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.

The renovation project

Apart from a picture of the house in the last post and talk of demolition and the delivery of roofing materials, there was not much mention made of the work at the house and as this week, it has truly turned into a building site, I thought that a quick resume and some pictures would not go amiss. So here you are:


As you can see the old roof has been removed and the new one is going on, all of which has happened within 5 days! I don't want to speak too soon, but the French workmen have so far made a myth of the picture usually painted of them, and apart from the fact that they started about 4 days late (well, this is France after all) have been grafting away. There is something very endearing as well about the image of the four of them sitting round at lunchtime, making picnic tables and benches out of beams as they tuck into their baguette!

I am also sticking in a link to Steve's site which has a video of the house before any (well, much) work had been done, for anyone who wants to see the "before" pictures to compare.



http://standachanceinfrance.com/ and click on house renovation


As you can see, we are not quite ready for guests, but we will keep you posted!

Oh and couldn't resist sticking in this one of the Pyrenees, looking rather lovely!