Au Revoir

It’s only the third day in December, and we’ve already had two snowy days.–Not enough to stick around, but enough to make driving hazardous and the outdoors beautiful. Last year the first snow was in March. The year before there was hardly a freeze at all. As a friend said last night at a good-bye dinner, for the last little while the weather has been different every year.

The early freezes meant that the kiwis were ready to eat immediately though. We had a Kiwi-picking party on the weekend with our neighbours – it was also supposed to be a chance for them to meet the new owners, but unfortunately les nouveaux were sick and couldn’t join us! We saved them some kiwis anyways… The yield was just under 600 this year. You may remember that last year was a whopping 1,300. Their taste was amazing, but they were smaller than normal. Greg culled a bunch this spring, and it seems to have done the trick: a more manageable number, and doubled in size. And they still taste great!

(in the first photo Greg & Clem are picking some 'early' kiwis last week, before the first firm frost -- seven days later and the plant looked very different!)
     
                      
          
(Benoit serves up some vin chaud as the others discuss their guesstimates on how many kiwis were harvested -- in the end, it was Benoit who was closest!)


Did you catch that ref? ‘New Owners.’ –
While the selling process is many weeks long in France, and not final until the end (a few weeks yet), it does seem that the house has found its new inhabitants. In fact, M & S were the first persons to look at Pré Borel, and it was quickly evident that they had fallen under the same spell as so many others. But then the market dove, and they had a place to sell themselves, and it all seemed very precarious. In the end it has worked out though, and we are glad. We think that they and their wee son will fit well into the community, and it is clear they already love the place (all three of them). They have family not far who will also be able to share in the pleasures of Pré Borel -- we hope and expect that it will be a place that will continued to be shared.

But nonetheless, hard to say goodbye to.
All the memories make it an even more special place. It’s interesting that as we say sad goodbyes to dear friends, many have said that it is also sad to say goodbye to Pré Borel. How privileged we have been to be here!
Yesterday Thierry came by in his classic 2CV……

When we were first considering purchasing this place, Thierry came on a visit to help us figure out if it was a worthwhile purchase. When we drove out the lane-way I asked Thierry, “Well, what do you think?” He leaned forward from the back seat: “ARE YOU CRAZY?!!?” – in his lovely French accent – “BUY IT!!!” Buy it we did, and ne’er regretted it. Thanks Thierry, and thanks to all who made it possible, and to all those who helped to make it even more special – not only in labour, but in laughter, in tears; meals shared, games played, quiet conversations and bonfires reaching to stars. Last May Chad broke bread and served wine in the morning sun, and Nina’s flute and Greg’s guitar carried voices across the field. It seemed to me both a response and a blessing. It has been a Good Place. May it continue to be so.

For now our good-byes continue, amidst packing, administrative prep, and other necessary work. These are busy days. In less than a fortnight we will be in Ottawa, beginning a new chapter, a new adventure. It will be a mix of familiar and foreign for us. In a sense we will still be ‘Les Étrangers.’ I haven’t lived in the area since I was nineteen. Greg only lived there from twelve to eighteen. It has changed and so have we. Yet it is only one of the many amazing things in our life-together that, despite having begun ensemble in Oxford, we are now moving to a place on another continent to which we both have childhood connections. Indeed for me, despite a peripatetic life, it is Home. It will be good to rediscover it together.


And we’ll keep you posted on the progress!
Undoubtedly as intermittent as ever, we’ll nonetheless post the occasional blog to assure you that adventures never cease…

G&K


P.S. A few folk asked to see the 'sale web-site' we put up, with its additional photos of Pré Borel. It's here: http://web.me.com/kirstinandgreg/Pre_Borel_English/The_House.html
P.P.S. For those of you who never quite figured out what sort of place Greg worked at while here in France, here is a BBC article and a very cool photo (not mine!) of the ESRF: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7760380.stm

Here's a couple shots from last week: the park right next to our well-visited medical x-ray centre...we're unlikely to find the like in Ontario...at least not with ancient palm trees!

and to close, a shot of the beautiful orchid Greg bought me when we first arrived in France. It's seldom not in bloom, and gets more beautiful each season. May we all, en esprit, do the same.