Christmas come and gone

In the night after our last post, we had a two-hour electricity outage. We keep an old electric clock running so we can see how long these outages last. Usually they're just seconds or minutes, but this one was relatively major. The computers seem to bear it with equanimity (knock wood); only the clock on the stove needs to be reset. (Actually the clock on the VCR/DVD player also needs to be reset, but we don't bother with it.)

The following night there was a major wind and rainstorm with storm warnings all along the coast as well as inland. When we did our morning survey about 10:45, the rain was slowing and all was dry in the house. Half an hour later, Ed went to take Pogo for a walk and found 1/4" of water covering most of the entry and under the cabinets with the stereo and records. Move furniture, mop, mop, mop. Our new neighbor, Vanessa, is aware of the problem and trying to get her mother to replace the barn roof. We hope. Later we also found water coming down the kitchen wall behind the shelves right of the outside door. Since the wind was coming strongly from the west, we suspect water was hitting the porch roof and being driven into the wall.

The next weekend we went to our favorite marché du noël, but were very disappointed. The site had been rearranged do accommodate more vendors, but at least one of our favorites was missing. The usual music and activities for the kids seemed to be missing. And when we went to get sandwiches for lunch, it seems like they had run out of food. Next year we'll try another market.

That afternoon we went to Vanessa's for a small celebration for her birthday. It was also attended by a village doyenne and we had a good time puzzling out family relationships and history. Seems like everyone in Condadeuil is related, except us.

Grocery shops are full of goodies for the holidays, since food is a major focus for the celebrations. Exotic and out-of-season fruits and veg are available for these few weeks (although why anyone would want some holiday manioc puzzles Kaye). One of the grocery flyers we got advertised le gibier (game; wild, in Nederlands) that was available, including boar, regular deer, and roe deer. The deer came from New Zealand, Poland, or the EU; the boar came from the USA, Australia, or France; and the roe came from the EU. Did we know the US or New Zealand had a boar industry? (Our main course was ostrich, raised in the Dordogne.)

Here's our mandatory xmas photo, including Pogo and Sophie. We'd already opened our gifts and cleaned up, waiting for Sophie to come back in.

The rain has largely stopped and we've had some lovely sunny days. Temps are sort of normal, close to freezing at night and in the up single-digits C during the days.