Ghost Town 2

[Buster]

After my original posting I thought I would update.
Last weekend we received a little note in the post box inviting us to a gathering for rememberance day on the Monday.
We decided that would be a good way of meeting a lot of the villages at once. Even though there were other English people in the village, we were the only English who turned up which I though was rather naughty.
After a small service it was wine back at the maires office.
Soon we were making small talk with everyone. The maire and his wife are a young couple with a baby, and his second in command are also young with a daughter the same age as my daughter.
I felt this was a real positive move for us. THey were all keen to know if were were permanent or weekenders, and seemed pleased we were permanent.
The second in command invited us to something on the 20th December at his house. We think it is a party, or we hope its a party as we will look a right pair of plonkers !!
The long and the short of it is we made an effort and it paid off.
I will still be pouncing on English mums, but at least now I can make friends with French mums too.

[Diane Rolph]

Do you know, your little story has made my day. I'd actually been thinking about you and how things were progressing, and even wondering if you'd perhaps made a wrong move.

But it just goes to show that with a little effort, things can be put to rights and that you will intregrate with your community.

In spite of efforts on our part to learn French, we are progressing very slowly. We have a delightful and very friendly gentleman who walks around our village twice a day, and always speaks if we are outside. Trouble is, he speaks very fast and says a great deal in a very short time so we both stand there open-mouthed trying to think how to reply! We look forward to the day when we can have a decent conversation with him and not be frightened to invite him in for a cup of coffee (or something stronger!)