The big thaw is here!

Well, it's thawing well today. The roads are clear & the grass is beginning to appear again.
Limoges today was almost back to normal.
The cold weather is set to return again this weekend, but hopefully the Limousin will escape the horrendously low temperatures of the past two weeks.
Wherever you are, stay warm.

The slow thaw

Well, the temperatures are starting to rise above freezing.
The snow is thinning, the bushes & hedges are appearing once more and more importantly, the blackbirds, robins, starling, woodpeckers and thrushes have been able to set about scratching a meal from under the greenery once more.
We would like to be able to get the car out after two weeks, the freezer needs filling, some fresh fruit & veg will be more than welcome and we're going to have lunch out for a change.
Roll on the Springtime!

Brrrr, the big freeze has arrived in France!

Well, in our part of France anyway, we have night time temperatures of up to -20°c and daytime temperatures no more than -8
Lots of snow & ice on the ground, and nowhere to go in the car as we can't get it down the hill.
So, any shopping has to be got on foot 5 kilometers away & back again.
The little birds are so hungry & the ground is as frozen as I've seen it, so putting food out three or four times a day has been the norm.
The Spring bulbs were just popping their heads up before all this freezing weather descended, so I'm hoping they will survive to see the warmth of the sun again. Whether I will, is another matter!

New Year in france

Hello and a very Happy New Year everyone.
New Year here in France is not terribly eventful. I'm not complaining about this, as it's one of the reasons we came to live here... for the peace & quiet.
At midnight on the 31st January, a local farmer let off his shotgun six times.
Yes, that was it! And I then went back to sleep.
I have never been a great lover of noise & fireworks and the local farm animals really hate it, so I can cope with one local farmer & his six shots once a year!
The chasse or local hunters have been out and about. When we first arrived here, I thought it terribly cruel to hunt down poor defenceless animals, then I realised that these men were feeding their families over the winter, just as their forefathers and their forefathers.
I have also come to realise, that if they didn't keep the wild deer and boar population down, our countryside and gardens would be decimated mud baths before we could say chasse.
So, I have grown to live cheek by jowl with the local hunting fraternity and also to appreciate that their traditions need to be respected and not frowned upon.
It's all done in a humane way, and they are bot allowed to hunt during the time when the animals are carrying their young or until the young have grown and left their mother, and if you ever experience seven wild boar tearing around your beautifully tended garden and vegetable plot and then seen the devastation that they can cause in such a short time, well ... your sympathies may well change!

Happy New Year

Christmas is coming to France.

I frequently get asked, what is the difference between a French Christmas and an English Christmas?
Well, as the years go by, I have to say that the differences get a little less, but the main one is that the French do not start thinking about the festive season at the end of September!
When I first came to France, I never saw much in the way of Xmas decs until December, now, I can find them mid November.
Also, the French don't send out dozens of Christmas greeting cards.
They only send them to people that they don't see throughout the year, I call these my "Forgotten Friends", although they aren't really forgotten, just put to one side for special occasions!
You can see my thinking on my other blog here...
http://greetingscardrookie.blogspot.com/Anyway, I think the French christmas is much more traditional, family oriented and old fashioned and long may it survive.
Joyeux Noel
Happy Christmas
or just Festivus Greetings!

No snow yet, but it sure feels close!

Chestnuts are falling on my head!

Ouch, it's raining sweet chestnuts at the moment. I can't walk anywhere around the garden without running the gauntlet of these little green spikey objects that drop from the trees like round bullets and do they hurt if they happen to bounce off my head!
They are indeed delicious roasted, but by the time I have collected them, prised them from their barbed casings, made a cut in each one so that they don't explode in the heat, roasted them & then burned almost all of my fingertips prising off the shell, well, I'm done for and the taste of a freshly roasted chestnut has suddenly lost its appeal.
I actually buy them in a jar at the supermarket. I know it's not really the thing, living in the French countryside as I do, but to preserve my sanity not to mention my hands, it's what I do.

The worst part of having chestnuts in the garden, is the lawn mowing.
There are hundreds of the things on the ground when I come to do the last cut of the season and as they coincide with the leaf fall, they combine in a prickly hedgehog like ball and conspire to choke and clog the mower chute, making it impossible to do the mowing.
Still, it's better to live in this lovely part of France and have small annoyances than to be banged up in the prison that is a city.

Vide Greniers and Brocantes

Vide Greniers and Brocantes, which to UK expats are car boot sales (minus the car) and bric a brac sales, are very popular here in France from March to October.
Almost every Sunday, we pop off to the nearest one and see what people have to offer.
Vide Grenier literally means "empty attic" and it's amazing what sort of things the French people have to sell.
I have see, everything from clogs to butter churners, to old oil lamps and beautiful French porcelain. You name it, you'l find it there.
Also, there are copious amounts of French wine, sausage and frites to be had at ridiculously low prices.
A large sausage baguette, frites & a glass of wine usually comes in at around 6 euros or £5.10 sterling at todays exchange rate.
The atmposphere is something one cannot buy though, and it's real family affair all day with no worries about crime or drunken behaviour.
Give me France any day!