LA CORSE

We have always loved Corsica, having spent several holidays there, so Jill decided that she needed a special treat before going into hospital for her "knee job"!  The best hotel with the best food on the island is "Le Maquis".  It is rated as one of the worlds top 100 hotels one of only 5 in France.  We found it on one of our holiday trips.  (Jill was so impressed she modeled our downstairs loo on one of theirs!)

"Le Maquis" is a gourmet hotel, so the food was superb (but still not as good as "Hostellerie St Nicolas" in Ypres) the views from our room and balcony were stunning as was the private beach and 2 swimming pools.

To return to mainland France we sailed from Ajjaccio where our ship, "The Napoleon Buonaparte" ,was the centre piece for the spectacular (and noisy) local "Festival of the Sea"  - (Bottom right picture)

THE HOSPITAL SEASON

We returned to England in mid June with a few days to spare before Jill went into hospital for an operation to replace her knee.  After her Spinal Fusion last year she was hoping to get back to tennis, but no luck, as soon as her back was right her knee started playing up.  Thankfully she wasn't in hospital too long, she had the operation on Tuesday and was out on Saturday (On crutches naturally. - you can't keep a Quigley down!)

Jill has had a few problems since the operation, her her knee seemed to be improving but has regressed.  She is also concerned about the other one!  We're currently waiting to see what the medics have to say !

More continental trips!

Whilst Jill was convalescing, Chris made good use of both houses in France and Spain and of the car we keep at Pau. He and his girl friend Catherine had a few weeks touring Spain using our houses as their base.  They also made use of it in early December when they went for the first skiing weekend of the season.

More problems in Luxembourg!

Meanwhile, back in Luxembourg Danielle was having more problems with the ex-boyfriend.  During our last trip to France we received an SOS from Danielle at around 1 am one morning.  The ex-boyfriend had got drunk and had broken into her room and commenced throwing her kit around.  We were in a friends car, on our way back from a night out , so couldn't do much except tell her to call the police - she did.  By the time we arrived home (France) and phoned her (Luxembourg), the police had been, had warned him about his behaviour, but couldn't do much else, they said.  Dani was still worried that he might attack her so I telephoned the senior officer in Grevenmacher (the local town). Fortunately he spoke perfect English, so I asked him to send the 2 officers back to arrest the ex-boy friend - He said they couldn't, but he would send them back as a 2nd warning. He did.

Since it was obvious that the situation was getting worse and going nowhere, we made the ex-boyfriend an offer to purchase his 1/2 share of the house - one which he couldn't refuse - he didn't - he accepted it.  However, he started to add all sorts of conditions, which essentially meant that he was taking all the fixtures and fittings. Furthermore he told Danielle that he was going to move out in his own time, which could be over a year.  Meanwhile Danielle was effectively camping out on the upper floor where the bathrooms were unfinished and unusable, whilst he had the ensuite bedroom on the ground floor often locking Danielle out so that she couldn't use the bathroom.

Naturally Danielle was getting very upset. She was still going through mental torture despite having agreed to buy his share of the house at a very fair price.  This was not on, so I decided to counter attack with a bit of psychological warfare.

Off to War.....

Straight after the Summer Ball at RAF Linton, Dick Shuster (former fast jet jockey and now occasional white van man)  volunteered to join me on quick trip to Luxembourg. The plan was to load up a big white van with carpets and furniture (some new & some old), take the overnight ferry from Hull to Zeebrugge, drive to Luxembourg, arrive at Danielle's house in Boudler at around lunchtime, remove all the boyfriend's kit and furniture to an upper bedroom (thereby placing him on exactly the same footing as Danielle) and turn the downstairs bedroom into a "common room". The plan started hitting problems even before we left the UK - We had to order, purchase and collect the new items plus load everything into the hired van - this took longer than anticipated.  We arrived at Hull one full hour late! - however, despite the fact that the ship was about to leave, they let us on.

The following morning, being last on, meant being last off - this was made worse by the fact that it was just a few days after the London bombings so they were taking ages checking everyone through immigration.  We were well behind schedule.  Dick did all the driving whilst I and the GPS navigated. Fortunately I briefed Danielle, who had gone home at lunchtime, to remove all "your man's" kit from the wardrobes, etc. This was just as well for we arrived about 3 hours behind schedule.(on Luxembourg's hottest day ever!) 

