Daily life in Larocal

Autumn is cold, wet and grey here in Larocal, thank goodness for the fireplace in the lounge room.  We are lighting it after lunch to warm up the living room and kitchen (and us).  There is a good supply of firewood.  We are wearing three layers for most of the day.  When we return in December for our second housesit (here) the central heating will be on.  That will help warm the house up.  In the meantime I just have to keep picking up the autumn leaves for exercise to keep warm.  They will continue to drop for the next few weeks.

Lola & Fizz love their walks.  We walk after breakfast and at 3.30pm because they like to be fed at 4pm.  We take a different route for the morning and afternoon.  In between walks they sleep on the lounge – that is their day.  Jim has been making them go outside every hour for a wee because we don’t trust them to let us know when they need to go.

This morning we drove to Villereal for a look.  It is 8km away from Larocal.  It is a bastide town built in the 13^th century.  You should Google bastide and Villereal.  It is an interesting read about French history.

We picked up a walking tour map of the bastide from the tourist office.  Once we located number one on the map we were on our way.  The tour only took 15-minutes but it was informative and enjoyable. 

Tonight we will drive into Beaumont for pizza.  On Tuesday nights in the village square there is a man with a van.  He cooks wood fired pizza.   The van is fitted with a wood fired pizza oven.   It comes highly recommended from Melinda.  We’ll see. 

13th century church

Same church in 1913

Notice the 'Look-out' in the photo, now look at below photo

The 'Look-out' today at the end of the street

I just love the old Citroen cars

The Leper House - creepy! 

Day 4 at Larocal, Sainte Sabine Born

Arriving right on dinnertime Tuesday night Melinda made a yummy scallop stir-fry.  

Wednesday morning she showed us the closest village for food shopping and the bank, Beaumont 8km.  On the way home she shouted us lunch at a local restaurant in Sainte Sabine Born, just down the road, literally.  I had grilled goats’ cheese salad, yummy and Jim had veal with pasta – he said it was tasty.  Most of the restaurants in France offer three or five course lunches, aimed at the tradesmen.  Here in Sainte Sabine the five course is 11 Euros ($16.50) what a bargain & especially when it includes a half carafe of wine.  Now you know what they do with their two hour break in the middle of the day.

Thursday midday we drove Melinda to Bergerac airport, a 20-minute drive.  She is off to London.  Then we went onto the Bergerac train station to buy our tickets for Eze.  We will return to Bergerac next Saturday to go to the market.  Melinda says the Saturday market is very French, a bit difficult for us to buy things but good for new sights.  It looks like a beautiful town.

Melinda is an interesting person just like all the house sit owners have been.  The below link is an interview with her.

http://www.gil-sa.org/castile-soap/melinda-coss/

We didn’t know anything about her till we arrived.  Her name on the house sitters website is soap queen.  I assumed she might have a soap making business because she did tell me she was returning to London for this period for work.  Soap making – what an understatement.  You must read the interview.

She is currently working on an online handmade clothing website – made from African fabrics.  The clothing is aimed at women like her, middle age that find buying clothes to fit difficult especially here in France where the typical women’s shape is shapelier shall we say (Melinda’s words).  Also on the go is an online handmade jewellery website – made from Bakelite & antique trinkets.  She is very enthusiastic and says she gets lost for hours in a day on the Internet working on her projects.

Lola & Fizz are lovely if you ignore the upset tummy in the house we had to deal with on our second day and being woken up at 2am this morning with them barking at a mouse they were trying to catch.  Yes, you read correctly mouse.  Melinda did warn us mice get into the house.  It is an old farmhouse that she rebuilt 9 years ago and fields of crops surround it.  I know it is still takes a bit of getting used to.  Jim was great he went down to them four times (our room is upstairs) they sleep on the lounge, say no more.  The scene was the equivalent of girls squealing and standing on a chair when they see a mouse – big babies!

This morning we drove the Polo (our car) to Rob’s neighbour, an hour away.  Rob of Karen & Rob of the Surrey housesit.  Rob bought the car from us.  It was good timing as our insurance was due to expire tomorrow and Jim was over driving long distances and Melinda offered us the use of her car.  It was a sad moment.  The car did us proud.  We purchased it on July 4^th and did 10,000kms.  Amazing!

The outside of the house from the roadside - it is a house & a gite (granny flat in French)

The local plumber's house next door - impressive isn't it!

Jesus guarding the rubbish at the end of the street, communal rubbish bins in France & Italy is common

Jesus again, at the other end of the street, blessing the corner

Final farewell to the Polo at Karen's family's French property - Lot et Garonne

Bellentre to Larocal

Saying good-bye 

Bellentre to Larocal - our drive was 8 hours in total. 

The plan was to go from Bellentre to Chambery picking up the motorway to just below Lyon and up to Clermont Ferrand then follow the motorway south for a few hours taking us to Sainte Sabine Born & Larocal. 

