I haven't posted for an AGE. I don't know where the time has gone - it's zipping past! So, a quick catch-up: the final two tables are ready for pick-up, so that's great news, we definitely have all the dining room furniture we need. Not bad after being open 3 months. After some too-ing and fro-ing with the induction, it is back where it belongs in the kitchen, so in theory, that's everything in working order!! We are now planning the terrace furniture.

As if all that snow wasn't difficult enough, Klaus popped through here last Saturday and left the whole of the Pyrenees-Orientales without electricity. It's the first time there has been a red weather alert in this area. It was all quite exciting in a forbidding kind of a way. I had to take our cat Freddy to the vet as he is having some kind of excema crisis and has pulled out all the fur he can reach in just a few days, so I ventured out after lunch on that Saturday before the winds got too bad. Vernet was relatively sheltered from it, but there were trees down all over the place, and in Prades there was all sorts of debris all over the place. The elec was out by that time, but fortunately the vet didn't need any to treat Freddy and we got home as the winds were building. We had a full house booked for that evening and had to close as there was still no elec. Apparently (we learnt later) trees had fallen on the power lines and cut off 400.000 volts. We got elec back at around midnight, but there are several towns who were out for many more days. How on earth did people manage before electricity? Life must have been really dull - I mean, no internet or tv, but worst of all, no heating. Ugh. Thanks heavens I'm a child of the 20th century.

Anyway, lots of roof tiles have come off the roof and broken.  Now this is where I begin to feel quite pleased with the whole thing. I may have mentioned before that we have numerous leaks, mostly into the bathroom. Well, thanks to Klaus, it'll all be fixed thanks to the insurance!! Ching ching bingo! We phoned the insurance co and of-course, there is no question that there was a weather event, so we got an incident number. Miraculously we managed to get a builder out straight away, and they are coming around Monday to either fix it or waterproof it. Lots of bald bits, apparently. I am very pleased on two counts: 1) I have never lived in a house with leaks, before, and I don't like it - yes, I have lived a prilileged life - and 2) I feel that the renovations on the house have started and 3) minimal cost to yours truly!!!! I mean 3 counts, of-course.

Dave had started to talk of beginning work on the house, in the kitchen, but then we started to talk of knocking down walls, and the plan has slowed down........

Anyway, we have also been to the lovely city of Lyon. We worked the lunch service last Sunday, had some lunch ourselves and then took off for Sirha, which is a fair for the hotel and restaurant trade. We have never been before and it is a bit of a bunfight - it's absolutely packed. Dave bravely survived the morning, but then took off in the afternoon. I had a good nosy round the latest in food news. We met again later on the banks of one of the rivers that run through Lyon. It is an amazing city at night. The Rhone and the Saône run through Lyon and it seems a bit Venice-like but on a grander scale, with all the bridges etc. The architecture is also awesome. I shall see how my photos look and put some up on the blog. We investigated a couple of bars and then went to the Bistrot de Lyon, one of the most well known of the original Bistrots. It was packed, whereas other restaurants around it were empty, so it must be doing something right. Here's a link to their site if you are interested:  http://www.bistrot-de-lyon.com/  the decor is really evocative of an older age - it's quite art deco, I find actually, and if you sant to eat genuine Lyonnaise food, it's not for the faint-hearted, lots of tripe and brains and stuff.

After that we went to see one of my best mates who lives just outside Lyon and spent a night with them. Yikes it's cold and bleak up there - the very air shimmers with that cold white sort of light you get in bleak places. Brrrr. Fortunately my friends house was toasty and cosy, and it was lovely catching up. We got back without incident and opened again Wednesday night.