The days you have

There are days, and then there are other days and then there are the days you cannot believe you have just had…..

On Sunday ODD (our dear daughter) kindly volunteered to do the bakery run and then pick up some bits at the café.  She had never locked or un-locked the café by herself before and even though I knew she was totally capable I was still a bit nervous.  Everything was going really well until she pulled the door closed and then realised the keys were on the other side of the door.  She was using my keys and the only other keys for the café were Simon’s who was in London and of course had all his keys with him. 

This was a mini disaster as I was planning to go in and do some cooking on the Monday as I had to collect Simon from the airport at 11h00ish on Tuesday; the airport is 40 minutes away so no chance of opening on time or preparing on the day. However, I knew I could still get a menu together; fortunately we had already made some desserts that would still be good for the week ahead.

Last night, I missed some calls on my mobile/portable/cell but it was a private number, so I couldn’t return the calls.  This morning I got a call really early from our landlord to say they really needed to get into the café urgently.  In my bad French I tried to explain the dilemma and that we all would only be able to get into the café when Simon returned and hopefully we would be back in St Paul by 11h45 at the latest. As I am sure you know the French lunchtime starts at 12h00 prompt and generally liked to be served in the hour, however my most regular customer on a Tuesday normally comes at 13h00, so I had a chance of been prepared.

We have had a few flooding situations from above since we have rented the café and various other bits and pieces that still had not been completed.  I had been pressing the landlord for these to be dealt with before the season began and was really hoping that this was the urgency. However as I passed the café as saw the water flowing under the door I knew it was more serious.

This is NOT my picture but this is how it looked

I continued to drive towards Perpignan, it was not the brightest of days, in fact it was really muggy but the light was gorgeous and it really reflected the vivid green of the vines and the intensity of colour of the poppies and other wild flowers. I was really enjoying this drive with some special music and it felt good.

I went to shop for the café before collecting Simon, of course the one time I needed the flight to be on time it was slightly delayed so we only got back in to St Paul at 12h15.  I had already received another panicked call from the landlord. On the drive back I said to Simon no matter what state the café is in I need to cook and do x,y and z to try and get a menu together.  I left him to open the door and as I gathered up the shopping; taking a deep breath I braced myself for what was to come.  I am very glad I did as possibly a quarter of the ceiling was on the floor…

I began the 'mise en place' as Simon and the landlord’s family mopped, moved furniture and generally cleaned the place up.  A ‘workman’ arrived while I was frantically trying to write up the menu on the blackboard (thinking I wish I could write this in English),  I thought he was part of the clean-up crew but actually he wanted a take-away sandwich. Typical on the one day we are not organised, but he got his sandwich within five minutes, while I was preparing two main courses.  In fact within an hour and a half we had served four people lunch, made scones and  in the main got ready for the rest of the week’s trade.  Oh, and of course cleaned up the mess….

Let's just say it was a day and a half, and as the ceiling continues to drip, what will this French adventure throw at us next?  Whatever it is I am ready…. I think!

À bientôt.

The ceiling as it is now