Back in the Saddle Again

Nancy and Fergus relax after a nice walk in the countryside.

Yes, we've arrived back in France and are struggling with the everyday activities of trying to get the house back into a livable state. We drove from Paris in a cool, drizzling rainstorm, with Fergus sitting, as much as possible on our laps even though he had much of the back of the car to himself. I guess "clingy" would describe the way he was feeling. "Don't make me stay for eleven hours in a small cage inside a long, dark aluminum tube that vibrates and shakes ever again," Fergus reportedly said.

We put the key in the lock and opened the door to 14 Rue du Four and stepped inside. It was cold and dark........and damp. There were dead bugs littering the floor and cobwebs everywhere a spider could manage to go. We flung open the windows and shutters, turned on the water, filled the water heater, turned on the electricity, turned on the water heater and it began to seem like home again. We soon found things that we thought we had lost or didn't remember that we owned. The plastic tub of wine bottles upstairs were unfrozen and unbroken, praise be to the wine gods.

We're adjusting now to the weather. Today, Saturday is the third day of lovely sunshine. However, it comes with a price. Apparently, the last two months were somewhat rainy and gloomy. With the warm weather and sunshine comes the dreaded heat and humidity. Since we are used to something like 6 to 10% humidity in the desert of Utah, we're struggling with, and soaked with........sweat.

Fergus is adjusting to the fact he can't go outside on his own recognisance. He no longer has a dog door to go in and out of a hundred times a day, and he no longer has his own fenced yard. He must be escorted to the bathroom facilities around the corner. Our second day here, he made a leap, unbeknown to us, out the first floor window and took himself for a short walking tour of Leran. Luckily, our friend Billy found him at the bar and escorted him back unharmed.

We've visited the bar, Le Rendezvous, with it's new owners Marek and Shirley. What a glorious change. It's open almost all the time you would expect a bar/cafe to be open, and run professionally. We've touched base with a bunch of old friends from last summer. We've been to the building materials outlet for some floor joist, metal studs, this and that, to begin our bathroom building project. We've gotten the tires on our bikes aired up and ready to ride. We've stocked up on some groceries. We've been to Pamiers and had the phone hooked up again, and today the Internet service was turned on. We're officially back in business, I guess.