Sunday, April 30, 2006
Sunday 23 April 2006
Spring has really arrived; it has been sunny, dry, mostly very warm and 23 or 24 degrees for the last three or four days. I did four loads of washing on Thursday, lots of bedding which had been in store washed ready for the visitors, the remaining blue curtain and spring clothes which were also packed way in Saint-Denis last autumn - nothing too drastic, some short sleeved T shorts and cotton trousers and jackets. I found several things which were only ever worn at weekends or holidays, which will get a lot more wear now. The sky was so blue and the washing blowing so hard against the background of blossom (yes, the cherry tree has reached its peak) that I felt as though I was taking part in some washing powder commercial. It was too nice to go indoors, so I took the round table out from the verandah and had lunch on it, thinking how at Ainsworth Street I could only do this at weekends, and often with the washing blowing in my face as the garden was so small. But here I had vast expanse of garden to look at, and the washing several metres behind me. The birdsong was another plus; so much and so beautiful.
After lunch I went to the woodshed and got out and assembled what N refers to as my Luxury Garden Furniture (because that’s what it says on the box). It didn’t take long and looks very good on the terrace outside the verandah. I had tea outside too, and lunch the next day.
On Friday morning at long last I had a chance to do the aerobic exercise DVD sent by Madeleine in February; with a working DVD player in the grande pièce with lots of space, and no workmen arriving first thing. I did it again today; am getting used to it and should be able to find time to do it regularly.
After that I visited the butchers shop for the first time; quite the friendliest shop here that I have visited; I’m not surprised they were friendly to the elderly lady in front of me - she spent over 60 euros. I had gone to get a couple of beefsteaks for dinner as N was coming back, and got two nice looking rabbit joints for Sunday lunch as well, as I remembered a good recipe I had for Lapin Chasseur. It is difficult not to become just a little more carnivorous here, but I have no trouble resisting various bits of offal and rich fatty sausages.
I telephoned both the Artisan and the Lapeyre shop in Bernay, still concerned about the non-functioning of the « broyeur », especially in view of impending visitors next week. Lapeyre say that they have/will leave messages for him too, but that he is working on a site in Paris at the moment.
In the afternoon I finally began the blue curtains, which should be simpler than either the kitchen or study curtains, but I must not confuse more straightforward with quicker; there are four of them and they are long. I have now got as far as I can get until I can buy some Rufflette, so on Saturday afternoon began trying to make a large customised valance for the Italian bed(s) from some of the white cotton sheets which came from Italy. The main problem is that the separate ends of the beds (two single beds pushed together to make a double bed) means that the end of the valance must be in two halves to allow one half to hang behind the foot of each single bed. The other problem was the very warm sunshine on the front of the house on Saturday afternoon; in both the bedroom where the bed is, and in the sewing room, making it difficult to work. At one stage a fleet of police cars drove past, followed by what looked like a cycle race - N had a good view of this too, as he was working in the front garden at the time.
Wednesday 26 April 2006
No chance to catch up with this since Sunday, for a variety of reasons. N is using the computer a lot at the moment as he is examining a thesis and so far only has it on disk; the paper version is in the post. We have also had enormous internet/e-mail problems with Wanadoo which now seem to be resolved, fingers crossed, after N going yet again to the shop at Bernay and then spending ages on the phone here in front of the screen. However, it was all worth it as he can get to his e-mails here again now, so does not feel so cut off from the world.
The rabbit on Sunday was excellent; N was strangely squeamish about it, surprising for such a carnivore who has no qualms about lambs, but we agreed we could have it another time with chicken. The other important Sunday morning activity was the clearing of the boiler room and verandah as much as possible to be ready for the installation of the new heater on Monday morning.
After lunch we went on an « outing », having decided it was time we started visiting places of local interest - time because the weather is so much better and lighter, and also because we must use the time well when we don’t have either workmen or visitors here.
We went to the Abbey of Bec Hellouin, about 40 minutes away beyond La Ferrière-sur-Risle where we went last Sunday. It had been a large and very important abbey in the tenth century, and had provided two early archbishops of Canterbury, but like the Ursuline Convent at Saint-Denis, was seized by the state at time of the Revolution, and monks had only come back into residence in 1948. We joined a very interesting guided tour given by one of the monks (there are only 16 in total) and felt very well-travelled and well-informed as he mentioned Canterbury, Rome, Siena and Cluny several times. There was a very good shop full of pottery, things to eat and drink, cards, books and music, and we bought drinks, biscuits and presents. N put the basket on the counter and said to the monk behind it « Father, I have given in to temptation, » whereupon a little bearded monk next to him said « Oh, but that’s very good! » and clapped his hand over his mouth with a smile.
