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2011 Europe

8-20 August 2011: Dordogne, France

Monday 8 August 2011 – Sunday 14 August 2011

We pick up the keys for my cousin’s house and decamp there.  We abrre only going to stay a few days but are going to take the opportunity to tidy up the van and hopefully get some repairs done to the damaged awning.  We also decide to do a small bit of sightseeing in the area and Scott wants to start doing some longer runs (he is preparing for the London 2012 Marathon) whilst I am going to spend the time reading and getting some sun.  Well that is the plan anyway.

So we managed to get in a bit of sightseeing in Riberac and Brantome which are both the usual French villages with half timbered houses and full of english people.  We got excited in Brantome about a restaurant we saw in the distance called Indien Coleur, but alas it was an english restaurant.  We are so missing indian food we are dreaming about it.

We also managed to find two replacement parts for our awning, but they are in Dorset, England.  There is an Omnistor dealer here in Brantome, but alas even though it advertises as being open Monday-Friday from 8:00am, for two days in a row we have been unable to get to see anybody as the gates are locked.  So in the end we are having them couriered to London and my cousin is bringing them over on Thursday so we can head down to Spain and catch the Vuelta. 

Full moon up the driveway and across the sunflower fields
Full moon up the driveway and across the sunflower fields

The weather all week has been sunny, windy, rainy, misty, foggy, drizzly, more drizzly and even more drizzly.  We are baffled by the idea of a european summer.  Definately not much good for my suntanning.  So I get stuck into the garden which has thrived a bit too much with a bit of sun and lots of rain and manage to amass six large garbage bags of weeds and it hardly looks like I have done anything.  In the meantime Scott has emptied the van and done a few repairs, so now we are just biding our time and doing nothing.  Hmm something I can’t remember the last time we did.  Although we have managed to do some changes to my cousins website for the house (www.highlivingfrance.com), some changes to ourbookclub website (www.ourbookclub.net.au) and of course our blog.

Sunset from the terrace
Sunset from the terrace

On Scott’s first long run he got totally lost in the area and ended up doing 17kms.  On his next run he did 22kms and didn’t get lost, so not sure if that is a good thing or not.  I haven’t started my marathon training, yet still waiting for inspiration!

Other than that we spent a lot of time reading, downloading books and movies and generally pottering around.  Our new computer laptop battery arrived and we are now free of cables for a while which is fantastic.  In addition the new camera batteries also arrived so we can take more than a couple of pictures without having to change batteries.  We did order some travel books, but no luck in those arriving and have given up.

On 16 August 2011, my cousins’ (Linda) son Mark, his wife Annie and their kids, Josh, Ellie and Chloe arrived for a family holiday and we settled into a louder but fun routine.  I haven’t seen Mark since he was about 7, so it was great to meet some of the family.  The kids were great fun, playing games and had Scott answering a million questions and coming up with things to do.  The underwater dive torch is fantastic for hunting for night-time critters.  Of course the decision was made to build the trampoline that had been donated to the house free, this seemed like a relatively easy thing to do but turned into an almost blood bath with springs flying everywhere and in the end to find the mat had a small tear and the netting walls were unusable – c’est la vie, in future buy good quality should be the motto at the end of the day.

On 18 August 2011, my cousin (Robert) and Kevin arrive with a massive van full of English food and equipment and our peace was shattered.  My Auntie Eve and Uncle Bob are arriving on Saturday, and the house has to be totally reorganised and cleaned for their arrival, so all hands on deck with Robert being his usual frantic self doing a bit here and there while Annie cleaned top to bottle.  Scott spent the morning installing the awning parts and they work fine, so that is fantastic news and means we don’t have to buy a whole new awning.  In the afternoon Scott, Mark and I decided to build the plastic swimming pool.  Of course the first instructions are to find a level spot – hmm Robert wanted it to go in the driveway below the back terrace which is on a slight slope, so we built it there with loads of warnings from us if things go wrong.  This was a good exercise in teamwork and also should be noted not the best thing to do in the middle of the day when it is really hot.  Also should be noted that nobody had bought any chemicals or salt for the water, so will be interesting to see how long it takes for the water to go manky when full of people and kids.  Eventually it was completed (with the exception of the cleaning thing that attaches to the hose as that got moved in the manic cleanup and I couldn’t find it again). 

On 20 August 2011, the final cleaning frenzy continued and then eventually my Auntie and Uncle arrived with my cousin (Linda) and they did the grand tour and hopefully appreciated how much hard work everyone put in.  After they settled in, it was time to christen the pool and we all got in for a few hours of cooling down.  For some reason today it is baking hot.  We had a nice time and a nice family meal.  But as the TV is now here and installed time for us to move on and enjoy the countryside some more.