Up in Paris & Tom's visit from London.

Life got back to normal after Kath's departure & we now looked forward to our nephew Tom Ledwidges' visit on Sunday 22nd October.

It was Monday 16thOctober & was just starting my walk down to get the baguette for our breakfast & had walked about 20m when I felt a sharp pain in my left leg right behind the knee, at first I thought that it was a cramp so I did some stretching & then continued on, by the time I had arrived back at the house the leg had become quite painful.

During the morning I elevated it & applied an ice pack & when Roger & Christiane arrived she gave me a stretch elastic knee support to put on, during the next couple of days it improved marginally & as we were going to Paris for the meeting for our Carte de Sejour Roger on Thursday 19th Oct. @ 9.30am.

D-day arrived & we were on our way to the prefecture for our appointment, we arrived with time to spare but like any government department until nearly 10.30am. We sat down as the staff member thumbed through our paperwork, after a minute or so she retorted & said " where are the originals ", Sara explained that they had to be sent back to Sydney with the other 5 copies & the original is still in Sydney. She said that wasn't her concern & anyway why hadn't we had all the in English translated to French, plus we should have set up a bank a/c in France.

By this time we were both quite agitated & in one of the few times that I've ever seen Sara " crack it " she demanded all our papers back as we weren't interested in persuing this matter any further, this took the girl by surprise as I guess no one had ever stood up to her. She then said that Australians normally only stay 3mths & then leave it was unusual to apply to stay longer. She went away to discuss it with her superior & then came back & begrudgingly gave us an extension of 3mths to the 18th January but then had to sign an attestation that we wouldn't return again to apply for our Carte de Sejour - what a joke. Sara then demanded that we take a copy of all the paperwork as we now had no record left, she virtually threw the papers back at Sara.

After that Sara just placed the papers back on her desk & we left, we were nearly out the front door when a young lady said that we had to go back, our friend accused Sara of taking the front page, Sara said that she hadn't given to us, she disagreed, Sara saw it sticking out from the side of her computer & let her know in Sara's own tactful way. After that we all needed a drink so we went to nice bar/restaurant & had beers ( see pic ) for us 3 & a coffee for Christiane. To give you an idea of the cost we had 2 x 500ml Leffe, 1 x 250ml Leffe & the coffee & it cost E27.00 ( $A 45.80 ) but it was worth it just to be out of that situation.

Roger made an appointment with his doctor on Friday & after his examination he put me onto an aspirin based tablet to be taken 3 times a day. The following day I had a doppler scan to get a more accurate assessment - bingo, it confirmed that I had suffered a " phlebitis " in the leg.
Roger's doctor then put me onto a course of 8 innohep ( blood thinning ) injections to assist in the recovery of the leg, I didn't look forward to sticking needles in myself but to alleviate the pain it was going to be worth it.

Our trip to Tours Airport was straight forward as we had previously driven there to check out its location, Tom arrived on time but it took time to get through the luggage pick-up. It was great to see him as we hadn't seen him since his trip to OZ late last year. We stopped for lunch on the way home ( see pic ) this gave me a chance to stretch my leg. The weather was just perfect during this week so we all enjoyed the warm sun as we walked around these amazing Chateaux.

On the Tuesday we went to Montrichard for lunch & then drove to the small village of Bourre where they use to mine the " toufa " stone ( a type of limestone ) used in the construction of the Chateaux in the Loire Valley, the mine eventually ceased production in the 1920's as it was getting too dangerous & could underpin the housing in the village if they continued. Since then an Italian sculture has made an amazing underground village carved into the rockface & it only took him 3 yrs to complete, & he did it all in his spare time. ( see pic )

Trips to Chateau Valencay, Loches market ( where we bought fresh mussels & unshucked oysters as well as some lovely cheeses ), Chenonceau & Chambord (see pic )hopefully made Tom's stay here a memorable one ( I rested while they looked at these monuments & read my book ).
We have also had a couple of nights out for dinner, one at Chez Constant in St. Aignan ( see pic )& the other at Auberge Ferme ( farmhouse restaurant ) just a couple of kms up the back road from Mareuil, both very relaxing.

We drove into Tours with plenty of time for Tom to look around the " old ville " before he left at 1.45pm, he really enjoyed the atmosphere of the area & spent time wandering through their
" bric-a brac " market before heading to the airport. It was lovely to have him stay & we looked forward to seeing him in London during December.

Since our return to Mareuil I have had another doppler scan, 2 blood tests, 2 doctor's visits which have resulted with me continuing the injections & buying a full length cosmetic stocking to help control the blood flow-what a bummer. I am scheduled to have another blood test in the morning ( Thur.9th Nov. ) & then the doctor on Friday so hopefully I will get the all-clear & wont need any more injections. We do have another scan on Monday 13th Nov at Selles-sur-Cher so we are also looking for a positive result, we will then take scan with us to Paris when we leave here on Tuesday 14th November.

It has certainly been a fantastic experience living in a small village in the French countryside but we have seen all that we need to see in this area & we now look forward to our next phase in Paris & London. During our time in Paris we will be catching up with Tim Lyons ( Hazel & Tony's ) nephew & Matthew Logan ( Sara's cousin Bev's son ) . There are still many museums, monuments, famous streets etc to visit so I'm sure that our time will be taken up adequately.

We are also looking forward to experiencing Xmas & New Year in Paris & the cold chill of their Winter, it has just started to get cold in Mareuil over the past week with the overnight temperature dropping to zero but with beautiful clear blue skies during the day with a max. of 12-15c.

Dont think that you have got rid of us this easy as we will still be sending postings from Paris or other destinations during our time away. Until next blogger.