician to do the work.
Michelle asked around and found a reliable electrician who was available.  He was able to reconnect the non functioning plugs downstairs, create a new switch for a hall light and put in some new electric sockets upstairs.  He was even able to fill in the hole in the wall downstairs.

When we bought the house in 2015 we were told it had all been rewired. I suppose in the fine print it didn’t say rewired correctly, but when ever you hear a French sparky suck his teeth, shake his head  or go 'merde' under his breath you know that your wallet is going to take another hammering!

The new fuses

..and these were the old ones which are apparently not very good. Yeah I'm none the wiser either.

It turns outside that all the fuses were basically crap and noone had bothered to set our massive hot water boiler ( I’m still at a loss why it’s so big) to only heat during off peak times. So they are now replaced and we on ‘heures creuses.  Hopefully the bills will reduce.

Ok so that's plumbing and electrics sorted, just one more thing to sort out before Michelle has to lock up and join me back in Perth.

Plumbing!

I think most old properties in France have idiosyncratic plumbing and ours is no different. There are still noises and gurgling sounds in the house I choose to ignore, but some have to be addressed.  When we bought the house there was a pump under the sink. There was some sort of gravity issue, so after the sink emptied the pump kicked in, and moved the water under the lounge floor and into the waste water pipe in the laundry.   When we had the kitchen remodelled our builder took a different approach and connected the waste water to run straight outside the house along the gutter into the drain halfway across the square and down the road!  Très rustique non?  Well apparently not. We were advised this was ok by our builder. Anyway, the Marie asked us to get it running underground.  I thought it went very well with the medieval history of the village. Ah well.

Michelle found a contact on the Ariège network Facebook group who was available and able to do the job. Sighh....more money!  The local tradesmen must rub their hands in glee every time we arrive!  This house is getting more like a financial tardis each time we visit!!!

2015 to 2018 changes

It seems an eternity since we were last here together in our French home.  Michelle was able to come for a few weeks in the spring, but I was unable to get the time off so had to wait until the end of August.

In the intervening period we have made steady progress on making our little home more liveable.  The stop gap  furniture from Emmaus is gone and replaced with more comfortable furniture from the 'But' store in Pamiers.  The outside is almost painted and we now have our cooker and stove top connected. If I'm not careful I may run out of excuses not to use it.

Kitchen in 2015 and 2018

Inside the house, old sink now replaced with window seat.

...and finally got around to painting the outside

The cats are still there and hungry as ever!

La France in Perth

Having recently invited some friends over for a French-themed lunch here in Perth, I felt inspired to write about our experience of seeking out French food, and the presence of French culture in Perth. Most important was to look the part so Richard secured a typically French outfit - beret and stripey t-shirt (hey, no stereotypes here!), adopted his best French accent, and grew a Poirot-type moustache (oops, Poirot's Belgian, isn't he?!).

"It 'az been a good day. I 'ave sold all zee oignons!"

Food-wise, we have bemoaned the lack of variety of Australian cheeses in a previous blog post, but it is possible to buy French cheeses over here - albeit at hugely inflated prices so we rarely purchase them. Roquefort, for example, can retail for around AUS$100 per kilo, making it more than twice the price of the best rib eye steak! C'est fou!

AUS$100 is approx 65 euros. The same cheese retails in France for around 28 euros per kilo.

One of the cheeses we selected for our lunch was a small slice of one of our favorites, a mild cheese made from ewe's milk called ossau-iraty. At AUS$90 or so per kilo, the little 100 gram slice we purchased was probably equivalent to small rib eyes!

Ossau-Iraty cheese for sale at Little Sister deli in Fremantle

You have to be a bit careful when selecting your French cheese, however, as some available over here, such as Le President Camembert, are actually made in Australia, not in France. Ce n'est pas pareil!

