It’s long been a dream of Nick’s to take some of the cycle club to Yorkshire and in June it was finally realised.

We started the planning last October; it was a big undertaking and we didn’t want to leave anything to chance. Eleven people signed up, unsure whether they were being brave or foolish; after all, in France the reputation of British food is as bad as that of the British weather and food is a French national obsession. Our friend Dom, from Skipton, sent us suggestions for holiday cottages big enough for twelve, including one whose decor looked a bit quirky, because he thought I might find it “interesting”. His joke was the one we booked, Flanders hall in West Burton.

We booked ferries, hotels for the journeys there and back and held meetings that were always chaotic and never seemed to achieve what we’d hoped. Nick and Dom spent many hours on the phone, discussing route plans, till finally they felt that they’d satisfy everyone, from those who wanted to do about 100km a day to those who preferred shorter rides. We researched bad weather options and tourist visits, exchanged euros for sterling and assured our fellow cyclists that they really didn’t need to take tea, butter or milk with them, that we could buy them there. We suggested that it might be a good idea to have lower gears fitted on bikes as, we explained, Yorkshire hills are a lot steeper than those in the Gers or even Pyrénéen cols!

I had an email from Maïthée and Pierre’s son, who lives in Devon, to ask if there would be a bed free if he drove up for the weekend to surprise his parents; fortunately there was and I even managed not to spill the beans beforehand – quite an achievement for me!

It was a relief when the day of our departure arrived; we could do no more. Bikes and bags were loaded into vans and we set off for the two day drive to Brugge, from where we were taking the ferry to Hull. The plan was to stop in Brugge for lunch and a wander round, but we hadn’t realised that it was Ascension Day; the satnavs took our little convoy right into the city centre, which was mobbed with locals and tourists waiting for the traditional Ascension Day procession. We wove our way through the crowds and down streets made almost as narrow as our vehicles by the rows of spectators’ chairs lining both sides; every car park was full, as were all the restaurants. Time to think up a plan B; head out of town towards the ferry. Being a bank holiday, most shops and restaurants were closed, but eventually we spotted a Chinese restaurant; most of the French looked very apprehensive about our choice, but I suspect, thought it could be no worse than English cuisine. They were pleasantly surprised, on both counts.

On arrival at the port we had a nasty surprise; Alain had noticed his ID card had expired, so had requested a replacement, but the powers that be have recently decided that ID cards will now be valid for 10 years, not 5 as previously, so Alain was told that his card was good for another 5 years and couldn’t be changed unless he moved house. It might be valid in France, but couldn’t be used to travel abroad! We watched in disbelief as poor Alain had to leave us and make his way home, thanks to the idiocy of French bureaucracy.

From Hull our route went close to Harrogate, where we shopped in Asda (yes, tea, milk and butter were available!) and went to Darren’s deli for superb sandwiches, which we ate on the Stray, followed by a visit to the Swan on the Stray for a first taste of English beer; definitely a success. Then on to West Burton. The holiday “cottage” was beautiful, a huge stone built house set in big gardens, surrounded by glorious views of the Dales; Nick and I could finally relax a bit as people happily chose their bedrooms and unloaded the bikes and luggage.

The kitchen was huge, with a gas fired Aga and a big dining table; there was a barbecue and plenty of lockable bike storage and we were only 5 minutes walk from the village and the pub, where we’d booked the first evening’s meal. We’d downloaded and translated the menu as the pub wanted to know our order in advance, but the French aren’t used to such choice and greeted the menu with dismay. “Do we have to choose?”, “Can’t we all have the same?” and “I’ll have what you’re having” were the commonest responses. However, after much coaxing, they finally made their choices. Nobody wanted a dessert, till they saw Nick’s sticky toffee pudding and ice cream arrive, at which point almost everyone ordered the same. All fears and misconceptions about English cuisine soon evaporated!

But where was Maïthée and Pierre’s son? He’d said he’d be there by early evening and by the time we left the pub I’d heard nothing and was getting a bit worried. On the way back to the house I was confiding in Regine and Martine when a text arrived; he wasn’t far away, and had sent loads of messages, but to the wrong number; he should be with us within the hour. Phew!!!

Maïthée and Pierre were tired, they wanted to go to bed, but by now everyone else knew Alain was expected; we women kept Maïthée talking while the men took Pierre for a walk. Eventually my phone rang, Alain was lost in the village, so I directed him to the house and phoned Nick to tell him to bring Pierre back. What a wonderful reunion it was!