Since then there has been progress on several fronts; Guillaume the heating engineer and Emanuel the electrician have been here each day since Monday. Emanuel has been working partly on the electrics for the new heater and partly finishing off the electricity in the outhouses; I was very glad N was here to explain exactly what he wanted. Monsieur A himself was here on Monday to help with the dismantling of the old orange heater, and today Guillaume has fixed the broken radiator in the grande pièce. Since Monday morning we have had no heating, but had reached a stage where we only switched it on night and morning as it has been so warm in the day time. Unfortunately it is not quite so warm now (especially as I had told my visitors how good it was) although some improvement this afternoon after rain this morning.
On Monday I phone Lapeyre again, and then in the evening the Artisan himself phoned; he has got a spare part which should stop any back flow of fluids - not provided by Lapeyre apparently - and will come and fix it on Friday evening, presumably after having finished in Paris on his way home. In the afternoon I finished the valance; quite an achievement as it involved N having to help remove the mattress so I could check the length to the floor, then sewing the hem all round and pressing it. I hoovered under the bed and all round, then put it back in position, fetched N to help put the mattress back and then very much enjoyed finally making the bed up. I used some John Lewis bedding bought by N years ago for the first Italian house and never used; pale blue quilt cover, pillow cases and bottom sheet, plus a white cotton bedspread from the house at Soliera. I was able to use the lighter half of the quilt which was on our bed, as a few weeks ago we decided the two layers were too hot.
Because of all the work going on, we were unable to leave the house together at the same time, so yesterday morning I went to L’Aigle on the bus, for the first time in ages. The main purpose was to get Rufflette tape for the blue curtains from my regular curtain shop, so I went there first and saw the very elegant lady with the rather put-upon husband (they remind me a little of Fanny & Johnny Craddock) who asked how my red curtains had turned out, and was I pleased with them? I said yes, very, and that I’d had enough left over for two cushions. She said that was good, she was always happy when people were pleased. I bought my Rufflette and then on going back that way at the end of the morning met her again in the market place, so we exchanged a few words, and I thought how nice it was to come to L’Aigle on the bus and find someone to say hello to, and about the time we had first visited there and parked in that very square in the rain, when viewing houses in September.
I had a lovely time at the market; the sun was bright and there was a lot going on. The other thing I was looking for - and successfully found - was a shopping basket, having observed that this is the way to shop in the village and in markets; trying to fit a baguette and then other shopping in to plastic carrier just doesn’t work. And nobody has a shopping trolley here, like they do at Saint-Denis. I also bought a round tablecloth ready for the round table in the verandah (at Ainsworth Street it was just used as a desk) tomatoes, two kinds of asparagus, artificial flowers for the attic guest room, a (second-hand) white cheesecloth blouse for 2 euros and almost a second-hand denim jacket, but it was a little too tight. By the time I sat down in front of a café on the edge of the square not far from the bus stop, my basket had bread and a bunch of tulips on the top and looked very good indeed. Even though the street sign said it was 17 degrees it felt a lot warmer, and the café looked like a good place for lunch if I’m ever there all day.
As it was I had a quick lunch with N at home before he set out to Bernay, to the France Telecom shop (see above) and to the garden centre to see if his dead apricot tree and rose could be refunded. I began sewing the Rufflette on to the blue curtains, but did not finish as once N came back we became embroiled in trying to install a new disc, and then in phoning, but as I said before am pleased to say all is now working OK (fingers crossed!) As well as a few minor problems with the sewing machine, the iron also then gave up - fortunately I had brought a spare one from Ainsworth Street, although I couldn’t remember then or now where it came from. I began to wonder what would go wrong next.
I finally got the blue curtains up and finished this morning; with brass rails and curtain rings and the blue & gold tie backs bought in Montmartre, and with the white bed it all looks much more comfortable and furnished. We have put up a couple of bluish pictures on the walls; all it lacks now is a waste paper basket, and perhaps one of those clever fabric covers for upright chairs. N has one at Saint-Denis I could examine for shape and style, and there is one more spare blue sheet, slightly darker, which I could use. Not before the weekend though. In order to fix the ends of the curtain poles I seemed to need a very small screwdriver; and went and asked Emanuel and Guillaume if they had one. They said no, I needed a « clé à serpent » and handed me a small z-shaped key. I said that was a good name, I could see it was shaped like a snake and they said, no a « clé à six points » (six-sided key) and laughed a lot. No doubt it gave them good tale to relate over lunch.
