We live in a little hamlet in South West France (half a dozen houses) and have all French neighbours bar one house. We find the winters have their own rewards such as afternoon "tea" in one or the other of the houses - we all know the French don't do afternoon tea so it's wine and cake and coffee, lots of chat, warm and toasty with the wood burners going. Sunday lunch can be a long and very enjoyable affair - what can be better than smelling a roast? We get beautiful winters crisp and snowy with blue skies and sunshine - fabulous for taking the dogs for a walk in the forest. I say embrace each season and you won't go far wrong - although I do have to say I agree with my hens that slipping about in the mud doesn't have much charm..........!
Don’t know what happened there, but my reply went a bit pearshaped. Anyway, Lynn, you get the drift, eh?
Ps: beer is good, as is rum. Buy in supermarkets, not the hotels.
Regarding your visit to Mauritius in September, Lynn…first, I would say, get off the regular tourist roundabout! Sugar was the main industry 40 years ago, but it’s now tourism. If you’re not on an inclusive holiday, rent a car and see stuff yourself(I can give you details of a fairly cheap place, if you want to PM me). Never accept the first price for anything on sale. They expect you to haggle.( I’ll walk through a market, see what I want, then send Stella,my wife, a Mauritian) to buy, so I’m not ripped off. People can tell often though, that she’s “not from here”.
There’s an interesting natural history museum in Port Louis. Also, a history museum in Mahebourg.
If you have the time and inclination, fly to Rodrigued for a couple of days. It’s a small dependency of Mauritius, and is like Mauritius was, 50 or 60 years ago.
Go to Grand Bassin, the sacred place for Hindus. There’s a huge statue of Shiva.
Plenty of super beaches. Belle Mare on the east coast is good. Mon Choisy is where a lot of Mauritians go. If you call in on them on Friday or Saturday evening, you’ll often find Mauritians camping, eating, drinking and dancing. Flic en Flac, Perebere, Grand Bay are where tourists tend to congregate. Grand Bay is the main tourist resort where the night clubs, bars, drugs and hookers hang out.
Have a look at Grand Bassin, the hindu’s sacred version of the Ganges. There’s a massive statue
That's cheating!
Two winters. A Rayburn burning from mid-October almost non-stop until April (or when it gets warm earlier or later) uses quite a lot. It is central hearing, hot water instead of the solar, cooking and heating one room so worth having.
The puds are slow steamed on top of said stove. I make two a time, perhaps I ought to raffle one!
Hi Bruce. Going to Mauritius for the winter sounds like the ideal solution to me. We are off to Mauritius 20th September. Any tips on things to see , places to go etc?
Maybe you can throw a soiree savoyarde... even if not in the region. Raclette, Genepi, who needs more? That is mainly how us, and the neighbours get through the colder months, we all hole up together, at least once a week, and either have raclette (easy, because everyone brings cheese, charcut, or potatoes..), or tartiflette, or fondue (my favourite)
Candles everywhere, as I've read, we do also, and the annual mass buying of pumpkins, to make the soup i'll freeze in batches, and we'll live off in winter, lol.
Absolutely! We can get through a lot of marshmallows with 10 steres.
Forget the Christmas pud - I want one of Brian's cheesecakes!
Good lord, Brian - how much are you getting in for winter or do you have a wood stove and it's for all those yummy Christmas puds (you can post one this way please). Lucky you've got the ladies to help out with the stacking. I wish I'd had three lovely wood nymphs to help with mine but sadly twas just me to do it all. Mind you, the delivery man gave a nod of approval at my efforts when he came back with the last load.
Let us know when for the toast to the marsh mallow. I'll bring the dirk!
My wife and two daughters have moved more than that this evening Val and still less than 25% is under cover.
Gill, if you have never done it then don't worry, but try making your own Christmas puddings. The bonus is, I always seem to make too much, so feel I ought to eat too much and then occupy other cold moments considering losing the additional 'grammes' again.
Some great ideas... although packing my new baby twins and 2 year old on a plane probably not realistic this year! Looks like I'll be dusting off the DVDs and "forcing" myself to eat chocolate for "health reasons" - life's tough, eh! x
With 4 dogs and the goats to look after life goes on pretty much the same albeit a bit colder, the wood is cut, recipes are being looked up and decided upon plenty of baking done in our wood burning oven, coffee morning every Thursday with friends unless snowed in, they always like to come to us as there is a roaring fire going, foraging in the woods for chestnuts killing two birds with one stone dogs get a walk and its fun for us, any jobs inside the house that need to get done are done during the winter months save the outside for the summer no need to migrate south in the winter
We go off in our camper and find the sunshine!! :)
Three little words: Jeff de Bruges! When the serotonin levels dip, head for high quality dark bitter chokkie. Simples!
I suggest you book a flight to Nassau toutes de suite! I am being a bit facetious here, but I have no intention of freezing my tits off here when warmer climes beckon: TIMOTHY
2nd week in January (as usual) I'm off to west africa, driving to the Gambia. I'll be back when the guilt starts to set in! :-)
Ready!! Well, not actually - the wood burner’s not installed yet. But, hey, could have a heck of a bonfire and toast some marshmallows.
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