Loving Madame Barbier

Madame Barbier is the proprietor of our lovely cabanon. She is probably about 5'7" and the slightest bit matronly appearance. She likes to wear big knit sweaters and scarves, and she wears her glasses a little low on her nose and peers over the top when she talks to people. She has curly short brown hair which she just died a little darker and she has a tiny touch of a lisp when she talks. She is also AMAZING.
She is the one who moved us into our home and taught us how to lock down the shutters when Le Mistral blows into town, and she is the one who finally helped us get our heat turn on last night when we were freezing to death and miserable because Provence decided to turn into Antarctica in the span of a half-day. She likes to come over and knock on our kitchen door to tell us really tiny and unnecessary tidbits of information and usually stays to talk for longer than comfortable until the conversation gets so extended that we all realize there are no polite phrases or small-talk subjects to hit.
Yesterday, we found maggots in our rice, which we bought just a few days ago. She said it was fine to eat, our rice. When we asked her how to get rid of the maggots, she said that you cook them. You boil them to death in the pot with the rice and the maggots float up to the top and you scoop them out and then you eat the rice. No big deal, really, girls. And so that's what we did.

I also would love to note that when the tiny little light on our heating system lit up indicating that there was no heat/gas flowing to our radiators, she shouted "CA C'EST GEANT!" which translates to "THAT'S HUGE!" I loved it. I dunno, just the idea of a 50-something year old woman saying "That's huge!" as in "That's huge, dude" makes me smile.

I love Madame Barbier.