This means the only rooms left without curtains now are the sewing room - for which I have some yellow curtains found here; we have a spare pole not used in the kitchen, and spare hooks so only need to get ends and rings - and the landing, where we already have a brass rod in position (from a wardrobe) and if I get voile as planned, can just hem it over the pole, as the grande pièce, so no rings, hooks or Rufflette needed. I wonder what I will do when there are no more curtains to make……
Thursday 27 April 2006
I had a phone call from the Artisan yesterday evening to say he could come this morning instead of Friday, which was good news, so he has been this morning and fitted the extra part to stop the flush going back up into the washbasin. I feel I ought to try it out before the guests arrive; perhaps tomorrow. I was pleased to be able to show him the finished kitchen, with curtains, shelf and pictures, and to tell him again how much I enjoy using it. He was interested to see N’s boarding and painting of the socle, and said again that he would give him a job. (He had previously been impressed with his boarding-in of the ceiling, and surprised he wasn’t in the trade!)
I still haven’t tried the shower - I thought I should before letting guests loose in it, but it has taken so many coats of paint on the socle, that we are always waiting for it to dry! N is going back to Paris this afternoon in order to fetch the guests from the Gare du Nord on Saturday, so I should have a chance to try the shower and paint the water pipes along the wall. (Probably in reverse order!)
Yesterday afternoon I planted more plants which N had brought from Bernay, when he went to exchange his dead apricot tree for a healthier peach tree, which has been planted against the wall at the end of the vegetable garden. He brought two dozen petunias, which I have put in the two metal urns either side of the steps down to the wine cellar and in a terra cotta trough on the window of the grande pièce, and some more violas, in a smaller trough on the other windowsill, and in two hanging flower pots on the wall of the outhouse. These took a long time to hang, but it was all worth it as they look magnificent against the brown beams and white plaster.
Other news in brief:
N has still not received his money for the Italian house sale; although he has managed to set up some sort of regular contact with a financial adviser at Saint-Denis, who he refers to as Sambo, as his name is very similar. It seems that the money only left Italy on 14 April…….
Before the computer problems I had got as far as the letter C in the re-typing of the Lexique (French/English dictionary of property terms) Have not managed to do any since, and think I will take it with me to Paris next week, where I hope there will be more time.
We received a phone call from an acquaintance at Saint-Denis asking if N could help an English friend of his with some musical terms needed for the subtitling of a film for the Cannes Festival! This has since been done, and N has invited the English friend (also called Nigel) to lunch at Saint-Denis with wife and baby later on in May.
I have finished reading « Carmen » by Prosper Mérimée and am now reading the next story in the book - as I haven’t anything else to read - set in the Eglise Saint-Roch in Paris, where I went to several free concerts in the autumn!
Saturday 29 April 2006
Since N left on Thursday afternoon I have done a tremendous amount of cleaning and tidying; given the pipes in the downstairs washroom two coats of paint, successfully tried out the loo/broyeur and the new shower, and fitted in a nice relaxing trip to the hairdresser. The new heating installation was finally finished on Thursday afternoon, and it was good to have some heating back on again, as by that time it had turned much colder. It took Guillaume some time to check all the radiators had started up again, and he needed to get to some pipes in the Mystery Room behind the linen cupboard, so between us we took all the sheets and bedcovers out and removed the shelves. He laughed when I told him we had twenty bedspreads, and asked if we were afraid of being cold. He, Monsieur A and another chap whom I assumed was a heater expert, explained briefly how to turn it on and off, up and down, and said they would be back to fit and explain the thermostat next week. I said we would be in Paris until Friday. Emanuel was due back to finish - at last! - only few things in the verandah and what is left of the garden lamps now they have been removed, but did not turn up.
N is due back this afternoon with the visitors - my brother Steve, sister Issy and younger daughter Caroline. I have done a lot of food shopping from the traiteur, boulangerie vegetable stall and spent yesterday afternoon cooking. Have also finally got round to another important task - a letter to Monsieur Urset our estate agent, who we promised to invite to lunch with his wife.
Spring has really arrived; it has been sunny, dry, mostly very warm and 23 or 24 degrees for the last three or four days. I did four loads of washing on Thursday, lots of bedding which had been in store washed ready for the visitors, the remaining blue curtain and spring clothes which were also packed way in Saint-Denis last autumn - nothing too drastic, some short sleeved T shorts and cotton trousers and jackets. I found several things which were only ever worn at weekends or holidays, which will get a lot more wear now. The sky was so blue and the washing blowing so hard against the background of blossom (yes, the cherry tree has reached its peak) that I felt as though I was taking part in some washing powder commercial. It was too nice to go indoors, so I took the round table out from the verandah and had lunch on it, thinking how at Ainsworth Street I could only do this at weekends, and often with the washing blowing in my face as the garden was so small. But here I had vast expanse of garden to look at, and the washing several metres behind me. The birdsong was another plus; so much and so beautiful.
