Ever since our car broke down on the top of a Pyreneen col last August, leaving us with a houseful of visitors and no means of transport, having to rely on the kindness of friends for essential trips, for three weeks, Nick has been scanning le bon coin, an internet selling site for a second car. He fancied a Citroen 2CV, but they’re like gold dust, so we decided on a Renault 4; loads of character, but less sought-after. He found one he likes the look of yesterday, phoned the owner (well, the owner’s friend), and arranged to look at it today. So off we went to Pau, arriving at the owner’s vineyard on the slopes of the Pyreneen foothills, overlooking the snow covered mountains in glorious sunshine. The guy explained that his friend had only told him of our impending visit this morning and, since the car had been “dodo” since September, there was a slight problem; it wouldn’t start. So he, Nick and Kieran pushed it out of the garage, into the sunshine so they could inspect it in the warm. For a thirty-year-old car, it’s not in a bad state; the driver’s door needs replacing, but the chassis and floor are solid; there are no bells or whistles and certainly no luxuries like wind down windows, but it’s quite a cute little car and does come with free snow tyres!. I steered while the men pushed it up and down the drive in an attempt to start it, but with no success, and we left it that the owner will get in touch when he’s seen to the starting problem and put it through a controle technique (like our MOT); I suspect we’ll be the proud owners of a beige Quatre L quite soon.

While we were in the area, we did some shopping – well, quite a lot of shopping, actually. Kitchen units and worktop for the arriere cuisine, accessories for the bathroom, woodworm fluid and a jacket-in-training for me from a fabulous new fabric shop I found. We also managed, at last, to get to Emmaus; the French don’t have charity shops as we know them – they have Emmaus. It’s a movement started by Abbé Pierre in the fifties to help the homeless, the unemployed and the destitute. The Emmaus village at Pau is huge; there are static caravans and old railway carriages for accommodation, an organic farm which produces food for the residents and the café and shop and a huge area given over to renovating and reselling items that are donated. Unemployed people are given a job and reintegrated into society through the work of the organisation. You can buy anything from bedding to bikes, from old floor mops to American cookbooks! I left with a quilt that I’m going to use to interline a door curtain and a few tiles for the arrière cuisine – and all for €1.70.