Cheese, wine, baguette, cheese jam (not very French) and quince paste (also not very French)

For charcuterie (cold cuts), we were unable to find anything originally from France so settled for prosciutto, chorizo and salami which were probably produced in Australia or China! French paté is also non-existent over here - I think because of Western Australia's strict importation and quarantine laws - although you can buy Normandy paté made up the road in the suburb of Malaga (bof!), and we did hunt down a few small tins of terrine.

Otherwise, all things French are greatly appreciated in Perth, and none more so than French bakery/pastry shops or boulangeries-patisseries. To provide an authentic lunch, we were obliged to sample several of these boulangeries-patisseries to find the best French bread - baguettes - and cakes, including Choux Café in Swanbourne, La Galette de France in Nedlands, and Jean-Pierre Sancho in Dalkeith. Actually, Jean-Pierre Sancho have a chain of bakery/pastry shops across the metro area and coincidentally, the name of the business is inherited from a small boulangerie-patisserie in Lodeve (where Michelle's parents live) called Sancho - it's a small world! The Australian Sancho even include a photo from the 1920s of the original Sancho in Lodeve in their promotion (see below):

The Jean Pierre Sancho on Hay street in Perth City

Zoom in on the photo at the top to see the original Sancho in Lodeve

After all our sampling (poor us), we settled on macarons, small eclairs, petit-fours and a sachet of freshly baked palmiers biscuits from La Galette de France for the dessert course of our lunch. Michelle also made a galette des rois - a frangipani-type almond pastry available in France throughout January, traditionally made to celebrate Epiphany on 6 January. All washed down with cream (not French) and a bottle of French sparkling wine, a Crémant de Limoux, Limoux being only 20km or so from our residence secondaire. We're fortunate that we live close to a Dan Murphy liquor store which carries a range of international booze so buying French wine is easy enough although there's not a huge selection. I did, however, draw the line at buying a 75cl bottle of Normandy cider for over AUS$20 - it would probably cost the equivalent of about AUS$5 in France!

Interestingly, the staff in the French boulangerie-patisseries are often French and indeed, there are now enough French people living in Perth that you often hear French voices in the street - that wasn't the case when I lived here before in the 1990s. There are a number of French organizations in Perth promoting French culture and language, and social interaction for native French speakers, including Alliance Francaise and La Maison de France, and there are even pétanque clubs where you can play in competitions. And, of course, there are a number of French restaurants in Perth run by some internationally acclaimed chefs - Guillaume Brahimi, who featured on the Australian TV show French Food Safari springs to mind with his Bistro Guillaume. So all in all, it is possible to live the other side of the world from France and still experience a taste of France locally, albeit a lot of it comes at a pretty steep price!

Reflections

I thought I would add my own two cents worth to the blog as I haven't contributed for a while - due to a lack of time (!), the absence of a decent internet connection and the photos that I want to add always being stored on the wrong device. However, scrolling through the blog, I think Richard has covered it really and used the photos I would have chosen. The only thing to add here is a photo of an almost finished kitchen. I would have added a photo of our wood-burner too, but having mentioned it in several earlier posts, we completely forgot to take any photos of it once it was installed in the house!

Our trip to France was an odd one this time, partly due to trying to live in our house with building work still going on - this dictated our schedule and made it a little less relaxing. In addition, Richard was unwell for most of our stay in France - I probably kicked this off by catching a cold in England but Richard's version mutated into a persistent virus. We even went to see a doctor to make sure he wasn't more seriously ill. The health issues didn't end there as my mum was hospitalized for five days (all better now) so what with visiting mum in hospital and helping out my dad, and escaping the building work at home, we probably spent nearly half our holiday in France staying with my parents. Being in the south of France during August, peak holiday season, also made it quite challenging to get around due to heavy traffic and crowds of tourists. We learnt to get around this by doing our sightseeing and motorway driving early in the morning.
Despite these challenges, we still had many lovely moments and experiences: fields of sunflowers, a butterfly farm, catching up with friends and family, four nights of "fete" and live music in the village, evening food markets, visits to our favorite Cathar castles, walks in beautiful countryside, refreshing swims in pools and lakes, good food, wine and cold pastis, and frequent visits from our two favorite french kitty cats (who by the way, to set the record straight, have both turned out to be girls, not a boy and girl as we initially thought and wrote in our first blog about them).
Plus we had the satisfaction of seeing our house taking shape. We painted the main bedroom and first floor landing, Richard assembled bedroom furniture, and we started hanging pictures including blown-up canvas prints of our favorite photos which we organized through photobox.  Next step is probably to improve the look of the exterior of the house with a complete paint job and painting the shutters and front door in fresh new matching colors. Maybe by the next time we visit, our house will have a completely new look!

