The French Renovation

We're still in France. We ordered the car part and it's due to arrive with us today. If it arrives, we'll take it to the garage this afternoon and find out how long it'll take them to install it. We really need to be getting back to England. I'm slightly nervous. It took the garage nearly two weeks to even look at the car initially, even though we suggested that it was the water pump that needed replacing. We could have ordered the new one ages ago if they'd just had a quick peek to confirm. It sounds like I'm moaning, but, in actual fact, it's been lovely spending more time than expected in France. We've been able to properly catch up with our friends and neighbours. But... we do have some pressing engagements in England, and I don't want to miss them.  Our phone line and internet are now repaired and fully functioning. We'd been expecting the Orange engineer two Fridays ago, but they cancelled and said they'd be here last Friday. No-

Comme ci Comme ca After five weeks in England, we’ve returned to our French farm in the clouds. There has been a sustained onslaught of violent storms in our absence and we were dreading what sort of post-apocalyptic devastation we might be met with. Apart from a battlefield blanket of broken twigs and floppy leaves, damage appears to have been kept to a minimum. Three trees have come down, but they’re all well away from the buildings and have fallen onto open grassland. And it keeps raining… Despite the unrelenting drizzle, I’ve managed to harvest three large courgettes, twelve butternut squashes, two green peppers, five leeks and countless cabbages. We were also lucky to find some walnuts and sweet chestnuts, as there is a strong army of red squirrels here that competes with us to gather these, year after year. Our journey down through France was unexpectedly stressful. After driving smoothly from Calais to Paris, suddenly, just south of Paris, our temperature gau