I think your five metres Mark are now in the Garonne! When the Lot is in danger of flooding they open the barrage at Castelmoron and let it into the Garonne precisely because it’s not in a gorge but has this HUGE flood plain. One of the reasons I love here - the rivers have such different personalities.
Victorian Englishman’s anthropological study that alternates between disgust at the amount of dirt and surprise at the quality of the food, wine and coffee (freshly roasted every evening ready for breakfast). It also contains the memorable observation that although the peasants of the Aveyron are filthy (dirty) those of the Lot are far filthier still!
Reading this, reminds me of the the anthropological type of Bristol’s I’d send back home in the late 80’s, of my first say in France, whilst living in a hamlet / village in the Nièvre. Sanitation wasn’t at the top of the agenda for the locals. The village had +/- 40 souls & +/- 25 houses that were lived in, only 5 had toilets & or baths / showers type lavoirs, some only had one water point in the house but many preferred to go to the fountain to get water. Luckily the house I stayed in had both. Good memories of the past.
My mother was very shocked in the 1960s to discover that houses in the UK didn’t generally have as many bathrooms as bedrooms, and that people had to share them…
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I’ve been coping with intermittent blackouts for a few days but Sunday when the sun was shining and the wind and rain had died down from Saturday my electric suddenly went off and stayed off for many hours…
Whilst I’ve taken steps to ensure that during an electricity power failure I’m still able to heat my home and get a warm drink and a hot meal my main problem is still being able to charge my phone to keep in touch with my family and especially my mom who I check in with 3 or 4 times a day every day back in England…
I was grateful that my laptop had held enough charge to recharge my iPhone…
Spare a thought maybe for those in Australia…??? Wild weather and “climate change/global warming” is being blamed for what seems to be a man made problem but worse than that…???
Time to see Le Medecin 
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Lol…I’m on about power cuts or whatever it’s called now when your home is solely powered by electricity…and the electric goes off and you don’t have a generator that kicks in like my neighbours at the top of my culdesac…
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If your neighbour has a generator… pop along and ask to top up your phone battery.
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I suppose it comes down to where you end up & what one’s used too. I adapted very fast. Ok. Where do I go to have a P’s or if needed have a dump.
Go to have a P’s, “outside”.
Go have a dump, (though rarely asked) in the cow shed or in a bucket in the other room. Very rural community but really enjoyed the experience. It kind of levels this out.
Hey Helen,
Get yourself a gas stove, for one they are cheaper to run & 2 don’t depend on electric. They don’t charge mobile phones tho.
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I’m sure that he and his good lady would do that for me…my neighbours really are lovely but I’m just trying to hone my survival skills…
Know what you mean… we used to have a windup device which charged batteries… and I think it had an adaptor to top up mobile phones as well. I seem to recall a friend winding away during a long drive (he was the passenger 
)… (or am I totally barmy)
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I have a one ring gaz camping stove that I use often any time I want to fry something like an omelette…
I’ve been looking at the bio lite camp stove 2 which provides cooking facilities and light and also a method of charging a mobile phone…
Invest in a “powerbank” and keep it charged when you do have power.
A high capacity one should charge your iPhone 3-5 times
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I’m sure such “back up” systems exist Stella…one of the things I bought here with me was a camping light/lantern,…,it can be charged by electricity or solar power or failing both it has a wind up mechanism…no facility to charge my IPhone though…,
I sometimes wish I wasn’t so dependent on my mobile phone…,but as soon as there is a power failure I ring or text my family in UK to forewarn them that there is a power failure and I dont know when it’s likely to be sorted then watch with dismay whilst my battery dies and count the seconds until
I’m connected to them again…
Do you have any recommendations Paul…??? 3 to 5 times would no doubt see me through instances such as when a major storm cut power to our entire commune for 48 hours several years ago.,… (when that happened the only method I had of charging my mobile was sitting in my uk car…phone plugged into the fag lighter with the engine running and never reached 100 per cent or anywhere near…I do now have a more modern French car with better connections…
)
I enjoyed it immensely, Mark. Most of the older men (an some old women) round here have dirt engrained hands and nails, my next door neighbour in particular.
He demonstrated to me at his kitchen table how to confect an apple tart with flaky pastry, eggs, sugar and cream. He didn’t wash his dooks beforehand and never does so after doing a pee, in the garden or indoors.
But I’m well used to these rough-and-ready methods, as kitchen hygiene was really only invented in the mid 20th century, when all cleaning was carried out with a smelly damp rag, with an occasional dab of scouring powder to get rid of scorch marks after the potatoes boiled dry. 
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There are huge numbers of them so it’s hard to make a specific recommendation.
Just stick the term “power bank” or “batterie externe” into amazon.fr and avoid anything which seems suspiciously small, light or cheap for the stated capacity. The ones with solar panels are a bit gimicky.
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Brigadoon has emerged from the mists… for a limited time only 
Vague golden ball in the sky means we are able to dash out this afternoon for medicines and Christmas supplies without risking life and limb. yippee
Well, there is this:
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Or, if you’re really nerdy: