Wide Open Spaces!

Saturday 29th December 2012

We have now moved in and it's been just over a week settling back into this way of living again with a proper roof over our heads!.

Did we sleep well the first night?… well, all I can say can you remember when you have suddenly touched something very hot and your reaction?, we had only slept in single beds up until now and falling asleep was no problem it was when suddenly we touched each other and the instant leap to one side thinking "who is that in my bed"???. These jerky reactions soon stopped however and we were warm and snuggled like a pair of dormouse in our massive expanse of sleeping area.

The little farmhouse we have is lovely and is part of barns and stables which I expect one day will be converted to provide more accommodation of some sort. There is also lots of land and Bradley would look back at me when I let him out the door as if to say "can I really run around like a mad thing, is this field just outside my own front door"?. There are two large fires that need a constant supply of logs so after I had passed my chainsaw authorisation, I am now stock piling logs in one of the many barns!. The kitchen is typical of a large French type with big long table to do all your work on and a large old Aga type heater and cooker. We have already cooked a fantastic curry on there slowly cooking all day and plan do make some of our own French bread.

We are about 1km from the centre of Aigurande which is a small sleepy town and it's nice to walk into the Boulangerie for our bread and we even have a decent sized supermarket so no need for transport to get around. We can of course take the motorhome to visit other areas if we want as parking is so easy in France.

Christmas has come and gone and New Year will be upon us in a couple of days. The French celebrate things slightly different here and shops really do close down regularly which is good, but you have to make sure you have what you need. Christmas day was so quiet, everywhere was shut and not a car in sight, on the BBC news all we saw were shops open, queues of traffic three lanes deep on motorways and unfortunately fatal road traffic accidents, such a difference between countries. Living as local people now were are noticing things more and it is so interesting to see the different lifestyles and expectations. 

With UK TV and decent broadband we can certainly keep in touch so look out for the next instalment!

Bonne Journée