Today has been so warm that I have resorted to short sleeves, but I have not yet discarded my vest! Spring is in the air, the tiny tiny snowdrops are out and the daffodils on the bank opposite the house are in bud - if the weather continues like this we shall soon be cutting the grass .... We have seen a lot of jays over the last few days and the birds have been visitng the food station too. They are very wise little things- they soon know when a cat is around and there is a lot of alarm calling to warn each other until the cat has gone again. Apparently hedge sparrows are protected species over here - I'm delighted to discover this as you don't seem to see many in England these days...
Over the last few days we noticed some signs appearing mainly at the bottom of the hills - we'd never seen them before and I'm kicking myself that I didn't take a photo of one for you to see. Anyway, they were the standard red warning sign but inside the words written within it meant - barred to heavy lorries because of ice ...we were very puzzled by this because we had long since moved from minus temperatures into plus so we couldn't quite work it out. We discussed it over dinner last night and the explaanation was confirmed by our next door neighbour this afternoon, who wanted to make sure that we were still warm and had no further problems with the leaking pipe. According to him, because the ground underneath the road surface was so deeply frozen, heavy lorries were banned to stop the top surface being damaged and to allow the deeper earth to defrost - and a very sensible idea I thought. However, some potholes (in French nids de poule - literally hen's nests!) have appeared and we were very amused at the way the holes are filled in! A small lorry slowly progresses down the road looking for holes. As soon as one is found a couple of men leap into action! Spades are retrieved from the bakc of the lorry and a spade full of tarmac is taken from the pile on the back and place in the hole - the spade is banged down heavily to flatten it and then its on to the next one ....very quick, but how long will it last I thought. It reminded me of the Bible passage about not putting patches on old wine skins!!! We'll see!
The satellite saga continues ...last night friends over dinner and a lot of wine were kind enough to offer some consolation and help...so tomorrow may be the day...but I am only whispering this to you....
Today with such lovely weather we went into Cluny to start the process for car insurance ans registration. It is a bit chicken and egg. Do you get car insurance on the English plates then go about changing over to French registration or the other way round. We had not bargained for another step...the need to have a letter from the English insurance company to confirm how many years we have driven without accident...13 years history is the norm to have to find proof of, and that is well and good if you have stayed with the same insurer but we have changed for one year only so we need proof by letter from both. Neither will send an email, so now we have another delay whilst we wait for the letters to come. One insurer won't even send the letter to us here in France so it has to go via the English address and then be forwarded..However, that said, madame in Gan assurance was really helpful, took photocopies of everything document wise and told us to come back as soon as we have the letters and we will get a translation and then she wil immediately be able to give us a price...this bit I was dreading because I had heard that French car insurance is considerably higher than that in England. However, I managed to ask if the sum could be paid monthly like our pensions - no problem - in fact all our insurance can be paid in this way - the house, the chambre d'hote and the car. THat is brilliant news and madame was impressed that we could understand each other! So step one is now in place...On the way past the bank we called in to find out if the new cheque book had arrived (chequier). Cheques are printed with the home address on and cheques are signed not only with your signature and the date but also where the cheque is signed (no, not the room!) but the village, town etc...We were delighted that it was ready, and we were given a new wallet for it - we signed for it and again that confirmed we were really here! It also meant that somehow, as if a miracle, the bank now accepts our French address as the place of our residence - we rewarded ourselves with a "grande creme" in the Brasserie du nord and aat outside in the warm sunshine with the blue skies above us....
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