Cambodia

....which isn't really the Ariège, but it does have a French quarter to go with its colonial past so there is a link there albeit a bit tenuous. Plus, Jacques Lafayette born in Le Peyrat (the village conjoined to La Bastide sur l'Hers), introduced horn combs (historically, a major industry in the area) to Cambodia back in 1875 so there is a tangible link. (I may have made up that last bit!)
Prior to leaving for France, we had decided to spend the last week of our holiday in Siem Reap in Cambodia to help us face the end of winter in Australia and our return to work. We also reasoned that it would give us a chance to get over the jet lag as there's only an hour's time difference between Cambodia and Perth.
We flew out from Nice on 27th August.  The trip was long but worth it. We flew to Doha, Qatar, had a  couple of hours in transit and then a connecting flight on to Bangkok. Unfortunately we had to wait about 5 hours for the next connection to Siem Reap but for what it's worth, Bangkok Airways have a private lounge for all passengers where you can get free drinks and snacks and wifi so we found a corner there and slept as best we could. Besides, getting through immigration and security at Bangkok airport ate up a significant amount of the five hour wait!
This will actually be our third trip to Siem Reap in Cambodia. We love it. The hotels are fantastic, and sooo cheap. As is the food, drink ($2 for a margarita cocktail) and clothes. The people are also very helpful, kind and easy-going and this makes it very special too.

Our favourite hotel, the Borei Angkor (above) is fantastic; five star standard, but the most amazing thing is that out of season the prices are ridiculously cheap.  An extremely comfortable, spacious and well-finished room and buffet breakfast for US$50!  You would have trouble getting a broom cupboard in a Formule 1 in France for that price!

Most people come to Siem Reap for the temples at Angkor Archaeological Park. Most of them are are 11th and 12th century with a Buddhist/Hindu theme running throughout.   Considering they are getting on for a thousand years old they are still amazingly preserved.   You would need a week to do them all justice.

One thing we should point out is the climate. It is very hot and humid. We did a morning tour of some of the outlying temples such as Preah Khan (see photos above), and found that four and a half water bottles was just enough to keep us going. There are lots of sellers en route, however, to sell all sorts.  This actually worked out quite well as when we came back from our last temple, our tuk tuk (a sort of motorbike with a passenger cart on the back) had disappeared.  It turned out he had a flat tyre, so we took the opportunity of buying a couple of cold bottles of water and promptly poured them down the back of our shirts....yes that is how hot it gets!

Come dry season the above 'baray' will be gone, dried-up, although from above it would look like a rectangular moat surrounding a temple. Actually bit of trivia...the largest man made structure built by the ancient Khmer wasn't Angkor Wat which is the biggest temple but this western baray.

Of course, there is a dark side to visiting Cambodia too. It's a very poor country and it's a little surreal to be holidaying in a place that has a relatively recent genocidal past. I still remember being shocked by the movie, 'The Killing Fields' many years ago. I guess we hope that by being there, not only do we have an enjoyable, affordable, educational and interesting time, but that we are also in some small way doing something that helps the local people to make a living, and that maybe, eventually, in the long run, all this tourist activity will contribute to improving their lot.

