It's been a long winter, this week

Frosty trees at Javarzay
photo credit Edward Brown

It’s been a long winter, this week

A week ago, we arrived back in France having spent Christmas and New Year in England with our families. We had been spoiled rotten, meals out, centrally heated houses with plush carpeted floors, and weather kind enough to allow us to wrap up warmly and walk regularly. France hasn’t been so gentle on us; in fact, this week has been a bit of a shock to the system.

With Mum on New Year's Eve

Our journey home was rather exciting with a ferry full to bursting and way more French being spoken around us than English, followed by a dark drive in Normandy on roads that were edged in white and glowed ominously in the car headlights. As we made our way to a hotel just north of Rouen, the satnav, that has ideas of intelligence way above reality, sent us deep into the undulating countryside, where we crept along deserted roads whose surfaces resembled ice-rinks, all to avoid a one-way system on the final approach to the hotel car park. 

The drive home the following day began at -6º and alternated between freezing cold with sunshine, and freezing fog which decorated the trees in a beautiful, sparkling hoary frost. You could say it was a day where everything was freezing, but on our arrival home, the fridge-freezer in the kitchen was anything but freezing. I guess after over twenty-one years of sterling service, it was bound to pack up at some point, but to choose a week when we weren’t here was a little unfair. The first task having unpacked the car, was to throw most of the contents of the freezer into bin bags and to make up a soup with what could be saved. The second task was to call the water company, fill up as many pans of water as possible and then turn the water back off as while the fountain from the stopcock tap was pretty, it wasn’t a feature we needed. Welcome home and Happy New Year!

Snow on the back gate

The week then threw us from one challenging meteorological state to another as we lunged from an orange alert for snow on Tuesday, that became an ice-rain warning on Wednesday, only to be replaced with the strong winds and rain warning on Thursday and Friday as storm Goretti appeared from the Bay of Biscay. Deep joy. The bikes were left untouched and the car too on Tuesday and Wednesday, as I set up office on the dining room table and clicked away on my laptop preparing the spreadsheets for the 2026 season at the château as well as some promotional bits and bobs for upcoming château and library events.

New fridge-freezer safely loaded onto lovely friend's trailer

It was a relief to get to the weekend having survived 48 hours with no running water, a week using the porch as a fridge and thankfully missed the worst of storm Goretti, whose full force hit further north. Saturday was an exciting outing to buy a new fridge-freezer, and Sunday was celebrated with our first bike ride of the year. It is unusual for us to go so long without cycling as we are not generally only fair-weather cyclists, but the winter this week was intense. I’m crossing my fingers for a calmer second half to January and as I spotted some snowdrops this morning, the signs of spring won’t be far behind.

The first bike ride of 2026

Don’t forget, if you want to know the dates for the public and school holidays in France this year, and how other notable dates are celebrated, click here to read my traditional 1^st of January post. 

Book review of Snow Days With You by Leonie Mack

Snow Days With You by Leonie Mack

Snow Days With You by Leonie Mack 

When Luna Rowntree gets an unexpected and life-changing legacy from a man she’s never met, she’s determined to find out why – even if it is Christmas Day and her family are expecting her.

So, with only her mother’s ashes for company – it’s a long story, but Luna knows her mother would have wanted to come on the adventure too – Luna sets off in her trusty Astra to the skiing resort in Chamonix, where her mysterious benefactor had lived.

 

But her little car isn’t designed for driving through snow-covered mountains, and when she runs out of fuel heart-breakingly close to Chamonix, Luna is relieved to be saved by her very own knight-in-shining armour. Well, knight in mountain rescue uniform anyway.

 

Yannick is charmed and baffled by Luna’s mission, and before he knows it, he has agreed to help. But Yannick has his own secrets calling him from the mountains, and his own reasons to run away. As he helps Luna understand her past he realises he has to face his as well if he’s ever going to risk opening his heart to love

Snow Days With You by Leonie Mack

 

My Review

This book was a festive feast from the first chapter. I felt for Luna as soon as she arrived in Chamonix, alone and totally unprepared for the alpine weather, on a mission to find out about her mysterious benefactor. 

 

Fate led her to Sylvia’s shop, where she soon found herself welcomed, and by helping her new friend with some English lessons, she also finds a purpose to stay, and the opportunity to meet people who could assist her on her enquiry. She has a lot to learn about the harsh reality of life in the mountains and the perilous work of the Gendarme rescue squad, but she soon finds herself embraced by their community.

 

Yannick had an air of sadness about him that tugged at my heartstrings, and I enjoyed discovering his story almost as much as I did the unravelling of Luna’s mysterious past. 

 

This is a winter romance with a difference as it is not just set in a ski resort, it takes you to the heart of the mountains and the people who risk their lives to keep others safe. There is adrenalin, fear, and heart stopping emotions in this book, but the humour and warmth of the romance bubbling away under the layers of warm clothing, kept me turning the pages.

 

If you love the mountains in winter, treat yourself to Snow Days With You as I am sure you will enjoy it. 

 

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Leonie Mack

 

Author Bio 

 

Leonie Mack is an author of romantic comedies with great international locations. Having lived in London for many years her home is now in Germany with her husband and three children. Leonie loves train travel, medieval towns, hiking and happy endings!

