Down time!

After all the anticipation and hype of Christmas doesn't it sometimes feel that you put in all that work and energy and then blink and it's over! Well I guess technically it isn't all over because we've still got New Year's to come but since I never go anywhere on New Year's, it's actually over for me. In fact I really enjoy snuggling down on the sofa on the 31st with a good book or a good movie and just drinking in the peace and quiet - well in my house at least. My new neighbours forewarned me that they would be having people over on the 31st and "they might be a bit noisy", so I told them to knock themselves out as I never go to bed much before 3 a.m. anyway (I like to stay up to watch the fireworks in London). But to be honest, I'm usually glad when it's all over and things can get back to normal!

Mind you, that's not to say we didn't have a good time over Christmas. On Christmas Eve we went to Jordan and Jen's (it's easier for them to put Elynn to bed) and snacked on smoked salmon, pâté de foie gras, olives, cheese and so on and had a really nice relaxed time. I never stay very late as I'm sure they're pretty tired and in any case I want to get back and make a few last minute preparations for the next day when everyone comes to my house. Driving back from their place the road follows the river Giffre through a smallish valley where you really have to be careful about the wildlife so I take it easy. Then there's a couple of km on the flat before starting up a winding forestry road to my village - again watching out for deer and boar! I'd gotten up to the village of St. Laurent and was back on the flat again when all of a sudden I spotted the most magnificent stag standing in a field just off the road!!!! I've seen loads of deer and been hit by a family of wild boar, but thank god this beauty was just standing still because if he'd run at me I'd probably have ended up like an olive on a toothpick - those antlers looked deadly! But I was sooooo pleased that I spotted him - it felt a bit like Santa had sent out an advance posse and he was stunning!

I'd gone shopping on the Monday before Christmas and while I spent a small fortune I'd let my store credit points build up over most of the year so €65 came off the top of the bill and it wasn't too bad in the end. I'd made amuses-bouches (little cheesy pastries) with blinis and pâté I bought in the Périgord. I'd also prepared oven-baked rice (from An Oregon Cottage website - she's brilliant) and Delia Smith's black bean salsa, while Jen's mom bought salmon en papillote followed by my friend's wonderful individual cheesecakes (a Facebook recipe - I must look for it), so while there was more than enough food (Jen took home the leftover salsa), for once we didn't go crazy. Elynn was starting to get a bit stroppy by the end although that's not surprising as she'd missed her nap, but when Jordan told her off for deliberately throwing things on the floor she started batting her eyelashes at him (she must have just learned that) and I had to walk back into the kitchen for a good laugh! Ain't it great being a grandparent because while you should never undermine the parents, by god that was funny!

André and Melissa seem to still be going strong, although it is still very early days as yet. He's great with her kids as he knew them anyway, and as long as they're both happy and enjoy each other's company, long may it last!

After the "presentation" that we went to the other day for our local travel company, Monique (the new lady president of the old fogies club) asked my friend and I if we'd like to go for a drink afterwards, so we stopped in town and wandered round the Christmas market before having a drink in one of the bars on the main square. Monique's husband was 16 years older than her and died some time ago (I'm guessing she's nearly 80) and I had kinda imagined a sweet little old couple separated only by death. Well it turns out not a bit of it as he had apparently cheated on her pretty much from the get-go!!!! When I mentioned my neighbour and her finding a telephone number in her husband's suit pocket and tracking it down through the telephone book, she burst out laughing because she'd done the same thing and found the address of his latest fling the same way. So one night when she reckoned he was heading out to meet the girlfriend, she showed up at a bar just outside the woman's house and "accidentally" bumped into them. He was furious and oddly enough was incredibly jealous of her! Mind you, I don't think "oddly enough" is the right expression here because my ex was jealous and thought I was going off to be with my lover every Saturday because "you take far too long to do the grocery shopping"! Rules for thee and not for me, I guess. Anyway, she was a hoot and it confirms yet again how so many of these older ladies can be hilarious (and probably why I enjoy my solos trips so much)!

