Here I am, don’t panic!
I’ve managed to find a spare half hour to update you on what’s been happening here over the last few weeks. As it’s been so long this will probably be a bit rambling, so bear with me!
The wedding photo
When our old neighbour Louis came round recently I showed him the old wedding photo that I found. He didn’t immediately recognise the couple, but said he would take it away and ask Anne-Marie, his wife, who had lived in our hamlet all her life.
A few days later he returned with good news – they had figured out that the man in the photo was a cousin of Louis’s family (cousin being a pretty loose term for any distant relative over here…) and the girl was actually born in our house! He proceeded to regale me with all the details, most of which I failed to understand sadly (Louis speaks very fast and has a thick Vendeen accent). Sadly, it appears that the couple divorced, hence why the photo had been discarded, but it was lovely to finally learn a little about my mysterious find.
A dip at Fontenay pool
While Lisa was away in England for a week, I stayed in France and looked after the kids. On the Saturday we went for our first ever swim in the pool at Fontenay-le-Comte [website here] and we were very impressed. There is a large 25m pool, for the serious swimmers, a children’s pool, with a jacuzzi area and a “lazy river” area that pulls you around in the current, a baby pool and a big water slide. It was a great session – the children thoroughly enjoyed it, and I like the fact that I could relax in the jacuzzi while they went down the slide as much as they liked. There were several life-guards around and we felt very safe.
One thing we noticed was the more relaxed atmosphere compared to pools in England. This was half-term so there were a lot of school children there but there was no trouble, no teenagers charging about and causing grief. The life-guards were not blowing on their whistles every minute, telling people off for swimming in the wrong direction or looking at someone in the wrong way. Very refreshing.
Working away
The main reason for my lack of updates of late has been down to my job. There has been a change of management and they have decided that the role I am in should be based full-time in the Maidenhead office. As you can imagine, this has not gone down too well with me and the family and is putting a straing on all of us. Curently I am having to fly back to England on a Monday evening and I return on Friday evening, something I really hate. Sadly, in the current climate, there is very little I can do about this. I need to work and new jobs are scarce, so for now I am going with it and seeing how things go, but it is certainly a big strain.
So apologies if updates here are few and far between for a while. Rest assured I will keep coming back and posting news, but it may not be quite as regular as I would like. Hopefully the situation will be resolved soon and I can get back to normal again.
Head-wind all the way to Maillezais
When Lisa’s mum and sister came to visit they gave Lisa and I a rare opportunity to go out on our own for the afternoon. Although we both were a little reticent, as family time together is rather scare at the moment, we took the chance and decided to go on a bike ride. We have a book showing the cycle routes in the Vendee and Lisa picked out an “easy” one wch ran from Maillezais to Maille, a round-trip of about 13km.
It was a lovely route, starting from the ancient Abbey de Maillezais and winding through the trees, along the canals and into the pretty village of Maille. What wasn’t so lovely was the weather, unfortunately. On the way there we had a head-wind and it was really hard-going. It wouldn’t have been quite so bad had the landowners not recently chopped down most of the trees that would have offered us some protection from the gale. As it was, each time we rode out into the open we were nearly blown off the path and into the canal! Still, we were out in the fresh air (and it certainly was fresh!) and enjoying ourselves, despite the difficulties staying upright.
Once we reached Maillé we stopped outside the church in the village square and ate our lunch of bread rolls and custard creams – we are hard-core survivalists and know how to keep ourselves going!
Fully anticipating the wind to have changed direction for our journey back, we set off with some trepidation. But we were pleasantly surprised to find that we did indeed have the wind at our backs all the way back to the car, which made the return leg of the journey go twice as fast as the outward one. Much more civilised!
Once we arrived at the car we explored the Abbey a little. It is a stunning place and is currently being restored. There are restaurants and a small gift shop there, and also a small jetty where, in the summer, you can hire boats to go exploring the canals of the Marais Poitevin. Definitely somewhere we will have to come back to in the summer with all our visitors!
So there you go, that’s what we’ve been up to over the last few weeks. Do keep coming back as I will try my hardest to update. And thanks for sticking with me, I appreciate all your comments.
This morning we took our first real trip to the market at Fontenay-le-Comte. I know, we’ve been here for 10 months and this was our first visit, but its a Saturday morning, and with 3 kids it’s a struggle to get them to do anything on a Saturday morning, never mind get dressed and go out!
Most markets we have ever seen in France are pretty much the same – a mix of beautiful fruit, vegetables, fish, cheese and bread, with some rather old-fashioned clothes, hats and lots and lots of pants! Fontenay market was certainly no different. However, there is something special about the atmosphere of a French market that is really worth sampling.
