It’s been a long time to get to this point but woke up in our new bedroom for the first time this morning with this lovely view of the sky and the hills. Our room isn’t quite finished. We’re waiting for architraves for around the window but the wood company sent them unvarnished so they’re changing them for us…. And there’s a couple of patches of paint to touch up on the wall where we drilled through by mistake whilst building the fitted wardrobes next door…. But we’re in. And what a difference 20cm makes on the width of a bed after a year in a standard double!! And getting in to our room means we’re now out of the guest room so there’s finally a space for people to stay!
Thanks to a friend for the prompt to update the blog. Coming up to a year that we left the UK at the end of this month so I really should try a bit harder! I’ll try and do a photo tour of the house and garden at some point to show you what we’ve been up to. Happy weekend everyone.
Pascale, my wonderful Skype french teacher and I have been discussing a body image study by a French researcher and sociologue called Thibaut de St Pol about the ideal body image, and the differences in perception between countries, and cultures. My homework this week was to write a short article opposing the requirements of a perfect body, not only in the arts, but in life, entitled ‘Éloge de l’imperfection’, in English, ‘In praise of imperfection’. Here it is. Feel free to share!
On nous dit « Obtenez le corps parfait!….. » « Perdez 4 kilos en un mois! » Mais qu’est ce que le corps parfait, et pourquoi essayons-nous constamment de l’atteindre?
En particulier les jeunes, la recherche de la perfection est influencée par la culture moderne: les arts, la musique, la mode, le cinéma, mais de plus en plus, les médias sociaux et la nouvelle vague d’influenceurs et du blogueurs. L’aérographe sur les images des réseaux sociaux est devenu courant, certaines études rapportent que plus de 70% des femmes et 50% des hommes modifient leurs photos avant de les publier!
Bien sûr, il y a des avantages à manger sainement, à faire de l’exercice et à maintenir un poids corporel normal, mais l’incapacité à atteindre la perfection entraîne une nouvelle épidémie d’anxiété, de dépression, de solitude et des troubles alimentaires chez les jeunes.
Ce serait bien de promouvoir une nouvelle façon de penser; la recherche de l’imperfection! Une célébration de nos différences! Une cicatrice ici, une ride là, des hanches larges et des bras maigres! C’est important de restaurer la normalité de nos croyances sur le corps idéal et les imperfections naturelles que nous partageons tous!
Every Monday afternoon I drive 40 minutes up towards the mountains to a clinic at Querigut. It’s a small town in the area of the Donezan. There’s a few smaller villages around whose residents find it useful to see us for their healthcare to save driving down the hill to Axat. My colleague at the Maison Santé in Axat, Marie Julie Tromme, does the same journey for a clinic on Thursday afternoon.
It’s a lovely area with really friendly people who are very grateful for the service we offer. My Monday afternoons in the mountain clinic are often a highlight of my week.
My last patient today had his two children with him. I’d met them before with their mum. After playing with them and letting them use my new infra-red forehead thermometer and listen to their daddy’s heart, I asked Léo (“with an accent” – he didn’t let me forget that!) whether he would be a doctor when he grows up. He thought for just a second, but said “Non. Un pompier”. Of course he wants to be a fireman. As do all little boys. His dad just smiled and said he’d got lots of time to think about it ❤️
After a cold rainy weekend here, the view as I left the clinic at Querigut warmed my heart. A sprinkling of snow on the mountains is apparently unusual in September. And the blue skies with their streaky clouds just made me realise that although summer is gone, we’ve got the beauty of autumn to come before the cold really bites!
It’s still beautiful here when it rains. It’s been so dry since we arrived the gardens and trees are crying out for water.
We had a huge downpour this morning and the air is so much fresher. The clouds are clinging to the trees over the town. I just had to take a walk up to the church to get this photo during my lunch break.
We’ve done some nice rides recently. It’s really fun to explore new routes, and also routes we’ve done before but from a different direction, so with different views.
