Barn progress

Now that the main walls and floors are in, things are happening quite fast. The windows and doors are in, the cement render is on the front walls -

…. the air conditioning is being installed -

…. roof insulation is in –

…. the electrician has started the wiring -

And the yard is a mess!

Once the building is finished, that is the next project to crack on with ….. turn a very muddy and dug-up area into something wonderful! Well, perhaps I’m aiming a little high here … but whatever I do will be a vast improvement on the quagmire it is now.

Oh, and the garage is still dug up….. but this too will soon be sorted.

Over all, things have gone relatively smoothly – a few hiccups and delays – but nothing major. Speaking to people who have undertaken similar projects, it seems I’ve been pretty fortunate. An interesting trip through to Ikea in Montpellier recently – picking up flat packs of bathroom furniture and fittings, and also an extractor fan for the kitchen. My little car certainly does a good job – it was loaded to the gunnels, with a particularly long pack reaching from the back window, through the front seats and finishing up touching the rear vision mirror. A tight fit indeed, and me worrying if I had to hit the skids, it would shoot straight through the windscreen. But an uneventful, albeit rather slow trip home.

The kitchen I’ve ordered from a place in Narbonne, but that also needs to be collected from Montpellier and it’s too much for my car. But as Sandra’s husband Patrick will be doing the installation, he is going to go through next week to pick it up.

So, full steam ahead here – and hopefully I’ll be moved in some time in April, or perhaps early May.

Village Lunch

Every year the Maire of the village provides a free lunch and entertainment for the ‘older’ residents of the village – Repas des Aînés. And given that I’m a member of the Troisième âge group, I qualified! So myself, June, Patrick and Sandra registered at the Town Hall, and turned up at the village hall promptly at noon on Saturday.

Well, I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again – these people know how to have a good time and certainly like a good lunch.

On this occasion, the Maire had pulled out all the stops – a cake literally the size of a table – baked by the justifiably proud-looking village baker:

- followed by the usual 4 course meal, beginning with aperitifs, all the sorts of wine, and afterwards sparkling digestifs! But the highlight of the afternoon had to be the entertainment. I guess we knew were in for a show when the table down the front – consisting of 3 men and 4 women, all with full make-up and the longest false eyelashes! ate their dinner before everyone else.

It was a floor show to remember – the female performers were stunning, and the female impersonators looked pretty spectacular too.

It was all a bit surreal – sitting in a small village hall in rural France, and watching a ‘spectacle’ performed to a very high standard – the likes of which someone said you could expect to see elsewhere and pay a lot of money for!

And didn’t the Can-Can get the crowd going …

And this one, with the females topless – I imagine had a few of the older hearts racing ….

The up-side of us sitting at the front table was a great view – the down-side (well for Patrick anyway!) was that he and another person at our table were dragged up on stage to take part in the entertainment! But he took it all in good humour and he did indeed amuse and entertain! I suspect he thoroughly enjoyed the experience – he certainly wore a big lipstick kiss on his cheek later!

Interestingly, it was this time last year when I was at my window at about 5pm in the afternoon, and noticed lots of people walking past with pot plants and branches of Mimosa. I figured I’d missed out on something happening down on the promenade and rushed out to investigate. But in fact it was all the villagers leaving the Maire’s luncheon! And this year it was me walking home with a flower pot and a large branch of mimosa (used to decorate the hall) – which is now cut up into smaller pieces and looking very nice in a vase in the kitchen.

And now onto yet another festival. Given that it’s winter here – although with the weather we’ve been having lately, you wouldn’t know it – the villages are having their annual festivals all over the place. Last weekend it was the Mimosa Festival in the village of Roquebrun in the Black Mountains.

Mimosa (or wattle or acacia as it’s known in Australia) is abundant in the area and at the moment is in full flower and just stunning. Interestingly, I had thought that it was a different variety, native to this area. But in fact I’ve discovered that it is in fact an Australian native, which was introduced to southern France in the 19th century by British botanists.

And how is this for a little bit of Oz in a small French village – plants for sale: a pot of purple Native Wisteria (hardenbergia) together with Acacia. Made me quite homesick – both of these plants can be found in the forests of the south-west of Western Australia where I grew up …..