After lunch I went to the woodshed and got out and assembled what N refers to as my Luxury Garden Furniture (because that’s what it says on the box). It didn’t take long and looks very good on the terrace outside the verandah. I had tea outside too, and lunch the next day.
On Friday morning at long last I had a chance to do the aerobic exercise DVD sent by Madeleine in February; with a working DVD player in the grande pièce with lots of space, and no workmen arriving first thing. I did it again today; am getting used to it and should be able to find time to do it regularly.
After that I visited the butchers shop for the first time; quite the friendliest shop here that I have visited; I’m not surprised they were friendly to the elderly lady in front of me - she spent over 60 euros. I had gone to get a couple of beefsteaks for dinner as N was coming back, and got two nice looking rabbit joints for Sunday lunch as well, as I remembered a good recipe I had for Lapin Chasseur. It is difficult not to become just a little more carnivorous here, but I have no trouble resisting various bits of offal and rich fatty sausages.
I telephoned both the Artisan and the Lapeyre shop in Bernay, still concerned about the non-functioning of the « broyeur », especially in view of impending visitors next week. Lapeyre say that they have/will leave messages for him too, but that he is working on a site in Paris at the moment.
In the afternoon I finally began the blue curtains, which should be simpler than either the kitchen or study curtains, but I must not confuse more straightforward with quicker; there are four of them and they are long. I have now got as far as I can get until I can buy some Rufflette, so on Saturday afternoon began trying to make a large customised valance for the Italian bed(s) from some of the white cotton sheets which came from Italy. The main problem is that the separate ends of the beds (two single beds pushed together to make a double bed) means that the end of the valance must be in two halves to allow one half to hang behind the foot of each single bed. The other problem was the very warm sunshine on the front of the house on Saturday afternoon; in both the bedroom where the bed is, and in the sewing room, making it difficult to work. At one stage a fleet of police cars drove past, followed by what looked like a cycle race - N had a good view of this too, as he was working in the front garden at the time.
Wednesday 26 April 2006
No chance to catch up with this since Sunday, for a variety of reasons. N is using the computer a lot at the moment as he is examining a thesis and so far only has it on disk; the paper version is in the post. We have also had enormous internet/e-mail problems with Wanadoo which now seem to be resolved, fingers crossed, after N going yet again to the shop at Bernay and then spending ages on the phone here in front of the screen. However, it was all worth it as he can get to his e-mails here again now, so does not feel so cut off from the world.
The rabbit on Sunday was excellent; N was strangely squeamish about it, surprising for such a carnivore who has no qualms about lambs, but we agreed we could have it another time with chicken. The other important Sunday morning activity was the clearing of the boiler room and verandah as much as possible to be ready for the installation of the new heater on Monday morning.
After lunch we went on an « outing », having decided it was time we started visiting places of local interest - time because the weather is so much better and lighter, and also because we must use the time well when we don’t have either workmen or visitors here.
We went to the Abbey of Bec Hellouin, about 40 minutes away beyond La Ferrière-sur-Risle where we went last Sunday. It had been a large and very important abbey in the tenth century, and had provided two early archbishops of Canterbury, but like the Ursuline Convent at Saint-Denis, was seized by the state at time of the Revolution, and monks had only come back into residence in 1948. We joined a very interesting guided tour given by one of the monks (there are only 16 in total) and felt very well-travelled and well-informed as he mentioned Canterbury, Rome, Siena and Cluny several times. There was a very good shop full of pottery, things to eat and drink, cards, books and music, and we bought drinks, biscuits and presents. N put the basket on the counter and said to the monk behind it « Father, I have given in to temptation, » whereupon a little bearded monk next to him said « Oh, but that’s very good! » and clapped his hand over his mouth with a smile.
Since then there has been progress on several fronts; Guillaume the heating engineer and Emanuel the electrician have been here each day since Monday. Emanuel has been working partly on the electrics for the new heater and partly finishing off the electricity in the outhouses; I was very glad N was here to explain exactly what he wanted. Monsieur A himself was here on Monday to help with the dismantling of the old orange heater, and today Guillaume has fixed the broken radiator in the grande pièce. Since Monday morning we have had no heating, but had reached a stage where we only switched it on night and morning as it has been so warm in the day time. Unfortunately it is not quite so warm now (especially as I had told my visitors how good it was) although some improvement this afternoon after rain this morning.
