Holiday

Mondays are normally quiet, but today turned out to be even quieter than usual. It was a holiday here today in France - something religious called Pentecost, which apparently refers to the fiftieth day after Easter and marks the day that the Holy Ghost descended from heaven and appeared before the apostles (and yes I did know that without having to look it up). Therefore, it is a moveable holiday and this year is especially early because Easter was early.

What I find interesting about it is that in France the holiday follows the movement of Easter in the calendar, whereas in the UK it doesn't. In the UK, Pentecost is known as Whit Sunday or Whitsun - and whilst Easter moves around the calendar dependent on the moon or whatever, Whitsun is always the last Monday in May - so we move Easter every year but keep Whitsun the same - doesn't make political or religious sense to me, but then when did anything claiming to be political or religious sense actually make any sense.

What is much more interesting is the complete and utter stagnation of the French economy over the last two weeks. You might think it would be hard to notice a change of pace of an economy moving at snails pace but I assure you that it has been especially hard to get anything achieved here over the last fortnight.

By my reckoning, since the close of business (at 4.45pm) on 30th April, most of France has worked at best three whole days in the last twelve.

May day was the Workers Holiday, introduced in the depths of time to give the poor oppressed downtrodden workers a day of respite from their capitalist overlords - surely the most redundant excuse for a holiday there could be in France today but jealously guarded by all true Socialists, which every Frenchman becomes around this time of year.

The 8th of May is VE day and marks the liberty of France from the Nazi oppressor in 1945 - a day when every true Frenchman claims to have either actually played a huge part in driving the Germans out of the country and to have been a true patriot and staunch member of the resistance and to have never ever collaborated with the enemy, or to be descended from someone just like that.

Finally today was Pentecost, and everyone went to church to give thanks for the Lord Jesus or just stayed at home in bed and muttered a prayer or two. Our French friends were planning a weekend in St Tropez, which says everything about the religious devotion of French catholics, and were only denied by the atrocious weather forecast ahead of the holiday.

Three holidays, four days of weekend and two days that fell between holidays and weekends which weren't worth going into work for - and I bet a lot of people didn't bother with the other three days either. 'Mon Dieu' - you might say.

It was business as usual at 42rvh though. Breakfast for the guests in the Studio and then get the Apartment ready (just in time) for new arrivals around lunchtime and finish last nights washing up, spend an hour or so doing admin and answering emails, check with Chris that all was ok with the upstairs renovation (and get the latest Chris and Patrick exploits from the weekend - those boys are going to get the wrong reputation in this town!), a trip to Tridome (shockingly open for business) for some materials and hopefully an early night.

Full

I'm relieved that tomorrow's new guests are here for two nights on a bed and breakfast basis - I don't think I could face another four course dinner having just prepared and eaten two in two days - partly because I just feel full and partly because I am just tired.

We had a very entertaining dinner last night - husband having finally joined wife. we had a lot in common (London, media etc) and there was a lot of conversation about the buying and wearing of shoes which clearly only involved the two females at the dinner table - and I suspect that more shoe conversations and further get-togethers will ensue as a result. There was a very funny story about the Savoy Grill, some pressed duck and an aspidistra - but I honestly couldn't reveal any more without betraying confidences.

Debrah arrived here on Friday for a very short break, and immediately the weather turned for the worse - not that I am linking the two events in any way - that would be ridiculous thinking. About an hour after she left this afternoon, dodging the drizzle, the clouds disappeared and a beautiful evening followed - just co-incidence I'm sure. It was so windy on Saturday lunchtime that the clientele at the Saillan were visibly disturbed by gusts of wind blowing their full glasses of wine off the tables - and nothing upsets a Saturday lunchtime drinker more than the waste of good, or even bad, wine.

During the same lunchtime, it came to my attention that there appears to be someone masquerading as my wife in the town - someone who clearly isn't my wife - which is bizarre, fascinating and disconcerting all at the same time. A local estate agent told me that she had met my wife ten days ago and offered to give her French lessons - which was a complete mystery to Debrah and also to me. I am so intrigued - further news forthcoming when I get to the bottom of it.