The next disaster was that the furniture was all enormous.  It had been assembled insitu, there was no way to get it through the door and up the stairs without taking it apart and re-assembling it!  The wardrobe was over 2 metres wide & had 1 metre mirrors!  We had less than 2 hours, before the ex-boyfriend turned up, had no instructions and no tools!  We found the tools and sweated!  The wardrobe was so big that when we got it upstairs, it could not be re-assembled in the allocated bedroom!  We had to re-assemble it in the adjoining (fortunately unfinished & very large) bathroom.

There was no chance to unload our van.  However, we had literally just finished cleaning out the vacated "common room" when the man himself turned up.  He had obviously seen the English van blocking the driveway and had parked just around the corner. He walked in looked in the room and looking very miffed said in a faltering voice "Where are my things?" to which I replied pointing upstairs - "In your room!".

At this point Dick and I retired to sit on the garden wall to have a well earned beer!  Shortly afterwards a police car drew up with 2 police women on board.  They entered the house and had words in Luxembourgish with the ex-boyfriend.  They then came to see Dick & me - one spoke quite good English, and asked how we broke into the house?  What is in your van? "Your man" had accused us of breaking in and stealing his furniture!  Once we established the facts and showed them previous correspondence with their Chief,   they turned on the ex-boyfriend, told us there was no problem and left. (I had taken the precaution of writing and thanking the police chief for their previous assistance and had a copy on my laptop!)

Your man was on the phone a lot, obviously to his lawyer, meanwhile his parents then turned up claiming they didn't speak English suddenly!  Then whilst Dick & I were in the kitchen, getting another beer, they locked us in!  Fortunately I had the front door key so simply went around the front and through the house removing all the internal keys from the doors.  Their lawyer obviously told them that they were on a loser for after about 1/2 an hour they came out and suddenly could speak English!  They said they wanted to sort it out and would I let Danielle have final discussions with their son. 

The upshot was that he confirmed the acceptance of our offer, still claimed most of the kit, but promised to move himself out immediately with his kit and 3 cars following in the next 2 weeks - he went - we had a few very pleasant evenings in a local restaurant/bar and returned home with a white van 1/2 full of cheap booze - In October, Danielle became the sole owner of a very nice house in the country. (Just 10 minutes from the Mosel, yet amazingly less than 30 minutes from the centre of Luxembourg!) - A RESULT!

Back to France for the summer festivities

I was only home a few days after the Luxembourg trip when we were off again to France for two weeks.  It was the weekends of the "Chasse" followed by the "Samba" - Monleon Magnoac's answer to Rio's Carnival week - two events in Monleon's calendar not to be missed - even if you are on crutches.  Chris was busy expanding his business empire and couldn't make it, but Danielle drove down with her cat!

Dani's cat - Spock Left - A very civilised  "al fresco" dinner with lots of "Irish" jokes Right - Not so civilised start to the "Chasse" party- drinking the local apero's!

Above - 5 Sangliers BBQing nicely in a clearing in the woods above Monleon - they have to feed over 100 villagers! Left - Revenge is sweet - Les tucks into the Sanglier with memories of the one that tried to attack the car in Corsica

The English & Irish teach the French to sing French songs  to the amusement of 1/2 the village!!!!

The Annual Monleon Magnoac Art Exhibition It takes at least a day to recover from the Chasse party, but shortly after that the Mayor launches the annual art exhibition in the village hall. Naturally the launch is celebrated with more food and wine.  This ensures that you appreciate the art even if you are a philistine! Mind you the quality of much of the work is outstanding, yet many of the local professional artists do not exhibit, Monleon is a centre for artists with many exhibiting in the USA.

The Samba Weekend

Monleon has become famous throughout South-West France for its Samba festival. Bands come from far & wide to participate. The village is completely blocked off, and unless you are a resident you have to pay to enter. Last year the Mayor issued ear plugs to all that wanted them - but not this year since everyone in the village had gone deaf with the noise that lasts almost 48 hours non stop!  Samba is something that has to be experienced to be appreciated and Monleon is the place to experience it!

Torch light parade through the village gate   Left - Two cripples hobble up the hill to the Samba - Legless before they start drinking - Jill on a crutch & John (who'd done his back in) with a stick!

All sorts of strange people appear in the village!

After the Samba it was good to get home for the scheduled "rest" in hospital...

IT'S EARLY AUGUST & THE YEAR CONTINUES                                 BACK TO THE TOP

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