30 December 2012
rogerhiggs@hotmail.co.uk
Mes chers amis
“The advantage of a bad memory is that one enjoys several times the same good things for the first time.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
The Forgotten Chapter! ~ Chapter 6
Just prior to this, at the annual meeting of the leisure committee, we had met the same gentleman who remembered not recognising us at the local DIY shop some weeks before. I had walked passed him and said hello, and although he replied it was obvious he didn’t recognise me, but on turning the corner and seeing Linda our faces fell into place and he quickly came back into my aisle and shook hands and made amends! This evening he wasn’t going to be caught out and came straight over to talk to us and indeed reminded us of the day he hadn’t recognised us. He then talked about how we had moved to our new house and how quiet our hamlet was, to which I replied, much to their amusement, that at the moment it was even quieter as our neighbours opposite were away. I didn’t add that as the neighbours are both a little deaf they have the habit of shouting at one another and indeed do have the occasional exchange of “angry” words!! But, subsequently we found out he is madam’s cousin so I’m sure knows just how they are! He added still laughing, that if they were away we must be the guardians of the hamlet, similarly knowing that as matriarchs of the hamlet our neighbours miss nothing and have a certain guardianship of the area!
The New Year will see the work continue, hopefully the garage roof finished off and the downstairs bedroom / en-suite started and finished in time for our first visitors of the year and the new fosse septique (septic tank) is due to go in in mid-February, weather and rock permitting – then hopefully the odd unpleasant whiffs will disappear in time for the summer!
In the village of Hammquille ...... Le homme avec le pinceau
A nearby holiday cottage is being put to bed for the winter, and perhaps rather surprisingly has just had a new coat of paint, just in time for the ravages of winter to set to work. It might, I felt, have been better to wait for the spring and refresh the paintwork then, but I guess we’re doing the same and painting our shutters, the only difference being that ours had already been ravaged by time and without Linda sanding them down, raking out some bits of rotten wood, applying wood hardener and wood filler, before the lengthy process of an undercoat and three top coats to one side, before turning them over and starting all over again!, there may not have been any shutters there to paint after another winter. That and the need to stamp our mark and make the outside reflect all the hard work inside!
So, enough of us and back to the holiday cottage and enter a local peintre et décorateur, yes you’ve got it the man with the paintbrush!! Well, from the first day he arrived to the last time I saw him he appeared to have a thin and seemingly rather soggy cigarette permanently stuck to his bottom lip, but never appearing to produce any smoke, and also seemed to spend much of his time going backwards and forwards to somewhere, perhaps his house, unit or indeed another job. He would arrive early enough, make contact with the owners for the latest lowdown, not it seems instructions about what needed doing next, but rather catching up on all the gossip, a very French phenomena and one that I found myself thinking about the other day. Do they, the workmen and artisans, factor into their working day “Social Intercourse Time,” the acronym for which you might notice is “SIT!” Not all this time is spent sitting, often it is standing next to the car, conversing in very loud voices, which as the French have a habit of “starting” work very early, can be a little annoying if you’re having a lie in!!, but there are times to be seated, but more of those later. My musings also wondered if “devis” (quotes) allow for this time, particularly if they are being worked out at an hourly rate! Then, I thought about our own artisans who, in really quite a short time rewired and replumbed our new house, and stopped only fairly briefly for lunch and didn’t once have a tea break, just a swig on the move, of water or coke, when the weather was particularly hot. The difference I decided was that these artisans were working for a large company, didn’t work Monday mornings and did a standard 35 hour week, those working for themselves work longer hours but perhaps have “SIT” factored in as well as having 2 hour lunch breaks!
The surprising thing about this particular artisan with his paintbrush, cigarette and frequent trips to fetch things, was that he actually got lots of work done despite appearances to the contrary and quickly the shutters and window and door frames were repainted, a similar but rather brighter green which when only half done didn’t seem as pleasant a colour as before, but once finished was pleasant enough and will tone down in time. But back to “SIT” and fairly quickly the artisan was enticed into the cave (cellar) of our neighbour for a midday drink or two, so hopefully the work done in the afternoon was as carefully done as that in the morning!! Maybe the cigarette was never lit because of the paint fumes, or could it have been the alcohol fumes!!