Chris has suddenly turned into the 'Casanova of Carcassonne', as Debrah described him. He has at least two women seemingly intent on getting to know him better and even my limited French understood the phrase 'couchez avec moi' even if Chris pretended not too. He treats it all with a stoic nonchalence and has even developed a classic gallic shrug to use when asked about it.

I have just finished the second dinner of the weekend with my new guests - a very sweet and very young couple from Oxfordshire. I think they had a good time - I've done (most) of the tidying up and now I am going to bed before I fall asleep on my keyboard,

Just before I go - a short cheer for Bolton Wanderers, who not only avoided relegation but also helped to stop Chelsea winning the league - hurrah on both counts.

Bits missing

The Studio guests left today and new guests arrived. Well, actually it was a new guest because her husband had taken their son's passport to Stansted airport rather than his own and so couldn't get on the flight - but she came anyway and left him to follow on behind tomorrow - way to go girl. Apparently, he did a similar thing on their honeymoon and she went without him then as well.

I was beginning to worry when I couldn't get the car started with guests on board for the airport run - the battery in the key fob had decided to pack up and so it wasn't disengaging the engine immobiliser - whatever, it wouldn't start. Finally I remembered the alternative method and away we went - but I am glad the car is going into the garage in the morning to have a few bits sorted out.

All in all an eventful day which has flown by as usual - all morning spent ironing before the airport run, then a nice break for a bit of lunch with Gary and Chris before more cleaning, another trip to the DIY stores, putting plasterboard up on ceilings in Denis' flat and Niall dropping in with the scale plans that we had requested - then drinks with my new guest, find her a restaurant and a bit of tapas and a glass of wine with Patrick and Chris and the day is over

I didn't get to make my cake, which was a disappointment.

A Normal Working Day

Today was nothing more than a mundane working day. I spent the morning ironing, making a breakfast, shopping and cleaning - I say morning, but I didn't stop until 2pm to have some lunch which is bound to get the French 'garde le midi pour dejeuner' lobby up in arms.

I started by ironing the bedding and towels for the appartment and then went down to town to buy the viennoisserie for the guests breakfast. To my surprise I met Chris at 8.15am on his way up to Denis' apartment to start work - that bed of his at Susan's must be very uncomfortable.

I was also surprised to find the Thursday market, because it was Wednesday - and then I remembered that tomorrow is yet another 'ferié' and the French world as we know it will come to another grinding halt. Actually, the French world had only just got back into first gear from the last holiday last week, so a grinding halt was a bit of an exaggeration - more like knocking it back into neutral and coasting for a bit longer. Some places in town didn't just make a bridge last Friday, but cantilevered all the way into this week's holiday - well it wasn't really worth opening for the three days in between - I mean, they might have made some money but then they would have actually had to do some work!

So I had to rework my plans for the week (heh - planning is important) and so after sorting the breakfast for my guests I went back down to the market to ensure that the Thursday shopping list was covered off.

The cleaning was in the Apartment and in my bedroom. I have new guests arriving tomorrow, so the Apartment needed to be spotless and my bedroom had been neglected somewhat, inevitably when all my focus is on guests, but I wanted to make it a lovely clean spot for Debrah this weekend - aahh.

Then this afternoon turned into one of those frustrating tours around various DIY shops with Chris, looking for stuff that we need for the renovation that was there last week but seems to have disappeared this week and just elicits 'I don't care' shrugs from the staff at these places when you ask when are they going to get more stock - it is payback for being a bit lucky with the toilet last weekend.

