Saturday

Well they just missed spending Mum’s birthday with us but it’s great to have them coming over. I was completely confused where they were coming from – I’d mixed up Valbonne with Narbonne and had no idea why they were going to take so very long to get here. It did make me all the more impressed that they did come to visit, despite my reminders that it is still a building site.

Their much longer drive however did leave us time to do a bit more. Matt has headed over to Tarbes to pick up some electrical cabling and has also found a few tile options which might be promising. A never ending story as we have so many bathrooms to do, as well as the splash back for the kitchen. Also it seems that Brico Depot stock the parts for our kitchen (which is great as it means we don’t have to go back to the dreaded Castorama for the few extra bits we want)

Back at the house and before we’re interrupted by the massing hoards [Chaney-Shorts] I need to get my other job finished in Room 6. I want to try to get the worst of the mess out of the ceiling and also get it tidied before it becomes a death – or tetanus – trap for small inquisitive children. There are a lot of rusty nails pointing out of boards up there but I’ve done my best to reduce the risk.

A few tomatoes picked from the garden and the place tidied up a little and finally they arrived, and made sense of the Val/Narbonne question.

After a super long drive, that I was very pleased they had done, the boys had seen the pool and were desperate to get in. Before the car could be unloaded of anything they were demanding to be given water wings and swim suits. Thankfully Chris managed to get just enough stuff out the car and Joelle was on lifeguard duty. There’s something about children and water that seems to be a magical source of entertainment, I was exactly the same, first thing I ever wanted to do.

It’s getting late and dark so we’ll show them the first floor where they’re sleeping and keep the floor of death and injury for tomorrow. I’m pleased Joelle seems happy but clearly misjudged a separate kids and adults room. According to Ollie the house is scary and probably full of ghosts – Matt and Brandon had already been insistent that I didn’t talk of baby ghosts around children, apparently the fact that they protect the people that look after the house isn’t reassuring to them. I like it though. They make me feel safe and protected. I also forgot that we grew up in a big old house in the middle of nowhere so this wasn’t much of a change for me.

Anyway, with the room allocations rearranged with one adult per room sharing with a child and the family off to bed early due to their long drive and over excitement we checked if it would be ok if we went out. Joelle was already in bed and Chris was fine and so we headed up to the village square for day two of the party, 80’s night, French style.

After spending a bit of time at the slightly disappointing start we decided to go to the bar around the corner to warm ourselves up, we could hear the music from there also. It seems you could also hear it from our house – I got a message:

Joelle: “Where is the music coming from? Sounds like there is a concert going on in the quiet valley!!!! 😂😂😂

Me: “There is a concert going on in the village, that’s where we are up at the park de Marie”

Joelle: “Oh right!!! Enjoy xx”

Me: “I’m afraid you happened across the weekend of our annual fete in the village. And apparently our village is a rager 😂”

Joelle [half an hour later]: “Voyage voyage”

The singer was pretty incredible, they sang in both English and French. We may have to contact these guys as they played forever, as it seemed, and he was really good. Possible wedding band?!

We (I) was dancing till about 1:30am and then headed back home. I think it finished around 2am. Time for bed before we have to start entertaining again.

[27 August 2022]

Sunday

We’ve been invited over to JC’s today and Joelle is keen to meet these infamous friends of mine. Since they also have a pool the boys are pretty up for it too. Are mermaids/men actually just children that only grow legs when they’re out of the water? They seem to be addicted to it, I remember I was just the same – puddle, river, swimming pool; it didn’t matter.

Lots of fun I think had by all and lovely food from the wonderful Cressida. Thanks for feeding the hoards! Time to all get in the pool. Eventually however it was home time. The kids need dinner and Monty has designated himself head gardener. I can’t say that I’m not grateful for the help and he’s watered every single pot.

After a very exciting weekend it’s time for bed and we’re all exhausted. Chaney-Shorts are off again tomorrow after a ‘short but sweet’ visit. It’s been lovely to spend time with my sister, Chris and the boys and I’m incredibly grateful that they came all this way from ‘VALbonne’. I hope they thought it was worth it too.

Since they will be off super early we said our goodbyes before we went to bed, I should never be trusted to be up that early.

[28 August 2022]

Monday

I did wave them goodbye, although I don’t know I if I was even quick enough to be seen. Matt noticed though so that was something. And thank you Joelle for showing such appreciation, I’m glad you liked what we’d done and that you made me feel brave rather than stupid, the two are often too close to call.

Back to bed for me, this crazy early. It is a Monday too so we’re both back to work, Matt earlier than me of course, where would we be without him, he works so hard and is so brilliant.

After work JC came round. Time to have a crack at the pergola. Supported by Cressida, I naturally took on the supervisory role. I’m not convinced that this is Jonny’s natural sandpit, but incredibly impressed by his effort and perseverance. We got the first few bits together but there wasn’t time to get much more done.

Time to relax and unwind. We have dinner to make and eat and cud to chew on.

[29 August 2022]