The more eagle eyed among you might have noticed that there has been a bit of a break since I wrote last.

I wrote my last blog entry just a couple of days after we came back from our wonderful trip to Finland to see our son. I wanted to get everything down on paper (screen) while it was fresh in my mind.While I was tapping away on my laptop in the kitchen I noticed Liam was starting to develop a proper man cold, with all the trimmings and, as a precaution, he did a covid test which was negative.

I had just taken dinner from the oven, poured us both a glass of wine, lit the candles when Liam took a big swig of the wine, and …virtually spat it out again.

‘What’s wrong with this wine???’ he nearly shouted, slamming his glass down, looking panicked.

‘It tastes…of chemicals, of metal, maybe?’

I tried it and it was ok.

You have probably worked out what happened next.

Yes, Liam tested positive, followed by me, a day later. We tested positive for fourteen days and felt awful. Two very dear friends got us supplies in and we basically hunkered down, cancelled everything and coughed and spluttered our way through the next two weeks.

Then I got bronchitis.

So, this is why I didn’t blog because I literally had nothing to say because I had done nothing for pretty much all of November.

Back in the Land of the Living again and feeling so much better.

You remember I told you I was in a play with the English Theatre Company? It was a challenge because I had missed three weeks of rehearsals, but somehow it was alright when we performed it. I love the process; the camaraderie, the dress rehearsals, the audience hush of expectation before you go on. This play, the Long Christmas Dinner by Thornton Wilder was a one act play, performed before lunch, followed by another wickedly funny comedy, Plaza Suite by Neil Simon. It couldn’t have been nicer, performing in a room that smells of Christmas dinner! Here are some back stage photos, taken by local photographic artist, Jon Wainwright:

After not seeing my friends while I was ill, its so nice to be out and about again. Lovely things are planned, such as a German Christmas gathering at our friends house up the road, a birthday lunch celebrating the birthday of four ladies from the Birthday Club a couple of evenings with friends at our house.

The other day Liam and I went to Toulouse to see Cirque du soleil, which we have been a fan of for years. The Zenith Centre is an incredible venue and although we had cheap seats tucked up at the back, we could still see really well. While we were waiting for the show to start, we became aware that there was a constant hum of crickets and the auditorium felt as warm as a rain frorest. The show we saw was Ovo and, in brief, was about the insect world and living in peace and harmony. The choreography was stunning and inscect acrobats flew through the air, back flipping like omelettes and generally dazzelling us with their bendiness.

A regular fixture of Christmas here is thenual carol concert by Contempo, our local choir. You know Christmas has started when its time for the Carol concert, which was held in the church at Trie Sur Baise. Our choir was wonderful, of course and here is a picture of us all and also a nice one of me with my lovely friend:

For me though, the tiny choir of just five ladies that went on before us, stole the show.

They sang exquisite Occitan songs in perfect harmony and you could have heard a pin drop, everyone was so focused on them. The harmonies are dark and rich and make you think of dragons and Knights Templars and swooning damsels. Before we came here, I just thought that Occitanie was the rather posh perfume and potions shop with a yellow shop front,

but now I know it is the lifeblood of our region, its cry of pain echoing from down the centuries .

We are planning a quiet Christmas this year, our first on our own since the boys were born. In days gone by I remember writing lists in October, Christmas shopping in January, endlessly queueing to get into carparks and supermarkets and being bombarded by TV ads, hearing Slade on every street corner. Christmas in the UK is wonderful, but relentless. Here, the run up is barely perceptable. We have our tree up, of course

and I play my Christmas playlist whenever the internet decides to work:

but I shan’t be cooking a big dinner until Finn and his partner come over, a few days after Christmas. Instead, weather permitting, we’ll have a Christmas Cowboy breakfast in the garden and crumpets for tea! And lots of Snowballs! We managed to find Adcocaat at Frankfurt airport, on our way back from Helsinki. Christmas wouldn’t be christmas without Snowballs!

Talking of snow, of which I am innordinately fond, it started to snow just after we left Finland and now it looks like this:

The mountains are looking very snowy, from my kitchen window, although I understand that there isn’t enough snow yet for people to ski (or in my case, apres ski!).

This will be my last blog of 2023 and I wish you and yours a fantastic Christmas

and a healthy and life affirming 2024!

Bises,

Madame Boucliers 💋