On Monday I phone Lapeyre again, and then in the evening the Artisan himself phoned; he has got a spare part which should stop any back flow of fluids - not provided by Lapeyre apparently - and will come and fix it on Friday evening, presumably after having finished in Paris on his way home. In the afternoon I finished the valance; quite an achievement as it involved N having to help remove the mattress so I could check the length to the floor, then sewing the hem all round and pressing it. I hoovered under the bed and all round, then put it back in position, fetched N to help put the mattress back and then very much enjoyed finally making the bed up. I used some John Lewis bedding bought by N years ago for the first Italian house and never used; pale blue quilt cover, pillow cases and bottom sheet, plus a white cotton bedspread from the house at Soliera. I was able to use the lighter half of the quilt which was on our bed, as a few weeks ago we decided the two layers were too hot.
Because of all the work going on, we were unable to leave the house together at the same time, so yesterday morning I went to L’Aigle on the bus, for the first time in ages. The main purpose was to get Rufflette tape for the blue curtains from my regular curtain shop, so I went there first and saw the very elegant lady with the rather put-upon husband (they remind me a little of Fanny & Johnny Craddock) who asked how my red curtains had turned out, and was I pleased with them? I said yes, very, and that I’d had enough left over for two cushions. She said that was good, she was always happy when people were pleased. I bought my Rufflette and then on going back that way at the end of the morning met her again in the market place, so we exchanged a few words, and I thought how nice it was to come to L’Aigle on the bus and find someone to say hello to, and about the time we had first visited there and parked in that very square in the rain, when viewing houses in September.
I had a lovely time at the market; the sun was bright and there was a lot going on. The other thing I was looking for - and successfully found - was a shopping basket, having observed that this is the way to shop in the village and in markets; trying to fit a baguette and then other shopping in to plastic carrier just doesn’t work. And nobody has a shopping trolley here, like they do at Saint-Denis. I also bought a round tablecloth ready for the round table in the verandah (at Ainsworth Street it was just used as a desk) tomatoes, two kinds of asparagus, artificial flowers for the attic guest room, a (second-hand) white cheesecloth blouse for 2 euros and almost a second-hand denim jacket, but it was a little too tight. By the time I sat down in front of a café on the edge of the square not far from the bus stop, my basket had bread and a bunch of tulips on the top and looked very good indeed. Even though the street sign said it was 17 degrees it felt a lot warmer, and the café looked like a good place for lunch if I’m ever there all day.
As it was I had a quick lunch with N at home before he set out to Bernay, to the France Telecom shop (see above) and to the garden centre to see if his dead apricot tree and rose could be refunded. I began sewing the Rufflette on to the blue curtains, but did not finish as once N came back we became embroiled in trying to install a new disc, and then in phoning, but as I said before am pleased to say all is now working OK (fingers crossed!) As well as a few minor problems with the sewing machine, the iron also then gave up - fortunately I had brought a spare one from Ainsworth Street, although I couldn’t remember then or now where it came from. I began to wonder what would go wrong next.
I finally got the blue curtains up and finished this morning; with brass rails and curtain rings and the blue & gold tie backs bought in Montmartre, and with the white bed it all looks much more comfortable and furnished. We have put up a couple of bluish pictures on the walls; all it lacks now is a waste paper basket, and perhaps one of those clever fabric covers for upright chairs. N has one at Saint-Denis I could examine for shape and style, and there is one more spare blue sheet, slightly darker, which I could use. Not before the weekend though. In order to fix the ends of the curtain poles I seemed to need a very small screwdriver; and went and asked Emanuel and Guillaume if they had one. They said no, I needed a « clé à serpent » and handed me a small z-shaped key. I said that was a good name, I could see it was shaped like a snake and they said, no a « clé à six points » (six-sided key) and laughed a lot. No doubt it gave them good tale to relate over lunch.
This means the only rooms left without curtains now are the sewing room - for which I have some yellow curtains found here; we have a spare pole not used in the kitchen, and spare hooks so only need to get ends and rings - and the landing, where we already have a brass rod in position (from a wardrobe) and if I get voile as planned, can just hem it over the pole, as the grande pièce, so no rings, hooks or Rufflette needed. I wonder what I will do when there are no more curtains to make……
Thursday 27 April 2006
I had a phone call from the Artisan yesterday evening to say he could come this morning instead of Friday, which was good news, so he has been this morning and fitted the extra part to stop the flush going back up into the washbasin. I feel I ought to try it out before the guests arrive; perhaps tomorrow. I was pleased to be able to show him the finished kitchen, with curtains, shelf and pictures, and to tell him again how much I enjoy using it. He was interested to see N’s boarding and painting of the socle, and said again that he would give him a job. (He had previously been impressed with his boarding-in of the ceiling, and surprised he wasn’t in the trade!)