The following day we set off for our first ride, visiting Bolton, Richmond and Middleham castles and joined by Andrew and Alan, friends from Knaresborough. The Yorkshire hills came as something of a shock to our French friends, who hadn’t believed our descriptions and a few of whom found themselves having to push their bikes on the steeper sections.

In the evening some of the men went out for a walk and arrived back carrying kilos of mousserons, a much sought after mushroom, wrapped in shirts and any other makeshift bag they could devise. Apparently they sell for around 50€ a kilo here! They couldn’t believe their luck until we explained that the English don’t go mushroom hunting like the French.

On Sunday Dom arrived to stay for the rest of the week; everyone else cycled in the morning while I prepared lunch as Alex, Graham and the girls were coming to see us. It was another hilly circuit, leaving Maïthée expressing the feelings of many, I suspect, on their return, announcing that if it was all like that she wasn’t going out again! Nick and Dom spent the evening rethinking their route plans.

For the rest of the week we cycled most days, the stronger riders riding out from home, the rest of us taking cars loaded with bikes partway and meeting up at prearranged spots. We visited at least one pub most days; the men were very impressed with English beer and everyone enjoyed the food. Wednesday was a day off, when we took the chance to do a tour of the Theakstons brewery and visit the Hawes dairy for Wensleydale cheese and Brymor for ice creams.

On the final day Nick took them up to the Tan Hill Inn, Britain’s highest pub and on the way back the stronger riders climbed Buttertubs; we’d warned them about Yorkshire’s 25% hills and wanted to let those who felt up to it have a go. I think they’ve all got photos of themselves below the 25% sign.

We were very lucky with the weather, only having one afternoon of rain, after which we resorted to drying our shoes in the bottom of the Aga! Various friends, cycling and non cycling, called in during the week; all of them were very welcome, but none more so than Dom, who threw himself wholeheartedly into speaking the best French he could and who seems to have become almost an honorary member of the Nogaro club.

By the time we came home, the cars and vans laden with beer, cheese and other souvenirs, everybody was tired but happy. It had been a successful trip.

Sorry a couple of the photos are the wrong way up; I’ve rotated them, but it hasn’t worked!

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Having been introduced to them by Gemma, one of Nick’s current favourite bands is Mumford and sons; when he discovered that they were playing in Barcelona, it seemed the perfect excuse for a mini break in a beautiful city.

Not being an old hand in buying tickets to gigs, I got completely ripped off, falling for the hard sell; I won’t be buying through Viagogo again. But we got a good deal on train tickets, travelling by TGV from Toulouse and found a great Airbnb room in an apartment near the city centre. Daniel, our host, was lovely and a fount of knowledge on everything from which website to use for tickets to where to find great tapas at a reasonable price.

I’ve no idea how far we walked during our stay, but one day I recorded 22km on Strava, just out of interest. The prices of attractions have rocketed in the 15 years since our last visit, so we did a lot of looking at the outsides of buildings and Nick refused point blank to wait in the queues to visit the Sagrada Familia. However, I did finally persuade him to go to Park Guell, which was as beautiful as I remembered it, as well as the Picasso museum, which was mind blowing!

We spent hours wandering around glorious gardens, discovered as we researched the best way to get to and from the stadium for the gig, as well as many hours getting hopelessly lost in the old city, as the tourist map leaves a bit to be desired.

The gig itself was good, though the sound wasn’t great, way too much bass, leaving the other instruments drowned out; but the atmosphere was excellent.

It’s been a long time since our first, disastrous visit to Barcelona, but I hope we’ll be back again before too long.

For the last few years, Nick has joined some friends on a week’s cycling holiday in Mallorca; he’s always raved about how good the cycling is, how beautiful the scenery and how amazing the food in the hotel. While I couldn’t cycle it seemed pointless my going, but this year I decided to give it a try, along with our friend Ian, who lives in the Pyrenees and Francis and Regine, a couple of French friends from the cycling club.

The weather was perfect, dry and not too hot and as there are up to five guided rides a day, all at different levels of fitness, there was something for everyone.

The first day we did a short, warm-up ride out to the lighthouse at Formentor; the views were every bit as breathtaking as Nick had promised, with azure waters around every bend.

