After 6 weeks of enforced inactivity, due to a nasty virus that left me weak, dizzy and weighing less than at any time since I was 16, I was finally finally ready to get back to work by the end of last week.

The weather is glorious this week, but too hot to work outside in the middle of the day; so gone are the lazy mornings of winter, sitting by the newly lit fire “just to make sure it stays alight”. It’s time to get up early and out to the garden while it’s still cool; everything’s growing, but nothing as fast as the weeds. The onions we planted a few weeks ago had all but disappeared, so this morning’s first job was to weed around them, then pile last week’s grass cuttings, from the first mowing of the year, into the compost bin that Nick has emptied of lovely, rich compost onto one of the veg plots.

I’ve finished painting the second of the six sections of the living area of the house, and just had to wax the wooden beams today, before Nick could move the scaffolding to the next section. I’ve done the most difficult two now, so I hope to get the rest of the sanding, painting and waxing done quite quickly; Nick’s nearly finished tiling the ground floor and will want to move on to the upstairs very soon.

When they discovered that the downhill stage of the mountain bike world championships was to be held at the Pic du Jer, a 1000m peak near Lourdes, Nick and Kieran decided it would be rude not to go and watch.

They arrived in time to head up the hill to watch the start of the event, as riders hurled themselves off the starting ramp and down the mountainside, round sharp bends, over jumps and down ridiculously steep terrain. There were plenty of thrills and not a few spills as the world’s best jumped, skidded and hurtled their way down the course at breathtaking speed.

Nick and Kieran gradually made their way down the course, stopping at good vantage points and eating their picnic lunch en route before heading home, neither of them wishing to try their hand at this aspect of cycling.

PS A friend has sent me this link to a short video covering some of the race highlights – enjoy!

http://www.e-adrenaline.fr/terre/actualites/la-coupe-du-monde-de-descente-en-vtt-a-tenu-ses-promesses/6161

Easter Monday dawned bright and sunny, not a cloud to be seen in a clear, blue sky; a perfect day to take Betty out for a ride, and as there was an art festival over the weekend in the pretty town of Salies de Bearn, it seemed the perfect destination.

We’d expected an outdoor event, a sort of market, but there were cars parked in the market square, so we set off to find where it was all happening. We didn’t have far to go; the first venue we found was in the Temple, an old church in the centre of the town, where there were three artists displaying sculptures and paintings. In all there were sixteen locations, including the casino, the library, the town hall, street corners, churches, a couple of garages and even a “mobile exhibition centre” – a lorry, and over 70 artists, many of them professional, but some amateurs too.

The range of work was amazing; paintings incorporating wood and other media, sculptures of clay, metal and glass, ceramics of every shape and size, fabrics, photographs. There were dozens of brightly coloured metal birds throughout the town; we mistook them for flamingoes, but according to the artist, they were just imaginary birds that he’d struggled to fit into his lorry. He was delighted to have sold plenty of them; the remainder would go in the lorry more easily for the return journey. One of our favourites was a large metal seahorse, made from scrap metal; it would have looked fantastic in our garden, but the artist’s girlfriend didn’t want him to sell that piece. He said he’d try to make another for next year, if he can find a big enough scrap boat to reclaim the nose piece.

There were so many beautiful pieces that we couldn’t choose just one and came home empty handed, but having had a great day.

Le lundi de Pâques etait lumineux et ensoleillé, aucun nuage  dans un ciel bleu; une journée parfaite pour prendre Betty pour un tour, et comme il y avait un festival d’art le week-end dans la jolie ville de Salies-de-Béarn, il semblait la destination parfaite.

Nous avions prévu un événement extérieur, une sorte de marché, mais il y avait des voitures garées sur la place du marché, donc nous allions chercher où  passait l’evenement. Ce n’etait pas loin; le premier lieu nous avons trouvé était dans le Temple, une vieille église au centre de la ville, où il y avait trois artistes exposant des sculptures et des peintures. Il y avait seize lieux, y compris le casino, la bibliothèque, la mairie, les coins de rue, des églises, quelques garages et même un «centre mobile exposition” – un camion, et plus de 70 artistes, beaucoup d’entre eux professionnel, mais certains amateurs aussi.