I still haven’t tried the shower - I thought I should before letting guests loose in it, but it has taken so many coats of paint on the socle, that we are always waiting for it to dry! N is going back to Paris this afternoon in order to fetch the guests from the Gare du Nord on Saturday, so I should have a chance to try the shower and paint the water pipes along the wall. (Probably in reverse order!)
Yesterday afternoon I planted more plants which N had brought from Bernay, when he went to exchange his dead apricot tree for a healthier peach tree, which has been planted against the wall at the end of the vegetable garden. He brought two dozen petunias, which I have put in the two metal urns either side of the steps down to the wine cellar and in a terra cotta trough on the window of the grande pièce, and some more violas, in a smaller trough on the other windowsill, and in two hanging flower pots on the wall of the outhouse. These took a long time to hang, but it was all worth it as they look magnificent against the brown beams and white plaster.
Other news in brief:
N has still not received his money for the Italian house sale; although he has managed to set up some sort of regular contact with a financial adviser at Saint-Denis, who he refers to as Sambo, as his name is very similar. It seems that the money only left Italy on 14 April…….
Before the computer problems I had got as far as the letter C in the re-typing of the Lexique (French/English dictionary of property terms) Have not managed to do any since, and think I will take it with me to Paris next week, where I hope there will be more time.
We received a phone call from an acquaintance at Saint-Denis asking if N could help an English friend of his with some musical terms needed for the subtitling of a film for the Cannes Festival! This has since been done, and N has invited the English friend (also called Nigel) to lunch at Saint-Denis with wife and baby later on in May.
I have finished reading « Carmen » by Prosper Mérimée and am now reading the next story in the book - as I haven’t anything else to read - set in the Eglise Saint-Roch in Paris, where I went to several free concerts in the autumn!
Saturday 29 April 2006
Since N left on Thursday afternoon I have done a tremendous amount of cleaning and tidying; given the pipes in the downstairs washroom two coats of paint, successfully tried out the loo/broyeur and the new shower, and fitted in a nice relaxing trip to the hairdresser. The new heating installation was finally finished on Thursday afternoon, and it was good to have some heating back on again, as by that time it had turned much colder. It took Guillaume some time to check all the radiators had started up again, and he needed to get to some pipes in the Mystery Room behind the linen cupboard, so between us we took all the sheets and bedcovers out and removed the shelves. He laughed when I told him we had twenty bedspreads, and asked if we were afraid of being cold. He, Monsieur A and another chap whom I assumed was a heater expert, explained briefly how to turn it on and off, up and down, and said they would be back to fit and explain the thermostat next week. I said we would be in Paris until Friday. Emanuel was due back to finish - at last! - only few things in the verandah and what is left of the garden lamps now they have been removed, but did not turn up.
N is due back this afternoon with the visitors - my brother Steve, sister Issy and younger daughter Caroline. I have done a lot of food shopping from the traiteur, boulangerie vegetable stall and spent yesterday afternoon cooking. Have also finally got round to another important task - a letter to Monsieur Urset our estate agent, who we promised to invite to lunch with his wife.
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
Sunday 16 April 2006 (Easter Sunday)
We drove back here to La Neuve-Lyre last Monday afternoon; very eager to see what had been happening in the garden during the ten days or so we had been away. No blossom on either the cherry tree or the apple tree yet, but the mystery shrub with furry buds is now full of white flowers, rather like a magnolia, and there is a wonderful round yellow forsythia bush. The main development was the grass, which had grown very long and lush, and N gave it its first cut with the new lawnmower on Tuesday and Wednesday, which made a tremendous difference to the look of the whole garden. All the daffodils are now out; some narcissi still in bud, and more primulas in various pale colours, and lots of wild violets, including dark pink ones and a patch of white ones in the corner of the front garden. There are several pink flowers on the camellia, and fat buds on the rhododendrons and hydrangeas.
What we expected to happen as soon as we arrived at la Neuve-Lyre was a phone call from Monsieur A telling us that the new heater was ready for installation, but so far we have heard nothing and have decided to leave it until after the Easter weekend before phoning him.
As always, there seems so much to do when we get here that it is difficult to know where to start, and while N was in the garden in beautiful spring sunshine on Tuesday and Wednesday I caught up with the cleaning and finished organising the kitchen. I also went out for the first time as far as the Post Office (to post family Easter cards) without my coat! As I had left last time as soon as the artisan had finished, there was hoovering to do where he had been working by the garden door and the back stairs, and after all the drilling in the kitchen a fine dust everywhere, so after hoovering I washed the floors in the kitchen dining room and salon. The kitchen is now quite finished apart from the curtains - the spice and herb jars are all filled and labelled and on their shelves, the towel rack up and in use, the kitchen roll holder in position, the olive oil dispenser filled and ready, and a wooden shelf we bought on Tuesday has had two coats of varnish and is now on the wall under the cupboards holding the storage jars I optimistically bought back in November at IKEA.