So although starting early and finishing late, there was included each day a good degree of “me” time, even despite the fact he was a self employed person. Therefore, it was a little surprising to see him turn up on Bank Holiday Monday, but it quickly became apparent that, true to form, he had left something behind and had come to collect it, but was taking some time contacting the neighbours, as they were out and about in the enormous garden. Having finally tracked down monsieur, the first thing they did was to retreat to the cave for a Bank Holiday drink, so I was never sure if it was a forgotten paintbrush or responding to a friendly “If ever you’re passing call in for a drink!” Maybe it was the gîte shutters being painted that spurred Linda on to do ours, but then the neighbours started looking at theirs, but if it becomes a case of “keeping up with the Jones” as far as gardens go it’s going to be difficult – theirs is immaculate!
“Ici devant nous!”
Our outlook has changed, a row of some twenty or thirty very tall poplar trees, that marched boldly down the banks of the Riviere Sauvegere (Sauvegere Stream), upstream from our house, and heavily hung by huge and numerous gigantic spheres of mistletoe – which doesn’t have the same significance as in the UK, have been cut down. It could have easily been a case of mobilising the troops and chaining ourselves to the trees to protect them from unscrupulous chainsaw welding lumberjacks, but in reality the trees were coming to the end of their lives and could easily have been blown down in the next significant gale, which coincidentally came only a couple of weeks after they were felled.
We found out that some of the trees were owned by a nearby chateau owner, a Frenchman who works in the City of London but spends quite a lot of time in France or his other property in Greece and who, knowing the trees needed felling was watching timber prices and they had gone up to an acceptable price. Amazingly we were told the timber was destined for Italy, when asked if it was for the furniture industry, the owner laughed and said no it was rubbish wood that would probably be turned into camembert boxes – I couldn’t quite work out the economy of this!!, but the man from the City is obviously a shrewd businessman and certainly wasn’t doing it as a health and safety exercise to stop the trees falling on someone!
Fortunately, although our outlook has changed considerably, there are sufficient other trees for it not look too stark and we will probably find we get a longer evening of sunshine, particularly in the summer, although the sun has been conspicuous in its absence over the last month! But, there’s another issue here of course, without all that mistletoe the kissing will stop, and at the Christmas period as well, that we’re blaming on that most romantic of cultures, the Italians!
My original “thought!”
It’s happening by stealth and default! One of the good things about living as we do in France, is that routine has gone out of the window with no things on set days, or to be precise, as Linda has now started French conversational lessons on Thursday afternoon, we swim on Friday and put out the rubbish on a Sunday night routine is well spread out, by choice or quite minimal in its demands!
But, due to stealth and default, it is beginning to change! Having moved from the middle of nowhere, to a sleepy hamlet there are now at least people around, at present with us seven full time residents, which makes it worthwhile for travelling trades people to call, most fortunately at a reasonable hour, so if we are about we can buy bread or mussels (summer time only). However, a different Bread Van calls on a Monday morning and a Milk Van (raw milk scooped straight from the churn) on a Tuesday morning and both come earlier than I am sometimes up, so I’m trying to make sure I am up and just a glimmer of a routine is slipping in or emerging! In fact, I must stop writing here for a moment as it is Tuesday morning and I can hear the peep of the Milk Van, announcing its arrival!
rogerhiggs@hotmail.co.uk
Mes chers amis
The Forgotten Chapter!! ~ Missive 35
“The advantage of a bad memory is that one enjoys several times the same good things for the first time.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
“Forgetfulness is a form of freedom.”
Khalil Gibran
Khalil Gibran
Amongst lots more, this missive includes:
The Forgotten Chapter! ~ Chapter 6
As Khalil Gibran says above, “Forgetfulness is a form of freedom.” Well, it’s hard to imagine how I forgot what happened next, but I will be fairly brief in this chapter as it could become slightly repetitive and could well be subtitled; Boxes, Food, Boxes, Food and more bl..dy Boxes and Food. But, as I’m writing this I’m free to do as I choose!