I've probably spent about 12 hours over the holidays working on the books for the St. Pierre club. That's not to say they were in a mess (not at all), but going over everything and the reasoning for why things were done as they were (pretty sound reasoning at that). But I'm setting up my own excel tables and getting much more of a feel for it, although I'm still incredibly grateful that the secretary lasted only three weeks and that Martine, the previous treasurer, is now back as secretary. She and Monique are little dynamos and I think together we'll make a good team, along with help from other committee members who are always willing to pitch in even if they don't have defined roles. Mind you, I nearly had a coronary the other day when the bank left a voicemail message for me, words to the effect that she had "all these lists and no cheques"????? I'd just dropped off almost €5,000 worth of cheques in connection with the Christmas lunch and she couldn't find any cheques???? Well it turns out I'd dropped off the cheques in batches of 10 per envelope with a list detailing the name of the bank, the name of the signatory and the amount, but whoever had credited the cheques to the account hadn't thrown the lists away after checking them so I'd had a call from one of the supervisors. Thank goodness that got sorted out quickly!

I saw on the news that Citroen were possibly thinking about bringing back the old Citroen Diane 2CV car and since I'll be looking into buying a new car in the not too distant future I was really thrilled. I have always loved these cars (a bit like the old Renault IV) and in fact there used to be one further up the valley from here that was bright yellow with a black pistol painted on the side and "007" underneath. Those things seemed to last forever, even if they did lean when you went round corners and while I'm not sure it would be the most practical of cars for my needs I was disappointed to hear that Citroen have seemingly decided against it! It's a shame as I'm sure they would have done a roaring trade in such an iconic "statement" car - although what statement I'd be making remains to be seen!

The window flaps used to open
upwards and it would lean when
you went round a bend - I just
loved this car!

Since it's colder here I've been trying to watch a few films on Netflix but I'm not having much luck. I watched Taken and while I love Liam Neeson it really was a load of ol' codswallop with him being "special forces" who singlle-handedly tracks down his trafficked daughter to Paris and takes out an entire legion of Albian people trafickers with a sling shot and a whoopee cushion (okay, I made that bit up). The stunt driving was amazing but I'd give the film about 3/10 for entertainment. Then I struggled over an entire week to watch Frankenstein and while the special effects were amazing and the acting good, I again had a hard time with all the flying wolves and invincible monsters. Maybe it's just the wrong genre for me. After that I snored my way through Dead Poets Society and was really disappointed because I'd heard it was good and love Robin Williams in anything, but nope, even though it was a different genre I could barely keep my eyes open. So then I started watching Goodwill Hunting and finally realized that this was probably the Robin Williams film I'd been thinking of when I started watching Dead Poets Society. I'm happy to say that this is much, much better (even though I haven't finished it yet - I can never sit through a film in one go) and again I love Robin Williams so I'm pleased that I've finally discovered something I like. I do remember him in a serious role in Photo Booth (I think that's the name of the film) and he was excellent as the creepy guy who developed people's pictures at the local store. That one was definitely worth watching. Ultimately I guess it's more likely a case of me being difficult to please rather than films not being particularly good, but it'd be nice if I could find another film/series to start watching over new year!

My tally for walking this year has been pretty abysmal, topping out at just 700 miles, so I'm hoping to get right back into it in the new year. I'm also in the mood to cook more at the moment so want to experiment also, plus declutter, so I've got things to be going on with at the moment. I also have a list as long as my arm of trips that I would like to do in 2026 and while I know realistically that I can probably only do maybe two, it's fun looking to see what fits timewise and financially.

Then today I was watching someone on Youtube and I got to wondering if it would be fun to set up a Youtube channel. Well technically I actually do have a channel because one time I was struggling to post a video on here (of cows with their cowbells at the back of my house) so I inadvertently made a Youtube channel of my own where there is just one 30 second video on it. Strangely enough it got four "likes" so maybe there is the making of a new Youtube superstar somewhere in my future! I was thinking about it because I really would like to film some of the places round here or that I visit on my trips rather than just take photos, and learning how to edit videos might be fun, but ultimately I know I value my privacy far too much to put anything out there that could be so easily accessible to everyone and his donkey, so I think maybe I'll just stick to blogging. Shame really, as I think it might have been an interesting challenge!

So with all that being said, I'll sign off for 2025 and wish you all a happy and healthy 2026. See you next year!