Things done..... and not done.

The never ending " to do " list

Each trip to Caunes begins with a long "to do" list....some things are accomplished, while others transfer to the "to do, next time" list.

Here is a summary of this trips "done" things.

Make a bread bag.......... DONE

I have owned this gorgeous 1950s fabric ( yards and yards of it) since my Auntie Mamie died in the 1970s. I have kept it and thought about her, every time I have considered using it. Finally, I have made something I know she would love.... a bag to keep my bread fresh, and away from surfaces where it might attract insects. I also made a table cloth, and have enough left over for a dressing gown ( note to self.....task for next trip. )

Frame and hang photos of the children to make the place feel more like home.........DONE

The idea was to fill the long downstairs corridor with photos of the children and grandchildren from holidays in France over the last 20 years. I also bought frames to keep empty, to fill up and add to the gallery over the next 20 years.

Find antique lace panel curtain for toilet door......... HALF DONE !

 

I failed to find the perfect antique panel, so this machine made cow motif curtain will do until I succeed in my quest..... I think the boys will like the idea of cows on the toilet door.

.....and talking of toilets, we have never quite managed to organise having locking toilet or bathroom doors in the houses we have lived in...... so this was a great success for our "to do" list.......

Put  (working) locks on bathroom and toilet doors.....DONE

our visitors will be most impressed

Put our names on the  front door ........   HALF DONE

We managed to remove the previous owners' names from the door, had our own plaque made......but then broke a screw while we were putting it on the door, so it is transferred to the next time list.

Build bunk beds and organise boys' room........DONE

Paint and put up spice rack................DONE

This was an old bookcase that I salvaged from our old house in Mankinholes at the very last minute, thinking, it just might come in handy in France.

Drive the ridiculously large car Mark insisted we have.....and feel confident about it .........DONE......what was all the fuss about ?

Supervise the replacement of the horrendous pink bathroom.......DONE

Can't believe how much better this looks !

We also visited Narbonne on probably the coldest day the world has ever known, saw frozen waves, and lots of people wearing lots of clothes, huddled around cups of hot chocolate. We visited Minerve, which was gorgeous and look forward to returning when the weather is a little warmer. We went to the Carneval in Limoux, and went for a few very very cold walks around Caunes. It is such a beautiful place.

Minerve

Caunes

We fed the birds, and watched them from our terrace. We were delighted to find goldfinches, chaffinches, blue and great tits as well as thrushes, blackbirds and sparrows.

We failed to do any gardening ....too cold and too much snow, Mark failed to play golf for the same reasons....and I failed to practise the piano ..... for different reasons.......laziness probably being one of them.

All these things.....and I don't doubt, many others, will be added to the "to do" list for our next trip. 



Carnaval de Limoux

The Limoux Carnival

This annual carnival has been held for centuries and its purpose seems to be to make fun of society and its rules. For 10 weeks, 3 times, each Saturday and Sunday leading up to the 2^nd Sunday before Easter, different masked groups, representing various guilds, parade through the streets. The first parade, at 11am, is supposed to provide amusement and mock some local or national story from the past year. The last parade of the day, at 11pm, is torch lit and is more sombre and mystical.

We saw the 11am parade on Sunday 5^th February. It was incredibly cold, and the snow started to fall during the parade. The musicians, wearing stunning red smocks, looked cold.....there was evidence of frozen moustaches, and clearly, some sore chapped lips attached to trombones, clarinets and various horns.

The actual characters in the parade we saw were monks, nuns, a priest, and a whore. The costumes were caricature like, all participants wearing expressionless masks. From the little we understood, and what we have read about the origins and purpose of the carnaval, it was referring to the Church's role in child abuse cases that have been in the news recently.

Haunting choral music flooded the square as a small crowd started to gather. This is February, it is incredibly cold, and tourists are thin on the ground, so I think we were the only non French observers.

Proceedings are carried out in the ancient Occitan language ( from Langue d’ Oc ..... the Languedoc ) of this region. To our ears it sounded a little Spanish, but some of it was basically comprehensible to our developing French understanding. For instance, it was clear, when the Priest character was being “judged” by the others, he was sentenced to being turned into a lapin, and then castrated.

In between set scenes, the masked figures paraded from cafe to cafe, in a stylised fashion, posing, tableau like and then furiously waving their arms above their heads. All through this the band followed them and played what varied from haunting anthems to almost fairground music.

No... we didn’t know exactly what was going on...... and apparently the origin of the carnival is lost in time, a pagan winter festival possibly, but one that runs for a considerable length of time and coincides with Lent. It has always made fun of local dignitaries, and has always included lewd and rude references..... and encourages members of the public to dress up in outrageous costumes to follow the parade.

