Lord of the flies

One of the things I hadn't thought about with a life in the countryside was the insects. Having lived in a city for all of my life thus far, it shocked me to discover that the countryside, as beautiful as it is, has it's fair share of insects. You never see that written in holiday brochures or travel guides.

If you look at reviews of Ivy House on TripAdvisor, you will see a less than complimentary review for the previous owners of Ivy House that mentioned the flies. As we have stated in previous blog entries, this review should have been aimed at the previous owners, Steve and Sarah Lee. However, I can sympathise with the writer of the review, especially if they had not experienced living in the countryside like I hadn't.

I spoke with our new neighbour today and I asked if it is always like this in Normandy. She laughed when I told her that I had never seen more than one or two flies at any one time in a room. She made the point that it is the countryside; however, this year has been the worst that she can remember for flies. She seems to think that it is a result of a very wet July and a hot end to August. It was reassuring to hear that she thinks the flies will die off in the next couple of weeks.

I have decided that I am now the lord of the flies and starting tomorrow, I will visit the stores in Carentan to find a way to banish these pesky things from our house and our gites. There will be no expense spared to make our accommodation irratant free for our next guests this weekend.

I am probably exagerating the problem but I have been brought up to tell the truth. The truth is that our house and gites are in beautiful countryside just opposite the D-Day Utah Beach. The small price we have to pay to languish in this peaceful setting is no doubt the same for all homes in the countryside. This price is called nature. We have to accept that nature has its way of testing us; however, I will fight back with a few crafty insect killing gadgets. They say that nature will always find a way. Let's just say that I intend to stand in its way on this occasion.