Back on the straight and narrow
The last few days have been a bit manic, what with visits to notaires and estate agents and a couple of other business type issues, but these are all solved (solved as in ‘we know what we are doing’ rather than ‘resolved’, since the outcomes are far from ideal)
We do now have a plan, which makes us happy because uncertainty is stressful, even if it is a plan that might stretch over several years.
I won’t trouble you with the plan, but will remind you that if you are doing renovations etc you need to be very sure you understand the implications for both capital gains tax and VAT, especially if you are thinking of selling up within a few years (anyone want to buy a gite complex ?…)
Anyway enough of all that trouble and stress, it’s taken up loads of time already and we haven’t progressed much, so I went for a therapeutic bike ride in the afternoon.
It wasn’t actually at all therapeutic because it was hot and sunny and I accidentally took an empty water bottle, so I felt pretty rough when I got home, but the principle was sound. There’s nothing like sunburn and cycling for taking your mind off your troubles.
Last weekend I went cycling with my cycling ‘partner’ and he said OK we’re going up the hill near Monpazier. Now Lot-et-Garonne and southern Dordogne is a pretty calm, flat place - there are hills but nothing too dramatic - so I thought I was prepared for anything.
It was slightly offputting that as we approached the turning he kept warning me to ‘drink more water’ and ‘find a lower gear’ but I knew best.
Well, perhaps it’s because we were out of training after the winter months but we must have looked like a couple of 90 year olds dragging ourselves up the hill at a speed that was almost certainly off the bottom of the scale. I don’t mind short and steep, or long and uphill, but this hill was the worst combination - just too steep and just too long.
Although to be fair we did have a lovely view across the local lake when we got to the top.
It was only after we had puffed and panted our way to the top that he told me that the previous person he’d done it with had not managed - they had quite simply toppled into the ditch half way up. ‘Did you stop and help?’ I asked. ‘Of course not. We never would have got started again on a hill like that.’
