Introduction to the Village

A few snippets which don't really fit with other blogs but thought you would be interested to read.

Village Celebration:
Last week we were invited to the inauguration of the village primary school for primers. Actually, we turned up the week prior, after being told by our lovely, friendly Maire that it was on 3rd October. So off we trotted thinking we would be in nice time - couldn't see many people and started to feel a bit sorry for the few children still in the playground that not many people had bothered to turn up. It didn't really look like anything official so we walked around the corner to the Maire's office to check the notices, and met Mr le Maire himself, who politely told us it was 10th.

OK, no problem. So 10th we did the same thing, and this time it looked more promising. A few official looking people who would conduct proceedings and Mr le Maire was there to greet everyone. There were about 150 people, which is a fantastic turnout in a village of just over 200 inhabitants.

We met some lovely people and we will make more contact as we are here longer. After a tour of the school, we headed in loose groups (we were in the pelaton) up to the village hall, which was nicely decked out with a spread of goodies (some of the younger children couldn't wait for the official speeches to finish and helped themselves to nibbles) and wine and lots of hand shaking and greetings. Lovely. After the speeches there was a humerous apology for the mix-up about the date, and also an apology for those who didn't receive an invitation..... We came away feeling like we are real Cambieuses.

Phone:
And now a story about our phone. We have been expecting some calls this week and noone called on our home line, only on the cell. Funny, we thought until Wouter's brother emailed saying he was trying to call but couldn't get through. So we did a test - 09 number works fine, 04 number doesn't ring at the phone even though it sounds like it's connecting. Why is that?

We realised that when the telecom technician came to connect the phone line, he told us, once you get the codes for the internet and are connected, change the phone plug so it goes into the livebox (that is, voip - voice over IP). So we did that, thinking both numbers would work. But it only works on the 09 number (of course!) and now we realise that when we spent a few hours at telecom setting it all up [I must add, with millions of things to remember], why the woman asked if we had enough phones - yes, we said, we have two (but little did we know they should not be one system, but two completely separate phones. Another frustration of language barrier, but luckily nothing more serious came out of it except a funny story.

Pole Dancer:
And another story before I forget. A few weeks ago we were out for a walk and Wouter decided to measure a tree - without his trusty tape measure (one already lost so he had to buy another) he had to measure it by putting his arms around it. Then he came up with the line - - "hugging trees is the next best thing to pole dancing". A man of so many talents - this one had completely escaped me. After I stopped laughing and caught my breath back, I made him promise to show me what he knows about pole dancing, but I'm still waiting..... (I'll try to have the camera ready if it ever happens and promise to post it on the blog!)

Bottoms Up:
Lastly, we have taken advantage of an old saying. A friend of ours told us about the Dutch saying 'the five is in the hour'. I'll explain this for non-Dutchies. Telling the time in Dutch is a bit different to in English. We say 4.30, but the Dutch say 5.30 (30 minutes BEFORE 5). So once it's 4.30 in the afternoon it is an acceptable time to have an alcoholic drink. Hence 'the five is in the hour' means let's drink. We have adapted this when we're ready for a break and a glass of wine. We now say - the 5 is in the hour when it's 3.05, 3.15, 4.25, and so on. After all, we are in the south of France and surrounded by vineyards and can enjoy the afternoon sun fully relaxed.