France.
I almost died of boredom several times. Christ almighty. NEVER AGAIN. Made it to Caen alive and Tina was waiting for us. Then we went off in the car to Taillebois, which is the commune where they live (commune in this sense, meaning French province, not happy hippies.) Collapsed a bit, evaded being mobbed by the kids when they arrived back from school. Unpacked, said hello to the cows in the field next door. Actually bulls, bred for meat. One tried to eat me.
Tuesday we went off to Athis and Fler (pronounced closer to Flare) to get some shopping in, wandered about, found the Tabacs (on the ferry, I am a smoker as there is a limit on what the bar will sell you cigarette wise. It's cheaper than the Duty Free shops.) Got some postcards. Wandered down the road a bit as far as the Tallebois village sign, then upon being able to see nothing on the horizon in either direction we came back. An english run pub is actually just up the road. Wandered back down the lane and watched some cows in a field. Some were two. There's a dairy farm at the end of the lane and the tractors trundle past every so often. These two cows were rather large around the middle...
Wednesday we went out to lunch to a Swiss restuarant, well. Sort of Swiss. I think it was run by an englishwoman, and had a french chef. Denis has done a lot of work there so we got a reduced rate. The kids were mostly in the kitchen 'helping' Patrice the chef. Later on, we were sat outside, when Marty came up on his bike and asked if we wanted to see a baby that had just been born (him speaking is a rarity, he is an odd child, possibly autistic). Janet had been cutting the grass for Tina and I'd been trying to get a photo of Marty on the tractor mower for Gran most of the afternoon. Off we trundled down the road to discover the two large cows were now one large cow, one normal sized cow and a baby cow. So newly born she was still cleaning it up. Tina had gone down on the tractor mower to find Sarah and had noticed the cow giving birth so sent Marty back up. Watched the calf for a while trying to get up but not working out where all his feet were. Janet and Sarah stayed watching while me and mum retreated to avoid sunburn. Daniel then appeared later saying they were going to milk the rest of the herd and they'd asked if we could watch. The people of the area are very proud, all the roadsides and houses are neat and tidy and clean and looked after, much different to here - Tina went up the lane on the mower to trim the verges. Watched the cow-dog at work. Cow-dog then came over to me, sat next to me and looked up. Fuss was given. No barking, nothing. Cow-dog had an accident with a tractor recently and lost a back leg, that they've kept him/her as a working dog is a good thing. Watched the cows being milked - unlike the cows at home I've been near, these were quite timid and a bit put out by being looked at. Then I saw the farm cat outside, waiting for milk as one of the pipes to the tank has a small leak that they don't seem concerned about fixing. Then I saw TINY FARM CATS. Two of them. One was rolling about in a hay pile. Totally undomesticated, proper farm cats, wouldn't come close.
Thursday we went to the market in Condé, it is huge. Lots of clothes, much nicer than our clothes I found. Lots of food too. Live animals as well. Chickens, chicks, ducklings, turkeys, some sort of game bird, did see some full grown ducks and a goose who got very annoyed at a curious dog and some rabbits. A live chicken cost about 3€. These are for food or breeding or whatever you want. A packaged chicken we saw in a supermarket today was 10€, and we never saw much packaged 'small' meat, like chicken, as around here the norm is really to raise your own chickens/ducks/etc. There are actually some meat rabbit breeding pens left around the back of the house. Went around to Pont D'Ouilly on the way back for some photos, its a hanggliding point.
The kids have been...well. They have little concept of money, or respect for other peoples things. Sophie the dog is friendly but has arthritis in her shoulder and on the same foot she managed to snap the claw. Bobby is nervous aggressive and can't really be trusted to be off lead. His sight is wonky - he'll go for the food furthest from him, not closest to him, and after 20 minutes running about in the field he'll zonk out on the floor. Denis has been his usual self, letching at mum and asking Tina to do a hundred and one things he could easily do himself on his way back or way to places - the norm here is a 2 hour lunch break and he can knock off work whenever he feels like, yet Tina still has to do lots of running around. Luckily he didn't say anything to annoy me this time as he has done before.
I'm writing this on Thursday evening, I have no internet connection. Friday I'll have left here at 10.30am to get the ferry back home. Two hour sailing this time instead of seven! Woo!