Souvenirs d'un Marathonien

My attempts to download the photos having failed, I can only direct you to the Labatut-Riviere website:- http://www.labatut-riviere.fr/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=618:souvenirs-dun-marathonien&catid=98:cartes-postales&Itemid=224

Let's hope the site server doesn't pack up this time!

.

HAPPY JANUARY!

Yes! I am looking forward to a relaxed and tension-free January 2014. For not only have I completed both our French Income Tax declarations for 2012, which were due in by 27th. May and which in the two previous years we had completed by accountants, but I have today posted off my UK Income Tax Declaration for FY 2012/13. The latter is only due in, in paper form, at the end of October or online by 31st. January. So, for once in my life, I shan't be faced with a panic to meet the year-end deadline which I have every year and the performance with being levied with a penalty and then appealing against it. The threat of what is to follow immediately after Christmas is lifted.

I feel this merits some sort of celebration. Any ideas?

8/6/13 HOLD the Celebration. HMRC have sent back the Return because no Foreign section was included and which the Notes said I didn't have to do. Well, it's raining today so, instead of finishing off the lawnmowing I shall complete the bloody Foreign section - the work of a moment - and send it back to them.

OK. You've another couple of weeks to think up celebratory ideas.

The Drought Witch - A Taster

The weekend of 27th.-28th. April, the village held its "Reveillez Vos Talents" weekend featuring the work of local artists plus, on the Sunday, a Plant and Car Boot Sale. This year Ruth exhibited her children's story The Drought Witch together with her own illustrations and a translation into French by myself and Marie-Edith Labarthe, one of our friends.  Here is a photo of part of the display.

And here, as a taster, is the first page, in a draft French version:-

LA FERME DANS LA VALLEE VERTE

 

En plein cœur de l’Afrique, dans une vallée fertile et verdoyante, vivaient Simon un agriculteur travailleur et son épouse Dorcas gentille et sérieuse.

 

Simon et Dorcas avaient un fils Adam et une fille Constance. Adam aidait Simon à rassembler son troupeau au poil luisant et Constance aidait Dorcas à sarcler le jardin où poussaient du maïs et des légumes. Les enfants s’entendaient bien et allaient  ensemble chercher de l’eau à la rivière ou chercher du bois de chauffage dans la forêt.

 

Un jour après la première pluie d’été, toute la famille alla aux champs pour préparer la terre pour les récoltes de mil et de tabac. Avant que Simon ait  le temps d’atteler ses deux meilleurs bœufs à la charrue, il y eut un bruit comme l’arrivée soudaine et le crépitement d’un feu de  brousse et un énorme tourbillon de poussière déferla sur la vallée. Simon et Dorcas dirent aux enfants de courir s’abriter, mais Adam et Constance se cachèrent près du palmier Ilala pour regarder le vent qui faisait tournoyer l’herbe dans les airs. Ils rirent quand le tourbillon passa car il arracha un morceau de tissu rouge du Chitenge de la clôture de la Boma où il séchait.

 

Tout à coup ils virent une sorcière maléfique chevauchant au centre de la tempête parmi la poussière et les débris. Elle était tout en os  et peaux de lézard avec les yeux incandescents d’un hibou .Constance et Adam étaient choqués et effrayés, mais avant qu’ils puissent faire quoi que ce soit, la sorcière leur avait jeté du sable au visage, les empêchant de voir ce qu’elle faisait et où elle allait.

The story is currently seeking a publisher. For further details you could see Ruth's blogs, Marginal Scribbling at  http://marginalscribbling.blogspot.fr/ or at http://ruthhartley.com/

.

JOINING THE 21ST. CENTURY (- A BIT OF A RANT)

 

We were leafletted on Saturday morning - by a religious group. I shan't mention their name lest our site receives a load of spam, but it wasn't the content which annoyed me, it was the presentation. The thesis of the leaflet was that the Earth is ruled by demons under the direction of Satan, but that's as maybe; I'll read anything. It may be rubbish, but there's always the chance that there may be some interesting ideas in it.

 

Three cars containing five people drew up outside our little group of houses. They were all soberly dressed in dark clothing, jumped from the cars and put leaflets into each of our letterboxes. Then they drove away.

 

Now where we live is in a thinly populated part of France, many young people go away to find work and relatively few people speak English. So what language was the leaflet in?   English! And what were you supposed to do after you had read the leaflet? Write, yes Write! to one of the 16 contact addresses on the back of the leaflet. All the addresses were in English-speaking countries. No phone numbers, no email addresses, no websites, no hashtags! What kind of World do they live in? How effective is it to send teams of people round the planet distributing literature which hardly anyone can read and running away before anyone can engage you in conversation, leaving only an address in a foreign country to which you have to write in a language not your own? They cannot be serious!

 

I think Ruth may be right. Perhaps they were Americans sent out on punishment duty. But it's not a way to save the World, is it?

__________________

 

P. S. The Pic du Midi ski station opened this week to take advantage of the remaining snow. It's almost tempting.  

late wet spring garden

We had a LOT of rain in the winter. It wasn't a bad winter but it seems to have held most things back. And then, in a week, everything seemed to come into leaf and flower. One day this week everyone's wisterias came into blossom on the same day.

 

And the lawn. I have mowed it 3 times in a week. I mowed it the last time on Thursday. I think it will need doing again on Monday. 

 

Pax - no sorry pactes - no sorry pacse

On 8th. April AD2013 we were PACSed. The PACS (Pacte Civil de Solidarité) is the French Civil Partnership - a marriage in virtually all but name. We had decided some time ago that we should have to have some form of legal arrangement between us as French law is very specific in terms of inheritance rules and we wanted to protect our children's positions, besides putting our responsibilities to each other on record.

The Partnership agreement itself is quite simple, the handwritten document which Ruth is holding in the picture is it. But the difficult stuff is obtaining all the documents - birth certificates, certified translations, proofs of good conduct, certificates proving that we are not married or partnershipped to anyone else in UK or France - which takes the time.

This photo shows us as photographed by the Greffier who PACSed us. To my left is a small part of the piles of paperwork she moved to let us sit down.



 

This is us in the restaurant afterwards.

 

And at home.

And our post-prandial champagne. Note (lumpfish) caviar and olives.

JUST A WEEK AGO

Last Wednesday I went for my last ski of the season. I don't normally go on a Wednesday, since this is the day the schools are on holiday and that makes for crowds. I reckoned that so late in the year, it wouldn't make any difference. It didn't.

So, here's a few photos of that last day, 10th. April.

The first shows the mountains taken about a mile from home.

A few miles closer:-

Le Pic de Jer, near Lourdes. My route lies to the right of the Pic.

I have done most of my skiing this year at Luz-Ardiden, but that station closed on 7th. April. Cauterets was open for a further week but, a couple of months ago one of the pylons on the main lift there was moved by an avalanche, leaving that lift closed for the rest of the season. This is the pylon. However, there is a smaller lift, which you can drive to, further up the valley.

These next 3 pictures are a bit white, but they show that there was plenty of snow still up there.

And this is the small lift, going down.

A roadside cascade, at the left of the road visible in the distance on the picture above.

The mountains seen from the supermarket car park on the way home.

Ruth busy in the garden when I got home.

So that's probably the last of the snowy photos for this year. Everywhere is closed now, except Piau which has opened this weekend (20/21st. April) to take advantage of the abundant snow which remains. They are talking of being able to ski in Ariege, along the Pyrenees towards the Mediterranean, in July.