Photos above and below (same veggies just 2 slightly different angles to give you a proper idea of the enormous amount of veg we’ve just been given) are of more veggies just dropped off by our neighbours - apparently they don’t like aubergines but grow them (presumably because everyone else does!) and so we have been on the receiving end of their glut of aubergines - this makes a total of over a dozen they’ve given us to date! In addition, they’ve given us huge amounts of lettuce - 2 different varieties - in addition to a few kilos of green beans.
Simone simply popped round at about 8 o’clock this evening with 2 enormous bags of goodies - we haven’t seen them socially in a while so she said she just wanted to check in and bring some gifts from the garden.
Considering we didn’t make a particularly informed decision about where to buy in France, we do feel so blessed to have chosen such a beautiful spot surrounded by such fabulous neighbours.
Simone and Michel, the couple who are constantly giving us gifts from their garden and who we have over for lunch occasionally, happened to be best friends with the man who owned this house. When he died, his 3 sons decided to sell and we bought it from them. As a result, and fortunately for us, Michel and Simone were presumably keen to meet the people who’d bought their friend’s house and it was the first summer we spent here in 2007 when they literally accosted us on the road outside their house with open arms inviting us in for an aperitif - the beginning of what has turned out to be a beautiful friendship. Rocky at times, a prime example being the afternoon they came round here and Simone accused us of ridding the garden of the beautiful “muguet” that Mme. Ligeois grew so much of. At the time, I had no idea what “muguet” was and was completely dumbfounded thinking perhaps we’d pulled up a precious crop. It turns out that “muguet” is lily of the valley and thankfully, this was already gone by the time we took ownership of the property so we weren’t to blame for its disappearance!
In addition, and again in 2007, we signed ourselves up for the “repas des vendanges” which is the wine harvest meal held in the village hall. We were fortunate enough to be sat next to the butcher and his wife who happen to cater this event every year, only to discover that they’d been scuba diving in Little Cayman in 1998. Having had to explain to everyone else we’d met exactly where Cayman was, you can imagine our surprise that someone in the village not only knew where it was but had been there! The butcher and his wife have since become good friends and I must say, it’s no bad thing befriending a butcher!
So it is with some sadness that we’ll be packing the house up in less than 6 weeks to return to Cayman and we do look forward to making this our forever home at some point in the not too distant future - besides, Michel and Simone are keen to have us round for their ‘belotte’ nights which they hold weekly in the winter for all and sundry in the hamlet. Belotte is a french card game - the closest we have in english is probably bridge - so perhaps we can attempt to learn it whilst spending winter in the caribbean instead so we’ll be ahead of the game upon our return!
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