Time to take a break

.....the kitchen is still not ready, but there has been a lot of sanding and plastering still going on.  Its sort of functional providing we don't spill anything, but I find it hard to cook without something spilling or splashing somewhere.  We now have a gas hose connection to the cooker top, yay! We haven't bothered to buy a gas bottle yet because we would rather wait until the whole thing is finished.  Plus we don't have any cookware which would probably be a bit of a stumbling block to a successful meal.

 Instead we go through a routine each morning of getting up early before the builder comes, having our coffee, then removing the coffee machine and microwave from the kitchen. Washing up our dishes from whatever microwavable  or reaheatable meal we have bought from Intermarché that may have been left from the previous night. The aforementioned items go on to 'lounge table' and we cover it all with a dust sheet.  Not really how we planned to spend this holiday but c'est la vie!

So we feel obliged to remove ourselves from the house, to drive off somewhere, a bit unsettled that the kitchen is not ready, but it would be to awkward to stay in the house with the work going on. However driving along on route to find something interesting to do we sometimes see  some sights that really lift the spirits.  For instance on the D625 between our village and Mirepoix were these magnificent fields of sunflowers.  They looked fantastic and seemed to go on for ever!

I was that close to having an Age of Aquarius moment, stripping off and dancing naked around amongst them!

Sometimes it is the small things that we maybe overlook. For instance there is a wonderful butterfly farm just outside the village of Lesparou, called Les Papillons d'Amarande.  We visited it in the afternoon, as apparently butterflies like to get up late and go to bed early.....half your luck mate!  Its been run by a husband and wife team for 20 years but they are retiring next year.  I thought what a great way to have an income, some polytunnels, some fruit trees, a few overripe bananas and away you go.  Apparently some of the butterflies are getting a bit lazy now and just go straight for fruit drinks for their sustenance instead of the flowers themselves!                                                                         

Ok I think thats enough butterfly pictures.  There were some magnificent blue ones but the blooming' things never stayed still long enough to get a photo.

Where does the time go?

Where does the time go?  It will soon be the end of this summer trip to our house and we will once again be back in Australia.  I always feel a bit sad about this time of the holiday as we always put in a lot of time and effort into our house, but we always have to leave it, and rarely do we actually get to enjoy the improvements we have added!  For instance I am looking at a wood burner installed last year that can apparently do a great job of warming the entire floor. Never lit…its still got the performance and manufacturers stickers on the glass front!  

But having said that each year it feels more like a home than a house and fingers crossed if the kitchen is finished in time we could recoup some of the investment in renting it out.  We have even started putting prints up on the wall! I feel someone should be enjoying the place even if it’s not us. Especially with all the new furniture we have acquired and assembled from stores in the area.

There is a saying in the navy....if it moves salute it, if it doesn't paint it.

My wife likes to shop at a store called ‘But’.  It’s a home furnishings store selling everything: TVs, cookers, beds, furniture.  I’m sure you get the idea.  They sell all their furniture items in self-assembly flat pack kits.  I hate it.  I swear you need a combined degree in engineering, interpretive art and telepathy to work out what on earth they are banging on about when it comes to putting the bloody things together.  I kid you not!  It comes with a pictogram book of how to assemble.  Half way through I wasn’t sure if I was assembling a wardrobe or reading a graphic novel on the storming of Troy!  There were some stages of putting together that were so confusing I had to lie on the bed with the booklet as an eye mask and hope that some clarity would somehow infuse into my head through the paper!  And to add insult to injury the instructions said it would take 1 hour to assemble!!!!   Maybe 1 hour in mayfly years…..it took me about three days! Agreed I am a bit inept and a proper electric drill would have really helped. Having said that the task of counting a jumbo meccano set variety of screws would have taken an hour by itself.  I mean why not just have two sizes big and small…not the 15 different sizes of screw that were needed to make this apparently simple wardrobe.   As you can imagine I was very proud of myself when I finally finished it and hence here is a photo of it!

...and when I find the missing hinge and bracket I will probably finish it.