And I am so enjoying using this kitchen! Cooking and preparing meals in a civilised way as opposed to picnicking in the dining room or opening things quickly out of packets. So far I have baked cookies, made soup and cooked local asparagus, and today we have had roast lamb with roast potatoes, rosemary and mint from the garden and home-made individual treacle sponge puddings for lunch.
But I digress. On Tuesday morning we went into Bernay as N wanted to go to the France Telecom shop because he was still unable to access his e-mail messages here. They weren’t a lot of help, and merely suggested we phone the service help line, so after a lot of wasted time N reloaded the disc. Anyway, this gave us another opportunity to visit the garden centre at Bernay, where N bought vast quantities of canes for beans and tomatoes, which kept falling all over the place, more artichokes and tomato plants, and I got some very inexpensive little cream pansies (1 euro for 6) for the front window boxes. He asked after the black cat, and they pointed her out, lying in the sun on the top of a huge pile of sacks of barbecue fuel, only the ends of her black paws visible. We also went to the supermarket where we bought the afore-mentioned lamb and some fish to eat on Good Friday with home-made parsley sauce (parsley also from the garden) We were recommended an unheard-of African fish called Panga; white and firm and boneless or so it seemed, anyway very good. At Monsieur Bricolage we got the shelf for the kitchen; nicely shaped and with wooden brackets, all in a kit.
In the afternoon it was very warm, and I enjoyed planting my pansies in pots to go in white wrought-iron troughs I had brought from Ainsworth Street (originally bought in Saint-Denis.) They look very good on the windowsills of the salon and study, visible from the road. I had over-calculated and had a lot left over, which I planted in two concrete urns, also from Ainsworth Street, outside the wine cellar. What I really enjoyed was being able to do this straight away in the middle of a Tuesday afternoon and not have to wait - as in other years - until after work or the weekend when I had a spare moment, by which time it was usually raining. N spent nearly all day in the garden and has now almost finished digging the entire vegetable plot, and has planted several rows already, and from time to time consults his seed collection, neatly filed in a box on the table in the verandah. The grass cuttings more than filled the compost bin, but the level is now going down.
Monday 17 April 2006
By Saturday the weather had reverted to winter again, and we had quite the strongest winds we have had since we’ve been here. The badly fixed window in the salon (waiting for Monsieur P the carpenter) kept blowing open, and we later discovered that the heavy iron weight propping back the bedroom shutter had blown across the balcony. The pine trees higher than the house leaned over dangerously. In the afternoon we lit the fire, as the principal event of Saturday was that at long last Marie-Antoinette came to tea! After weeks of not seeing her at all, or only from a distance or in a shop, we finally ran into each other on the pavement outside the antique shop, and I was able to invite her, and pleased because she said she was spending Easter on her own. I said there were lots of things we needed to ask her, and she replied that as she had been living in her house since 1967 she should know most things about the village. I spent a long time reflecting on this afterwards; I have lived in so many places doing so many different things since 1967 that it was difficult to imagine being in the same place all that time. I later discovered that she is four years older than me. She said she often went walking or cycling with a group of women in the village, and yes, she would take me along too.
I showed her round the house - and we both showed her the garden - which she had last visited about 25 years ago, and she told us various things about the previous occupants, and how the house and garden used to be. She said she had seen me sewing; the machine is in the window which looks out on to the road. I explained about all the curtains, and she said more than once what a lot of work we had to do here; we kept insisting we quite enjoyed it. N asked how we got rid of large items of rubbish (there are lots of pieces of old iron in the hay loft) but it turns out we have to drive them to Rugles. Not easy. We asked about good restaurants too, but are not sure now we can remember all the answers. N was surprised that she didn’t think much of the present traiteur; apparently the former one was much better.
On Sunday it was cloudy but dry and we spent a lot of the time preparing, eating and recovering from our Easter lunch, but in the afternoon went to an antiques fair at La Ferrière-sur-Risle. I had seen several posters for these fairs - about one per month - since we have been here, and lots of other references to La Ferrière-sur-Risle, which is not on the bus route, and now we have finally visited it. (The Risle is the river which runs through La Neuve-Lyre; La Ferrière-sur-Risle is about 9 kilometres from here) The fair was under « Les Halles » an ancient beamed roof with open sides in the middle of the very pretty village. There was a lot to look at, mostly expensive but very interesting, and I managed to buy three items from the « everything for 0.50 euro » stall. The rest of the day we spent reading in the salon and having supper. N finally finished reading « Lark Rise to Candleford » which I had given him for Christmas after he had completed his family history and wondered what sort of lives his village ancestors lived. I have finished reading Benjamin Constant and am now reading « Carmen » , the original story by Prosper Merimée. After supper we watched an excellent programme on Arte (the German/French channel) about Michelangelo, which I had previously seen in Britain. Once you got used to the idea of Michelangelo speaking German (no stranger than English, really) it was very good, and full of views of places we had visited in Florence and Rome.
