We’ve had a busy few days; we spent Thursday doing official stuff, so we’re on the road to being resident here (and paying French taxes) and have now got new number plates for the car. I’ve been told this blog should be more provocative and was looking forward to saying how unhelpful, officious and bloody-minded the officials we had to deal with had been, but in fact, they were nothing of the sort – the tax man even apologised for his lack of English!

Nick’s installed the wood burner in his workshop-to-be, complete with coffee making facilities and he and Kieran have been lumberjacking in a friend’s wood, so we’ve loads of wood for fires now. They’ve also removed the beams from the grange, to re-use them to replace the roof of the cabanon (potting shed) before winter sets in.

Today we had a day off and went into the Pyrenees for a walk. The sky was clear blue and it was warm enough not to need a coat. Most of France seemed to have had the same idea as us, but the National Park is a huge place; it never felt crowded, and the scenery was breathtaking; the colours in the trees, the dusting of snow on the peaks all around, the streams and waterfalls – magnificent! It was quite a hard walk though, for someone who’s done very little excercise for a while and I think my legs are going to hurt tomorrow.