It is so hard to believe we are still in early March down here in the Languedoc Roussillon. The sun shines most every day, each day is lasting longer and it will not be long before we are sitting out in our garden well into the evening. Despite the mammoth task we have taken on in renovating our house – or perhaps because of it! – we have been out and about this week to some favourite places and some new haunts, making the most of what this area has to offer: the bright sunlight, the proximity to the ocean and the space.
We took Eddie and Alfie to the beach at Agde, close to Beziers the other day. They bounded around like small children, bemused by the soft sand and splashing in the sea. This is a wonderful time of the year: there are few tourists but just a sprinkling of people out enjoying this balmy spring weather. Who can resist sitting in a pretty restaurant on a boardwalk overlooking the sea, eating freshly caught fish? Mr. Fix It and I could not.
There is something wonderfully unpretentious about the seaside here in France. In fact, overall we have found there is less “keeping up with the Jones’s” than we have been used to in the UK. I wonder if this is because of the space in this country. People are less stressed when they live in spacious surroundings and it is as if the French have less to prove to each other. There is also something intangible and extremely attractive about their way of life – a certain “je ne sais quoi” as they would say. They stop for lunch; they linger in cafes and chat in the markets. Mr. Fix It and I have noticed our own perspectives on life change over the last year since we have been down here, most definitely for the better.
A trip to a pretty village called Ginestas, just 15 minutes away from us, completed our weekend break from the renovation. We came upon a wonderful restaurant with a raised terrace and sat in the sunshine. These are good moments, ones when we still feel as though we are on holiday until we realise how many beautiful villages and towns we have right on our doorstep to lure us away from the work in hand: yes we live here, this has become our home.
Back down to earth with a bump on Monday and a good friend from the UK arrived to give Mr. Fix It a helping hand: and what a helping hand indeed. In just one day Trevor has dug out our kitchen floor and levelled it off ready for the new floor to be laid. This is hard graft and for jobs such as this it is your friends who are the best to call on to help. Eddie and Alfie gambol happily in the rubble: oh if only they could dig a little deeper and offer some help!
(With Trevor’s wonderful, hands on assistance, we will soon see the window in the above picture raised by around a foot. This will not only enable our sink to be sited underneath, it will afford us more light and views of the blue sky beyond the rooftops to the mountains in the distance. Maybe this is what life offers one here: the ability to look afar and combine a love of the present with a plan for the future. Isn’t that what life is all about after all?
AlexisThe Overseas Guides Company
Have a look at my website at: http://www.francebuyingguide.comAlexisThe Overseas Guides CompanyFrance@overseasguidescompany.com
We took Eddie and Alfie to the beach at Agde, close to Beziers the other day. They bounded around like small children, bemused by the soft sand and splashing in the sea. This is a wonderful time of the year: there are few tourists but just a sprinkling of people out enjoying this balmy spring weather. Who can resist sitting in a pretty restaurant on a boardwalk overlooking the sea, eating freshly caught fish? Mr. Fix It and I could not.
There is something wonderfully unpretentious about the seaside here in France. In fact, overall we have found there is less “keeping up with the Jones’s” than we have been used to in the UK. I wonder if this is because of the space in this country. People are less stressed when they live in spacious surroundings and it is as if the French have less to prove to each other. There is also something intangible and extremely attractive about their way of life – a certain “je ne sais quoi” as they would say. They stop for lunch; they linger in cafes and chat in the markets. Mr. Fix It and I have noticed our own perspectives on life change over the last year since we have been down here, most definitely for the better.
A trip to a pretty village called Ginestas, just 15 minutes away from us, completed our weekend break from the renovation. We came upon a wonderful restaurant with a raised terrace and sat in the sunshine. These are good moments, ones when we still feel as though we are on holiday until we realise how many beautiful villages and towns we have right on our doorstep to lure us away from the work in hand: yes we live here, this has become our home.
Back down to earth with a bump on Monday and a good friend from the UK arrived to give Mr. Fix It a helping hand: and what a helping hand indeed. In just one day Trevor has dug out our kitchen floor and levelled it off ready for the new floor to be laid. This is hard graft and for jobs such as this it is your friends who are the best to call on to help. Eddie and Alfie gambol happily in the rubble: oh if only they could dig a little deeper and offer some help!
(With Trevor’s wonderful, hands on assistance, we will soon see the window in the above picture raised by around a foot. This will not only enable our sink to be sited underneath, it will afford us more light and views of the blue sky beyond the rooftops to the mountains in the distance. Maybe this is what life offers one here: the ability to look afar and combine a love of the present with a plan for the future. Isn’t that what life is all about after all?
AlexisThe Overseas Guides Company
Have a look at my website at: http://www.francebuyingguide.comAlexisThe Overseas Guides CompanyFrance@overseasguidescompany.com
No comments:
Post a Comment