Our first Christmas in France proved to be a bit different, as we never do things by half we moved house - lock stock & barrel the day before Christmas eve, the furniture was loaded into a trailer and all our other delicate belongings in the car. When we returned on New Years Eve we moved into the apartment. 

We travelled by ferry on the early crossing from Caen on Christmas eve, despite the French celebrating Christmas on that day the roads were still rather busy at rush hour. We arrived about 9.30 pm only to find that the key for the lock to open the shutter on the small building was not on the key ring..............aarrrrgggghhhhhhhhhhh. Anyway Dave did what was necessary and we managed to turn the water on and get settled into the house. While we had been away our friends had kindly sorted out the heating for us so it was lovely & warm indoors despite the freezing temperatures outside.    

Christmas Day was different, we unpacked the car and Roy called round to help Dave unload the heavy furniture out of the trailer - once that was done it was off to celebrate Christmas with Donna & Roy - we had a lovely time, had plenty to eat & drink and arrived home the early hours of Boxing Day.

Boxing Day we got up early and Dave put the kitchen cupboard in place now France Telecom had installed the phone line, fitted the cooker and things were starting to take shape. For a change everything fell into place nicely. The dining room furniture blends in beautifully with the kitchen and the sofa's chairs and other furniture looked like it was made to measure.

The 27th December turned out to be a very sad day, we had a visit from our friend & neighbour Bernard who asked could the 'arborist' come straight away about the willow tree. Fortunately his apprentice spoke very good English and explained that because the tree was so tall & old and had never been pruned it was very dangerous, it was very lop sided weight wise and alot of bark was coming off the trunk- he said that he could cut it really low to save it but it would look stupid and it would be better to fell it completely. We agreed that he would cut it so we could use it as a table - it turned out to be 32 years old. Bernard was very kind and gifted us a new baby willow tree- about 10 feet tall - apparently in 3 years time it will have grown considerably so we just might be able to drink the chilled rosé again like we did with the last one.