whole weekend, various activities are held: including an Onion Market, a demonstration of onion braids, a display of old tractors and old tools, cider and bread making and other street events.
The onions for the annual festival are supplied as bulk or braided, both organic and traditionally grown. It is also possible to taste bread with stewed onions, onion pie, bread stuffed with onion and of course the inevitable onion soup. Traditionally, the red onions were distributed across the sea, by the 'Onion Johnnys' who carried the onions in braids on their bicycles, and sold from door to door in England. I had never heard of this, but when I spoke of it to my Dad, he remembered their visits !
We always buy some of the produce to show our support, although we now grow our own of course, and proudly braid and hang them in the kitchen.
Another annual fair that we try to go to, is the street fair in Commana. It is very traditional, with animals - horses, chickens, rabbits, even kittens being sold, stalls selling cheeses, meats, craft items, and also fairground rides. We bought a male rabbit to add to the growing collection, and named him Roger !
About this time too, we further added to our growing menagerie, as a neighbour very kindly donated four very sweet, quite tiny ducklings - be warned, they grow - very quickly ! Two were bigger, but she persuaded us to have the two smaller ones too, as they had been 'adopted' by the bigger ones. The funny thing about the ducks, and the other birds we have had over the last couple of years too, is that it becomes a little battle to get them into their houses at night and close them in. They learn after about a week what they have to do, but until then, we have to allow ourselves time to chase them around the pens and under the houses. Sometimes, we have to 'handball' them in to start with, until they become used to the routine. All good fun !
So, with these, and the rabbits, and the dog, we were starting to feel like a little smallholding....
The building work was continuing at a good pace too. We had a delivery of concrete in the pouring rain - not one of our better days ! I think to be honest, that to say it was pouring, was an understatement - it was torrential, and thundering at the same time. For those of you who know about these things, you will understand the dilemma, and the frustration that Craig felt at this point. He felt that we had just wasted best part of 1000 Euros, but he did manage to salvage the situation in the end.
Once the floors were dried, the walls started to go up, and luckily for us, the weather wasn't too bad. We did have a few wet days, but we also had days when it was so hot that work could only be done in the morning, and then early evening.
At this point, I made a trip back to the UK, to celebrate the first and second birthdays of our granddaughter and grandson respectively, so it was quite exciting to return and see the progress that had been made. Sometimes it is good to take a break like this to enable a fresh view to be seen, but Craig was unable to do the trip this time, as he needed to crack on with the build.
We had brought our car from the UK with us, and needed to re-register it here with French plates, and French insurance etc. It is not an easy process - or cheap either ! Firstly, we had to obtain a Certificate of Conformity from the manufacturer (I understand that some supply it free - ours didn't !), and change the headlights so that the lights shine away from oncoming traffic - we had a good result there, as our headlights had a switch on the back which altered them so we didn't need to buy new ones. Next step was a CT test (Controle Technique), which is a little like an MOT, but lasts two years, and then a visit to pay the Import tax at the Tax Office, and also the tax at the Prefecture. Yes, it's all pay, pay, pay ! Eventually, we received the new registration number through the post, and we could buy new number plates. It is strange not to have a Tax Disc on the windscreen, and we now have the CT sticker and an insurance sticker there instead. At a glance, you can see whether a car is legally on the road with correct insurance and a valid CT, which I think is a good idea.
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