 

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Snow Days With You by Leonie Mack 

My Love Hate Relationship with Skiing

Skiing was something I first agreed to in 1996 as my boyfriend at the time, who was a sporty type, really wanted to give it a try. We had a good friend who skied every year in a group organised by his parents so we arranged to join them. This turned out to be the first ever holiday with my inlaws as our friend is now my husband!

Skiing in my 20's - not a cool look

Skiing and I have a love hate relationship. I would love to be good at it, love to feel the excitement as I swoosh effortlessly down the pistes, looking elegant and laughing joyously with Ade as I go (cue hysterical laughter from Ade as he reads this bit). However it is not like that at all. I struggled to begin with to feel comfortable and stay upright and pure fear rather than excitement is how I feel when going fast under any mode of transport, especially downhill on skis. I'm sure Ade's parents must have wondered who this unfit, whinging, hopeless skier was, but they were too nice to say anything.

Ade is a superb skier and was also very patient with me on my first few ski trips. I am not a natural sports person and apart from a love of yoga in the last five years and road biking in the last two years, the only sport I was good at as a kid was swimming. Skiing and I didn't hit it off well. After throwing a huge hissy fit in 1997 and stomping out of ski school on day one Ade became my personal ski instructor. In fact I don't think anyone else in the world would have had the patience to get me down the mountain. His Mum and Dad were always waiting at the bottom with a vin chaud or a hot chocolate as my reward. While love never blossomed on the ski slopes we certainly learned a lot about each other and I'm sure if I hadn't gone skiing all those years ago I wouldn't be the person (or wife) I am now, or be living the life I'm now living and writing about. For that, skiing, I thank you.

Skiing in my 30's - an improvement

Ed and Ade on the slopes

Now, after an eleven year break, I am older, fitter, slimmer and more confident and was up for giving skiing another chance, despite feeling no need to conquer mountains just because I am in my 40’s. My heart did leap a little as Ade and Ed skied off out of sight, on what looked to me a seriously steep black run, (Ed assured me it was a green) but I know Ed couldn't have been in safer hands. I'm pleased to say Ed skis far more like his Dad than me and they both had a great time on the slopes. As for me there is always next year as I think we will try to make it a regular holiday. I doubt I will ever be a great ski partner for Ade, but maybe Ed will.

Ed looking cool!

Pyrenean Ski Trip

Unfortunately, despite the planning and us all arriving safely and settling into our temporary (but lovely) accommodation things were set to change.

The first change was the weather. Sunday morning was full of snow and bitterly cold, especially at the top of the mountain where icicle moustaches formed on our lips as we waited for Ed to finish his first morning at ski school. This wasn't quite the blue skies and sunny, snowy peek view we were expecting.

More worryingly we also received a phone call from the nursing home where Ade's Nana lived and the news wasn't good. In the early hours of Sunday morning she had suffered a stroke. Sunday seemed to pass in a blur of snow flurries and phone calls and ended in a meal together that would be our last with Ade's parents for this holiday. Due to Nana's worsening condition they returned to the UK on Monday morning.

Grandparents Rule No 1 - of course you can  boy!

As you can imagine the mood was a little down, especially for Ed who was really looking forward to being spoilt by his Grandparents for a week. The dog also had a sulk before leaping on me and nibbling me in what I'm sure was a protest display reprimanding me for being careless and losing half of our pack. For the first few days she had a habit of approaching people she thought were Ade's parents and wagging her tail in excitement. Thankfully after meeting some nice families at the lake who shared their duck bread with her, a little girl who fed her most of her pancake and a man at the market who sliced her some local speciality ham (at 34€ a kilo) her mood improved. She and I spent our mornings walking and the sunny afternoons in a deckchair on a snow deck enjoying the sunshine and the view. Mini also became accustomed to her daily trip up the mountain in a four man télécabine and loved looking out of the window at the view.

Mini in the Télécabine

The plan had been for Ade's parents and I to take it in turns dog sitting and skiing, so being two men down meant no skiing for me. However as I have a love/hate relationship with skiing and I got a nosebleed just from being at the top of the mountain, this was probably no bad thing. Mini and I still enjoyed lots of walking and fresh air and I discovered there are many more things to do in Luchon than just skiing, but more on that later in the week. Although I will admit, despite the exercise, eating the good, hearty mountain food like tartiflette and not skiing wasn't great for my figure.

Unfortunately we did get a call later in the week to let us know that Nana had passed away, but at 89 we all feel this was a great age and we are glad she didn't suffer for too long. She was an important part of many lives including 9 great grandchildren, 4 grandsons and their wives, a son and daughter-in-law and a daughter and son-in-law. RIP Nana.

Silent Sunday

It has been a mixed week here, Wednesday saw our first snowfall of the winter, Thursday was clear and bright, but more snow and ice on Friday followed by a very wet Saturday and another dusting of white this morning. Ed managed a long weekend as there was no school bus on Friday and Ade survived a week in Belfast where he could see petrol bombs and car fires from his office window, but despite the weather was only two hours delayed on his flight home. Today we are enjoying being back together. Here are a selection of pics from this week.

A perfect January harvest from the garden www.frenchvillagediaries.com

Looking forward to sowing these www.frenchvillagediaries.com

Mini in the snow www.frenchvillagediaries.com

Time for tea www.frenchvillagediaries.com

Snowy fields one day www.frenchvillagediaries.com

Sunshine and deer the next day www.frenchvillagediaries.com

Soup keeps us warm www.frenchvillagediaries.com