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Rosie’sFrenchAdventuresandIrish Shenanigans.com

~ Letting ‘Life’ show me the way.

Rosie’sFrenchAdventuresandIrish Shenanigans.com

Tag Archives: happy times

Reminiscing: Stories: My Mrs Overall Moment

13 Sunday Dec 2020

Posted by RosieJoseph in Food in France, Friends, laughter & giggles, Reflections, The continuing adventure

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Tags

adventures in France, expats in France, friends in France, gravygate, happy times, roast lamb

I thought I would share some of our funnier moments in France with you, and this one came to mind because RD and I were chatting and giggling about it in our now jumbled kitchen the other night.

In our first few months here some lovely friends, Katherine and John, came to visit us. I decided to cook us a lamb roast with all the trimmings, including some good thick gravy to soak up the mint sauce.

All was going well, and whilst we waited for the food John fell asleep in our old comfy leather chair (which has now gone to the great dechetterie in the sky) and Catherine, RD and I decided to have a few glasses of red wine. Well lamb is notorious for taking a fair amount of time to cook, as are roast potatoes (especially when you have had over half a bottle of wine, and are putting the world to rights, thereby forgetting to put them in!) A few glasses turned to a few bottles and before you knew it poor John woke up to three pissed people in the kitchen.

Now me being the cook it was not helpful that I was also ‘three sheets to the wind’ and had a roast dinner to muster. But ‘muster’ it I did, the table was laid and out came the food. I can cook, pissed or not, so all the food was looking and tasting good, except I had forgotten to bring in the gravy. Despite RD offering to assist I insisted that I would get it.

Off I staggered into the kitchen, I poured the gravy into two jugs, and all over my kitchen Island, and staggered back into the living/dining room. It was a long way from the door to the table, or seemed to be, but off I set with the two jugs firmly gripped in my hand, but limply where my wrist was concerned. RD, Catherine and John, watched with amusement as I staggered across the room, pouring gravy from the said to jugs as I went, leaving a gravy snail trail all across our wooden parquet floor. None of them dared to laugh, none of them had a lot of gravy either!

Good times seem such a long way away now.

Rosie

Christmas 2019, the gravy was available this time.

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Poignant Times: No Going Back ….

20 Thursday Aug 2020

Posted by RosieJoseph in Change is a coming, new adventures, New Paths, poignancy, sunrises and sunsets, The adventures of living life in the French countryside, The continuing adventure

≈ 11 Comments

Tags

A haven, a house is.not a home, a house once loved, a labour of love, a moment in time, a place for reflection, accepting change, adventures, aerial displays, French Sunrise, French sunsets, happy times, here and now, houses for sale in France, peace and tranquility, Poignant times, Rolling hills, swifts

https://www.frenchestateagents.com/french-property-for-sale/view/114748ADR53/house-for-sale-in-ambrieres-les-vallees-mayenne-pays-de-la-loire-france

So here it is. Our house in all her glory, now for sale on the internet and generating a lot of interest.

Why wouldn’t it? The location of our house is second to none, set amidst the rolling valleys of the Parc Normandie, at the very end of a dead end road, with no traffic.

God she is going to be hard to replace (a small tear came to my eyes then.)

But as I am writing this I know that selling up and moving is the right thing to do. I cannot be away from my family constantly on a long term basis, and I will have been away this time for weeks. Albeit with a fabulous client.

Even in paradise we all need money to live.

Over the five years I have been writing this blog I have written about change so often, and how we should not fear it, because it is the only constant we have. So I know this change is right for us, using all we have learned from this adventure to enhance the next one.

And boy! Have we learned a lot!

But I know that with my current job I will only have six weeks at home for the remainder of the year, and for me that is too long away from the ones I love. I also believe that life is too short.

I know that there is a high probability that this is the last summer in this beautiful place. That when I left last time would be the last time I saw the bales of hay waiting for collection from my bedroom window.

That it will be the last time we will sit in the late sunshine, drinking wine and watching the swifts teach their babies to catch the insects in the evening air.

So when I go home I am going to enjoy every sunny evening for the two weeks I am home. I am going to cherish that ‘here and now’. I will catch the sunrises…

and I will raise a glass to the sunsets.

And I will remind myself that Ireland will offer me more of the same, only different.

Poignant Times

Rosie

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Partying Francais style

25 Saturday May 2019

Posted by RosieJoseph in Food in France, Friends, People, The adventures of living life in the French countryside, The continuing adventure

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

aperitifs, Dancing, drinking in France, English food, French food, Friends, happy times, neighbours, parties, The Village People, voisins, Welsh Terriers, YMCA

Some of my readers may remember the big birthday party that we went to last year: it lasted two days!

You can read about it here

So really when we were invited to our friends and neighbours house yesterday we should have known better than to think we would only be there the two hours that etiquette dictates for aperitifs. We left our doors open, the Welshies bounding around the garden, didn’t feed any of the cats, and off we went. We don’t know what time we got home!

The evening started sedately with dainty morsels to eat, whisky for Richard and a fruity drink for the ladies. We had taken over some prawn cocktail crisps for Manon, Marc’s niece, she love fish & chips so we thought she would like to try a flavour of crisps that is popular in the UK. (Just an aside: in England chips are called crisps and fries are called chips, but if they are thin then they are called fries. Confused, you will be!)

Anyhow back to my story of how we are slowly introducing our French friends to English food: we took two packets and then Rich went back for more. With the exception of about three people there they were a resounding success. So we upped the anti: If you look in the photo above you will see a black and yellow jar which is a jar of marmite. Rich bought that back over with him as well and proceeded to spread it on the prawn cocktail crisps and feed them to our French friends, They loved them, well some loved them, some pulled the face so many pull when they try marmite for the first time! The marmite fest was under way, they spread it on cheese, various types and it was a success. All this time Marc was constantly topping up everyone’s glasses: rose wine for me and whisky for Rich.

A marmite eating contest ensued, which Rich obviously won because he is used to it. The poor Frenchman put too much in his mouth in one go and ended up with marmite all over his beard. (We’re still giggling about that this morning).

As the drink flowed music was found and I found myself in a surreal moment as I danced to YMCA with a room full of French people, with my husband standing the other side of the table leading the dance moves. It’s fair to say we were pretty pissed by then!

It is one of the things of this adventure that we are so blessed with our friends and neighbours that we have: all French, all supportive, they have welcomed us into their lives and family parties and we know that it is an honour that they have. Just another reason for taking that chance and having that adventure.

Moisy

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