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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Wow, less than three full glasses of wine and I'm slightly giddy. I must be getting old. [view on Twitter >>]
The Dixies [Kevin & Sylvie] came to visit yesterday and although the weather was just too bad to head out to the forest, we did go for a stroll around the Foussais countryside.
Earlier in the day Kevin and I had been surveying the roof to once again try to spot the source of the leak in Rosie’s room. Having given up on that due the the somewhat inclement weather, I gave him a tour of our soon-to-be vegetable-plot. His eyes lit up when he looked down at the rocky ground still there at the moment and saw a fossil in one of the stones!
Apparently, just like me (spooky!) he had always harboured dreams of being an archaeologist. Like me, I think the low pay, hard work and stack of necessary qualifications probably put him off. But this was like a dream come true. Taking my hammer he set about discovering as many fossils as he could – and he found quite a haul! Here he is recreating an episode of Time Team in our back garden – see how he delicately chisels away the rock…
Most were Ammonites [wikipedia] which were marine animals, begging the question “what were they doing here, an hours drive from the coast?”.
However they got here, they certainly came in numbers. Now we are tasked with discovering how many more ancient sea creatures lie in wait, before Michel comes along with his JCB to clear them all away!
Don’t worry dear readers, I haven’t forgotten you, oh no! This week I have been a busy business bee out on a sales “kick-off” at the Longleat Center Parcs. I won’t bore you with the details, but basically this involved lots of presentations, a very tiring cylcle-based exercise and 2 evenings of food, drink and gambling (with pretend money!). Needless to say, I would have much rather been at home with Lisa and the kids than surrounded by sales guys, but it was okay. At least I discovered that Longleat Center parcs is not a place I would ever go for fun, as the entire place is set on a huge hill. And I mean huge! After spending 5 hours cycling round the park, including some of the steepest hills I have seen in ages, I have to say I never want to sit on a bike again! The kids would have hated it, as it was impossible to get anywhere without having to tackle some sort of nightmarish incline. Great exercise, but fun?…not at all.
Anyway, that was my week. Meanwhile, Lisa wasn’t having much fun either, as everything seemed to be going wrong at home.
First off, the washing line broke. The washing line that was full of nice clean washing. And of course it fell to the ground and blew around in the mud for a while, ensuring that everything needed rewashing! And how typical of it to happen the moment I am out of the house. The nail upon which the line was hooked had probably been secured in the wall for the last 50 years. Yet on this day it chose to ping out of the wall like a cork from a bottle, as if it had only been stuck there with blu-tack five minutes ago. Not a good start for Lisa.
Then, on Friday morning, the car wouldn’t start. My lovely little Renault Clio “Chippy” (no idea why it’s called that, but it is…) which has served us so well over the last year and has always started first time was as dead as Roland the rat [who?]. As our main car was parked at Nantes airport where I had left it for the week, this was, to say the least, rather inconvenient. Luckily we have some great friends who stepped in to save the day. Peter answered the cry for help and came round to pick the girls up and take them to college, while Nathalie picked up Joe, ensuring that everyone got to school on time. Pete then continued in his role of hero-of-the-day by coming back to fix the car. As it turned out, the problem was just a loose connection on the battery – thank goodness! We had visions of a big trip to the garage, followed by a big bill at the end of it, but luckily Pete saved the day and Lisa was mobile once more.
What made things more tricky was the stormy weather front that was sitting over western France, and in particular, our house. All week the house has been lashed by high winds and torrential rain, getting so bad that one day even the trampoline blew away! This is the trampoline that normally takes 3 of us to move it in order to cut the grass, but the wind clearly managed to get hold of it and Lisa found it upside-down on top of one of the pear trees, bent and broken. And today poor Rosie woke to find a puddle of water in her room – the rain has clearly found a way in through the roof and had been running down her wall (only plasterboard, so now rather soggy) and forming a large pool on her floor. Argh! We mopped up the water and, once the hurricane had died down outside, I went up on the ladder to see if I could identify the source of the leak. Sadly, I couldn’t spot any big holes that might lead to such a problem, so we just have to keep our fingers crossed for now that the worst of the rain is over for now.
So, on balance, not the greatest of weeks, but Lisa did paint the kitchen before I came home, and a rather splendid job she did too! Photos will follow!
On Sunday we rounded off our weekend adventures with a walk in the forest at Mervent [map]. This really is one of our most favourite places to be – a beatutiful expanse of forest dotted with huge lakes, fed by a multitude os small streams and larger rivers.
It is great having this all only 10 minutes away from home and we are always happy to go back there. Each week brings a new set of colours to the place, new plants peep through the undergrowth, bloom and then die. The leaves on the trees rorate through their full-year spectrum of colours and the light around every corner is different every time we go. I have taken so many photos there over the last year [Mervent photos], and I’m sure I will contuinue to take many more – I never get bored of it.
This time our special surprise was finding a lake that was still frozen over, even after a week of above-zero temperatures. We had a wonderful time throwing things onto the ice to see if we could break the ice. And the noise the stones made as they hit the frozen surface of the lake was very wierd.