Mont Ventoux
We spent the first weekend in August on familiar territory. It’s only about 3 and 1/2 hours drive up to Faucon to visit our friends Craig, Vicky and Elula at a Veloventoux. It’s a year since we saw them on our way home from our holiday last year so it was great to catch up. It was a super hot weekend and our ride on Friday afternoon with Lee and Emily, friends who were also over on their holiday from the UK, was a killer!! Going up hill in 35+ degree heat was unbearable! We gave the Ventoux a miss this time but there’s so many other beautiful routes.
Scott and I set off early on Saturday for an easier cooler ride through wine country. Only one hill (this photo is at the top!), and then riding through the undulating vineyards of Cairanne, Gigondas, Seguret and Sablet was a treat. We had a delicious lunch in Puyméras at the end of the ride, and then a cheeky visit to the La Romaine cave to stock up on our favourite Provençal sparkling rosé, and a rosé wine box for our fridge!!
Above the café at Puyméras
It was really hot at the beginning of the month, so it was good to go for a walk in the evening after work. On the recommendation of our friends Paul and Val at Restaurant au Quatre Saisons, we walked across Le Train Rouge viaduct on a Thursday evening to get some great views of Axat.
Axat from the path above the townAxat from the viaductRestaurant au Quatre Saisons Le Train Rouge track over the viaductLots of tunnels under the track around town
Scott and I enjoyed a weekend riding together on 15/16 Aug. Saturday was a road ride up the Aude valley and up to Aunat on the plateau, then a roll back down the Rebenty gorge. I really should get some photos on the Rebenty descent – it is beautiful.
Rodome from Aunat with the Pyrénées in the distanceTaking in the views!
Sunday was our first off road ride here on the gravel bikes. We explored the Voie Verte from Rivel up to Moulin Neuf, then back to Lac de Montbel, and then some proper off road fun. My first experience of serious off roading, and really needed a mountain bike in places! I walked a few really rough short ascents and descents, and I think Scott was impressed I didn’t complain, cry, or fall off!!!!
The church at Moulin Neuf on the Voie VerteSporting my Tuxford Clarion jersey in honour of our friend Ian Clarke’s birthday!!Lac de Montbel Montbel gravel ridingMontbel from the hill aboveFun in the tunnels on the Voie Verte. Perfect for rides with family and friends, especially children. Great fun, lovely views, good places for café stops, and safe.
Today’s ride with the ARB club was a bit cool and breezy after the rain in recent days, but we got a stunning view of the Pic de Bugarach just before we stopped for coffee. We feel so blessed to have the opportunity to live in such a beautiful place, and to have made new friends who share our love of cycling and the outdoors.
Impossible to describe how much we have achieved here in the last 4 weeks! A 48 hour journey from home to Axat, with 2 lovely stop-offs in St Omer and St Vallier (oh, and a 3-hour hold up on the M11/M25 meaning we missed our Eurotunnnel…..), arriving in Axat on Sunday 28th June. We really knew we’d arrived when we stopped at the motorway services with the best view ever only 40miles from our destination!!!!!…… La Cité de Carcassonne
We stayed for a few nights in the caravan in Quillan until Ballards arrived with a lorry load of our stuff on Tuesday 30th. It was a mammoth unloading task, and all credit to Jason and Andy who were friendly, professional and efficient with the move and helping us to get settled. Here’s the view over Axat from one of our apartment windows.
There’s some beautiful trails and walking around here. I spent some time exploring in the first week with walks in the trails above town. Here’s the view from the old church above Axat. It rings the number of hours every hour (twice!), and then at 7am, midday and 7pm, it also rings the ‘Angelus’ – we don’t need an alarm clock! The second photo is the view over the ‘Little Red Train’ line and Axat from the forest trail above.
I had my birthday on the first weekend after we arrived. Dinner at one of our favourite restaurants, La Galerie in Quillan, with friends was just perfect:
The produce here is amazing. These tomatoes were from the market, and the girolles picked by a colleague and shared at work. Delicious when simply prepared…… And of course, France life wouldn’t be complete without cheese and wine!