We were so frustrated that we had to go and sit in the square and have a couple of beers. It was really windy today - we didn't really notice until we were sat out in the open enjoying a cold one, even after driving around with the top down in the car. It was actually quite a nice day, very warm and mostly sunny but just a bit windy - so it was a bit of a surprise as we sat there in our short-sleeved T-shirts to see the bloke sit down at the next table in full raincoat apparel fully buttoned up to his chin - the chance of rain today was less than zero. He didn't look mad, he just looked stupid - but then they are still many French people who haven't yet put their coats away because, let's face it, 25 degrees isn't all that!

This land is all so bizarre and all so charming at the same time.

Red, Rosé or Champagne

We have had our first red wine incident in one of the suites - one of the guests knocked over a glass onto the carpet. It might have been worse if it had gone onto the white flocati rug but I would happily have taken a broken glass and a spillage on the tiled floor instead.

They were very pro-active in trying to soak the wine out but a red wine stain is the devil to remove. After I had dropped Debrah at the airport at lunchtime, I went off to the DIY superstore and the supermarket and scoured the shelves for a 'wonder' product that might solve the problem. I now own a whole array of products and as I type, I still have a red wine stain on the carpet in the Studio. No wonder.

I don't think it is any coincidence that we held an impromptu rosé wine tasting earlier in the evening. Myself and Debrah and Chris and Alan, the guest in question, sat around our kitchen table and tested four different rosés with the aim of finding something suitable as our house rosé for the summer. It was conducted in all seriousness and most of each bottle remains in my fridge - but rosé has a dangerous way of creeping up on you, even in small quantites - be warned!

As you will have gathered, Debrah has gone back to London - which left both of us feeling a bit miserable. It is only for a couple of days and she will be back on Friday but the place always feels a bit empty just after she has gone.

Maybe that contributed to my awful performance in my French lesson this evening. For the first time, I felt as if I couldn't understand a word that Amelié was saying to me - she did admit that she was pushing me to go on up to a new level - but I felt as if, suddenly, I couldn't speak the language - oh for one of those Matrix style brain implants - 'downloading modern French with southern accent and swear word addendums' - instant fluency but none of the 'fun' of getting it wrong all the time.

This afternoon, because my French is better than his, I helped Chris get a couple of extra keys sorted out for his new apartment in town that he is sharing with Susan (they only had one key between them so had to keep calling each other to be let in). Then we went off to visit Niall in the money pit 'Domaine' to see if we could find a way of doing some work for him. Whilst nothing is agreed, we are making some progress towards working out a schedule and a specification and a price. We shall see.

And then finally, this evening, our first honeymooners booked to stay here, which is very exciting - and another first for 42rvh. All together now - aaahhhhh!!

Busy

This weekend was the start of an extremely busy two or three weeks - which is obviously good but also means I will need to be very organised to deal with the number of same day changeovers that are coming up - or I will need a bit of help.

Chris and I had a bit of help from Gary on Saturday afternoon. We had tried to organise the self-drive rental of the Tridome van during the week but Saturday afternoon was the only time available, unfortunately clashing with Debrah's arrival from London. We needed a goodly amount of plasterboard and a shower base and a toilet and numerous other things for Denis' renovation project.

Gary turned up here just in time to help us move it all up the two flights of stairs and very grateful we were for the assistance. It's been a couple of months since I had to put my back into a bit of manual labour of that sort and I am still feeling the effects a bit.

I took the van back as quickly as possible to cut down on the rental time and hopefully keep the cost to a minimum. I think I succeeded as the total rental cost was a massive €3.90, which was actually less than the cost of the 2kg of strawberries that I bought in the market that morning (€4) - another ridiculously fabulous bargain. I think it had something to do with the just under €500 worth of materials we bought at the same time - which didn't include the toilet we needed because it was out of stock and on order only. Funny then, that when Debrah and I went in to place the order today, we were told that it was in stock - arrived this morning! - sometimes things do fall into place when you need them to.