We did some rides with the guides, most of whom are ex-professional cyclists; Nick and Francis joined the group being taken by car to the other end of the island one morning and cycling back along the mountain ridge, about 150km with, obviously, plenty of climbing. We met some lovely people while we were there and one day a group of nine of us decided to do sa Calobra, one of Nick’s “must do” list for me and described as being “a perfect col”, with a steady gradient of 10% for almost the whole of its 12km. It’s an upside down col, as you start at the top, descend to the sea and then climb out, so it’s quite committing. I found the start of the descent terrifying, with tight hairpin bends and loads of buses, but, having made it to the bottom, managed the climb back up without too many problems and even beat two of the guys in our group to the top (one of whom has sinced explained to me the concept of being “chicked”: being beaten up a hill by a woman). A total of 110km and 2320m of climbing for the day, I was nearly too tired to eat dinner that evening.

The hotel was as good as Nick had said and the buffet style restaurant was superb, especially for hungry cyclists. There was a spa and an indoor pool and the staff were lovely, allowing me to practice my Spanish on them. Regine and I had a day off to take the bus to Alcudia, where we spent the day exploring on foot, a welcome break from the saddle for me. I’ll probably go back again, though I’ll take my own saddle in future, the one on the hired bike felt like sitting on razor blades!

The monthly cycle club dinner being the last Friday of the month, this January it happened to coincide with Burn’s night; what, we wondered, would the French make of haggis? It’s a standing joke here, due to a very amusing sketch that was televised a number of years ago and which seems to have been watched by the entire population.

We suggested a Burn’s night supper; cock-a-leekie soup, haggis, tatties and neeps, followed by cranachan. There was much sucking of teeth, after all ; January is poule au pot – had we offended by introducing the possibility of something different?? They mulled it over for a few days and finally decided to let us go ahead, though we had to promise to cook sausages for some people.

We ordered the haggis, researched recipes for the soup and the dessert, got friends who were visiting Britain to bring some Cheddar and Stilton back, had a trip to Spain for the whiskey and made sure that the veg man on the market would have plenty of swedes.

Josette and Dédé, who usually cook the meals, offered their assistance, which was invaluable as they knew such things as how long the potatoes for 50 would take to come to the boil, how many baguettes we’d need and where to order them. We peeled, chopped, sliced and cooked for a couple of days, I made the dessert at home and Jacques sorted the wine.

I found a length of tartan fabric in a charity shop, to make two kilts, which, if you didn’t look too closely, looked the part, with the tartan hat( orange wig attached) that I bought for Nick and our hair sprayed bright orange too. I hardly dare mention what I made for Nick to wear under his kilt; suffice to say it was impressive and caused more than a few “oooh la la’s”!

I liked the idea of doing the “address to a haggis”, but on listening to it, found that I couldn’t understand a word of it – this would be no good for the French, but a bit of research unearthed a French translation; I knew just the man to ask to read it. Christian agreed immediately and spent several days not only learning his lines, but studying videos to get the gestures right. He borrowed Nick’s hat on the evening and did a brilliant rendition accompanied by bagpipe music courtesy of YouTube.

All in all, it was a great success; everybody enjoyed their first taste of haggis and went home very happy.

Our friends Maddy and Dom came over in 2017 for a week’s working holiday. And just to prove their insanity, asked if they could do the same last autumn! We were hardly going to turn down such an offer, so Nick went to pick them up from the airport.

This time, their challenge was the gîte garden; it’s been pretty much neglected since we moved in and was totally overgrown. Nick and I just didn’t know where to start, so the week with Maddy and Dom, who, unlike us, are “real” gardeners, was exactly what we needed.

I was mostly on domestic tasks, keeping the troops fed and watered, but the rest of them worked solidly from morning to night, digging out brambles and honeysuckle, mimosa and pyracantha, pruning the huge bay trees that were threatening the electricity cables and unearthing hundreds of bulbs, whose existence we weren’t even aware of, hidden as they were in the dense undergrowth. Day by day, a garden started to appear.

One of the big discoveries was that of at least one oval flower bed, surrounded by Victorian looking edging tiles; this was cleaned and weeded and by the end of the week, ready to plant. There may well be another similar on to the other side of the path.

In total we filled, jumped on and refilled the trailer seven times; the man at the tip was sick of the sight of us. Once they left, Nick and I continued the work, removing the rest of the pyracantha from the wall by the roadside, digging out the remaining tree stumps and planting up the oval bed, by which time, winter had arrived, so we had a good excuse to take a break from gardening.

The plan had been to finish the gîte garden by the end of November, then concentrate our efforts on the interior of the gîte during the winter, but, as usual, these things take longer than planned. Our thanks, however, must go to Maddy and Dom, without whom we would still be looking at a jungle.

