La Vie en Foussais is a record of the trials and tribulations of us, the Barley family, as we make a new life for ourselves here in the Vendée region of western France.
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@iaindodsworth Yeah been rather out of touch over the last week - no laptop and visitors here. Hols on sat 4 a week then back 2 normal! [view on Twitter >>]
I have said before how much we enjoy the wildlife around us here. We are literally surrounded by birds and beasts of all variety and we love it.
However, there are some new creatures in the neighbourhood who are causing a bit of a stir….two owls.
At first we thought there was just one, but last night we saw both of them together. They fly around the square of our hamlet hopping from the telegraph pole to the fence-post to the roof and back again.
We viewed them with a certain fascination and wonder at first. How lucky we are to have such beautiful birds living so close. But it seems the new neighbours are getting quite settled and are claiming the territory as their own….much to the annoyance of Charlie and Lola (our cats)!
The owls are now taking to sitting on their loft perch and screeching at the top of their voices at the cats below. And the poor kitties, being such soft creatures, are scared out of their wits and come running inside!
Here’s a video of one of the hoodlums. Its a little shaky as I didn’t have time to grab the tripod.
Anyone know what kind of owl it is? And how to persuade it to make friends with Charlie and Lola?
As you will know if you’ve been following my exploits over the last few months, I have recently been forced into commuting to Maidenhead in the UK each week. Clearly this was not an ideal long-term arrangement.
This difficult situation was further compounded by the fact that I had not enjoyed my job for well over a year and recent changes in the organisation had made it very difficult for this to change.
So, against a background of job losses, cutbacks and belt-tightening, I found myself in the position where I was offered a “way out”. That this approach was open to me was entirely down to me being employed under a French contract. And thank goodness for that, as without it my “way out” may well have been through the back door with a bit of loose change in my pocket.
As it was, though, the security offered to me under French employment law thankfully put me in a much better position than others in the organisation.
Thus I have now left my job with RightNow Technologies, where I have worked for over 4 years, and find myself with a little time to relax and enjoy the summer with the family, before embarking on the search for a new job.
I am very happy with this arrangement. At last I can take control of my life and my future career, and hopefully take it into a new and exciting direction.
But for now I’m loving being a gentleman of (almost) leisure – and with the sun shining in a bright blue sky every day, who wouldn’t?
The village of Nieul-sur-l’Autise is steeped in history, and they certainly make the most of it when putting on events. Last year we witnessed the spectacular Village de Lumière, an occasion that we hope will be repeated this year, and recently we visited the Fete de la Meuniere, celebrating rural village life from the turn of the century.
The main village square was scattered with stalls selling traditional products, giving demonstrations of traditional rural activities, musicians, food and drink opportunities… and everyone was in traditional dress. The historic village really transported us back and wecould easily imagine what life was like in Nieul at that time.
Nathalie grew up in Nieul, where her father was the village baker, so she was naturally involved in the event. We made out way through the village to the water mill at the centre of the village, where, upstairs, we found Nathalie and the boys demonstrating lace-making.
Luckily it was time for them to have a break, so we all went off to explore the village together. Thierry, as a modern-day farmer, explained that, although the machinery may now be a lot more modern, most of the farming methods on display were still used today.
There was a traditional “wedding” taking place, which ended up in the wedding party enjoying a folk dance, with the customary “dance of the brioche” as the centre-piece. This involves the happy couple holding a huge circular brioche loaf at arms-length while the rest dance around them.
After the wedding Nathalie returned to her lace-making duties, so Thierry and the boys joined us as we explored the rest of the village.
One of the highlights had to be a boat trip along the Autise river. It was a beautiful hot day and so a relaxing ride along the river under the dappled shade of the trees was very much welcome.
Flitting over the surface of the water were a mutitude of blue dragonflies.
“Qu’est-ce que ça en français?” we asked Thierry.
“C’est un libellule,” he explained.
Lisa then spent the the rest of the day trying, and mainly failing, to say Thierry’s tongue-twister “Nous avons vu les belles libellules bleu”… highly amusing
As part of our initiation into the traditions of la Vendée, Thierry insisted we try mijet, a kind of cold soup made from bread, red wine and sugar. Well as you know, I’m always one to try new things, so I was willing to give it a go. To be honest, it wasn’t the best meal I’ve ever tasted, but it certainly beat my bush-tucker trial from last year! Lisa wasn’t impressed, but I managed to get through half of it, which I felt was a reasonable effort considering
After taking in the rest of the stalls and activities around the village (including a great steam engine from Lincoln!), we headed for the village boulangerie where they were baking a fresh batch. Here we met Nathalie’s mum, who was also helping with the event and looked tres jolie in her traditional costume.
As we awaited our bread, Nathalie and Thierry headed off for the meal that was being served. We decided not to stay, but enjoyed eating our freshly-baked bread in the car on the way home.
It had been another lovely day and so good to see everyone from the village getting completely involved. This village spirit is something that was certainly lacking when we lived in Englqnd, with more energy being put into one-upmanship and forming the right cliques than actually coming together and enjoying a community celebration.
Here in Foussais we have this same feeling of community, and at recent events we have certainly started to feel that now we are an integral part of the proceedings rather than invited guests. Just what we wanted from our new life in France.
