Bonjour,
Hope you had a great week.
Having said last week that winter has got distracted on its way to the Seven Valleys in northern France where I am, snow is on the way!
There is an ancient farmer in the village whom everyone addresses as “Monsieur”, and he keeps a couple of old horses in the fields where I walk. Every day I see him up there chatting away to them, “Bonjour Monsieur” I call out. Usually he waves, calls “Bonjour” back, but that’s it. This week he introduced a young horse to the field. It gallops about, runs to stick its big head over the hedge when we go by, races along the fence with my dogs and is generally very playful. Yesterday as I passed, Monsieur was just opening the gate to feed the three horses. He limps, his hands are arthritic, he’s a bit bent over, in his late seventies, he’s had a hard life and it’s taken a toll on his body.
“Bonjour Monsieur”, “Bonjour”.
I went to carry on my walk when he called out “What do you think of my new horse”. I did a sort of Scoobydoo skid and turned. “Well” I said, “I think he’s gorgeous. He’s given a new lease of life to the older ones hasn’t he”. As I said this the young one ran over and started nuzzling the old man’s arm. The two older horses who are usually a bit stand-off, also galloped over and were vying for the old man’s attention.
“Perhaps I should try this chez moi” the old man laughed. He’s been on his own, according to Jean-Claude my neighbour, for more than thirty years. Then he winked at me.
I do believe I’ve made a new friend in the village.
I hope to see some friends at The France Show in Olympia, London, next week where I’ll be chatting on stage (Friday & Saturday)… wave if you see me!
Bisous from France,
Janine
Editor
pps Congratulations to John Millington, winner of the row of vines in the Rhone Valley. Loads more comps coming up – click here to find them all in one place! And – don’t forget to enter our week in a cottage in Carcassonne give away
Read the whole newsletter here
If you don’t want to miss my weekly newsletters of musings from France and a round up of fab features, plus exclusive random newsletter giveaways – it’s easy to subscribe. Just scroll to the bottom of this post if you’re on a mobile device, or look on the right on a laptop, type in your email address and click subscribe…
