Still at home in Normandy, still working on the house and gardens.  We now have three sheep and two cats to keep us company, and provide meat later in the year.  The sheep, that is, not the cats.  Although, when we were in China....

I haven't uploaded any photo's for ages, nor updated our diary, don't seem to be able to get around to it at the moment, maybe one day soon.

Happy New Year to one and all, better late than never.

Our homepage was hijacked and had disappeared for a few days, dont suppose anyone missed it.

We're still happily working away in Normandy, Rita now has a polytunnel to keep her warm during the day, and I'm even contemplating starting work on the house. Don't rush me though.

Sorry about the lack of updates recently, it's not like we dont have enough time as we have very long nights at this time of the year, but the nights are drawing out so I figured I should make an effort.
Since our last update we've erected Rita's new polytunnel, become the proud owners of two little kittens, had some very cold weather and celebrated christmas.  More details on our diary pages.

So much for summer, autumn has been a lot drier so far, if a little cooler.  We have progressed, but maybe not as quickly as we had initially thought/hoped we might.  No worries, we've got plenty of time, there's no rush, and when I said we'd be in by christmas I purposefully omitted to say what year.

We've had several complaints about the lack of update over the summer (thanks Angry of Seattle and several correspondents of England) and I know I said in my last update I would soon be uploading more photos, but I lied.  However, now I really am preparing some more photos for uploading soon, so watch this space. Honest!

14th August Update

At long last, summer arrived, or at least we've had a few dry days.  Rita has been busy in the veggie patches and has already harvested a lot.  Paul has finally finished the thunderbox and started work on the roof of the old bakery house.  

I've not been keeping up with the diaries, but we have uploaded photos, hope to get around to loading more photos soon.

Rain and wind seems to be the order of the day, the rain is helpful for our crops, but not when it comes down so heavily its crushing them!  Not welcome on the building front either, but we're making some sort of progress

We're still here!  Dont know where the time goes, really. 

Rita's done a fantastic job in the garden and we have lots of vegetables on the way.  The pigs are growing fast and seem to be enjoying life, as short as it will be. They're about half way through their tenure here, then they'll make the short move, with the help of a local butcher, to the freezer.  Not sure how we (mostly me, Paul, as Rita's a farmers daughter after all) are going to handle it at the time, but we only bought them as a meat supply, and if you're going to eat meat I think its best that you fully appreciate where it comes from

We've got several planning requests in at the mayors office at the moment, and finally have agreement for our plans for a fosse septique (septic tank) so we can start work on that when we're ready.  Still haven't finished our "thunderbox", (dry toilet for composting waste) having to get permission to build it has delayed progress on that one.

We do, however, now have a sink with running hot water, and have also plumbed in our washing machine and even the dish washer!  I dont suppose there are too many people living in a shed who have a dishwasher!  

Have started selecting recent photos for the website, so hopefully the photos might be there in a short while, but no promises. Click here to go to our Le Vivier home page.

Cheers, Paul and Rita

Lots of things have happened in the last month, including being connected to mains electricity and a telephone line with broadband internet access! 

Hoping to get round to uploading some photos in the near future, and we're changing the format of our diary pages, we don't have time to spend hours writing long boring accounts of our day to day activities, as much as you might find it interesting (or not).  Click here to go to our Le Vivier home page.

A bientot

Things have moved on apace at Le Vivier, although we're still awaiting connection to electricity and telephone.   We did, however, manage to squeeze in a few days in Chamonix and even managed some skiing.  Alright for some.

Rita has been very busy in this important gardening time of year, and we're now looking forward to bumper crops of all sorts of veggies.  We've also considered raising a couple of pigs, for the meat, but we're not sure how far apart they should be planted.  Any ideas anyone?

One other important development for those planning on visiting us, we've acquired a caravan which we intend to use as guest accomodation.  It has heating, shower and toilet! Bookings taken on a first come first served basis.

And, for our avid readers, both of you, I know the diary is well behind, but I am keeping a paper diary and hope to find time to update our web pages when we have electricity and a telephone.  So hopefully sometime this year.

How fabulous it's been to be back home!  Had a few problems on arrival, more details on our diary pages, but nothing too serious and nothing we couldn't overcome.  We have settled in to our little shed, it's a bit on the nippy side at times but just being back in our own place is wonderful!  We're off to England for a couple of days to pick up some more of our things that have been in storage for 2+ years, makes you wonder why you need so much stuff if you can do without it for two years, I guess.

We wont have time to go visiting whilst back in England, a few things to sort out and we'll be back on the ferry to France, so if you want to see us, come out to Normandy!

12th February 2007 Update

We're going home early!  We've got so much to do at home, and although we've been trying to organize it from India, it's been very frustrating and we haven't got very far.  We know it's probably going to be cold and wet, exactly the reason we planned to be back in March, but we're so looking forward to getting on with everything that we can't wait any longer.  

It's over two years since we sold our house in Exeter and we've spent most of that time travelling, (except for the 5 months in England but we were living in a camper van), so I guess we're getting a little travel weary as well,  About time we went home 

We'll be accepting visitors at Le Vivier from Friday 16th Feb, if anyone is brave enough to risk it.  Accommodation will be limited at first, of course, as will the bathroom facilities.  Things can only improve though. 