2 hours from our destination the GPS couldn’t locate the new part of the motorway we were on and went into a spin.  We ended up leaving the motorway at the next exit which was 20km further on to get back onto an old road and lucky for us we did otherwise we would have missed out on the beautiful old villages and amazing scenery we passed along the way. 

France is different from England where we took the scenic route most of the time, here the country is large and getting from location to location we need to use the motorway to reduce the travel time as the scenic routes would take you days.  The motorways are not cheap, yesterdays trip cost 44 Euros approximately $66 in tolls.  I think I have mentioned this expense before. 

After leaving the motorway we passed a village called Montignac then drove into an area known as the prehistoric capital of the world.  It definitely looked and felt like it.

The grottoes are caves once inhabited by prehistoric people.  You remember the books ‘Clan of the cave bear’ apparently it was based on this area and the caves.  I was in awe looking up at these caves in the rock walls with rock overhangs.  Poor Jim was busy driving with me saying WOW, look at that!  We will go back for a day trip. 

Leaving the valley we drove over the River Dordogne passing through the villages of Le Buisson and Cadouin, both very picturesque then onto Beaufort another pretty French village and finally ten minutes down the road Sainte Sabine with its mayor office, three restaurants and bakery turning off to Larocal. 

Larocal consists of a collection of houses set up a road that does a block.  The fields surrounding the block of Larocal were full of sunflowers this summer.  It would have looked glowing at their prime.  Apparently there is crop rotation each year but now being autumn the ground is empty except for the odd sunflower straggler.  The deciduous trees of which there is plenty have nearly finished their colour change and starting to drop their leaves. 

This area of France known as the Dordogne is popular for expats buying up and renovating old farmhouses quite a few Australians among them.

Lola (in front) & Fizz (behind)

Front entrance of the house - Lola sitting on guard

Looking down side of the house

11th of the 11th

This morning we went with Carolyn & the girls for the 11th of the 11th celebration in the village.

 John had to work, the ski season doesn't stop for anyone although today is a public holiday in France.

The parade started near the village chapel.  Beside the chapel a tree was planted in 1919 to celebrate freedom at the end of WWI.  (Forgot to take a photo of the tree!)

The parade was led by the Mayor followed by 4 elderly local returned soldiers from the Algerian War, the children of the commune (shire or local government area), followed by the residents of the village (& us) down to the cenotaph.  The Mayor made a speech.  Obviously, we couldn't understand a word of what he was saying but the sombre mood is the same world over.

After the speech the parade continued on to the village cemetery to honour the returned dead soldiers.  The celebration finished with a drink at the village hall.

The cenotaph before the parade

Carolyn & I outside the chapel

View walking through the village down to the cenotaph

The 4 elderly returned soldiers holding flags 

The parade walking through the cemetery

Bellentre Sunday 10 November

This past week has been a real holiday for us based in the village of Bellentre in the French Alps.

Our friends John & Carolyn have lived here for the past 9 years.  They are the only non-French family in the village.  John is English and Carolyn is from Port Fairy, Australia.  They have skied many resorts around the world spending ten years in Falls Creek where we met up.  They purchased this 100+ year-old skeleton of a building 9 years ago then set to rebuild it as a family home.  They have done an amazing job. 

Their summer business is Alpine Cadence - training & tours for cyclists and in winter they have an English ski school franchise of New Generation, both businesses are based here in the Alps. 

The girls love their French life.  Lotti, 10 was born in Andorra and Matilda, 8 was born here.  The girls go to a small school of 35 students, a three-minute walk from the house.  The girls speak French at school and English at home.  John and Carolyn both speak conversational French so the girls love to correct their pronunciation. 

During the week we visited the two closest towns of Bourg St Maurice a ski town 18kms north and Aime (pronounced M) a town 8kms south in the direction of Albertville/Chambery, both towns Carolyn shops in and Aime is where the girls will go to secondary school. 

We were keen to visit at least one ski resort while we were here so we chose Tignes.  It was a 45-minute drive.  Tignes and Val d’Isere are both large ski resorts beside each other.  You can ski between the two.  They are already open for the ski season.  The other resorts in the area will open between Dec 1 & Dec 21. 

We had a day trip to Lake Annecy a 2-hour drive in the direction of Chambery.  It is a beautiful alpine lake 15km in length.  We wandered around the old city and had lunch of a baguette sitting on the seat overlooking the lake.  It was a beautiful partially sunny autumn day.  We drove home around the other side of the lake passing a few cute villages along the way. 

You will see in Flickr many photos of beautiful cows.  We walked past many yesterday afternoon on a walk down to the river and around the village.  They are native to this area of France known as the Savoie (pronounced Savoy).  The cows are Tarentaise cattle.  Their milk is used to produce Beaufort cheese.  It goes well with the local Savoy white wine, both of which we have sampled in the past week.  The cheese is a bit smelly, pungent is a better word but tasty.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarentaise_cattle

Tomorrow is 11^th of the 11^th and the village will have a celebration at 11am so we will all attend.  Will tell you more after the event.

