Expect the unexpected...

 

The four-storey building in the middle of the photo above has featured here before,this is it back in March last year when we were down helping Richard and Francoise get the house to the left of it ready to be rented out. Coincidentally we had guests at 'Les Balcons' way back, who used to holiday in the house every year as it was their friend who owned it. It is now owned by a lovely Irish/English couple who were kind enough to invite us along with Richard and Francoise and other French neighbours to give the village its first experience of a 'high tea'!

It proved to be a great success with the delights served up by Fiona and Leon in beautiful surroundings, going down a treat.

Over and ouch...

 

So, yesterday eight of us picked 1.5 tonne of grapes to bring in the  'la vendange' at one of Richard's fields. We were blessed with a lovely day and hard workers but because these particular vines are very low, I cannot lie,it made for a back-breaking day!

After a busy morning the pickers were rewarded with a fine lunch under Francoise's olive trees before heading back to finish the job.

Would have to say we were all happy to see the day coming to an end and were wondering if these vines could not somehow be adapted to suit being harvested like some of his other fields with back saving modern machinery!

Provence road-trip... part 1

The reason we had been down in Provence was to visit my brother Richard and his wife Francoise who are lucky enough to have had a house built in the village where Francoise was brought up.

Taken on this trip - with lovely blue skies.

It had been 4 years since our last visit (how time flies) to them there, though we get over to see them in Paris every year.

We (well me really) decided that we should use our 13 year old Honda for the trip as it is more comfortable for long drives, has cruise control and it had been a while since it had any sort of holiday due to its unreliability.This unreliability stemmed from the fact that it would refuse to start in any sort of extreme (well actually not that extreme) weather - too cold or too hot - 'no not today thank you'.

A search on 'google' identified the problem as the relay which our friends Mike and Liz brought back a replacement for from the UK. A quick tutorial video by a very nice lady on 'YouTube' and problem solved -oh the power of the internet!

My meticulous planning consisted of a quick reminder of the main towns enroute using my trusty 'Collins'...my how time flies (have I already said that?)

Did I say we have never invested in sat-nav, have no smartphones and the radio in the car doesn't work....just setting the scene - more on Monday. 

Fortune favours the brave...or should that read mad.

Left St.Chamond at 6.00 am after checking traffic was moving on autoroute and to avoid any congestion at Saint Etienne. Good plan as sailed past there and south of Lyon with only a couple of winter flourishes. It was only when we hit the high ground in the Auvergne on the way to Thiers that the winter weather kicked in with a vengeance...at one stage we were down to 30km/hr on a white road with no idea of lanes,with snow banked up on both sides, in the dark, alone with only a blizzard for company...was genuinely scared  though couldn't let Pauline know...she was nervously humming next to me in a non- too assuringly way. I actually got to the point where I thought I could not continue when we suddenly could see the road and eventually caught up with four other brave souls who were as mad as we were and stuck tight to them ...at least we were not alone! As dawn broke we all eventually caught up with a snow plough the other side of Thiers that allowed us and others we had caught up with to continue our journey in what were now great conditions to what we had just experienced..

It was pretty much plain sailing after that with the weather improving the further north we got...however when we did hit some heavy snow at Chatereaux  it was like 'bring it on' after what we had experienced! Arriving home in Barrou at 11.30 was a great feeling as we genuinely thought at one point that we might never make it!

More of what came before tomorrow.