This actually started off as 'Christmas is coming . . . ' and of course, it's now Christmas is long gone, and even the New Year has lost its newness!
In fact, it's my second Christmas in France - the first one being in 1972 when I was au pair with a family in Lyon, spending Christmas at the grandparents house in the Lyon mountains. It was an interesting, different, but very homesick celebration for me. But this has been our first Christmas in our new French home . . .
I think the first signs of Christmas here were actually in late October when we were in one of the many DIY stores we've been frequenting,, when 'Jingle Bells' or some such was playing. Even the shop assistant agreed that that was a bit early! Then early in December, like a little bairn, I was delighted to discover that we had some Christmas lights on the lamp post opposite our house - giant white snow flakes. Then other lights appeared in the village - around the Mairie and along the main streets, with 'Joyeuses Fêtes' strung in giant white lights across the middle of the village. Then Christmas trees appeared, propped up outside all of the village shops and the salle de fêtes, decorated by the shops themselves, mostly with giant gold or red bows and a bit of tinsel - not many ornaments in sight. There was even a little wooden hut outside the school, which at a distance looked like a little gingerbread cottage, but on peeping through the window, there was an oversize Santa propped up inside - quite scary I thought!
Every village also has their own lights - nothing over the top, just some lovely cheerful Christmas-themed decorations on lamp posts and buildings. Some people put lights outside their houses and in their gardens. I saw only a couple which might threaten the national grid, but not to the extent of some in England in recent years. Most popular by far though were Santas hanging out of windows and being blown about in the winter winds.
We've always enjoyed Christmas Carol Concerts (especially the one at Ushaw College which Carol kindly got us tickets for on a few occasions, but now unfortunately gone). It isn't a tradition in France as far as I know, but we did manage to go along to a couple and add our voices. The first one was at La Croisille sur Briance, which is about 15 kilometres from here. They seem to have a thriving French-English group and this was their 6th Carol Concert. It was a lovely evening, with a programme of French and English carols and readings alternating, and with the full involvement of French and English and children from the primary school. At the end there were mince pies, all home-made in all their varieties, and mulled wine, provided by Kevin, who has the English restaurant, Chez Kevin, in the village. The second one we went to was during the daytime, in the church at Meilhards, the next village to ours. This I think was a first attempt by a group of mainly English people, and had a full programme of 23 carols and Christmas songs. Harry had just remarked how he was happy to have escaped Slade playing in every shop, when, lo and behold! it was included in the programme, along with 'So this is Christmas'. The church was freezing, so the mulled wine and spice cake afterwards were most welcome.
We didn't have to endure any stressful shopping this year - although supermarkets and shops are full of Christmas gifts and offers, and like everywhere else, lots of 'Made in China' goods and tat, maybe because we are in such a rural area, we managed to escape all that frenetic materialism and Slade and worse blaring from every shop!
But we do also love our live Christmas trees, and even in the confines of the cottage at Witton Gilbert, we had managed a sizeable tree, complete with generations of decorations. We are surrounded by pine forests here, with probably all varieties, but we were actually honest enough to buy a nice specimen from one of the local garden centres, cheaper than we would have bought at home, and that was installed and decorated in our newly-papered and painted living room. We didn't have a white Christmas which meant the roads were fine for when we collected Christopher and Jess from the beautiful Les Bénédictins railway station in Limoges on Christmas Eve.
Part of our Christmas ritual also includes Midnight Mass, and here like lots of places in England was at 8.00 pm, or rather 20.00. The village church was crowded with a small choir up in the gallery and rather a grumpy priest who did not show many signs of the Christmas spirit! The French tradition is then to have a real feast after midnight mass, le Réveillon, with family and friends but we hadn't planned for that this year, so it was straight home to wait for Santa.
