Bonjour
I hope that you and yours are well.
In my little village, community is everything. If someone wants help, we all pitch in, so when Jean-Claude knocked at the door and asked me to send Mark (my husband) to him at his house just down the hill from us, I didn’t hesitate to say yes.
Jean-Claude was waiting outside his house when Mark arrived “quick, quick” he said, “I need you to help me get something up to my mother-in-law’s barn before Bernadette sees.”
Bernadette, his long-suffering wife could be heard singing “La Mer” out of tune in the garage behind him. “Cherie” she called “I need help dusting the top of the wall.” It is a well-known fact in our village that Bernadette is a cleaning fanatic.
“I can’t my little cabbage” yelled Jean-Claude, “Mark needs my help.” It is also a well-known fact that Jean-Claude is a master of procrastination and wangling out of helping with the housework or any other type of work for that matter.
“Hop in the tractor and I’ll show you what I want” Jean-Claude grinned at Mark. He drives a tractor like everyone else drives a car – even to the shops!
They headed to Madame Dubois’ house – she lives by the village church, and in her front garden was a worn-out old sofa that was cut in half ready to go to the rubbish dump. Jean-Claude wanted Mark to lift one half of the sofa into the tractor bucket for him. Mark is considerably younger, fitter and stronger than Jean-Claude and is often roped in for jobs of a physically demanding nature. The pair then drove to my next-door neighbour Claudette’s house (Jean-Claude’s mother-in-law), where Mark was instructed to unload the half sofa and put it in a barn.
One end of the half sofa has two legs, the other half has none, so it sloped considerably. “Bah, that’s fine” said Jean-Claude as he snuggled lopsidedly into the makeshift chair. “This is perfect. I can sit in here listening to Radio Nostalgie, thinking about life, enjoying the tranquility, testing my home-made cider. The bales of straw will keep it warm, and the spiders will keep Bernadette out – she’ll never find me in here.”
As man-caves go, it’s not going to win any awards. It looks a bit Halloweenish with years and years of cobwebs dangling down, abandoned farm tools and a few unfortunate looking wide-eyed dolls in the corner that Jean-Claude says get dragged out when kids come to the house and are brave enough to venture through the broken barn door. But I’m betting it won’t be long before the other half of the sofa is sent for, and a few broken chairs and a table, and this will become the new meeting place for Jean-Claude’s cronies to play cards and hang out!
Bisous from a tiny village in the middle of nowhere France, where I love to walk my dogs (top photo!)
Janine
Editor
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Janine Marsh is Author of My Good Life in France: In Pursuit of the Rural Dream, My Four Seasons in France: A Year of the Good Life and Toujours la France: Living the Dream in Rural France all available as ebook, print & audio, on Amazon everywhere & all good bookshops online. Her new book How to be French – a celebration of the French lifestyle and art de vivre, is out now – a look at the French way of life.
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