A Year of French Living

Andy and Nicky Spillane left our shores to set up home and business (Holiday Cottage Complex) in the south west of France in December 1999. They have been supporters of the Hound Club of East Anglia for a number of years, showing the Grand Bleu De Gascognes and then with the Basset Bleus they imported from France. Here is their account of their first year of French Living.

Year 2000.

Started for us on the 28th December. Not because of any fantastic celebrations or a three-day New year Millennium Party, but because that was the day the hurricane struck. Nicky and I had been through the hurricane in 1987 in the UK and thought once in a lifetime was our fair share. This was far worse!! The winds were stronger and the devastation throughout southwest France was simply unbelievable. Vast swathes of forest, covering tens of square miles, were completely flattened, roofs stripped, huge steel power pylons bent in half and so on. We lost water for four days, phone for ten and electricity for over two weeks. Despite all this we had a great New Year by candle and firelight Thank heavens for a log fire and a gas cooker, friends and relatives joined us and we all had a great evening as the awful photos later testified.

The storm brought out the best in France, the utility companies worked around the clock to restore services and then provided generous compensation even though there was little they could have done to prevent the problems. The village communities rallied together to help dear roads of fallen trees and powerlines, look after the old and so on. Jean-Louis, a local garage owner worked 24 hours a day with a mobile generator, traveling round from house to house charging up our deep freezes, for free. After ten days he collapsed with exhaustion but by then the local town had power and a friend arrived with a van and took our full freezer off to his house to keep going. We sustained quite a lot of damage at our houses in Nadaillac but luckily the insurance assessor was very helpful and they paid in full within the month and Jose our local builder got everything fixed before it rained again at the end of January. Our only lasting legacy, the 150 trees that came down in our wood, I am still chopping them up.

February brought the earthquake, 3.6 on the Richter scale, we all got a good shake but no damage was done. I didn't know they had earthquakes in north-west Europe. Despite the alarms of the first paragraphs, life here is normally very gentle. In many ways like life in England in the fifties, but with a little garlic added to give it flavour. The communities are still very active as communities, the seasons of the year are important and the country folk friendly, helpful and hospitable. The English are popular, particularly when they realise you live here all year round and enjoy joining in village life and activities.

Continued........................................