Christmas Day was the usual late rising, but with apéritifs at midday chez nous, with our French friends Roger and Elsa who were here from Paris. Christmas lunch chez les Tylers is always an interesting affair, with vegetarians and carnivores always well catered for. This year it was mostly prepared by Christopher and Jess, so Harry had a well-earned rest, and while the capon was cooking (not a chicken, but in fact a castrated cockerel - sorry about that!) off we went for a walk around the Arboretum which is about a five minute walk away. It was a beautiful day, cold with clear blue skies, and gave us a chance to show the village off to Christopher and Jess on their first visit here. As well as trees, the Arboretum also has a large pond with ducks, an animal park and an exercise trail. That was the best fun - what a laugh we had, all trying out the various exercise installations and trying to work out how to use them, and what they were for!
The Christmas meal and proceedings were also such fun, as someone once said, with quality Christmas crackers from last year's Co-op sales, and good wine, food and company. There wasn't much present giving this year, but we did buy from the local farm shop the same T-shirt for Christopher and Jess, which was relevant for both of them (a dedicated carnivore and a dedicated vegetarian actress). The Limousin cattle here are well-known, and the Tshirt was a local Limousin production with the words "To beef or not to beef . . .".
The rest of the Christmas break was spent in other walks around the village and a ride out to the lake at Treignac and a wander around Treignac's medieval streets, which were very much appreciated. We then ended up by chance with a tour of another English family's house on one of the really steep lanes up from the river in Treignac. This also impressed us all, as stunning views over the river and has been ingeniously adapted to fit into the hillside - quite an inspiration.
Other Christmas entertainment ended with an impromtu Abba evening - Jess and I are great Abba fans, so we had great fun singing and dancing along, and neither of us were very clever the following day. But, all good things come to an end, and Christopher and Jess had to go back to work, and we carried on here with our renovations.
Our tree and decorations came down as usual on Twelfth Night, the Epiphany, 6 January - ornaments and decorations back into boxes to go into the attic, and the tree recycled this year as kindling and firewood for the woodburner. And the living room looked bare after all the colour and sparkle.
I note though, around the place, that even today on 11 January, there are still Christmas wreaths forgotten on front doors, but all the hanging Santas have at last disappeared, until next Christmas maybe, when the cycle starts again.
In fact, it's my second Christmas in France - the first one being in 1972 when I was au pair with a family in Lyon, spending Christmas at the grandparents house in the Lyon mountains. It was an interesting, different, but very homesick celebration for me. But this has been our first Christmas in our new French home . . .
I think the first signs of Christmas here were actually in late October when we were in one of the many DIY stores we've been frequenting,, when 'Jingle Bells' or some such was playing. Even the shop assistant agreed that that was a bit early! Then early in December, like a little bairn, I was delighted to discover that we had some Christmas lights on the lamp post opposite our house - giant white snow flakes. Then other lights appeared in the village - around the Mairie and along the main streets, with 'Joyeuses Fêtes' strung in giant white lights across the middle of the village. Then Christmas trees appeared, propped up outside all of the village shops and the salle de fêtes, decorated by the shops themselves, mostly with giant gold or red bows and a bit of tinsel - not many ornaments in sight. There was even a little wooden hut outside the school, which at a distance looked like a little gingerbread cottage, but on peeping through the window, there was an oversize Santa propped up inside - quite scary I thought!
Every village also has their own lights - nothing over the top, just some lovely cheerful Christmas-themed decorations on lamp posts and buildings. Some people put lights outside their houses and in their gardens. I saw only a couple which might threaten the national grid, but not to the extent of some in England in recent years. Most popular by far though were Santas hanging out of windows and being blown about in the winter winds.
We've always enjoyed Christmas Carol Concerts (especially the one at Ushaw College which Carol kindly got us tickets for on a few occasions, but now unfortunately gone). It isn't a tradition in France as far as I know, but we did manage to go along to a couple and add our voices. The first one was at La Croisille sur Briance, which is about 15 kilometres from here. They seem to have a thriving French-English group and this was their 6th Carol Concert. It was a lovely evening, with a programme of French and English carols and readings alternating, and with the full involvement of French and English and children from the primary school. At the end there were mince pies, all home-made in all their varieties, and mulled wine, provided by Kevin, who has the English restaurant, Chez Kevin, in the village. The second one we went to was during the daytime, in the church at Meilhards, the next village to ours. This I think was a first attempt by a group of mainly English people, and had a full programme of 23 carols and Christmas songs. Harry had just remarked how he was happy to have escaped Slade playing in every shop, when, lo and behold! it was included in the programme, along with 'So this is Christmas'. The church was freezing, so the mulled wine and spice cake afterwards were most welcome.
