May is usually my favourite month, but not so this year. Apart from being my birthday month (& that of my daughter too), May is often the real start of summer when the garden & the countryside suddenly bursts into colour, we start to serve aperos to our guests on the terrace, we eat outdoors at lunchtimes & in the evenings too, the village fetes & vide greniers all start up again, & we start wearing T shirts & shorts again. This year…forget all that! My mother always said “ne`er cast a clout til May is out” & although there was always some debate as to whether the “May” in question was the month or the May (hawthorn) blossom, there is little chance of us casting anything here, & that includes wellies, raincoats, jumpers & even the winter tyres on the cars, even though May is now over! Like most of France, the Auvergne has broken records for the consistently low temperatures & volume of rainfall this month, & the bad weather goes on. We are still lighting the fire most evenings & have heaters on all day long. As for the garden….when we do manage to squelch around it, the only things that are flourishing are the weeds, snails & slugs. We still have a fair covering of snow on the Sancy Mountains & we had snow lying in the garden here in the middle of the month too. The locals here say they haven’t experienced weather like this for over 35 years & the farmers are despairing as all their fields are totally waterlogged. Everyone, me included, is thoroughly sick of waking up each morning to grey skies, rain & the cold. It has got to stop soon...hasn’t it??
Ah well, what else has been happening this “merry “month here at Chabanol? The many French Bank holidays which occur in May brought us quite a lot of visitors during the first half of the month. Our guests for the 1st of May didn`t get their usual traditional bunch of muguet (lily of the valley) though, as it was still trying to keep warm was nowhere near flowering! We have had our first gite guests of the season, a lovely family who had a very nice long weekend here despite the freezing temperatures. The guy was here (as was our B&B guests that weekend too) to run in the Amethyst Trail, an annual event which starts & finishes in Sauxillanges. There are 3, sort of cross country, runs of different lengths & a walk. Both of our male guests were running in the 40km run… & yes, I did say 40km! This is an “off road” trail & has some pretty grueling terrain to be covered. Anyone who knows the Auvergne & the area around us here, will know that not much of it is flat, so I have to say I thought all the runners were a bit bonkers! Geoff & I, plus the gite guest’s family all trooped to the end of our drive to encourage the runners as they huffed & puffed up the track which runs past the house. Unfortunately, we only had British flags to wave so we all got some very strange looks from the runners, but they appreciated the applause & “bravos” we gave them! Rather them than me - I find it hard enough to walk up that track never mind run up it & they’d run 30kms already!
Our next lot of B&B guests were a lovely English couple who were taking a break in their journey down to Beziers. My heart sank when the lady got out of the car as she obviously was not a well woman & looked absolutely exhausted. I quickly swapped them into the downstairs room as I was sure she wouldn’t manage the stairs. She turned out to be a delightful lady with multiple serious health problems, including having had 2 massive pulmonary emboli last year & was obviously living on borrowed time really. We were full of admiration for them both for undertaking such a long journey so that they could enjoy a 3 week holiday together in the (hopefully) warm South of France. She was totally wiped out though, & kept falling asleep over her dinner, poor soul! She was much better the following morning, after a good night’s sleep & I hope they had a great holiday.
One of the more enjoyable tasks I had to do this month was to make dome floral decorations for a friend. Having rediscovered that I could still do this flower arranging malarkey, following on from Matthew’s wedding last month, I was delighted to be asked to provide some arrangements for the church & the tables for the meal, which was to celebrate our friend’s parents’ 60th wedding anniversary. I thoroughly enjoyed doing them & was very pleased (as was my friend) with the finished decorations. By chance, we had chosen together flowers in the papal colours (the family are all staunch RCs) & so the arrangements were very well received!
This month has also seen me return to doing some teaching…something I thought was well in my past! Geoff has a student in one of the businesses in Issoire who is the on site nurse there, & as well as improving her English generally, she needs some more specific “medical” English too. So my dearly beloved “volunteered” yours truly to provide these lessons! I’m not entirely sure I want to return to teaching in any big way, but so far the lessons have gone quite well. Mind you, I don’t seem to have been paid yet…what a surprise eh?
Because the weather has been so bad this month, we really haven’t felt like going out much at all. We usually try & go to some vide greniers & fêtes in the summer, but a lot of them have been completely rained off. We did however venture out last weekend to a fête over in the Cezallier region, which is across the valley from us. The event was pretty poor…it was really cold & wet again & most of the stallholders had packed up & gone home by the time we got there. So we decided to have a bit of a drive around, as this is a part of the Auvergne we don’t often visit. We were totally astounded by the wild flowers we saw up there on the hills - completely different species to the flowers we see round us. I have never seen so many (& such a variety) of wild orchids in my life. There were also fields full of the small, pretty wild daffodils which were a delight to see. We really enjoyed the trip, despite the weather, & were only disappointed that the cold wind blowing into our faces & making our eyes run with tears, prevented us from getting a glimpse of the ospreys which are to be found at the lake near Godeville, which we visited, albeit, briefly! It was so cold!
One thing which did not thrill us quite so much was the enforced & prolonged visit of Geoff’s car to the garage last week. Both of our cars are beginning to show their age really & we dread them breaking down now. This time Geoff’s car needed to have the cylinder head gasket, radiator & water pump replaced...which as you might guess was a lengthy & expensive operation. The worst thing though was having to manage with one car. It makes us realise just how much we need a car here. When Geoff had to use my car for work I was totally stuck at the house. Very boring it was too with all the rain! Happily Geoff has now got his beloved vehicle back & normal life has resumed. We do need to think about looking for a newer car some time though...not a happy thought, as second hand cars are ridiculously expensive here in France :(
Mind you,as I was doing my good deed of the month by escorting my friend Tottie Limejuice to hospital for an investigation under sedation, which meant she couldn’t drive, I got to drive her yellow ex La Poste van (the one with the old hippy stickers on it - don’t ask!) I think that might be the way to go if we need to change Geoff’s car. It was great fun to drive & as long as I remembered to keep the car keys in my hot little hand whenever I got out of it (it self locks, obviously a safety precaution à La Poste) it would seem to fit the bill for us in many ways. Some further investigation is needed there I think before too long.
So we arrive at the last day of May - which incidentally is also my birthday – and the last bit of news from Chabanol for this month. We have a new structure in our garden – a very swish looking Hen Palace – which I hope will be welcoming 2 very long awaited chickens tomorrow after a visit to Issoire market! I have wanted some chooks for ages & at last my wish is to be granted. The Hen Palace & the chickens are my birthday present from the family...& I am so looking forward to seeing the new girls in their new abode. Florence & Elizabeth, (in honour of my mother & mother-in–law) your new home awaits :)