Saturday 8 December 2007

Helping Paws and other stories

Aren't kittens helpful?! Misty likes to help with cobweb removal from awkward places and making the bed. As she is chief investigator, she likes to get into awkward situations and nooks and crannys sniffing out any flies (for a snack, I think they are the kitten equivalent to a Milky Way bar, you know, they can be eaten between meals without ruining your appetite). Living in the country we get loads of spiders, which I actually like and also their cobwebs. Misty looks like she is wearing a veil when she emerges from these places with her little head covered in cobwebs. Very useful indeed.

Her bed making skills are improving as well. Stripping the bed is great fun, because she can lie on the sheet and be pulled along on it. When I am taking the pillow case off, she hangs onto the bottom of them for speedier removal. Mind you she does this when I put the clean ones on as well which is not so helpful.

Changing the subject, we went to the Christmas Market in Le Dorat last week. I had been looking forward to it all week, and woke up on Sunday morning with that excited feeling that you get when you know something exciting is going to happen. OH was coming with me, partly to keep me company and partly to monitor the amount of tat I would buy. Well, we parked in the supermarket carpark, which was scarily empty. The town looked absolutely dead, but in fairness most French towns and villages do around lunchtimes, shutters closed and shops shut and it becomes a ghost town. We walked around the corner, at this point I am almost skipping in anticipation of all the wondrous sights my eyes will behold. We rounded a corner and there in front of the Collegial were....... 4 stalls of junk and a pizza van!!!!! Noooooooooo, I can't believe it! But wait, what is that? There were people going in to a hall thingy and lo and behold more stalls!! Well, I walked around these 10 or 12 stalls desperately looking for something to buy, but alas, it was not to be. There was absolutely nothing that took my fancy. So we left with glum faces and full purses. We laughed on the way home about what a waste of time and petrol that was. Oh well, there is always the Foire au Chapons next weekend in Blond!

After the disappointment of the Marche de Noel, OH gave me a treat and we went to Eco Gem. A shop that I liken to an Aladdins cave of things that you will never need but somehow are compelled to buy! They had some lovely christmas decorations that OH liked as well, and we spent 40 euros on 'stuff', and let me tell you for that amount we came out with bags of goodies. I wouldhave spent more, but the shop was closing for the obligatory 2 hour lunchbreak. I still find that very inconvenient. Personally I would not want to get to work for 9am, then leave at 12noon and come back at 2.30 to work till 7pm.

9 comments:

Stew said...

Yes, the Marché de Noël still has a way to evolve yet in this part of France before it gets to the state of those they have in Alsace and Germany. Most are still glorified bric a bracs with a bit of craft fair thrown in.
persevere tho, in the usual nature of free market, there are some Marché de Noël that grow in popularity and size year on year.

aims said...

So glad to see you are back -

I am astonished at the lunchhour breaks you mentioned - and I agree! Who would want to work like that? When I go shopping - I just want to go out - get it done - and get home - not dally around waiting for people to re-open their doors. Plus - when our family had a retail store - we never kicked people out because we were going to close - we always let them finish their shopping - no matter how long they took!!

As for the Xmas Market - that sounds just sad...

The last Xmas Market I did - there were probably 100 stalls....people are really into it here....hooray for Canada!

With every good wish.....

Elizabethd said...

Oh dear! Christmas markets here are not to be confused with the 'real thing'! It is only in the last few years that anything like that has happened in our area, but they are trying hard!

Debra in France said...

Hi Stew, will definitly persevere, you never know when you will see something you want. Also it is good to support local communities, alot of the villages around here seem to be dwindling as the young move into the cities.

Hi Aims, the lunchhours here really take some getting used to. It is only the really big hypermarkets that stay open during the lunchbreak. When we first moved here we soon realised that if we wanted to go shopping in the morning, we had to be at the shop at 9am, no point wandering in for a browse at 11.30! They don't actually kick you out at 12.30, but they do tend to turn off all the lights! We used to go to xmas craft markets in the UK and they were wonderful, might have to nip back next year!

Hi Elizabeth, they certainly made an effort to make things look festive. It all helps with the christmas spirit.

travelling, but not in love said...

My German colleagues were visiting our HQ in Birmingham last week and visited the 'world famous' Birmingham German Christmas Market.

They left appalled, saying that it was "just like being in Frankfurt" and thus missing the point of the 'world famous' Birmingham German Christmas Market.

Bless 'em.

Breezy said...

Well I for one like the uncommercial aspect of things here and the lunch breaks! Why should shop workers have to be different to the rest of us? and don't forget here most people work near enough to where they live to go home and have lunch with their family. It is a bit of a pain though if you get off to a slow start in a morning and realise there is no point in starting your shopping trip till 2

Debra in France said...

Hi Travelling, I bet the fair was wonderful, I wish it would come to Limoges.

Hi Breezy, I agree that shop workers deserve a break as well, but personally I would hate to work for 3 hours, then dtop for 2 then go back for 5 hours. We had a sweet shop next to the salon I worked and they closed for lunch just as all our juniors were going on their break, they lost a fortune in revenue because the juniors went elsewhere. The shop was sold due to lack of business!

softinthehead said...

Sorry to hear that the market was such a disappointment. Don't you just hate that, all excited, money burning a hole in your pocket and you cannot, no matter how hard you try, find something to buy! As for the lunchtime closure, we experienced this for the first time when we were over in November, drove all the way to Chateauroux to go to the DIY stores only to arrive about 12.01pm and couldn't understand why there was no-one around, fortunately Leroy Merlin does stay open so they got our business. It is frustrating, I can see I am going to have to SLOW DOWN alot when we finally make the move, at the moment if I can't fit a visit to the bank machine between the chiropractor and the office, I'm in a strop. I know - I know things are a bit different over there. I mean you have to plan where to get petrol, here there is literally a gas station on every third intersection! But I am looking forward to it.

Debra in France said...

Hi Softinthehead, Yes we have found that we need to plan our shopping trips carefully now. Luckily Mr Bricolage and Castoram in Limoges don't close for lunch. But Brico Depot stores do. We went to Angouleme recently and there is a huge retail park where everything closed at 12 noon. I have to say though, I really prefer this way of life.