The fruit and vegetables are especially resplendent in their colour and size. Much nicer than their supermarket-bought cousins. The people are all friendly and happy to chat (not much chatting in your local Hyper U I can tell you!) and the road-side cafés make a welcome break where you can just stop for a coffee (or a pineau 
) and watch the world go by.
We picked up a fair selection of stuff to keep us going over the weekend…some mussels, oysters (yes, more oysters!), lots of bread, some roquefort cheese (to go in the sauce for the mussels)… and Molly bought a scarf, kindly reduced by the merchant skilfully negotiated down by me from €7 to €5. Yes, I know it’s still 22 degrees and sunny here, but you’re apparently nobody if you don;t have a scarf round your neck…
I think we may make a habit of a Saturday-morning trip to the market. The kids will be fine to run riot/sleep all morning on their own and Lisa and I can enjoy a pleasant morning perusing the fine produce, having a quiet coffee and generally enjoying this essential part of everyday french life.
Sounds good to me. What do you think?
Another packed weekend behind me…
Thanks to the very handy collection of public holidays in France, I had a nice break from work for the last few days. As this coincided with a visit from my parents, it was doubly-nice.
On Friday we paid a visit to Coulon, on the edge of the Marais Poitevin. This is an area of marshes and canals that criss-cross their way through the woodland, stretching from Coulon to pretty much the coast. Its somewhere we’ve been meaning to visit for a long time and so we finally got round to it. What a beautiful place it is. We only saw a very little portion of it as we had to get back in the afternoon for Molly to go to a party, but what we saw was lovely. Definitely somewhere to explore further.
Then on Saturday we took Mum and Dad to La Rochelle. We took a rather scenic route to get there, but arrive we did. Once within spitting distance of the city we began playing the “lets try to find somewhere to park” game. After circling round and round the city for what seemed like half an hour, we finally stumbled upon the park and ride car park. What a little gem that is! €2 to park for about 4 hours, with a free shuttle bus into the old port and back again. Thinking back to similar schemes in the UK I recall having to pay extortionate amounts for this 
kind of thing. The weather was lovely and we had fun exploring the city (although I fear the shops were more of a draw for some members of the family than others…).
We had lunch on the dock-side and ate an ice-cream as we watched the boats coming and going – all very civilised. We promised ourselves we would come back another time and see the aquarium – a bit more interesting for the kids than shopping methinks
Sunday was the day of the Fontenay Biennial festival. After a lazy morning (much-needed after lots of walking the previous 2 days) we lathered ourselves in suncream (the summer came in force this week) and headed off into Fontenay. Our worries about parking were unfounded as the town had opened up the car park at the Stade Municipal – lots of room and well placed for a short walk into the centre. We positioned ourselves at the mi-point of the main street and waited…and waited…and waited. The advertised start time was 2pm, but the parade was so steady, it didn’t reach our position until about 3.30! But it was certainly worth the wait. About 30 different groups filed past representing the different villages around Fontenay, as well as the different countries where the town is twinned with another.
There were flamenco dancers, line dancers, polynesian dancers, marching bands a-plenty. And the floats were amazing, all decorated with thousands of paper flowers. Mister Fontenay was there (as promised), as well as the countess and her predecessors. All the participants did incredibly well to keep going as the heat was so intense. It was a great atmosphere and there was no trouble (compared with similar events in the UK, where there would always be some elements of the crowd up to no good).
There were no police guarding the parade, nor barriers to hold people back. It was just a very friendly event with everyone having a good time. Just what we wanted.
So eventually the parade passed us by and we headed home for some much needed refreshment, before venturing back out for the night-time parade at 10pm. This was a smaller-scale affair, with pretty much the same floats as had been in the earlier one, but this time they were illuminated in various fashions. This was quite effective, but without the music is lacked a bit of the atmosphere. This didn’t matter to a lot of the participants though, as I think they had all kept themselves entertained in the local bars in between sessions!
The culmination of the night was supposed to be a firework display – the thing we had really come out for and the reason we allowed the kids to be out so late. 
It was due to start at midnight, which, of course, normally means at least 20 past. But when it got to half past midnight and still there was no sign of anyone lighting even a match, never mind a blue touch-paper, we just had to give in and go home. What a shame, but everyone was dead on their feet and we just couldn’t wait any longer. Still, it had been a great day and we’re really glad we went.
Unsurprisingly Monday morning was a quiet affair – big lay-ins all round. Then at lunchtime we went for a walk in the woods at Mervent – one of our favourite places. It’s so beautiful there and so peaceful. We took a picnic and joined the other like-minded folks in enjoying it in the dappled shade of the trees. The afternoon was wet, though not with rain to begin with. Peter and Judith had invited the kids round to play in their pool and the adults for aperitifs. A very pleasant afternoon, although it was spoiled after a couple of hours by the rain. Still, we can’t grumble. It had been another lovely day.
