Why The Vendée

We are often asked the above question, and although it was in some ways “luck” there is a long version of the story that I’m sure many of you have already heard, if not ask us next time you see us!

But, for the moment suffice to say that The Vendée reputedly has as many days sunshine as Mediterranean coast of France and has nowhere near as many Brits as the Dordogne, which has at least one English language newspaper and it is not uncommon for UK cars to outnumber French ones in the local supermarket!

Linda left me on Friday, no no, not permanently or indeed due to anything I said, she went to England, Plymouth to be precise for a girlie weekend with Victoria and various other girlie members of the family!!  So I have been left busy doing various and seemingly not ending DIY projects, feeding myself (although friends down the road must think I’m neglecting myself and wasting away as they have invited me to eat with them on two of the evenings!), a bit of walking, keeping the home fires burning as we’re having a cold snap and I even figured out the washing machine as I was running out of warm socks due to the cold spell!!  In addition to this I’ve been busy on the computer with emails, blogs and even editing the website of the Association of Countryside Volunteers, for which I am the Vice Chair and Editor – all in all a thoroughly modern man, so much so that I was quite horrified when I joined a group of French walkers at the weekend and the end a wall was used as a make shift table for refreshments – biscuits washed down with wine for the men and orange juice for the women and it wasn’t that all the women had drawn the short straw and were driving, no it’s just the way it is hereabouts!!  Can’t help feeling it was a good thing Linda was away, she’d have rocked the boat, if not grabbed the wine bottle!!  But equality in France, the country of Liberté, égalité, fraternité, is another story, to which one day I may carefully return!

I mentioned emails above and one of them was a request, for a reference, for an ex-colleague, they even track me down in deepest rural France, the wonders of technology!  It appears that I’m no longer an institution (thank the lord!!) and for “reasons of compliance” a hard copy of the reference must be posted and an emailed version is not acceptable!!  The form duly printed and filled in and I find that the envelope marked England blue , was empty – it’s the envelope of stamps for sending to England and they’re blue in case you’re wondering, so I needed to go the local village for stamps and the post box.  Interestingly, if the envelope had contained a stamp, I could have stuck it on the letter when I had finished the form, popped downstairs around the back of the house and put it in our post box (an actual box!) remembering to flick over the red tab to alert the postie that there was a letter TO COLLECT – what a brilliant service and one we only recently discovered, thought it was only for older people who couldn’t get out and about very easily.  I’ve not tried it yet but apparently you can, if you haven’t got a stamp, leave money with the letter and the postie will do the rest, bringing back the change the next day if necessary!!!  The fact that it was a blue stamp I needed not a red one for post within France, I thought it best not to risk it!

Arriving in the local village, I visited the Mairie, the Mayor’s office, not because I wanted to chat local politics or the like, but because at the back in a small room is a small bureau of La Poste, with all the normal services including banking.  This is France’s response to the mounting cost of running rural Post Office branches, they don’t shut them they downsize them and put them into municipal buildings – what an inspired and eminently sensible solution!  Having entered the building I found there was someone in the bureau and one person waiting outside; the French take confidentiality and privacy very seriously and it might I suppose be banking matters being discussed, therefore queuing customers are requested to wait in the corridor with seating provided.

I “Bonjoured” the gentleman who was waiting and moved down the queue.  We were then joined by a lady who we both “Bonjoured madam” as she took her place in the queue, the customer in the office obviously had a lot of business to cover!  A man then entered and started to ask the lady, in fast French, something about the village hall, and as she seemed as confused as I was trying to keep up, the man at the front of the queue said “Oh! You’re English” to her, to which I responded that by quite a coincidence so was I, as was the man!  Three English people in a row, the lady deciding it must be because Christmas is looming and we were all posting early for Christmas, the French don’t really do Christmas cards!!  Then, when the door opened and another lady joined us it seemed almost natural to greet her in English as well, and you’ve guessed it, it was now four in a row – what did I say about the Dordogne!!  I often wonder when such a coincidence occurs what the odds of it happening would be, but it would take a better mathematician that me to work it out, I’ll just stand in awe!  

Having finally got my stamps, said “I guess its good bye rather than au revoir” to the queue, which was fortunately still devoid of a French person, they might not have understood, I left and the boulangerie caught my eye!!  Well, Linda had talked about the chocolate brownies they had been eating!  I decided a treat was in order and asked for a La Festive, a rather chewy but incredibly tasty brownish baguette, just as the religieuse caught my eye – a patisserie that is rather wicked despite the name!  So, somewhat sadly I ordered one, sad in the same way that I sometimes find people in restaurants dining alone, and was delighted to see it was duly put into a cake box that could quite easily hold three or even four of these calorie rich treats said to resemble nuns!!  On the way home I also thought that that the neighbours wouldn’t spot my sad individual cake, thinking instead that I’d bought a welcome home cake for Linda, she’s due home tomorrow.  Rather ironically, later in the afternoon one of the friends down the road called in to invite me down to share the curry they were having, so the religieuse languishes all alone in the fridge and I’m left with a dilemma; elevenses before going to meet Linda off the train, half each for tea tomorrow or buy another one and argue about who’s going to have the fresh one!  Life can be so stressful!!!  

P.S. We shared it, well she does proof read the blog posts, but we did find something equally rich and lovely for the other half!!  religieusesreligieuses