Home at last; Tony & Lynne, Bost du Villie, Bergonouef, France, Friday 1st June 2012 ...and so it has came to pass. Tony & Lynne are at long last commencing the French Dream at Bost du Ville, in the region of Bergonouef, and I am proud to report that from 30th May to 7th June, I was chosen as the first person to see the new Marshall premises.
Well, actually I was asked if I would travel out with them with a lorryload of chatterals & lend a hand with associated lifting etc, but it fitted in well with a chance to inspect the French premises on behalf of the Bubble world, so I gladly offered my services....
As some may know, Tony has bought his own lorry to carry all he & Lynne owns across the continent, and here is a view of the lorry "somewhere in France" sometime during the 815km-and-two-solid-days-on-the-road outward journey to Bost du Ville.... Having left Milton Keynes at noon on Wendsday 30th May, we arrived at Bost du Ville at 3pm in the afternoon of Friday 1st June. Of course Tony & Lynne already knew the property well having already made several earlier trips to view & sign the deal, but here follows the first public views of the new Marshall home as we take a short photographic tour around Moudlin du Bost du Ville, a former mill with outbuildings arranged in an L-shape, a stream and two acres of meadow at their disposal....
Looking directly up the drive from the main road
A general view of the outbuildings
Lynne & Tony inspect the river with the meadow beyond For the next three (or was it four?) days, there was much to be done, with a lorry to unload, shopping to get (30km to the nearest shop!) neighbours to meet and another, earlier-delivered lorryload to collect, reload & unload from a temporary rented house in the next village.
In France, acceptance from your neighbours is paramount in building a life in that country. Several more people would confide this to me before we left England, but they need not have fretted; After pitching in unbidden with the unloading of the lorry and seeming to be having a whale of a time in doing so,
we were then practically press-ganged into attending the family barbecue at 8pm on the Saturday evening. English reserve saw us thinking we would perhaps be there for an hour & then we would make our excuses. Not so! The old saying "Work hard, Party hard" has never been truer as the Anglo-French party continued to nigh on 2am with grilled sousages and wine flowing freely throughout and France being introduced to the trick of hanging spoons on ends of noses. (Don't ask!) The below photo was taken around midnight, and I offer it as proof that I did my duty and delivered Tony & Lynne safely into the arms of the Bost du Ville community....
Oh, and the small matter of that Citroen GS? Yes indeed, it was true. There was indeed a defunct GS located round the corner at the rear of the mill. How it would have got into that position is a mystery for our times as not even a mountain goat could easily have got to where that car was....