Apart from lots of cycling and masses of gardening, we managed a few short breaks in the camper van last summer. We went to Spain a few times, to the Pyrenees and to the coast, depending on where the weather looked best. We spent a weekend in Arreau, in the mountains, when a big, organised walk was being held, meeting up with the rest of the walking club. At the end of the Saturday night meal, for several hundred walkers from all over France, someone came over to our table, commenting that they could surely find some armagnac here……. but nobody had thought to bring any! Until we remembered that we had a little bottle in the camper, which saved the day!

Gemma was going to Harrogate in July for her friend’s wedding, so she came to stay with us for a couple of weeks first. We had a great time, cycling, eating out and generally enjoying life; the house felt very quiet and empty when she left.

After 18 months’ work, Artie’s quilt was finally complete; the design had been a closely guarded secret, from Kieran and Alice at least and was a great surprise. Kieran’s first question, of course, was whether the QR code works, and I was very pleased to be able to reply that it does.

One job we wanted to get done last year was to lay a drive behind the house and parking between the garage and the cabanon. A friend recommended Monsieur T, so we went to see him, bought a load of stone for around the terrace and the olive tree and asked about the drive. No problem; he’d deliver the stone and has two friends, one with a digger, to take away to top layer of soil, the other with a steam roller to level the stone. He could have it done by June 15th. We now know better than to believe such predictions and promises; he delivered the first lorry load in June, but we didn’t see him again till November. But it was done, ready for winter, so no problem!

We also built a greenhouse for the lemon trees to spend the winter in and Nick built a wall between the house and cabanon, to cut down the wind from the west. He built it using old roofing tiles, of which a large part of our house is built, so it’s in keeping. The gate is made of some of the very few sound planks from what was the upstairs floor in the barn, so it’s almost completely made from recycled materials!

Once the coldest, wettest spring in living memory finished in June, it turned overnight to summer. And what a summer! Within a few weeks our water stocks for watering the garden were already inadequate, so we had to top up, using the well.

The main job for the summer, though, was the installation of our hot tub and landscaping around it. Nick dug out a curve around the terrace, using the digger, as well as another to house the tub and built a plinth to sit it on. He built a retaining wall around it and we lay weed proof fleece and covered it with stones. We dug out a flower bed and planted it up. We decided we needed a step leading to the gîte, where the ground level drops and another two up to our garden. Then came one of those ” you know what would look great there……” moments, which inevitably lead to serious work for the other person. Nick’s idea…… my job. To do pebble mosaic steps.

We visited builders’ merchants and DIY stores, eventually finding useable stones in black and white, bought several different grades of sand and drew up designs. The first, and largest step would be a lizard design, we’d think about the others later.

We started work early one morning; we wasted more than enough time trying to repair the big parasol, but eventually decided I’d just have to wear a hat; by 2pm I’d be working in the shade of the house anyway. We’d already dug out the base to 20cm and had laid increasingly fine hard core; now we mixed different grades of sand with cement and lime, filled the space and tamped it down well. Nick brought over the bags of stone and I started the mosaic, carefully tapping each stone into place, constantly checking the level of each one. Because you’re working with a dry mixture, the project has to be finished in a day; it took 13 hours, by the end of which I thought I’d never walk straight again. Once finished, I gently watered the stones, covered it with a plastic sheet and left it overnight. The following day I made up the grout mixture and carefully brushed it in between the stones, sprayed it with a fine garden spray, then covered it again to cure for the next week.

For the other two steps, we wanted a different theme and I fancied doing a compass on one of them. We’ve got quite a few tomettes, thick terracotta tiles, as well as some slate slabs, which would work. We also went to the seaside a couple of times, to collect interesting stones and visited a friend whose garden is more stone than soil, from where we got lovely golden coloured stones. Using a design taken from patchwork, I explained to Nick how I needed him to cut the tomettes and slate; he made a lovely job of it and I had my starting point. The compass is quite accurate, with an N pointing north, also cut from tomette. Another two days in the baking heat, (by now we’d bought a new parasol), and the steps were done. I’m pleased with the result and hope they’ll last for years to come.

I’ve just found a few drafts of posts for the blog, dating back several months! I couldn’t get photos on to them previously, so I’m going to have another go. They’re very out of date, but I hope you won’t mind that.

The cycle club had organised a trip to St. Lary in the Pyrenees, a two day event, riding the 135km each way, including a col, the Hourquette d’Ancizan, on the way there, staying the night and riding back over the col d’Aspin the following day. Nick and Maïthé talked me into going and set up a training programme; by the end of June, when we set off on the Saturday morning, I felt quite confident.

