La Bloggerie

We love Christmas, but seem to have spent most of it in the car this time round.  Just a week after we set off from France we were back there again, this time driving through heavy rain for the majority of the journey. 

But business calls, and La Tannerie is full for the week aound New Year.  This is a first for us, but let’s hope it’s a sign of things to come in 2010.  There is no question there are more people enquiring about long term lets for the coming months, and the impression we get is that we might just be seeing the beginnings of a turn-around in the housing market.

Despite all the predictions of difficult driving conditions and further snow, this turned out to be one of the most straight forward drives up through France.  North of Le Mans it became clear that there had been snow, but at no point did it cause any problems.  We completed the 500 miles from Chalais to Calais comfortably within 9 hours.

The only hold-up was at the port at Calais where it took 90 minutes to get through Passport Control and to check-in, due no doubt to the vast amount of traffic being turned away from the Tunnel all deciding to take a ferry instead.

Radio traffic reports picked up from Radio 2 whilst waiting at Calais warned of huge delays around the M25 following more bad weather, but we sailed through and on into Essex as if nothing had happened.

A last minute decision meant that we did not risk the drive up through France.  We scoured the French TV channels and internet for advice as to what we might expect and everywhere was saying the weather in northern France was going to make driving extremely difficult.

The additional problems that were experienced over night in the Tunnel would also have added to the delays and queues at the port of Calais.  Add in the closure of the motorway between Boulogne and Calais, and industrial action by immigration officials, and suddenly a couple of days at home in front of the fire started to look a better bet.

So Monday it is.  We have not had any snow here in Chalais for several days, and even then it was only a light dusting, so it will be interesting to see how far north we get before we see our first proper covering.  Or were all the traffic reports just a ploy to keep holiday makers off the road?  We shall see.

With less than 24 hours to go before we drive off for Christmas in England, it’s looking likely to be a difficult weekend for travel.

Essex, our intended destination, ground to a halt under 6 inches of snow today, and one of our lodgers came to warn us that he had experienced delays and road closures all the way back down to Chalais last evening from Normandy – essentially our route in reverse.

So we set off tomorrow with fingers crossed, a hot flask and hopefully some different CDs on the player. The thought of sitting in a snow drift listening to the Beach Boys just seems a little surreal.

There we were, one minute, enjoying t-shirt weather in December, then suddenly it’s a maximum of minus 3 degrees and permafrost on the back lawn.

My only hope is that maybe a few good frosts will discourage our resident moles from destroying any more of the garden.  They seem to have got their teeth stuck in this autumn, if indeed they have teeth, and have produced some real mountains.

The problem is that since the entire garden is enclosed by streams I can’t see how they are ever going to leave.  So what do we do?

It has been suggested that a shotgun would be the local weapon of choice, but loosing off firearms alongside a school is a non-starter.  Poison is out since the dogs wouldn’t like it, and gas just seems to be a bit random given the vast area over which the little devils are digging.

So bring on the frost, and lots of it.

With a week still to go before we head back to England for Christmas, we are facing an altogether new threat. We have nearly run out of PG Tips tea bags.

As anyone who has stayed here will be aware, there is an awful lot of tea drunk at La Tannerie.  We import the stuff in huge catering bags and visitors keep us topped up.  But this will be the first time we have run out in five years.

So it looks like we shall either have to go and pay Intermarché’s inflated price or … Well that’s just it, what is the alternative to a nice cup of tea?