We weren't able to go to the Repas des Anciens a few weeks ago because Bear was in hospital, but today one of the Mayor's deputies turned up with a hamper laden with goodies.

He expressed his wishes for better health, kissed me on both cheeks and went off smiling cheerfully.

So what did the box contain?

Three bottles of wine: red, dry white and sweet white

Foie gras de canard (duck)

Terrine de canard (duck paté)

Terrine de caille (quail paté)

Terrine de Gascogne aux pruneaux (pork paté with prunes)

Gigotine de volaille a la Bordelaise (chicken, mushrooms and bacon cubes in red wine sauce)

Chocolate truffles

Butter biscuits

Two white porcelain mugs

Not bad eh?

The main headlines in the local paper today were:

Ardennes: encore un instit insulté (another teacher insulted).

Now, in England it seems that teachers have to put up with aggressive pupils and parents on almost a daily basis. It only becomes newsworthy if someone - usually the teacher -  is killed or badly injured.

Here, though, there is universal condemnation of such behaviour and when it happens twice in two weeks it makes front page news.

However, on neither occasion did it get as far as blows.

Two weeks ago, a teacher in Revin was verbally abused by the parents of one of his pupils but yesterday, in a small village school two teenagers accosted a teacher in the playground  claiming to be the elder siblings of one of the children in his class.

There were threats and insults but no physical violence, perhaps because the altercation was interrupted by the mayor who happened to be passing by and came to the teacher's defence by persuading the teenagers to leave.

All the same, the teacher is receiving psychological counselling and the school has cancelled the Christmas fete that should have taken place on Saturday because the staff don't feel safe.

I'm torn between feeling pleased that such abuse is taken seriously and wondering whether the reaction might be just a bit over the top

Nearly everyone in the village has a wood fire but it hasn't been easy to find a good supplier so I was pleasantly surprised to discover that Pascal has yet another string to his 'jack-of-all-trades' bow.

It seems he owns or rents some woodland nearby and has a large enough supply to sell some logs to other people.

"It's good wood," he assured me,"you won't be disappointed."

"The garage holds 4 steres" I told him so he took Jay in his van to collect one stere (cubic metre) at a time.

They unloaded the first lot and it took up half the space. When they came back with the second batch it filled the wall from floor to ceiling and there was still a little pile left over which Pascal put on the floor in front of the car, plus a box of smaller logs and bark for starting the fire. 

"We'll never get two more steres in here" we agreed.

So the previous woodmen have taken advantage and charged for four steres when they only delivered  a maximum of three - being kind and assuming the garage was completely empty.

We have now agreed that Pascal will be our regular supplier. He charges 32euros a stere and his measures are generous. Jay helps with the loading so we don't pay any extra for delivery and we know we will get some wood within days of asking.

As soon as Pascal starts his Christmas holiday from work he is going to start cutting more wood in his little forest.

"Will your son be on holiday too, so that you'll  have someone to help?" I asked.

"No, it's hard work felling trees and chopping logs. No-one wants to do it." he replied.

So he's a lumberjack in his time off, despite having a bad back.

Tough chap our Pascal - and what a worker!

As I have already mentioned, our village offers Christmas trees to anyone willing to decorate one and keep it outside.

Prizes are awarded and presented at the Voeux du Maire in January.

We have always taken part and even won third prize a couple of years ago, so I duly filled in the form last month and handed it in at the Mairie.

Yesterday the trees were delivered. Ours is HUGE - twice as big as our neighbour's.

Jay has tied it to the drainpipe and now we have to find enough decorations to do it justice.

Of course we'll have have to wait until it stops raining and keep our fingers crossed that there are no more strong winds for a month or so.

I'll show you when it's all dressed up in it's finery.