It was an eventful ride, with two riders touching wheels halfway there; they both came off, but were fortunately unhurt. The main problem was the heat; it was already well into the 20’s when we left Nogaro at 8am, but surely it would be cooler in the mountains, we thought. By the time we arrived at the lunch stop at St. Marie de Campan at the base of the Hourquette d’Ancizan, it was 41°C, one person had already abandoned and climbed into the support van. Suddenly, over lunch, Laurent started screaming and rolling around on the floor – a pretty severe case of cramp; we got him some salt and he joined Pierre in the van, not starting again till near the top of the col on the Sunday. I managed half the col before giving up; the heat was just too much for me. Gilles, the club president, had stayed with me as I lagged further and further behind the group; when I finally decided that I could go no further, he tried to call the guys in the support van, but had no reception, so he set off up the col so that he could call from the top. I sat and waited, never thinking for a minute that he’d come back down to let me know the van would soon be there to pick me up, as he set off to ride the col a second time! Most of the party suffered from the heat, many of them getting bad cramp. Bruno had a problem with his gears near the top and had to be pulled along by Martine, who rides an electric bike; unfortunately this used up her battery and both of them ended up walking the last part. Bruno called his sister, who came to collect him and took him back to Nogaro.

Sunday was slightly cooler, but still 39°C by late morning. We set off early after a good breakfast and tackled the Col d’Aspin in the relative cool, Laurent joining us near the top. Down in the foothills of the Pyrenees, a familiar figure appeared, in the form of Bruno, who had changed bikes and set off very early that morning from Nogaro to rejoin us, doing more kilometres than anyone else.

As we approached Tarbes, I began to feel a bit strange, as if I were looking at the world through a veil; I gave myself a good talking to and carried on till the lunch stop. I parked my bike and headed towards the tables and chairs, put out by Christian and Jeanneau, our very competent support team; but I never reached them and collapsed in a little heap, a victim of the heat.

People removed my helmet and shoes, poured water over my head and massaged something cool into my feet and I was soon fine again, but my ride was over for the day as I once again joined the guys in the support van.

Everyone else finished day 2 without a problem, the general consensus of everybody involved being that it had been a very good weekend.

I didn’t realise just how long it’s been since I posted a blog until a friend complained a few days ago. No, we’re not dead; no, I haven’t got bored of writing it; we’ve just been sooo busy this year that we hardly seem to have had time to draw breath! So my apologies to anyone who’s missed it (there might be a second person I suppose!) and I promise to try to catch up; here’s the first installment.

Every so often, the walking club organises a holiday. This year it was to the canyons of the Spanish Pyrenees at the end of May, which sounded superb; a week of having nothing to do but look after myself and walk, so I signed up for it.

The scenery around the village of Torla, where we were staying was indeed spectacular and the hotel very comfortable. Everyone we came into contact with was lovely, bus driver, hotel staff and guides. The only slight fly in the ointment was the weather; while Britain had been basking in sunshine for the previous several weeks, we’d had nothing but continuous rain and it was no different in Spain.

We had walks organised most days, but for most of the week our sunhats and suncream stayed in our bags in the hotel as we made our way through spectacular scenery, up the sides of waterfalls, through forests and along beautiful valleys. Many of the waterfalls tumbling down the sides of the valleys should have been a mere trickle by now, but we had 3 guides to help us across them, they were running so fast and so deep. Sometimes you could barely hear yourself think between the noise of the water cascading down the rocks and that of the thunder overhead. We were pelted with hailstones and drenched with torrential rain, in spite of wearing cagoules with waterproof capes over the top. We did have one dry day, when the sun shone and we were able to appreciate the spectacular scenery. And on the day we visited the beautiful village of Aínsa, with its Roman church and medieval chateau, it only rained for the part of the day we spent outside! While we were in the natural history museum, it dried up.

But in spite of having to put our boots in the drying room every evening and being able to wring out our socks at the end of each walk, we had a great week. The bonus for me was being able to practice my Spanish with lots of native speakers, the guides, the hotel staff and shopkeepers in the village.

Back at the ranch, Nick had similar weather. His hopes of finishing the work around the terrace were completely scuppered as the rain filled up the excavated ground, leaving it looking like a moat. Instead, he got on with building the office in our house; once home, I got on with decorating it and we were soon able to move the computer in.

The Friday and Saturday of my week away were dry in Caupenne, so Nick took the camper to the Pyrenees and joined 800 other cyclists, following the lorry carrying the statue of the “géant du Tourmalet” to the top of the col and even managing to make a brief appearance on French television!