After the incredibly busy and as you heard in the last chapter tearful, end of term, a thorough and intense sorting out of my office and a fairly relaxing Christmas. There came the final handing over of the school keys and the actual end of an era; played out in rather like an old black and white cold war spy movie as I left the deserted and without children rather desolate building, locked the door that clucked shut behind us, walked across the bleak windswept, deserted, leaf strewn playground and got into my car and drove out of the gate, parking outside to clang the gate shut and to lock the large padlock, before handing over the package (keys) and solemnly driving off (and yes there was another tear in the eye at the finality of no longer being in charge!), into the cold grey winter dusk!! O.K! I admit this is a slightly fanciful reworking of part of the last chapter, but it does help to set the scene!
Then, there was the annual New Year bash and second Christmas in York with Linda’s family, before returning home for the start of, no I was going to say term, but suddenly beginnings and ends of term have lost their significance and no more will I be irritated by the “Back to School” displays that appear in all the shops (yes, and it also happens in France where Rentrée is emblazoned everywhere!!!) during the week before term ends for the summer hols!! And, now we’re back to the end of the last chapter, with snow on the ground, waking up just as whistles would be blowing, or bells ringing, in school playgrounds the length and breadth of the country, and getting ready for a peaceful lunch with my Mum and Dad.
However, the more astute amongst you will have noticed that, with thought of shrill whistles and clanging bells ringing in my ears, I did mention that it would have been good to have turned over and gone back to sleep, as I had been “sorting and packing until two o’clock in the morning!?!” Now that’s your first hint about boxes! Yes, work had finished only to be replaced by a relentless and time-limited occupation – sorting out and packing up our life from the last twenty odd years or so, as although we had only moved into The Parrot House some 14 years previously, we only moved from down the road and at a very busy time of our lives, so everything had been picked up and moved with precious little time for sorting! So, to empty most of the house, put as little into paid storage as possible, whilst still storing some things at our Bath Road house; in the attic, the annexe and the garage and undertake a complete declutter, indeed carry out an “extreme makeover” in time for potential new tenants at the beginning of February, involved lots and lots of boxes, as well as trips to: the tip, charity shops and recycling banks (clothes, shoes, and books etc) and as the boxes mounted and the newspaper for packing dwindled, we even found ourselves raiding the paper banks and bringing recycling back into the house!! It’s only when you have to do it that you realise just how much stuff you accumulate over the years, and by the end of the process we had vowed never to buy any more stationary, clothes, shoes, crockery or kitchen utensils, unless replacing something that had worn out – we have actually failed on probably all those fronts, but have been very careful and selective – honestly!!
So, with me working relentlessly at the sorting and the packing (10 in the morning until 2 the following morning most days, with very little time off for good behaviour!) and Linda helping as much as she could, with a very busy last month at work – I don’t think ever before had she worked so many shifts in such a short space in time!, we just managed to finish everything including the cleaning of the house, by the end of the first week in February. This left just enough time to spend a few days with my Mum and Dad, before setting off on our adventure, despite being nearly thwarted by heavy snow and overwhelming kindness!! The latter is the first clue as to the Food mention in the suggested subtitle above!
Before the food course, looking back at my diary brings a somewhat incredulous smile to the face as I look back at January 2009, with the first entry being “Today started the first day of the rest of my life” and for a few days there are quotes about time and travel, but that was before we returned from York and most of the days after that mention Boxes, although amazingly we did by the end of January, manage to redecorate the dining room, put the furniture into storage, show a few prospective tenants around (although it was to be six months before anyone actually moved in!) and Linda managed to work ten nights, and I joked that I seemed to be working night and day and it all revolved around boxes.
