J'taime

Ok to paint the scene for you, I’m sitting here in our courtyard, glass of cassis blanc and a café noir by my side, nothing but blue skies above me, black birds singing and the sound of the river Cele, Ian is sitting on the wall watching the fish, his favorite pastime, truly could life be any better!

So what has been happening the last few days, we have settled completely into the Cabrerets lifestyle.  We awake gently at around 8am, sunshine streaming in through our window, a morning stroll to the boulangrie starts the day, decisions decisions, baguette, croissant, pain au chocolat, tartlet du noix, escargot or some other delight that Arlette has baked through the night.  Our morning conversations with Arlette are getting better each morning, I believe she enjoys the game of conversing with us.

A long slow breakfast follows, and then somehow the day unfolds without too much thought on our part.  Maybe a trip into Cahors, a visit to a local market, shopping at a brocante or simply nothing at all, the day never seems long enough.  A long lunch is normally called for at around midday, now this can really change the course of your day, one too many glasses of wine will see you having an afternoon nap!  If you have managed to avoid the trap of that extra glass of wine then there is always a chateau or ruin just waiting for you to visit!  A very special part of our day is our conversations with Roger an elderly Frenchman whose house is attached to ours, he speaks no English, but that doesn’t stop him from trying to communicate with us, I believe in another life time he was a mime artist, today he mimed too us, that if we continue to drink so much cassis blanc we would turn as red as our geraniums in our courtyard.

Normally a meeting has been set up for the evening, drinks with new friends down by the river, which can easily turn into an impromptu dinner. Yesterday evening while sitting down by the river a local family called down to us from the river wall with a gift of pate for us to share, the acceptance of the locals towards us has been a truly humbling experience.  A couple of episodes of 24 and a pot of coffee at our French neighbors home, an evening stroll around the village or a good book and an early night takes us to the end of a perfect day.

The rhythm of life here agrees with me, take the time to speak with strangers, smell the roses, try something new, don’t take yourself too seriously and always have a glass of wine in hand.