Voisins Superb!

I am drenched by huge spots of warm rain.  My feet crunch as I twirl on the pearl white stones.  My senses are filled with the perfume of lavender released by the rain. 

As I twirl, my arms circle wildly.  I can see Martyn’s bright orange shorts flashing by as he hurls past me, arms raised.  We both take huge breathes of wonderful coolness at the end of a stifling day.

We are visiting “the boys on the hill” Edward and Martyn at their glorious house overlooking the Pyrenees.  We’d first met them at Katrina and Gerard’s place for dinner a few days before.  That had been quite an experience too.

Our exchange partners had wooed us with stories of their fabulous neighbours and after a couple of weeks we finally met them.  We were totally unsure what to expect.  As we walked down the lane, we saw Martyn’s hands first, as he waved them wildly, as he conversed in the ‘Franglais” we have all adopted. 

We’d already met Katrina on the first day, when she’d let us into the house and later when I went with her to choir rehearsals in the local village.  We were grateful for the fact that her Flemish background made her competent in several languages, including English.  Until now, we hadn’t had the chance to get to know her French husband Gerard, as he in the middle of the harvest season.  All we knew about him was that he was a seventh generation farmer ,who spoke no English.  We also knew that our exchange partners adored them both.

“Come, come for dinner.” She said.  “The boys are coming too.  It will be fun.”

And so we found ourselves walking up the narrow stairs, past the peacocks, ducks, geese, two excited dogs and a lazy swimming pool. The Pyrenees glowed in the purple sunset.

“Bonsoir, Bonsoir”  “Venez-vous.”  Gerard gives both Roger and I welcoming kisses on each cheek.  He has a sun glistened, brown smiling face and kind eyes.  Edward eagerly leans forward to shake our hands.  He is gentle, suave with a golden oxford accent.  Martyn a rugged, lovable character clothed in bright orange shorts and not much else, welcomes us with huge hugs and kisses.  I feel as if we have known them all forever.

We spend the evening drinking copious amounts of wine while swapping stories which start in French, move to English and end up in the usual “Franglais” and lots of laughter.  They are indeed “Voisins Superb!”

Our meal starts with the famous Foie Gras.  I’d been nervous about eating this, having heard all of the horror stories of factory force feeding.  Of course, this is Fois Gras country and we regularly pass a farm that has thousands of ducks… just waiting to be fed… force fed!

Gerard assures us that his ducks are just greedy, no factory force-feeding here.  Martyn flicks his eyes heavenward and says with a straight voice  “You just have to try darling, it’s like an angel on your tongue.”  We all laugh, but he’s right, it‘s an amazing taste.  Gerard has also prepared smoked wild boar – incredible, especially when accompanied by those irresistible French baguettes.

We discover that ‘the boys’ were the first on the hill.  Martyn discovered the house on the internet and fell in love with it.  As no one else was living on the hill he thought it would deliver the solitude they craved.  Unfortunately, the price was just too high.  Working life took over and it was only, about a year later, when they finally had a break from filming that they returned to find that the house was still on the market and the price had been reduced.

That was the beginning of their love affair with a beautiful old house. 

Meanwhile Gerard and Katrina, had met while playing Petanque, and a love affair of their own had grown.  They decided to build a house for themselves where Katrina could keep her animals and they could sit out on the Terrasse and enjoy the magnificent views.  Katrina animatedly tells us how she planned the house on the computer and now together they are gradually building their dream.  “I sat up there, on the roof” she gesticulates wildly “fixing the tiles.”

 It’s not finished yet but its looking splendid. 

I have got into the habit when we are home at Soubagnac, of walking down the lane with my little bag of veggie scraps  ‘Pour les animaux’.  Every time I make sure I call out my customary ‘bonjour!’  Inevitably, Katrina’s head pops over the terrasse and she calls me in to see her latest bit of handiwork.  One day new latticework, the next a new garden patch.  Truly amazing.

Around 10.30, I’m thinking it’s been a long day and all that.  But here is Gerard.  He has plates full of Magret de Canard , which have been smoking on the BBQ.  They are fantastic for me, but for poor Roger who is almost a vegetarian, it is all too much.  The rest of us tuck into our delicious Pink flesh while Gerard returns Roger’s to the BBQ. 

Glasses are refilled as if by magic, toasts are toasted and bottles tossed into the recycling.   The stories get longer and louder. 

At about 12.30, Katrina, delivers her wonderful banana profiterole, accompanied of course by lashings of wine.  More stories, more laughter and as the peacocks, cry out their mournful tune we decide its time to head up the dark lane, aided by Gerard’s trusty lamp, to our house on the hill and to stumble gratefully into bed.

And here we are two days later, having lunch with the boys.  We are resolved to look after our livers, and to be home at a reasonable time.  Obviously it was not to be!

We arrive at midday.  Their house which they have been renovating over the past 9 years is gorgeous.  Martyn takes us through each room telling us its history.  It had been owned by a Dutchman who had made a perfunctory start on repairs, and finished with a flourish of orange, blue and green beams before deciding, it was all too much.

They have created beautiful rooms, adorned with furniture and props from their various film and TV productions.  A cupboard from “Foyles War”, Stephen Fry’s walking cane (much coveted by Roger), dinner service from Bertie and Elizabeth, as well as Edward’s family heirlooms, medieval chests, photographs, sculptures and paintings.

Where there were fields before there are now carefully planned and sculptured gardens, vegetable patch and Oh yes a half built swimming pool waiting for Gerard to finish.  There are great plans for a Moroccan patio, pigs, chickens and vines. 

We sit under a large canopy of grape vine, eating fresh melon and prosciutto, followed by creamy potatoes from the garden and roasted chicken.  Around 7.00pm we get around to dessert, Edward’s freshly made ice cream and a Gateaux d’Amour  that we had bought at the local patisserie.  Its hot and sultry and we are lazy…. And then gloriously came the refreshing rain to energise us all once more.