Blog 22 / August 2016
This is a happy clappy vide grenier buy. I am a real fan of ceramic pots that look like the real thing and when I saw this lovely basket I stopped in my tracks, and when I asked how much, and the little old lady said three Euro, I was catapulted into heaven. I intend to fill it with dried lavender for the winter but for now it is showing off my dahlia and sweet peas…wonderful
Mike and I
are in the process of jigging the kitchen about and we have now come to a point
of no return. We purchased a well looked after second hand range cooker, put it
into position, moved the existing units and things are already feeling bigger
and more French kitchen robust. The only thing you are unable to appreciate in
this picture is the sound of my kindle playing baroque music and the smell of
fresh veg straight off the allotment. In
the rearrangement the white fridge lost its home under the stairs, so we put it next to the fire spreading the kitchen
area into the dining area. I have been feeling a little uncomfortable about
this move until we went into Cora hypermarket on our way to Falaise on a 2 day
break. We were making our way to the bread department and passed through the
fridges then I saw the answer to my discomfort and made a spontaneous purchase.
We paid for it and went back to Cora after our away days and brought it home in
the camper garage.
For those
out there who know me well, you will be smiling and understanding why I had to
own this wonderful red retro beauty.
I love
seeing vans and Lorries on the drive because I love our big drive, it makes me
feel I have achieved. We had a crack start to meander across the windscreen of
the Espace so I called our insurers to see if we were covered and they gave me
the number to call. In minutes I was talking to a well-trained customer
services lady who slowed her pace of French to help me get it right. She then booked
us in and made all the arrangements to go to the depot in St Lo because she
was unable to find a mobile crew to come to us as everyone was on holiday, it
is August after all said and done. The day before our appointment at the depot we
got a phone call to inform us that the replacement windscreen would take over 2
hours to complete. Mike was a little
miffed and wondered what we were supposed to do stuck on an industrial area for
over 2 hours. I waffled and moaned a bit about not being able to stay that long
and they suggested they come to us the very next morning……I just love it when a
plan comes together despite your best efforts and with refreshing customer
services to boot.
We had a
family of holiday makers in the Mobile homes who took me by surprise last week.
Two cars rolled up containing nine people, mums and dads, teenage kids and 2
toddlers. We had arranged that they could put a little tent up and they paid
their total bill of 500 euro for the week. They have the use of the garden, a
built in BBQ, a lovely covered area to eat in, which they used every evening, and
there is off street private parking. Water, gas and electric are included in a
well-equipped little home in the country. The children screamed and shouted with joy and
all seemed good up in the garden. I took a look at the bins mid-week and had to
bring down a wheel barrow full of rubbish after only 3 days of occupancy. At
the end of the week I went up to say
goodbye but there was a distinct feeling of unfriendliness and when I asked if
all went well the spokeswoman said that they had to replace plates because they
dropped them walking over to the BBQ area, they also mentioned that the mole
hill in front of the mobile home was unsightly and then they said the neighbours
dogs were too noisy. Well I was struck down as to what they expected for a
family of 9 at 500 euro for the week. I
said my good byes wished them a safe return and brought down yet another wheel
barrow full of rubbish to recycle and manage……it is quite remarkable how
ungrateful some people can be …..
Our
chickens are still living a free range and happy existence here at Brevands, I
still get an egg a day … or so… We have decided that we will not replace our
chickens and try a year or two without them but suspect we will find a way to
keep them again, as they are such eye
candy, and fun to have a round.
We had no
bookings for the week of the 15 August so I drew a line and booked us out for a
holiday. In the run up to the week however, I could have booked the mobiles
four times over but they are all last minute punters and I do not have the
chance to run my booking process with deposit cheques and holiday
contracts. Our friends Gill and Barry
Wells got in contact to say they were going to be in Falaise and was there a
way to get together for lunch. Mike and
I love Falaise and I booked us for 2 nights in the camp site under the castle. On the way there we popped into Bourgubus to
have a moment of reflection in the place where Mike’s uncle Bill was killed on
23rd July 1944. There is
nothing to be seen there and we know life goes, but it was good just to look around
and contemplate the event all those years ago. We have been interested in the
DDay story for over 30 years and we can now identify post war architecture
where a town has been destroyed and rebuilt. There is an air of new beginnings in the style
of build that even after 72 years still exists if you stop to look at it, and
appreciate what had to be achieved to get back to normality, and only those who
went through it really understand the sacrifice.
We were
very lucky to get pitch number 7 with this fantastic view of the castle of
Falaise looking down on us. The weather was extraordinary and we just laid
ourselves out to relax.
Falaise is
a William the Conquerer castle and I love its attitude on top of a rocky
outcrop looking mean. We walked in and out of town and had a very enjoyable
time appreciating the architecture and read up about the difficulties Falaise
had in their rebuild after 1944, let alone a 1066 castle to worry about as well. !
We had
arranged to meet Gill and Barry in front of the church by the castle, but there
is always an element of doubt that we had all understood where that might be.
Everything went to plan though and we ended up having a typical French lunch on
a shady terrace in the town square.
We had not seen Gill and Barry for the past eight years so there was tons
to catch up on and we spent a lovely few hours at table with the terrace
filling and emptying while we chatted amongst ourselves
This may look
a bit posh for camping but since we spent 2 months in 2004 travelling through
Italy and France in a tiny V dub camper with
barely bare essentials, we now Glamp to obsession. We fry up outside the camper and enjoy chips
and crockets while others eat tinned potatoes or dolmeo and pasta. We also have
a microwave on board but alas no dish washer. We are considering a change of
tactic with our camping but we will probably wait for HOSS to leave us as he is
so very comfortable in our big camper and the older he gets the more we want to
make him feel at ease. HOSS rules ..OK
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