Tuesday, May 3, 2011

No rancour .









Seven am and it's already hot and humid . The sort of day where you envy the frogs basking on the lillies in the village pond . Wilf is happy to be off on the morning bread run into town , quickly settling down to sleep in his ' safe spot ' in the back of the car . The man at the bread stall thinks I'm Australian. Why he should think this is quite beyond the wildest stretches of ones imagining . English, Scots, American, Australian . From a locals perspective all one and the same but equally odd in an anglo-saxon way . He greets me , as he always does, with a strange noise that sounds like a drunken parrot . It took ' the font ' two or three months to work out that this was his heavily South West France accented version of ' G'Day mate '. Too late now to disillusion the poor man . We buy our loaves, wave cheerily in what is hopefully a hearty antipodean way , stop off for a cake at the bakers and return home to find the electrician and builders hard at work in the attic. Thankfully, no sign of last weeks rancour. Wilf has a look on his face that says : " All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make , the better " . Then he falls unconcernedly asleep by the front door.

20 comments:

  1. I think he's going to make sure you don't go anywhere without him!

    Especially to the bakery. I couldn't afford to live in your town that close to a bakery!

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  2. Australian? Exotic?!!
    Oh but those cakes...

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  3. G'Day mate! Throw another cake on the barbie!

    x (for Wilf!)

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  4. How I wish I was in Europe right now! How does one pass by that bakery window without buying a box of something! Wishing your Wilf a wonderful day today. :)

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  5. Australian? You should sue! I love the dark green shutters by the way.

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  6. I love your house Angus, it is so lovely and so different of our Brittany's one (and i love my house...), with what seems to be a wisteria.
    Which cake did you choose ?
    Have a wonderful Tuesday, amitiƩs to you and the Font, and lots of bisous to Wilfee.

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  7. Don't do anything to embarrass us!

    XXXOOO Daisy, kendra & Bella

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  8. I had to chuckle at the man thinking you're Australian, how could he not know you're from Scotland Connecticut?! :-) (that's a real town by the way).

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  9. I always have a good laugh at the different things you're mistaken for, M'Ongoose! Perhaps you ought to throw your best Aussie accent at him next time. Better yet, switch it up every time!

    Wilf, I'd like to be napping there with you!

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  10. Scotland, Pennsylvania?? The same thing happens to me - and I look about as Scots-Irish as one can look. I learned quickly in Manilla that just because one looks like an Anglo-Saxon, it doesn't mean they speak English.

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  11. Wilf is so good at napping anywhere. I should learn from him!

    Australian???? Very odd.

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  12. Tell the gent his his bread is heavenly with a bit of Vegemite!

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  13. Does he know that Wilf is Polish?
    Mandu

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  14. You certainly do come across the most interesting situations in France!! Australian! Funny!! Wilf looks positively content napping away....keep going darling Wilf! And do my eyes deceive me? Does one of the cakes have the word "opera" scrawled across it? Interesting!!

    With love your Canadian pals,
    Dianna along with Tor, Willow and Tucker

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  15. We always have a good chuckle when we read what your local characters say and do. Priceless.

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  16. Well that just cracks me up. All the Swiss here think I'm "English"... (no, I'm American). That always shocks me since all English speaking countries have hugely different accents (don't get me started on the many in the States alone, i'm sure there are many in Britain). I guess it's too late to disillusion him.

    Luckily for us we have a British-Swedish family who live next door to us. Great folks. we dine with them occasionally and their kids come to play with our dogs. But silly me, we were having a conversation about their children over dinner one night without their children about how many languages they spoke. I'm so bewildered by the amount of languages kids speak here. As they finish their thought they the husband says: "because French isn't their first language." and I'm so caught up in the conversation I forgot we were talking about THEIR kids, so I ask "but what IS their first language?" Um, helloooo? duh. I swear I sometimes wonder why Mr. Wild Dingo married someone so daft.

    I'm making my own international blunders every day here in CH so it's very easy for me to find less humor in non-English speakers who think I'm from England. Not that a Frenchie who says "g-day mate" to a Scot isn't hilarious. :)

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  17. There must be a way to teleport some of those luscious desserts through the computer and into our kitchen.

    We infer you don't have AC for Wilf. Jed's favorite place to lie when he's hot is on top of the floor vent blowing cool air. How about a fan? Of course, the farmhouse was built for hot weather, so the hall is probably nice and cool. Stay comfy, Wilf!

    Jed & Abby

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  18. I've thought a lot about Wilf the last two days. My dad finally put his ancient beagle down. Whenever I'd read your blog, I'd always think of my dad's dog and relate Wilf to her.

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