This is a parade follower... dressed appropriately.

           The priest turned rabbit is clutching his genitals here !

Whatever was going on.. I am so glad we saw it.

Monsieur le Chat

Monsieur le Chat

I have a very bad record regarding cats. I love them, and never regard a home to be complete without one. However, I am unreliable. I gave "Lily" to an old people's home when I decided I wanted to live in America for a year in the 80s. Then, when I left America, I gave "Nebraska" to a woman who worked at the local vetinary clinic.

"Dillinger" lasted a long time.....but after 13 years I gave him to our lodger, partly because she was distraught that we were moving and taking him with us, but also because we were moving into a rented home for a few weeks....and having a cat wasn't convenient !

Most recently, recognising that flitting between Yorkshire and the Languedoc, would not provide stability for 10 year old "Elijah", I gave him to Carole and Peter.

Wandering around the garden here in Caunes the other day, I think I found the answer......basking in the sunshine, behind the house, between the washing line and the pine forest.... I saw, the one  I intend to call Monsieur le Chat.

He is a real bruiser of a feline.... scarred, raggedy ears, and so tough looking, I am sure he can cope with my unreliability. I presume he technically "belongs" to someone else, but in recognition of the fact that people can never really own a cat.... they are clearly the dominant element in any relationship..... Monsieur Le Chat et moi are going to get on well. I don't have to worry about looking after him, we can just share the same garden from time to time. I love him already.

Bidet on the balcony

Bidet on the balcony

I'm delighted to be back in Caunes, and looking forward to completing a few "projects"....painting a spice rack, organising the granchildren's room, making a bread bag, a few long walks, coming to terms with driving "the bus" ( the 7 seater that Mark insisted we needed in which to ferry all our visitors around )....and of course, some blogging..

We began our trip, being thrilled that the work on one of the new bathrooms has actually started.....and the evidence was....... the bidet on the balcony.  Please understand that these pale pink fittings are being removed from our house......not installed.  Neither Mark nor I could cope with the retro pink shell theme.....however,we have been advised these items will provide  great interest at the next vide greniere ( empty the attic.....car boot equivalent ).

It is actually quite tempting to turn the bidet into a bird bath somewhere in the garden......but the toilet has to go !

Wisconsin Winter Wonderland

Wisconsin Winter Wonderland

There I was thinking my blogging exploits would always be connected to moving between Yorkshire and France, and already, half way through January, 2012 has involved travel much further afield.

Visiting Wisconsin to celebrate the life of a friend who died just before Christmas, proved to be slightly more exciting than anticipated. As we arrived in Chicago, so did the first heavy snow of the Wisconsin winter. It seemed incredibly sensible to upgrade our car rental booking, to a 4 wheel drive jeep. It is many years since I have driven in thick snow, or recently ploughed potentially icy roads......and Mark has never witnessed a Wisconsin winter.....so, it was very sensible.

The "do" for my friend was fine... or as fine as these things can be, so this blog is actually about the rest of the trip, and really just an excuse to "publish" some of the gorgeous snowy photos we took.

Just north of Chicago, we decided travelling further north in a blizzard was not a good idea

 

Milwaukee through the windshield

                                 The Town of Wilson, Sheboygan County

Lake Michigan

The Sheboygan River

deer at Terry Andrae

 Beach at Terry Andrae

 Lake Michigan

The road to Howards Grove

Wisconsin red barn

Me & the jeep "patriot"

Scheduling visits via Sheboygan

Hebden Bridge to Caunes via Chicago and Sheboygan

We are getting on well with planning our next trip to Caunes, and in fact with organising where we will be throughout the coming year. 2012 may not be a "normal" year, with a grandchild due in March, olympic tickets to be used in August, Jodie's wedding in October/ November, a Test series in India to be accommodated, Jess's 21st etc etc. Somehow, I think that each year will provide complications though, and we may get used to flitting backwards and forwards between France and England, rather than spending months and months in one place. What will be a "normal " year ?

Scheduling other people's visits is also complicated...we want everyone to come, but pregnancies, weddings, uni exams, olympics, school holidays, etc mean we have to be organised, and I really wanted to be able to be a bit more relaxed about it all...... time will tell how it all works out. Anyway, Jess is organised.... she has her first flights booked... her logic being once she had "booked", others will have to fit in around her.....including me.... must make sure I'm there to pick her up from the airport ! ( and the fridge is full ).