Tignes, from the top of the funicular

The 'Bridge of Love' overlooking Lake Annecy 

Local Tarentaise cows

Looking at the village of Bellentre returning from our walk yesterday afternoon

Sunday lunch - outside the mountain restaurant

Inside the mountain restaurant - enjoyed yummy local fare

Bellentre

A quiet moment!

Sunday morning 9am we gave the dogs one last pat and started our day’s driving to Bellentre. 

France and Italy (not sure about other countries) have Sunday as a truck free day.  It’s so much easier to be on the motorways without them as there are so many, one after the other.

The road trip was long but uneventful which is what we want while we are driving.  Only one incident where the GPS lost it’s way on a new part of the motorway.  The timing was bad because it was at a junction, head either north to Geneva, Switzerland or south to Grenoble, France.  We needed to be in between ‘what to do’ quick quick decide.  We decided on Grenoble.  In the meantime I got out the hardcopy (the old fashion way) of the ‘European Road Atlas’, to make sure we were headed in the right direction.  

I said to Jim, at least stay in the same country.   A few minutes later the GPS picked up the existing motorway and we chose the right way – thank goodness.  Aside from that one hiccup we arrived safely at 5pm at our friends village of Bellentre.

When we drove into the village we had to ring John and Carolyn for directions to their house.  We pulled over and rang their number but there was a French message.  Oh no, we had run out of money on our mobile.  ‘What to do’, we’ll just have to drive around and see what we see.  It is a small village, hopefully we either find a phone which is near impossible these days the worldwide or we'll have to find a person to ask.  I notice a young boy chatting to a young girl.  I say to Jim stop the car, that’s Carolyn’s little girl.  I’d seen her on Facebook a couple of days previous.  I said ‘hello, are you Carolyn’s little girl?’ and she answered yes.  They have two little girls Lottie (10) & Matilda (8).  It was Lottie who walked in front of our car to her house one road below the road we were on.  How lucky is that.

We have a self-contained apartment under John & Carolyn’s house.  The views are fantastic, looking across to the Alps.  It has been snowing in the evenings so to wake up to fresh snow is beautiful.  Fortunately, it is too early to snow here in the village as the little red car wouldn’t like it – the tyres wouldn’t cope.

It is revitalizing to be with people we know and to be able to talk about absolutely everything and nothing. 

View from our room

Our apartment (windows on bottom right)

John & Carolyn's house

Snow - so of course Jim is smiling

Dormans, our final days

Tomorrow is our last day in Dormans.  

The family will be returning home tomorrow night from their holiday in Corsica.  We will head off Sunday morning to visit our friends in Bellentre.  Bellentre is one hour’s drive from Chambery.  The drive from Chambery to here took 6.5 hours so it will be a long day.  It will be good to be among friends and to be able to chat chat chat.

The dogs are lovely but a handful.  Whilst writing this Filou & DS are playing ‘round and round the mulberry bush’ around the coffee table via the kitchen - one of their favourite games.  Filou instigates the chasing but then takes refuge under the coffee table.  It often ends in tears with DS giving Filou a chomp out of frustration.  Meanwhile old man (Bandit) is either barking or whining because he doesn’t like them doing it.  These sessions happen a couple of times a day.  To cope with it Jim and I are either laughing or yelling ‘stop’ out of frustration and trying to put them outside.  It is difficult to chastise the dogs - you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.  They are set in their ways and we are only here to babysit.

We made a welcome home card for the family from the dogs.  It is really cute.  You can tell we have lots of time on our hands. 

Living in a typical French village has been interesting (as everything new is) but it has been a long two weeks.  I think the main reasons are we are both feeling homesick, not having anyone to talk to in English except for each other and for Jim the limited English TV.  Every afternoon we watch 'The Ghost Whisperer. ' We have never watched this show before (at home).  I liked the first couple of shows, now I’m over it.

The supermarkets, bakeries and most businesses in Dormans shut for a few hours over lunch, normally from 12 to 2.30pm.  They reopen from 2.30pm to 7pm.  It is the equivalent to the siesta in Spain and Italy.  We found this out the hard way.  Our first day here we walked up the road to buy a baguette for lunch, nothing was open.  It was a late lunch that day.

Before we leave Dormans I should tell you a bit about its history.  The river Marne runs through the town.  You may have heard of the battles of the Marne, battle 1 in 1914 at the start of WW1 and battle 2 in 1918 ending WW1.  It was a bloody period for the French, Germans, Australians and the English.  We visited the war cemetery, walking distance up the road from the house.  The cemetery is in the grounds of Chateau Dormans along with a huge memorial to the war.  I had to Google for information on the events because everything at the cemetery and chateau is in French. 

Here’s ‘Sante’ to a few champagnes tomorrow night with Nathalie and Christian and then onward bound. 

War cemetery

War memorial 

Looking from war memorial down to Chateau Dormans 

Round & round the mulberry bush

Filou taking refuge after starting the game

So cute, naughty thing!!