La gamme de travail était incroyable; des peintures sur bois et autres médias, des sculptures d’argile, le métal et le verre, la céramique de toutes formes et toutes tailles, des tissus, du photographie. Il y avait des dizaines d’oiseaux métal en couleurs vives partout dans  la ville; nous les ont pris pour des flamants, mais selon l’artiste, ils étaient des oiseaux imaginaires, qu’il a eu du mal à mettre dans son camion. Il etait ravi d’avoir vendu beaucoup d’entre eux; le reste irait dans le camion plus facilement pour le voyage de retour. Un de nos pièces favoris etait un grand hippocampe de métal, fabriqué à partir de la ferraille; Il aurait eté parfait dans notre jardin, mais la copine de l’artiste ne voulait pas qu’il vend ce morceau. Il a dit qu’il  essayera de faire un autre pour l’année prochaine, si il peut trouver un assez grand bateau pour récupérer la ferraille pour le nez.

Il y avait tant de belles pièces que nous ne pouvions pas choisir un seul et sommes rentrés à la maison les mains vides, mais ayant eu une tres bonne journée.

After weeks and weeks of what my students call “un temps anglais” (English weather), cool, grey, wet and miserable, spring seems to have arrived at last. The birds are singing their little hearts out, the sun is shining and the days are warm; the sort of weather that makes you throw all the windows wide open, to let in the beautifully fresh air. The bad weather had some benefits, it must be said; nothing could be achieved outdoors, so Nick has made great progress on the tiling and while he was away, I finished painting the spare room and the hall in the new house.

Choosing tiles is always a headache for us; we can never agree, and the bathroom was no exception; but we went to Pau last week, expressly for that task as we can’t put it off much longer. It was a long day, setting off at 8am; the tile shops are scattered all around the Pau ring road, with long drives between them, so it’s a full day to get to all of them, but we arrived home, after a 12 hour day, with the main wall tiles bought and a decision made on the tiles for the shower floor and the wall deco tiles – success! More than that, we even found tiles we agree on for the terrace, just need to measure up and go back for them next week.

This week has been more like the weather we expect at this time of year; cool, fresh mornings, leading to glorious, sunny afternoons. It’s far too lovely to stay inside and anyway, there’s suddenly so much to do in the garden; the mower to service before we can start cutting the grass, cuttings taken last year to plant out, seeds to sow in the potager, the fig tree to prune (probably the wrong time of year, but hopefully, it will survive) and of course, industrial amounts of weeding to do. We may slow down a bit on the inside now, but it’s just so good to get out in the warm sunshine after being indoors for the winter. I don’t know if it will last; there’s a big motor race at the Nogaro circuit at Easter, for which it always seems to rain, but fingers crossed, this year will be different.

Après des semaines de ce que mes étudiants appellent «un temps anglais”, froid,, couvert, humide et misérable, il semble que le printemps est arrivé en fin. Il faut dire que le mauvais temps a eu quelques avantages; rien ne pourrait être réalisé à l’extérieur, donc Nick a fait de grands progrès au carrelage et quand il n’était pas là, j’ai fini de peindre la chambre d’amis et le foyer dans la nouvelle maison.

Choisir du carrelage est toujours un casse-tête, et la salle de bains n’a pas fait exception; nous sommes allés à Pau la semaine dernière, spécialement pour cette tâche. C’était une longue journée, déclenchant à 8 heures; les magasins de carrelage sont dispersés tout autour de la rocade de Pau, avec les longs trajets entre eux, c’est donc une journée entière pour se rendre à chacun d’eux, mais nous sommes rentrés après une journée de 12 heures, ayant acheté les principaux carreaux de mur  et ayant décidé quel carrelage pour le sol de la douche et les carreaux de mur déco – succès! Plus que cela, nous avons même trouvé du carelage pour la terrasse, on n’a que  besoin de se mesurer et de retourner pour eux la semaine prochaine.

Cette semaine il a fait plus normale pour ce moment de l’année;  des matins frais,  des après-midi ensoleillés. Il fait trop beau pour rester à l’intérieur et il ya tout à coup tellement à faire dans le jardin; il faut entretenir la tondeuse avant que nous puissions commencer à couper l’herbe, planter des boutures prises l’an dernier,  semer des graines dans le potager, tailler le figuier (probablement le mauvais moment de l’année, mais je espère qu’il survivront) et bien sûr, il faut desherber partout. Peut etre nous ralentirons un peu à l’intérieur maintenant, mais c’est tellement bon de sortir sous le soleil après passer l’hiver à l’intérieur. Je ne sais pas si cela va durer; il ya une grande course du voitures au circuit de Nogaro à Pâques, pour laquelle il semble toujours qu’il pleut, mais je croise les doigts que cette année sera différent.

Nick went on holiday last week, with a group of friends, to a cycle training camp in Majorca. In spite of the unseasonably cool and wet weather, he still managed to have a good time and covered around 600km in the week.

He said the hotel was great; it specialises in cycling holidays, so the food was excellent and more than plentiful, so much so that he only needed to find a snack for lunch, to put him on from breakfast to dinner. There were five organised rides each day, led by minor names in the professional cycling world; a lot of them were on the flatter terrain, so Nick would go partway with them, then peel off to do what he loves best; riding in the mountains. He made good use of the spa facilities in the hotel and spent a few evenings at Tolo’s bar, a favourite haunt of cyclists and a great place to spot the fast and the famous in the world of cycling.

Nick est parti en vacances la semaine dernière, avec un groupe d’amis, dans un camp de formation de vélo à Majorque. En dépit du temps inhabituellement frais et humide, il a neanmoins réussi à passer un bon moment et a roulé environ 600 km pendant la semaine.

Il a dit que l’hôtel était super; c’est un specialiste de vacances au vélo, donc la nourriture était excellente et abondante, tant qu’il n’avait besoin de trouver qu’un casse croute à midi. Il y avait cinq promenades organisées chaque jour, dirigé par des noms mineures dans le monde du cyclisme professionnel; souvent ils etaient sur le terrain assez plat, donc Nick allait à mi-chemin avec eux, puis il a fait ce qu’il aime le mieux; rouler dans les montagnes. Il a bien utilisé le spa de l’hôtel et a passé quelques soirées au bar de Tolo, un lieu bien connu par les cyclistes et un bon endroit pour voir des grands noms dans le monde du cyclisme.

Anyone who reads my posts regularly will be familiar with the problems we’ve had with the company who installed our photovoltaic panels. The workmanship was fine, the problem was the paperwork; they seemed incapable of filling in the necessary forms correctly, so, nearly two years down the line, we’re still not connected to the grid.

For the last 5 months they had refused to reply to my phone calls, emails or even letters sent recorded delivery, so in the end, we went to see the huissier (translates as bailiff). As we live in the Gers and our complaint was against a company in the Landes, he couldn’t do anything directly, but sent a colleague from the Landes to see them, to give them an ultimatum to get this sorted out. As if by magic, a few weeks later, the necessary paper arrived from the Consuel, making an appointment to inspect the work.

I phoned the company to let them know, as they had to be here too. The huissier had obviously put the fear of God into them; they made gushing apologies for the delay, alongside excuses as to why it had taken so long; “It’s always slow in the Gers……..they sent us the wrong forms……we phoned the Consuel all the time, but they wouldn’t tell us what the problem was……” Strange; the lady at the Consuel told me they had heard nothing from them since September.

Still, the inspector came this morning and the work passed muster. He will send the company a form, which they send to EDF, who then come and hook us up to the grid. Nobody knows how long that will take, but we seem to be heading in the right direction at last.

Les gens qui lisent mon blog régulièrement  connaissent  les problèmes que nous avons eus avec les installateurs nos panneaux photovoltaïques. Le travail était bien fait, le problème était les papiers; ils semblaient incapables de remplir les formulaires nécessaires correctement, donc, presque deux ans plus tard, nous ne sommes toujours pas raccordés au réseau.

As our St. Patrick’s night gig neared, things just seemed to go from bad to worse. First Nellie, then me, followed by Alain and Yvonick, all went down with a virus that left us thin and weak.

Nine days to go and we had to cancel our rehearsal. One week to go; we had to cancel a small gig in a local bar as only Jacques and Hervé were well enough to go. Two days to go; only four of us able to go to rehearsal. One day to go; our sound man had to fly back to England due to a family bereavement. Saturday arrived and Hervé succumbed to the virus.

My plans for making the dessert were long dead; there was no way I was well enough, so a crumble was ordered from the caterer and I was told to rest and conserve my strength.

