The pool begins

Well I had been preparing myself mentally for the appearance of our garden in Hure after the extensive tree-felling so infact I was not as stunned as I might have been. Certainly it looks different now, mostlt like a huge pile of mud but if it ever gets finished, we hope it will be worth it. The base should have been poured a few days ago but due (we think) to th uncertainties of the weather (or a certain Gallic tendency to make haste slowly -festinate lente-)noth,ing has happened. Jack has been occupied digging in preparation for an unexpected retaining wall

Our dear neighbours, Ray And Phyllis, had arrived from Plymouth and we went with them to a jazz festival ("Le 24 heures du swing", in Monsegur, one of the many picturesque bastides in our region.

I spent a week working on the garden and settling in for our first long summer in France (up until now it has always been punctuated by visits to Australia and our other life.) Then I caught the TGV up to stay with Clare for a couple of days before she and I drove the long journey back down south with Abby and Elliott. We drove straight through with a couple of breaks for the littlies to get some variety and for us to change drivers. We used Clare's new GPS which gave us a new route through Paris, partly using the peripherique and partly other roads. It seems a good invention. I hope to have one when I head off to Italy in September.