Of course, we’ve had to do plenty of cycling to keep our waistlines trim with all the beautiful food! We’ve joined the local club and had a wonderful welcome. 7 riders last Sunday, and a new record of 14 riders today! Amazing views at every turn. And some great coffee stops! The best ice bath for hot tired feet in the River Aude at the end of a long ride……
We also had a nice day out at Formigueres, checking out what will be our local winter ski resort. It’s beautiful to walk up there at this time of year, and hard to imagine what it will look like in a few months time when the snow arrives!
I started work this week, and have settled in well. Dr Christian Valero, the retiring GP, has been a massive support helping me settle in, and has spent all week with me helping to navigate the computer system, French health system, and the French! He’s such a fantastic GP, and so well loved by all the patients here, it’ll be difficult to follow in his footsteps! I knew it would be a tough transition, but the real eye-opener came when I realised that half of the medications I so regularly prescribed in the UK don’t even exist here!! Flucloxacillin for a skin infection?….. Nope! Nitrofurantoin for a urine infection?…… Nope! Buscopan for irritable bowel?……. Nope again! Thank goodness for amoxicillin and paracetamol!!!!
And finally, only in France…….. a baguette vending machine!!!!
My French teacher asked me to write a ‘Who Am I?….’ blog post a little while ago as part of my homework, so here it is to test your French (or use Google Translate!). Enjoy!
Salut! Je m’appelle Cat et je suis médecin généraliste en Angleterre…… bien, pour les cinq prochains mois de toute façon…… Après cela, la nouvelle aventure commence! Mon mari et moi déménageons en France en juillet. Notre rêve devient réalité…….C’était en juillet 2019 quand nous avons décidé de faire un changement. Pendant nos vacances, deux semaines à Ginoles, Aude, nous faisions du vélo quand nous nous sommes arrêtés dans un petit café à Axat pour le déjeuner et une boisson fraîche. Le couple à table à côté de nous commencé à bavardé avec nous: Justin et Paula sont un couple anglais qui avait déménagé à Axat pour ouvrir une chambre d’hôtes. Ils étaient visiblement en train de rénovation avec de la peinture sure leurs vêtements et sur leur peau! Nous avons parlé avec eux de leur projet, de leur impression de la village, et ils nous donné des informations précieuses qui ont marqué le tournant de notre vie! Leur médecin à Axat annoncé sa retraite, et la Maison Santé cherchait son remplaçant……..D’une chose à une autre, et à la fin de nos vacances, nous planifions notre échapper du Brexit au pays du soleil, de la gastronomie et du vélo.
Au début, cela semblait une énorme montagne à gravir! Comment devenir médecin en France? Comment pourrions-nous apprendre la langue en seulement un an? Brexit ‘No-Deal’ pourrait-il ruiner le rêve? C’est une longue histoire, que j’essaierai d’écrire à l’avenir car elle pourrait aide d’autres médecins à planifier le même changement, mais après six mois de planification, de remplissage de formulaires, d’apprentissage de la langue, et même un aller-retour solo d’un 24 heures en milieu de semaine pour un réunion à Carcassonne avec un médecin de l’Ordre des Médecins, mon inscription en tant que “Spécialiste en Médecine Générale” en France à été confirmée le 13 janvier 2020.
Le nom du blog décrit notre maison de rêve dans l’Aude: “Blue Shutters” est le rêve, et il donc semblé approprié de nommer le blog “Les Volets Bleus”, et d’écrire le blog en français!Nous sommes encore au tout début de notre grande aventure, et ce blog documentera les hauts et les bas, ainsi que les points positifs et les problèmes que nous rencontrerons au cours de notre voyage, et nous espérons que vous apprécierez de la partager le voyage avec nous!
Thanks for checking in to see how we’re getting on! Life is very busy at the minute as I’m still working full time into the last two weeks before we leave for France on 26 June! ‘Fragile’ in more ways than one…..
I hope to start the blog when we have more interesting news and photos than just a pile of boxes and a load of mess!
Thanks to everyone who has checked in so far and for all the good wishes we’ve received for our big adventure. I hope you’ll enjoy our journey with us.
Aude Life 