Getting organised

on board

We've reached the moment when the UK starts to gently filter back into our heads. On 31st October, Hallowe'en, we take the boat back to Portsmouth for not quite the last time. We're travelling on the Normandie which is our favourite boat in the Brittany Ferry fleet. It will probably be decorated with bats, pumpkins and other Hallowe'en paraphernalia.  Just hope it doesn't creep into the dinner menu. Fricasée of bat doesn't appeal. Or maybe they'll have that for the children.

We're not seriously getting ready to go back, it's more a 're-engaging' with what we've got to do when we get there. In any case there's still another three weeks to go here and a lot is happening during this time. 

New wine barrels

Usually 'returning to the UK' means a car full of bags and boxes. But there's nothing really to take back to the UK this time except wine in various quantities - orders for friends, presents for others and a supply to cover Christmas and New Year. It's the first time ever we've thought of Christmas this early on. We're not into the business of  '. . . it's September so let's start getting Christmas presents' or '. . . it's October let's start planning Christmas Day lunch'. Usually nothing happens with us until a couple of weeks before and the decorations never go up until a few days before. But out of necessity Christmas  is on the radar. We're going back this time for a slightly longer stay in the UK as we've things to sort out in the house, and legalities to put into place - exciting things like Landlord Insurance, touch-up painting on doors and bannisters and loft clearing.

Cravant vines

I'm starting a blog in French for friends and neighbours here while we're back in the UK. It will be good practice for me while we're away. One of the odd things about travelling backwards and forwards is the language changeover. My brain does the splits. I get so used to talking, writing and listening to French every day. And then suddenly it stops. But my brain doesn't adapt immediately so I go into a stuttering franglais mode. The number of times I catch myself answering the English phone in French. Eventually it settles down.

The funniest thing of all when we get back, and this happens in both houses, is that we simply can't remember where anything is. Or we think something is in one house when actually it's in the other. It takes another few days to find our way around. The kitchen remains the biggest challenge. I know perfectly well that all the drawers and cupboards in the French house are the automatic type, that gracefully glide shut with the gentlest of touches. I've known this for four years. The English kitchen doesn't have this system. I take out what I need, gently nudge the drawer back to close, turn round to do what I have to do, turn back and then get whacked on the shins. You'd think I'd have learnt by now!

Panorama at Cravant

Anyway in the three weeks before I acquire a new set of bruises, we've got to finish cutting back the garden, summer and winter clothes need to be re-organised. There are some exhibitions and lunches with anglo-french groups coming up. Meetings, dinner parties, drinks parties, coffee mornings. Turquant is having a book festival and concert and there are couple of things over at Fontevraud. Then we go back to the UK and start all over again. We love every minute of it.