The first complication to face us this year, is that a US trip is being scheduled in, even before our end of January French visit. My friend, Darlyn, died just before Christmas. Darlyn and I have had a tumultuous friendship over the last 26 years, since I was an exchange teacher in Wisconsin in 1984/5. We have visited each other regularly, travelled  in the UK, in the US and to Egypt together, and have kept up a very lively quarter-century correspondence, dealing with family matters, politics, economics, literature, theatre, art and personal arguments. I think her belief was that friendship should never be easy if it was to be worthwhile.....and she made me work at it !

This is Darlyn, with me, 9 week old Jessie, 10 year old Matt and 9 year old Jodie, outside her Kohler, Wisconsin home in 1991....Jessie's first travelling adventure.

Darlyn has been ill for 2 years, and I last saw her in autumn 2010. Her "remission" state seemed stable, and she was planning to come to Caunes this spring. Darlyn has been in on all the planning for our home in France, and as someone who spent her youth dreaming of visiting France, and then spent a year there in the 1960s, she was really looking forward to discovering Caunes and the surrounding area. Not to be I'm afraid...... I am incredibly sad that she will not get to share in our dream come true.

We are off to Wisconsin later this week, to attend a celebration of Darlyn's life. I think it will be a strange affair. It will certainly be strange, going to Wisconsin and not spending time with her. 

So, within the next 3 weeks, I will be in Chicago, Milwaukee, Sheboygan ( famous for its reference by Marilyn Monroe in "Some Like it Hot"..... must admit, an easy to miss reference, unless of course Sheboygan is important to you ) and Kohler... then back to Liverpool, Hebden Bridge, Carcassonne and Caunes. Busy times.

Ryanair and wild boars

Our 2nd trip to the new house in France has enabled me to feel much more "at home"...and already some of my anxieties about not being settled in either home have faded.

The ease of the journey between homes has helped, and I never expected to be declaring Ryanair to be so good. I keep hearing horror stories, of stranded poorly treated ripped off travellers and await the first time we have a bad experience....but so far.....the company can't be faulted.

Early morning fog in Carcassonne meant our flight had to be diverted to Perpignan....Carcassonne hasn't got the facility required to enable planes to land unsighted. The air crew assurred passengers that buses would be available to take us all back to Carcassonne, and they were. All was well organised, the bus journey from Perpignan to Carcassonne was delightful, and all passengers arrived where they should have been, just a couple of hours later than expected.....and just as the fog lifted to display a beautiful clear warm winter's day.  Basically, whilst the weather is not under Michael O'Leary's control, everything he was responsible for worked perfectly.

The house looked amazing as we approached it.... some of the pine trees and gorse that I  had wanted removed, to give the almond, olive,  and oak trees more space, had gone....so the view from our terrace over the village was even more spectacular than 5 weeks ago.

We turned on the electricity, the gas, the water.... and amazingly ( or at least to me) the TV, the phone and the internet all worked perfectly, immediately. I was expecting all sorts of difficulties.... but we were there, in our own little bit of paradise, and connected to the outside world.

We did all sorts of practical things this time..... put curtains up, delighted to discover an ancient pair from at least 2 houses ago, were perfect for the living room.....bought some decent secateurs to replace the rubbish supermarket ones I bought last time, and made a soul destroying trip to Ikea in Montpelier. We vowed never to go again, but I always say that ... I just hope that this time, I never have the urge to buy something with an interesting Swedish name again. I have to say it is the only place I was able to find measuring spoons !

Curtain framed door to the terrace

New garden tools

We organised logs for the fire.....

and learned that the log burning stove is easy to work, and very very efficient.....it also made our French home look just like Abraham's barn, where we used to live in Mankinholes, before all the selling and buying of new places to live that 2011 has involved.

We did some exploring, went to Citou, a couple of local walks, into Carcassonne, the much maligned Montpelier trip... which was beautiful, apart from the 2 hours in Ikea, Mark played golf a couple of times, we entertained our first dinner guest, I baked a cake, and played in the garden.

Montpelier

Carcassonne

The walk into the village

One of the gorgeous Caunes marble statues in the village

We discovered that we had a night visitor....le sanglier.....The hills behind our house, are inhabited by all sorts of wild life..... and we now know, quite clearly, that there are wild boar there. We heard noises one evening, but couldn't see anything, but found irrefutable evidence of snuffling rooting snouts, under the tree where we had hung bird food. When a local gardnener told me that from what he could see near our grape vines, there had been "pigs" in the garden, I thought he meant that the previous owners had kept pigs, which seemed pretty unlikley... but no.... he meant.... we get visitors.....les sangliers..... so I am very excited at the prospect of coming face to face with one at some stage. I did get up at dawn one morning, just to have alook around, just in case one was still rooting around. No luck with les sangliers, but a fabulous dawn all the same.          

So all in all.... yes, this is  already home, just need a few more pictures of the kids around the place.......so that's the next job.