But, we did have to eat (The Food Course!) and the freezer came in very handy, as it was reasonably stocked to avoid too many shopping trips as we emptied it. Then, there came the overwhelming kindness, as people realised that our departure was imminent and thinking that once we were gone that was it, never to be seen again (how wrong they were, we keep turning up like the proverbial bad pennies!!), and the invites to go out for dinner flooded in. In the end, during our last two and a half weeks in Stroud we went out no fewer than eight times and six of these were in the last nine days, four on consecutive days! And, on at least one occasion we went out early and then Linda went on to work! So, not only were we well fed, so full some days that we had to go home afterwards and pack some more boxes to let the food settle before bed (as well as being in danger of running out of time), humbled by people’s kindness, but we also ended up with rather more left in the freezer than expected and ended up making up food parcels for just about anyone we saw, and ate very well when we final left, having slept the last night on the floor as the bed and everything else had gone, and went to stay at my parents for a few days of farewell, my brother and his family even managing a flying visit.
Then, all of a sudden it was a one way ticket to France with a very laden car and caravan, and the beginning of the rest of the adventure and indeed the first missive, so the rest has already been said! But funnily enough writing this now three years down the line, it’s quite funny as we possibly see more of some of our family and friends, at least in terms of quality time, than we did before because now we’re not rushing and trying to fit everything into the space left after work, eating and sleeping! The “voyage dans l'inconnu” or “voyage into the unknown,” had started in earnest, and its back to Missive one for the beginning! Leaving much behind, including a group of Year 6’s who would in due course make their own voyages into the unknown, and whilst, for a while worrying about the agonies that some of them would face during SATS (Standardised Assessment Tests) Week, relief I wouldn’t be around to witness this and an element of relief that there was a growing groundswell of feeling against this testing regime, with further worries about what might replace them, such feelings lingered for a while. I was also reminded of one of my many moral issues over education and it’s overreliance on testing, whilst feeling that it doesn’t follow that a “Level 5” child is better than one who scores “Level 4,” as it is really more complex than that and much depends on where they came from in the first place! However, OFSTED (Office for Standards in Education would have us believe a “Level 5” school is better than a “Level 4” school, simplistic maybe but so often it simply came down to scores without looking underneath the figures and here I don’t just mean progress, I’m thinking emotional baggage and the like, and before emotions start to run too high, I guess I should point out that it is my intention never again to mention OFSTED, unless of course they make inane statements along the lines of “All teachers should power dress” – the gist of a recent proclamation, so it might be a difficult intention or resolution to keep!!! Or as one anonymous person put it: Many people look forward to the New Year for a new start on old habits!” So I best not make any promises!
The House!
Well, since the last missive it has been largely roofing for me and shutters for Linda with a little demolition, window frame making, hole filling, ceiling cleaning, floor tiling and pipe boxing (the sejour, or lounge, is all but finished) and a list of other minor jobs that all go towards the whole. We are now estimating, perhaps not counting those little finishing off / cosmetic jobs in the “finished rooms” that we have probably finished 75% of the inside of the house and in 3 – 6 months the bulk will be finished with the next year or two snagging, finishing off and cosmetic bits!!
So work continues apace, although I’m writing this now in the UK resting and enjoying the festive season. But, the longer we are in residence in our new French abode the more we are having to use French, this time to real people instead of the neighbouring Charolais cattle near the previous house, all our new immediate neighbours are French people who don’t speak English, and our nearest neighbours over the “road” have lots of visitors many of whom stop to chat before knocking on their door. Some of these visitors have also called to see us, one definitely parking in our bit rather than on the neighbour’s; on the couple of occasions he has called. The first time we were sitting outside having just finished our dinner, one balmy late summer evening, and he pulled in purposefully by our gate and strode into the courtyard, proffered his hand and proceeded to lend us an electronic Universal Translator to help us with our French. He had been visiting the neighbours a few days previously, we’d had a conversation and struggled for a word and he’d thought of the translator, fished it out when he got home and brought it
There was also the ex-mayor and his wife who called over the road, found they were not in and seeing us at work on the garage roof came over interested to see what we were doing and ended up having a conducted tour of the outside work, then the house and stopped for a coffee, whilst telling us about their family. Again, all the conversation was in French, but showing we understand and can speak a little French, they then speak far too quickly and if we puzzled over something, in true “Englishman abroad” fashion they shouted it a bit louder!!
