November's News

As I glance at the last entry which opened with a comment on the chilly weather, I realise that we have been lucky with the amount of sunshine and the mildness of November. We even had a day out one Saturday in early November to the market in Revel, a small town whose market had been widely recommended to us, and indeed lived up to its promise. There we bought cheese and saucisson to go with our baguette, and then went for a picnic by the Lac St.Ferreol in the sunshine, where the upside-down photo of Edie was taken.


The last month has also brought Halloween and a traditional English Bonfire party, complete with pumpkin soup, hot-dogs and sparklers. Yes, we really are in France, but we still have to develop a bit of cultural background for the girls!

Half term at the end of October which was a week and a half long, brought lots of creativity at home as well as a great day out to the Cité d'Espace in Toulouse where Cassi learnt about gravity and Edie sang Twinkle Twinkle Little Star a lot!

The girls are both getting into the swing of things at school. Edie still loves the creche and tonight she tried to attract my attention by calling me 'Maman'. More amusingly though she has taken to calling Steve Pipi, instead of Papa!! Cassi has had a tough ride at school but seems finally to be getting a little more settled, and is doing great -she even got 19.5  out of 20 in a controle recently, frequently comes home with 'Bon Points' and seems to be gaining a bit of confidence. As you can see, she is generally very happy!

Other than that, the house has progressed, and we now have  a completed roof, sanded beams, and will soon have new windows and new shutters in place on the top floor, which means that the house should be weather-proof ready for whatever winter throws at it. (For anyone interested- see Steve's latest account of the building progress at http://standachanceinfrance.com/french-house-renovation-pt3/ )
We have also had our planning permission passed for our extension, which as well as being a relief, feels like a feat over French bureaucracy!

Autumn life kicks in.

Although as I write I am looking out onto blue sky and sunshine, it is decidedly colder here, and this morning there was even a bit of a frost!! When we first arrived in the Aude exactly 2 years ago last week (13th October 2008) we spent the first weekend at the beach in Narbonne and even swam in the sea. When we visited last year on a house-hunting trip in October half term, it was in the high 20s, even though friends had warned us that it had been cold, so we are still holding out for a bit more nice weather before the autumn takes hold completely.

So with the coming of Autumn, comes the Apple festival in Mirepoix, and avid readers from 2008 will remember our very enjoyable visit to our first festival of this kind. So it was with some excitement that we headed off to the Fete de la Pomme last Sunday, reflecting on how much things have changed in our lives in 2 years, and how much bigger the girls have got! It was a similar affair to last time but with a Spanish theme. Other than that, merry-go round, candy floss, apples in all shapes and sizes as far as the eye could see, the vintage tractor parade and hot chocolates all round in a cafe to warm ourselves up. The girls were truly in their element- la fete de la pomme comes up trumps again!

Another highlight for Cassi was the cake and cookie making with Inga (who owns the gite we are living in) and some of Cassi's English friends. There was more cake mix eaten than made it into cakes, and even more blanquette and red wine drunk by the adults, but at least nobody was sick, and a good time was had by all!!

Autumn has also brought with it our second mammoth visit to the doctors. Cassi has been bunged up and snotty since we got to France and has had an ear infection (the first visit), and as the whole thing had still not cleared up after 6 weeks, I decided to take her back. The outcome is that it looks like she may have some kind of allergy (hopefully not to France in general!) possibly dust related, but the thing of note was the colossal amount of medication required to treat a runny nose. I got home about 60 Euros worse off  but am glad to say that she is better now! Pictured is the result of 2 visits to the chemist.