Bittersweet

And so… 20 years of being hitched to my beloved have passed us by. The traditional gift to give on this great occasion is usually china. Having decided against buying each other an entire continent, we settled on the obvious; a farm and parents…

This may appear confusing to some, but please bear with me…

The year started with us, as usual, in the Pyrénées. We love this corner of France and try to see as much of it as we can. This has proven a little difficult of late due in part to my ‘100-day cough’. Now on day 110 and feeling somewhat unhealthy, we decided to buy an electric wheelchair:

This is Lady Muck awaiting her chauffeur.

Well, it certainly gets us to places previously impenetrable to my war-torn body.



We love our little cabin in the forest soooooo much. It may be creaky and old, but for some reason that makes me feel at home. Because of this we got to thinking of our house in Montauban and decided to look around for something with more character.

We’ve found a little farm in Lamothe Capdeville, just north of Montauban. Houses in France are ridiculously cheap at the moment. If the sale goes through, we will set about renovating it with a view to moving in permanently.



This explains the 'farm’ bit of the traditional gift exchange, but what about the 'parents’ bit? Well, sadly Annick’s mum and dad are not doing too well, and have moved in with us. The word 'temporaire’ gets used a lot; I think it means 'Don’t ask’. Papa has since moved on to hospital, where things do not look too good.

I then spent a couple of days in Wales catching up with the kiddos and with work (yes indeed, I am still technically a vet, and have finally been given the dubious honour of using the title 'Doctor’). I thought I’d take some pictures of another crumbling ruin (more here).



Which brings us to today, the 9th March. As we pass by our 20 year mark, Sophie starts into hers as, today at 10am, she enters into a PACS (a French contractual version of marriage) with her one true love, Ulrich. I’ll post some photos later I hope.



How times change. This was us 20 years ago…



My parents gone, and Papa feeble, failing but fighting.

Bittersweet.

 

Dr Phil