Christmas in France
Alpes-Maritimes, 19th of December
Merry Christmas! Joyeux Noël!
As I write, we are only days away from our first Christmas in France. We will not be with our families this year, but will be joining our neighbours and fellow Brits Christine and Nick at their home nearby for a good old turkey meal. Preparing for Christmas has been very stressful. Not because I'm worried about the presents, not because we still have not found our sparkly decorations, but because the builders are 'still not finished'!
Last Saturday my parents arrived for a week's holiday, and the house looked like a bomb had hit it! The builders had not appeared (second week running), la cuisine, the kitchen, was waiting to be fitted and was completely gutted, le chauffage, the central heating, (newly installed) had broken down, and all the decorating work on the second floor was starting to get to me. It was all getting too much!Whilst we sat in front of a log fire drinking numerous cups of hot tea, I finally took the reindeer by the horns and called for help. Forget the "Partridge In A Pear Tree", our song goes:
5 x
Germans painting (the second floor)4 x people waiting (in front of the log fire for the heating to work)3 x animals
eating (actually the dog kept nicking our chocolate biscuits)2 x electricians overheating (the new oven, when turned on,
blows the whole house)And a kitchen fitter making it nice (he did a great job).
Just a few more touches and ma chambre d'hôtel, my B&B, will be open for business.
Let it snow
We have been
watching the snow appear on the mountain tops for the past week, and today decided to take Akila the husky and introduce
her to her heritage. We drove upwards for 20 minutes, and before long we were ankle deep in la
neige, snow. She loved it and bounced around, digging for smelly things that were covered up.Next Vendredi, Friday, I'll be starting work at un magasin, a shop. I'll
work every day during the school holidays, and then just at weekends the rest of the time, until the end of March.I'm
really looking forward to it, as it will give me a chance to practise my French conversation all day, everyday. I'm sure
though I'll find it pretty tiring, but this is the best way to learn a language, just to get stuck in. I'll let you know
how I get on.
Sent by: Janie
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