Limoux Fécos / Carnaval 2008

Limoux is a large town due south of Carcassonne, and it holds a festival every year. No surprises there! I seem to have chosen to live in the land of fetes, carnivals, and festivals…. oh, and lovely markets. Pretty damned good I’d say …..

This Limoux Festival is quite unique – for starters, it’s a very long festival indeed. It starts in January and runs until two weeks before Easter, and is thought to date back to perhaps the Middle Ages.

Yesterday was a day of all the bands coming together in the square, so it seemed like a good day to head west. The square itself is very beautiful and today it looked a treat – as though it had been snowing :

But in fact it was the confetti that is traditionally scattered around by the dancers who wear bags full of it slung over their shoulders. So nobody escapes without being adorned with the stuff. Apparently over the duration of the festival, 7 tons of it is used! And as can be seen in the video clips below, nothing and no-one escapes 'les confettis'....

There were at least five groups of dancers on the go yesterday, each with their own band supporting them. And it was wonderful ..

So this post is going to be mainly photos and a few video clips. I’m soon going to update my camera so perhaps before too long the quality of the video clips will improve …

Here's a link that has a good deal of information relating to the festival.

Pig fair at Puichéric - Foire du Cochon

The annual Foire du Cochon is held in the village of Puicheric, about 20 minutes from Bize. A better way to spend the afternoon than up a ladder, stripping wallpaper or splashing paint around.

Miki, a friend in the village, had the same idea, so we set off in the afternoon with his new and excitable pup Oscar in tow.
Oscar is the offspring of the local bar dog, Pepsi, and now that he's starting to sprout whiskers, the resemblence it becoming obvious.

It was a big fair with streets and streets of stalls – food, handicrafts, wine etc. But the highlights of the afternoon were two events. There was a Pig Crying Competition – firstly the kids had a go, and then the big guns – a group of guys who are very serious about these things! And much to the delight of the crowd, a local man won hands down!

And afterwards, what all the kids were waiting for – the pig race. The difference here was that the kids were allowed to run with the piglets!

Bulgarian Break

A last minute decision to spend a week’s break in Bulgaria with my old friend Sue – between Christmas and New Year. While the catching up and spending time together was great, the trip was not without difficulties … starting with a 4 hour delay at Gatwick before the plane pulled up to the departure window – it appeared I would be flying on Iron Maiden Airlines! Well, on the aircraft that was advertising their 2008 world tour anyway…

Susie met me at Varna Airport and we headed into town to the Hotel Perfect – and it was. Off-season rates - cheap as chips and two old girls lived like royalty for the night. The rooms were luxurious, each with its own sitting room and balcony. My room even had its own courtyard, as big as the apartment itself.

Varna is a lovely town/city, especially with its Christmas lights - though I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t want to be there in the tourist season.

And so on to Miladinovtsi after a 3 hour train trip to Yambol, then a one hour drive through thick fog. That was Tuesday. Wednesday were blizzards which – as we learned 49 hours later when the power came back on – had bought much of Bulgaria and Romania to a standstill. So what do four Aussies (us two and two young guys from Perth – house guests) and two local Brits do in a blizzard without power? – off to the pub. Well, the local bar in the village.

And here’s some snaps of Susie with her new family of Karakachans –

Taking the pups for a stroll in the back yard:

Reading them the riot act …. (not really - they call the shots!)

So getting around was pretty interesting – we did a taxi ride into Yambol for a day out on Friday as we were all feeling a touch of cabin fever. The roads were indeed dangerous – a very slow trip – and the countryside was stunning beautiful with its thick cover of snow, and clear blue skies. And then Saturday I repeated that trip into Yambol, first part of the ordeal in getting back to France.

It went like this:

• 1 hour trip from Miladinovtsi to the train station at Yambol by taxi - on iced ungritted roads
• One hour train delay – temperature outside minus 20 degrees
• Slow trip - 3 hour train trip took 4 hours
• Arrived Varna airport to find it closed due to weather
• 2+ hours on a bus to Bourgas Airport
• Arrived Gatwick 1.20am
• Rescheduled flights and got into nearby hotel (compliments of BA) by 3am
• Being Sunday, first flight to Toulouse departed 3.15pm
• Arrived back in Bize 8.15pm

Door-to-door, 36 hours – about 1.5 trips to Australia!

