La Marseillaise

There doesn't seem to have been quite the same level of interest in the state visit of President Sarkozy here in France as there was in the UK. It did make the newspapers but wasn't the lead story on every front page & the French are not quite as enamoured with their first couple as the British nation were last week. The publicity surrounding the romance between Mr Sarkozy and Ms Bruni was a departure from the French tradition of keeping presidential private lives private and he has certainly been the butt of a number of non complimentary comments. Can you imagine Gordon Brown being the centre of such a glamorous affair, I can't!

I've been continuing to work with Thierry this week & what a mixed bag of weather we've had. The English are well known for their interest in the weather well it's no wonder there are so many of us out here in France. One minute you can be basking in the sun next it'll be raining that hard that it would put Manchester to shame. Both the man we're working for and Thierry reckon that there are now so many British people in France that they've brought their own weather with them because it never used to rain in the South of France. I had hoped that my French would improve & although I've picked up a few useful words it's going to be difficult to drop the French words for chisel, barrow, lump hammer & adhesive into a meaningful conversation. Apart from the friendly banter about the weather Thursday brought several comments about the performance of those superstars of the English football team. They make you proud to be English.

After a busy week, including working Saturday morning (unfortunately not at time and a half), I was looking forward to an afternoon off and getting out of work clothes and putting on my best bib & tucker. I'd just got out of the shower when Etienne rang to say that he'd got us some more wood for the stove & could I meet him in an hours time? So it was back on with the overalls, unload the trailer & head off for another load of wood. We've been keeping an eye on G & S's house since Christmas and had noticed that they had little visitors with pointed noses & long tails. They'd made a meal of some fruit & nuts & hadn't heard that salt is bad for you as they'd demolished a full pack. We'd cleared up as much as we could but when G & S arrived here on Saturday they discovered a small treasure trove of orange peel & nut shells in the bottom of one of their wardrobes. The mice had obviously worked very hard and I think G & S were a little reluctant to move them on but on Monday I'm sure they were hot footing it to e local hardware store for traps, poison or one of the high tech electronic mouse deterers that are popular here.

On Sunday we've got in the habit of calling in at the boulangerie in Najac and having a coffee in the local bar. This week the road into the village was closed and the flags were flying around the war memorial and there was a ceremony in progress commemorating the locals who died fighting in the Algerian War of Independence. Although there was no band present there was still a stirring rendition of La Marseillaise thanks to a cassette player.