Nick met Jacques at the salle des fetes on Saturday afternoon. The room had been transformed by the teams of volunteers from the walking club; balloons, garlands, bunting, all in orange, white and green, adorned the room and the tables were set with orange and green serviettes and table runners.

Fortunately, Jacques has some idea of how to use a mixing desk, as we unwrapped our shiny new purchase and plugged in mikes, monitors and speakers. Nick and Jacques set up the new system, labelling each entry with the name of the person and/or instrument it was for, methodically from left to right, to make it more intuitive to use.

7pm The sound system was working and Nick felt he had some idea of how to use it, the basics, at least. Everybody but Hervé was there, including Yvonick, who’s very adaptable and was able to play Hervé’s percussion where necessary. The room was filling with people, friends from the walking and cycling clubs and from the village, as well as lots of people I didn’t know. There were lovely smells drifting from the kitchen. At last we were able to relax and begin to believe it would be alright.

1am We finished playing, packed up and went home, content that the evening had been a success. The food was excellent, the ambiance great and even if Nellie and I felt our voices weren’t quite up to scratch, nobody seemed to mind. I think everyone who went enjoyed the evening.

With just eight days to go till our big gig, which must be the raison d’etre of Irish bands the world over, our St. Patrick’s day bash, things are moving on apace. All the tickets are now sold, food is ordered, Guinness is bought and the band is rehearsing hard – well, we should be. The reality is, however, that Nellie has a virus and can hardly leave her bed, Alain has flu (the man variety, I hope) and I have bronchitis and a voice more reminiscient of Elkie Brooks’ than my own. We’ve now bought our own shiny, new mixing desk, which Ade is going to teach Nick to operate; I’m just hoping that we all recover in time to put it to good use!

Il ne reste que huit jours jusqu’à notre grand concert, qui doit être la raison d’être des groupes irlandais dans le monde entier,  notre fete de Saint-Patrick, les choses évoluent à grands pas. Tous les billets sont vendus, la nourriture est commandé, Guinness est acheté et le groupe est en train de répéter dur – eh bien, nous devrions repeter dur. La réalité est cependant que Nellie a un virus et ne peut guère quitter son lit, Alain a la grippe (l’homme variété, je l’espère) et j’ai une bronchite et une voix plus reminiscient de celle de Elkie Brooks que la mienne. Nous avons recemment acheté notre propre table de mixage, et Ade va enseigner à Nick comment l’employer; je espère simplement que nous aurons tous rétabli  pour le mettre à bon usage!

It took us ages to find floor tiles we liked; neutral but interesting, non slippery and a mix of sizes so the design can look random. At last we found what we wanted and they’ve sat in the carport Perth for months now, till the plasterboard joint filling was finished.

It takes1 big tile, 2 medium and 3 small to make up the design, an interlocking L-shape, and there are numerous ways of arranging the tiles within that pattern; so Nick drew out all the possibilities and is working with his templates.

The weather’s miserable at the moment, there’s no incentive to do anything outdoors, so Nick’s making amazing progress; he’s finished the spare room and partly done the hall. It looks great.

I’ve started learning Spanish at the CLAN, where I teach English. It was supposed to be a beginners’ class, but I’m the only beginner, the rest of the group having already done 3 years, so I’m struggling to keep up. The fact that the course is held in French doesn’t help; the teacher keeps offering me extra help in the form of vocab handouts and thinks it hilarious when I turn them down, saying I’ll go online instead.

It was good to note today, that I’m not the only one struggling; two of the other students are also in my English class; Nadine arrived with her English notes instead of Spanish and Henriette, when asked a question in Spanish, replied “Yes. Non, non, si”, and not just once. We had an article to read aloud, which wasn’t too difficult, but translating it into French, through English, was something of a challenge. I suppose it will keep the little grey cells busy – if it doesn’t wear them out entirely!

Olivier arrived last week to sand the floors downstairs, in preparation for tiling them, so Nick ordered the tile sticky. It should have arrived on Friday, but the lorry didn’t turn up at the depot; Nick’s done pattern designs, drawn parallel lines on the floors and swept till it nearly shines, but the sticky still hasn’t arrived. He’s not good at waiting and has now resorted to cleaning his workshop; I hope it’s here soon, before he goes completely mad!