Just prior to this, at the annual meeting of the leisure committee, we had met the same gentleman who remembered not recognising us at the local DIY shop some weeks before. I had walked passed him and said hello, and although he replied it was obvious he didn’t recognise me, but on turning the corner and seeing Linda our faces fell into place and he quickly came back into my aisle and shook hands and made amends! This evening he wasn’t going to be caught out and came straight over to talk to us and indeed reminded us of the day he hadn’t recognised us. He then talked about how we had moved to our new house and how quiet our hamlet was, to which I replied, much to their amusement, that at the moment it was even quieter as our neighbours opposite were away. I didn’t add that as the neighbours are both a little deaf they have the habit of shouting at one another and indeed do have the occasional exchange of “angry” words!! But, subsequently we found out he is madam’s cousin so I’m sure knows just how they are! He added still laughing, that if they were away we must be the guardians of the hamlet, similarly knowing that as matriarchs of the hamlet our neighbours miss nothing and have a certain guardianship of the area!
These kindly neighbours also recently arranged an apéro (early evening drinks and nibbles) for all the hamlet to welcome us, although it went on fairly late and we were very grateful we had prepared our evening meal before we went, as it was almost bedtime when we had eaten our dinner. A great evening was had by all, again in French, and perhaps more of this another time. However, it was a little disconcerting that whenever those that knew him mentioned the previous owner of our house, they referred to him as “spéciaux” and we were in danger of thinking he would be a hard act to follow, until we realised that in fact they were saying special needs!! The fact that every time he was mentioned the sentence was accompanied by a gesture of the first finger pointing at their temple and drawing little circles, should have been enough of a clue as to the gentleman’s state of mind. There were certainly signs of madness in some of the things that he had done in the house!
The New Year will see the work continue, hopefully the garage roof finished off and the downstairs bedroom / en-suite started and finished in time for our first visitors of the year and the new fosse septique (septic tank) is due to go in in mid-February, weather and rock permitting – then hopefully the odd unpleasant whiffs will disappear in time for the summer!
In the village of Hammquille ...... Le homme avec le pinceau
A nearby holiday cottage is being put to bed for the winter, and perhaps rather surprisingly has just had a new coat of paint, just in time for the ravages of winter to set to work. It might, I felt, have been better to wait for the spring and refresh the paintwork then, but I guess we’re doing the same and painting our shutters, the only difference being that ours had already been ravaged by time and without Linda sanding them down, raking out some bits of rotten wood, applying wood hardener and wood filler, before the lengthy process of an undercoat and three top coats to one side, before turning them over and starting all over again!, there may not have been any shutters there to paint after another winter. That and the need to stamp our mark and make the outside reflect all the hard work inside!
So, enough of us and back to the holiday cottage and enter a local peintre et décorateur, yes you’ve got it the man with the paintbrush!! Well, from the first day he arrived to the last time I saw him he appeared to have a thin and seemingly rather soggy cigarette permanently stuck to his bottom lip, but never appearing to produce any smoke, and also seemed to spend much of his time going backwards and forwards to somewhere, perhaps his house, unit or indeed another job. He would arrive early enough, make contact with the owners for the latest lowdown, not it seems instructions about what needed doing next, but rather catching up on all the gossip, a very French phenomena and one that I found myself thinking about the other day. Do they, the workmen and artisans, factor into their working day “Social Intercourse Time,” the acronym for which you might notice is “SIT!” Not all this time is spent sitting, often it is standing next to the car, conversing in very loud voices, which as the French have a habit of “starting” work very early, can be a little annoying if you’re having a lie in!!, but there are times to be seated, but more of those later. My musings also wondered if “devis” (quotes) allow for this time, particularly if they are being worked out at an hourly rate! Then, I thought about our own artisans who, in really quite a short time rewired and replumbed our new house, and stopped only fairly briefly for lunch and didn’t once have a tea break, just a swig on the move, of water or coke, when the weather was particularly hot. The difference I decided was that these artisans were working for a large company, didn’t work Monday mornings and did a standard 35 hour week, those working for themselves work longer hours but perhaps have “SIT” factored in as well as having 2 hour lunch breaks!