See you there!   P&R 

28th January 2007 Update

We're now chilling out on the beach in Goa, having met up with my brother, Tony, and his wife, Vron.  At some stage we will be moving on further South, but haven't made any plans yet.  Have also spent a fair bit of time trying to get my laptop connected to the internet, not always a straightforward proposition in India, and this time is turning out to be no exception.  Incredible India.

More anon.  P&R 

2nd January 2007 Update

Happy New Year to one and all.

This may be our last website update for a couple of weeks, we're off to Myanmar for two weeks and they don't like people taking laptops into the country, so I'm leaving mine in Bangkok. Two weeks without my laptop, how will I cope?  Email may also be a problem, but we'll try to get online when we can.
Cheers P & R

28th December 2006 Update

Happy New Year to one and all.

We have a busy week travelling coming up, a few day in Hong Kong, arrive in Bangkok around midnight on New Years eve (probably still be on the plane at the stroke of midnight) and then off to Myanmar a few days later.  So we have lots to look forward to, hope you New Years are shaping up too.

I've got a bit behind on the photo pages, hope to have the Taiwan and South Korea pages loaded sometime early in the New Year.

We wont have our laptop with us in Myanmar, apparently they confiscate them at the border, so email and website updates maybe a little delayed for those two weeks.
 

24th December 2006 Update

Happy Christmas everyone!

Christmas at last, the second in a row for us away from home.  Things are shaping up nicely for a bit of a banquet for christmas lunch, we're in a motel with a small kitchen for the use of guests, so we've sort of taken over.  Well, nobody else seems interested in cooking.  I'll try and put some pictures up on the website after dinner, to show us in full festive spirit.

As ever, keep us posted with your news and what you got for Christmas. Except if its socks, again!

16th December 2006 Update

Christmas is coming, and there's no sign of a goose so I can't tell you if it's getting fat. Might be something to do with the the outbreak of bird flu here in South Korea, but I couldn't possibly say.

We will be on the holiday island of Jeju-do, (that's the big one to the south of the mainland if you're looking at a map) for Christmas.  Not sure what it will be like but it's supposed to be a fair bit warmer than Seoul.  After the torment of looking for a decent roast dinner in India last year, we're not going to worry about it until the day this time, then see what happens.

Sorry to say we didn't make it to the organic farms to do some voluntary work, maybe next time.  Just too lazy, I guess.   Actually, Rita's been on a secret mission which she doesn't want me to tell you about, so if I've let anything slip in previous update, pretend you didn't hear it from me! Please?

As ever, keep us posted with your news and what you get up to this festive season.

28th November 2006 Update

Now in South Korea, we're booked to stay here for 6 weeks, possibly for Rita to do some voluntary work teaching English, and for both of us to do some work on an organic farm in exchange for a room and keep!  Can you believe that? Me! Working!  It's fairly cold here, especially compared to Taiwan, and it will get colder, too, but you can't spend all your time in hot places. Can you?
Keep us posted with your news, we like to know all the gossip about family and friends, or even complete strangers, and even more interesting is gossip about our family and friends from complete strangers!     

We're a little behind on our website diary and photo's, hoping to get up to date in the next few days.

17th November 2006 Update

We have already moved on to Taiwan, had a great time in Japan and will try and find time to update our diary and photos pages.  Taiwan also has a lot to offer so we ware looking forward to our week here too.  

11th November 2006 Update

We are now in Japan and loving it.  What a wonderful place!   We have got behind on the website diaries again, sorry, but we have better things to do with our time!   

7th November Update

A new dawn!

Today should have been the start of the Asia leg of this trip, but thanks to American Airlines we didn't make it. Hopefully tomorrow!  It's been great seeing our family and friends around the States over the last month, but now we're moving on to Asia, an altogether different cup of tea (in more ways than one!) and look forward to visiting countries we have not been to before. We start (soon, please AA) in Japan, moving on to Taiwan, and then South Korea.  All being well, that should take us up to the new year, 

29th October Update

We've started setting up some web pages about our little Normandy venture as well as our current trip diary, (see the new links on the left (that would be on the left of our home page, not this one)) but we're a little behind so you'll have to be patient with us.
We're over half way through the North American leg of our tour now and we've had a great time visiting friends and relatives.  Thanks for putting us up, and putting up with us.  Languages has not been such a problem as we had feared, even though we forgot to bring a English/American dictionary,  

We picked a bad time to visit the US in that it's the mid term elections on 7th November, so the tv and newspapers are full of scandal and accusations of all sorts.  I think everybody should stop voting for politicians, it only encourages them!

As you may notice below, I've had to cut down on the email addresses displayed on this page, I was getting too many junk emails through them, so I've changed the contact address for the website, but please use our usual addresses if you know them

October 2006 Update

We have completed on our Normandy Property purchase, moved in (well, sort of) and departed on a round the world ticket. As we've said before, it's getting too late in the year to think about starting anything major, and we'd planned to see some people in North America before it gets too cold. More details soon when I get a chance to create some new web pages

September 2006 Update

At last we have a completion date for our ruin in Normandy, 22nd September. It's getting too late in the year to think about starting anything major on the renovation front, and we'd planned to see some people in North America before it gets too cold, so we'll be in our "new" place for a week or so then we'll be off travelling again.  More details to follow