Waiting for the train:

Despite the weather and travel trauma, it was a beaut break and all going well Susie will be over this way for a visit before the summer.

Building progress

A few pictures of the progress on the barn building up to the Christmas break. Although it’s now into January, the builders haven’t yet re-appeared, so hopefully they put in an appearance soon!

The upstairs balcony on the main house, now about two thirds original size:

And looking back at the house:

Before Christmas, the village walking group held a lunch at a beaut restaurant up in the hills. After a lovely meal, Illyette just happened to have bags of costumes with her, and some of us were lucky enough to dress up in traditional garb of other countries. It was lucky dip – I got “Miss Congo” and Illyette (on the right) got “Miss Senegal”. This lot love a dress-up .....

Sandra (Miss Egypt) and Jacques (Mr India) !!

Edgar drew the short straw – Miss France:

However, it wasn’t only a lunch – Illyette and Claude celebrated their 40^th wedding anniversary in style – with Illyette wearing her original dress and cape – the birthday hat with candles however was NOT part of the original ……

There was also a repeat wedding ceremony – with lots of laughs - and Jacques relishing playing the part of the priest….

And a few winter pictures of the village: Mist on the river …

And a vide grenier held mid-December:

Christmas bits

The Christmas decorations have just recently gone up around the village – nothing too fancy or over the top. It’s common to see a figure of a Santa trying to get into the house, through a window for example.

But this one ….

appears to have been hung!

And elsewhere around the village, there are the normal lights strung across the streets,

also wrapped gift boxes adorning the plane trees ,

and some lucky people (but not me!) have even had them attached to their downpipes!

And here’s something that’s got nothing to do with me, France or Christmas, but it definitely has a ‘feel-good’ factor.

A friend in Australia (thanks Shirley, I love it too!), sent me the link to this video clip so I’m posting it here. I’ve also copied the story behind the making of the video below:

Aboriginal interpretation of Zorba the Greek

Frank Djirrimbilpilwuy from Milingimbi has been in the Indigenous Media Industry for many years and has been a long-standing member and supporter of the Top End Aboriginal Bush Broadcasting Association, TEABBA Radio. He has worked Independently in Music and Film for many years also.

As the man behind the camera and release of the video, Frank is also representing the dance group who call themselves "The Chooky Dancers". Frank has said that he filmed the footage at this year’s Ramingining Festival on the 30th September 2007 and knew it would be "something special" as soon as he saw the boys rehearsing. "The crowd went wild as you can see in the video, and the classic song Zorba the Greek has now become a hit overnight in the communities and now it seems, everywhere else too," Frank said.

In just one week of being released onto "You Tube" by the staff at TEABBA Media Services, the video has received rave reviews, been given a 5 star rating and has now been viewed well over 15,000 times.

"The phones have not stopped ringing at the TEABBA offices, all from people who want to know more about the footage," a TEABBA staff member has said. "Even the honorable Kon Vatskalis with the Territory Labour Party has commented on the video and suggested that they perform at the Greek Glenti next year."

The Chooky Dancers are a group of 10 energetic young men who had healthy living in mind when they choreographed the performance. Frank’s son Lionel is the lead dancer in the video footage at front and centre. "They (the Chooky Dancers) begun working on this just after this year’s Garma Festival in Gukula and worked very hard on it, they also do a Bollywood style performance which is also fantastic," Frank said. It seems that talent runs in Frank’s family, with Frank’s daughter also in an All-Indigenous Line Dance Group also who Frank actively plays a role in.

The "Zorba" video, which has not yet been given an official title, is just a sample of Frank’s works. "I edited that footage on "imovie" at the TEABBA Media Services video workshop and now have plans to make a documentary about my Yolngu families’ connections to the Greek culture". Frank’s feelings towards the Greek culture have been reinforced by his daughter Priscilla, who requires constant care and is currently being cared for by a woman of Greek heritage in Darwin. "Lillian is a selfless woman, who cares for my daughter," Frank said. "She takes Priscilla to church, weddings and all kinds of functions within the Greek community and they are all lovely people with strong cultural identity also which Yolngu people can identify to. I want to show through this documentary how 2 cultures can mix and this dance video is a fabulous start", Frank said.