We didn't have to endure any stressful shopping this year - although supermarkets and shops are full of Christmas gifts and offers, and like everywhere else, lots of 'Made in China' goods and tat, maybe because we are in such a rural area, we managed to escape all that frenetic materialism and Slade and worse blaring from every shop!
But we do also love our live Christmas trees, and even in the confines of the cottage at Witton Gilbert, we had managed a sizeable tree, complete with generations of decorations. We are surrounded by pine forests here, with probably all varieties, but we were actually honest enough to buy a nice specimen from one of the local garden centres, cheaper than we would have bought at home, and that was installed and decorated in our newly-papered and painted living room. We didn't have a white Christmas which meant the roads were fine for when we collected Christopher and Jess from the beautiful Les Bénédictins railway station in Limoges on Christmas Eve.
Part of our Christmas ritual also includes Midnight Mass, and here like lots of places in England was at 8.00 pm, or rather 20.00. The village church was crowded with a small choir up in the gallery and rather a grumpy priest who did not show many signs of the Christmas spirit! The French tradition is then to have a real feast after midnight mass, le Réveillon, with family and friends but we hadn't planned for that this year, so it was straight home to wait for Santa.
Christmas Day was the usual late rising, but with apéritifs at midday chez nous, with our French friends Roger and Elsa who were here from Paris. Christmas lunch chez les Tylers is always an interesting affair, with vegetarians and carnivores always well catered for. This year it was mostly prepared by Christopher and Jess, so Harry had a well-earned rest, and while the capon was cooking (not a chicken, but in fact a castrated cockerel - sorry about that!) off we went for a walk around the Arboretum which is about a five minute walk away. It was a beautiful day, cold with clear blue skies, and gave us a chance to show the village off to Christopher and Jess on their first visit here. As well as trees, the Arboretum also has a large pond with ducks, an animal park and an exercise trail. That was the best fun - what a laugh we had, all trying out the various exercise installations and trying to work out how to use them, and what they were for!
The Christmas meal and proceedings were also such fun, as someone once said, with quality Christmas crackers from last year's Co-op sales, and good wine, food and company. There wasn't much present giving this year, but we did buy from the local farm shop the same T-shirt for Christopher and Jess, which was relevant for both of them (a dedicated carnivore and a dedicated vegetarian actress). The Limousin cattle here are well-known, and the Tshirt was a local Limousin production with the words "To beef or not to beef . . .".
The rest of the Christmas break was spent in other walks around the village and a ride out to the lake at Treignac and a wander around Treignac's medieval streets, which were very much appreciated. We then ended up by chance with a tour of another English family's house on one of the really steep lanes up from the river in Treignac. This also impressed us all, as stunning views over the river and has been ingeniously adapted to fit into the hillside - quite an inspiration.
Other Christmas entertainment ended with an impromtu Abba evening - Jess and I are great Abba fans, so we had great fun singing and dancing along, and neither of us were very clever the following day. But, all good things come to an end, and Christopher and Jess had to go back to work, and we carried on here with our renovations.
Our tree and decorations came down as usual on Twelfth Night, the Epiphany, 6 January - ornaments and decorations back into boxes to go into the attic, and the tree recycled this year as kindling and firewood for the woodburner. And the living room looked bare after all the colour and sparkle.
I note though, around the place, that even today on 11 January, there are still Christmas wreaths forgotten on front doors, but all the hanging Santas have at last disappeared, until next Christmas maybe, when the cycle starts again.
And following Christmas, New Year wishes here are the same - "Bonne Année! Bonne Santé!" Happy New Year! Good Health! when greeting people for the first time in the New Year. So, a very belated Bonne Santé et Meilleurs Voex à tous!