Saturday morning was a bit of a rush ahead of the materials purchase with one breakfast to sort out and two airport pick-ups and the market shopping to do for the rooms, for us and for the guests dinner on Sunday night. Poor Debrah was left to fend for herself as I rushed off to Tridome - no lazy lunch in the square, no love and attention lavished on her. So she put some soothing classical music on the ipod and pulled the chair up to the sunshine by the window and spent a happy few hours with the newspapers she had bought with her, curled up on the chair like a contented pussycat while the men sweated their way to getting 21 sheets of board up the stairs.

It helped enormously that the weather was just fabulous - well, it helped Debrah, who had just seen rain all week in London. It was far too good to let the chance slip by - so having sorted our guests and despatched them off for a hot march around the Cite for the day - we went off for a Sunday drive out into the countryside and a bit of exploring places anew. We found ourselves in St Chinian just before midday and caught the end of the morning market before finding a shady courtyard full of families and bikers and a simple brasserie lunch - superb it was too.

We emerged to find that the temperature had gone up a good 10 degrees in direct sunlight. Nonetheless we headed home over the mountains, with the roof down, being beaten by the sun and the breeze, being amazed by the beauty of the poppies and violets and primulas covering the meadows and the roadside verges and stunned by the ever changing scenery. What a great drive and a great day out. We even got back in time for me to calmly sort the prep for dinner and for Debrah to have a little after-sun lie down.

Then we had one of our get all the guests around the same table and have dinner with them convivial evenings that seem to be going down so well with our visitors. Keith entertained us with stories of things he had 'found' on site during his career as an electrical contractor and his many house and business deals and the day that 'they opened the case and it had a sawn-off shotgun in it'!. He and his lovely wife have a house in Southern Spain - enough said really - but a great evening and very very entertaining - they can come back anytime.

More of the same over the next few weeks please.

Reality check

Chris has had a bit of a reality check. After four years of living in fabulous accomodation that he helped build - firstly at Anna's chateau near St Emilion and latterly here, Chris has moved into a standard French rental apartment - and I don't think he was prepared for how basic it is, or the fact that there is, for the moment, no fridge, no cooking facilities and no shower curtain. The three flights of stairs to get to it aren't funny either. It does have a fabulous view over the square and across the rooftops, but that must be a small compensation.

So I cooked for him last night and then we wandered up to the Makhila bar for a quiet drink and then it all got a bit out of hand. As ever with such nights, it wasn't intended but it happened and today was very hard work as a result.

I jumped up early and went out for a ride on my bike, something I had been planning to do for a while. I soon realised what a mistake that was - after nearly coming of it three times I decided I would either end up in the river or on the bonnet of a car and beat a hasty retreat. Which was a shame as this was the first morning for a while that I didn't have to prepare breakfast for anyone but myself.

Yesterday was a bank holiday in France and, naturally, most people have made it into a four day weekend by not bothering with Friday as well. So imagine my surprise on Wednesday evening when my French bank called me at 5.55pm to check some details on a transfer that I had requested - nobody in France, unless self-employed, is still at work at five to six and still actively working, especially the day before the workers holiday! So, well done Credit Agricole Britline - it is the britline tag that gives it away - clearly they have to work 12 hour days with no paid overtime to make them feel at home.

The laid back doctor and his garden designer wife left on Wednesday, having thoroughly enjoyed themselves here I think, and then the two lovely Belgian boys turned up for a couple of nights B&B. They thought La Cite was terribly commercial and a bit vulgar so went off to Cap D'Agde on the coast to chase the boys - which from my standpoint is pretty vulgar in itself - tarts! One of them opened the door to me when I was delivering their breakfast tray dressed in the most inappropriate shorts I could imagine, but they left a lovely, if somewhat over-dramatic, message in our visitors book - 'they say perfection is boring - luckily it rained while we were here' - puhleese - guys, get a grip (if that's the right thing to say). I know Debrah is absolutely gutted that she missed them.

I picked up two new guests today, from Surrey, and we have two people coming from Shannon tomorrow - so another busy weekend in store - which of course is excellent and just what is supposed to be happening.

I'm very much looking forward to Debrah coming out tomorrow too - it's only been five days but it feels much much longer than that since I saw her.