The surprising thing about this particular artisan with his paintbrush, cigarette and frequent trips to fetch things, was that he actually got lots of work done despite appearances to the contrary and quickly the shutters and window and door frames were repainted, a similar but rather brighter green which when only half done didn’t seem as pleasant a colour as before, but once finished was pleasant enough and will tone down in time. But back to “SIT” and fairly quickly the artisan was enticed into the cave (cellar) of our neighbour for a midday drink or two, so hopefully the work done in the afternoon was as carefully done as that in the morning!! Maybe the cigarette was never lit because of the paint fumes, or could it have been the alcohol fumes!!
So although starting early and finishing late, there was included each day a good degree of “me” time, even despite the fact he was a self employed person. Therefore, it was a little surprising to see him turn up on Bank Holiday Monday, but it quickly became apparent that, true to form, he had left something behind and had come to collect it, but was taking some time contacting the neighbours, as they were out and about in the enormous garden. Having finally tracked down monsieur, the first thing they did was to retreat to the cave for a Bank Holiday drink, so I was never sure if it was a forgotten paintbrush or responding to a friendly “If ever you’re passing call in for a drink!” Maybe it was the gîte shutters being painted that spurred Linda on to do ours, but then the neighbours started looking at theirs, but if it becomes a case of “keeping up with the Jones” as far as gardens go it’s going to be difficult – theirs is immaculate!
“Ici devant nous!”
Our outlook has changed, a row of some twenty or thirty very tall poplar trees, that marched boldly down the banks of the Riviere Sauvegere (Sauvegere Stream), upstream from our house, and heavily hung by huge and numerous gigantic spheres of mistletoe – which doesn’t have the same significance as in the UK, have been cut down. It could have easily been a case of mobilising the troops and chaining ourselves to the trees to protect them from unscrupulous chainsaw welding lumberjacks, but in reality the trees were coming to the end of their lives and could easily have been blown down in the next significant gale, which coincidentally came only a couple of weeks after they were felled.
We found out that some of the trees were owned by a nearby chateau owner, a Frenchman who works in the City of London but spends quite a lot of time in France or his other property in Greece and who, knowing the trees needed felling was watching timber prices and they had gone up to an acceptable price. Amazingly we were told the timber was destined for Italy, when asked if it was for the furniture industry, the owner laughed and said no it was rubbish wood that would probably be turned into camembert boxes – I couldn’t quite work out the economy of this!!, but the man from the City is obviously a shrewd businessman and certainly wasn’t doing it as a health and safety exercise to stop the trees falling on someone!
Fortunately, although our outlook has changed considerably, there are sufficient other trees for it not look too stark and we will probably find we get a longer evening of sunshine, particularly in the summer, although the sun has been conspicuous in its absence over the last month! But, there’s another issue here of course, without all that mistletoe the kissing will stop, and at the Christmas period as well, that we’re blaming on that most romantic of cultures, the Italians!
My original “thought!”
It’s happening by stealth and default! One of the good things about living as we do in France, is that routine has gone out of the window with no things on set days, or to be precise, as Linda has now started French conversational lessons on Thursday afternoon, we swim on Friday and put out the rubbish on a Sunday night routine is well spread out, by choice or quite minimal in its demands!
But, due to stealth and default, it is beginning to change! Having moved from the middle of nowhere, to a sleepy hamlet there are now at least people around, at present with us seven full time residents, which makes it worthwhile for travelling trades people to call, most fortunately at a reasonable hour, so if we are about we can buy bread or mussels (summer time only). However, a different Bread Van calls on a Monday morning and a Milk Van (raw milk scooped straight from the churn) on a Tuesday morning and both come earlier than I am sometimes up, so I’m trying to make sure I am up and just a glimmer of a routine is slipping in or emerging! In fact, I must stop writing here for a moment as it is Tuesday morning and I can hear the peep of the Milk Van, announcing its arrival!
Kind regards, Best Wishes and Love,
Roger and Linda
and ... A Happy and Prosperous New Year to everyone
And, next time, in Missive 36 ~ The times they are a changing........
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