Well another Christmas has come and gone. Certainly on our part a good time was had by all.For the last three years Christmas kicks off with carols at a church in the nearby village of Goult. The service is in both French and English and afterwards everyone heads to the Cafe de la poste for drinks.
Just before Christmas everyone heads to the village where Father Christmas comes and all the children are taken around on horse drawn (well we don't have reindeer in Provence)carraiges. The healthy and safety inspector would have a coronary as the kids jump on and off as it goes along!After its down to the village hall for mulled wine.
Christmas Eve is almost more important in France than the day itself.
This could be to do with the feast that is traditionally eaten on the night of Christmas Eve comprising of Sea Food followed by 13 deserts and the opening of presents.
We had the sea food feast but just the one desert which Martin & Richard seemed to enjoy!
Here we are on christmas morning preparing lunch.
On Saturday 27th December we returned to the UK catching up with family and friends with new Years Eve spent with my sister, her Husband and their friends in south Wales. A good time was had by all. What was also interesting for us was to see how the credit crunch was effecting the retailers. Maybe I had imagined the Credit crunch because from Lakeside in Thurrock, to Kingston in Surrey we saw little sign of any let up in spending. Infact even the day before we left the UK, Friday the 2nd we struggled to get parked in Brooklands, Weybridge.It was also interesting to see what good value the UK was looking compared to France. Retailing in the UK is mega competative so you have some real bargains in the shops , sadly at a time when I expect, in truth, people should not be spending it, guess that's called murphy's law!!
And so we returned to the peace and tranquility of Provence ready to start painting our second house, the various windows and shutters and get everything ready for the season ahead. Since our builders stopped work on the 18th December it has been dry, cold and sunny. Again I think its called Murphy's law that when they all turned up Monday morning the forecast for the week was not conjusive to building a pool or rendering our house, so they left promising to return next week. They were right. Like the UK it is cold here and snowy! The pictures tell it all.
This is Chemin de Romanet, the road where we used to live and where our villa Les cypres is located.
This is the view from our bedroom that greeted us this morning.
The house le Chene which awaits its third coat of render and us to decorate the interior.
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The peace and quiet bought by the snow is beautiful. No body is going anywhere today.Our house also awaits the final coat of render!
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Still Splodge was enjoying it!
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