I also found a new telephone directory had been delivered, and I am in it! As N says, this is the first time I have been in a foreign phone directory; put like that it sounds like an achievement. The directory is for the department of Eure (department number 27) and divided alphabetically into towns and villages, with pages and pages for somewhere like Evreux, but barely a third of a page for La Neuve-Lyre. With all the names and addresses set out, it’s easy to see who one’s neighbours are.
This morning I left a phone message for Monsieur A - obviously taking Easter Monday off - and went to the local market. It was larger and busier than I had ever seen before; not sure if this was because of Easter, or if it gets busier as the season progresses - there were certainly far fewer stalls in January. N had asked me to look out for lettuce plants, of which there were several varieties, so I took some back and suggested he come and have a look at the stall selling all sorts of bedding plants, herbs and vegetables. He came along and bought some reddish-coloured lettuce plants, and little cauliflower and cabbage plants. (When I saw the cabbage plants had a desire to begin singing « Savez-vous planter les choux? ») There was also a large haberdashery, wool, embroidery, buttons and beads stall - I looked for rufflette tape, which was the only thing in that line I currently require, but there wasn‘t any. Wonder if it will be there every week? I saw a jewellery stall which wasn’t there before, and one selling slightly more fashionable jumpers than the usual basic one. I bought a lot of good fruit & veg. (including asparagus) from a stall I hadn‘t seen before. Another first - I heard people speaking English in the little supermarket. Decided on consideration not to speak to them.
N planted his lettuces very decoratively in alternating colours along the edge of the rose garden, beside the paved path outside the dining room and the grande pièce. They look very good now but, as he says, once we eat them it will spoil the pattern. The cabbages and cauliflowers have all gone in rows in the vegetable plot; almost all dug over now, and filling up with rows of plants and seedlings. I cycled bottles and papers and the old phone directory to the recycling area down the back road, and - at Ns’ suggestion - cleaned all the blackened leaves of the camellia plant by the water butt. This took a long time, and I was quite sure I had better things to do, but suppose this is what being The Lady of The Camellias entails. I bet Dumas’ heroine didn’t have to clean hers with a bowl of washing-up water.
Wednesday 19 April 2006
The vegetable garden is now all dug, apart from a permanent bonfire area left at one end, and a « bean corner » ready with canes for them to climb. Four varieties of potatoes have been planted, and there is just a little space left now for other things to be come later on. N has gone back to Paris this afternoon for an appointment with the bank tomorrow, as ever since he received the cheque for the sale of the Italian apartment and safely deposited it in a branch of his own bank as soon as he was over the border, there has been no sign of it in his account. Given that both countries are in the Euro Zone, and the possibility of electronic transfer, this seems rather a long time - N says it would have been quicker if a man on a horse had ridden to Paris with the money in a bag. It has also been very difficult to get any information, or any reply at all, from his local bank, so the appointment is a good sign.
Monsieur A has just rung this afternoon, and the new heating installation (plus new electric water heater, and fixing of non-working radiator) will start on Monday. This will give us time to clear the boiler room and verandah on Sunday, and should be finished in time before our Family Visitors arrive on the following Saturday.
I have finished and hung the red kitchen curtains; having been alternatively pleased and not sure about them. We certainly need a longer pole,; hopefully N will call at Leroy Merlin on Friday on his way back and get one along with other things. I decided not to try and mitre the corners with the red border, but sewed the side strips first and then the tops and bottoms. What I am pleased with is the similarity of the two fabrics; I bought the plain red from memory, but the weight and weave is almost the same and the red a good match. I shall give myself a short break before starting on the next ones - pale blue for the guest bedroom. The first step has been to wash the four pale blue single sheets I am going to use; so far 3 out of 4 have been washed.
N said yesterday that we had visitors; they turned out to be swallows (or possibly swifts) which he thinks are nesting in what we thought were two abandoned nests on the rafters of the garage. The nests looked fairly permanent, and now look as though they might have been refurbished a bit. There are so many birds in this garden, and we both feel we could do with bird book (or two, one in French and one in English) to identify exactly what we see. We have also discovered a lot of what appear to be small black bees coming out of holes in the ground on the front lawn, and N has been attacking them with an anti-wasp spray. The other thing in the garden we are looking at a lot at the moment is the cherry tree - the blossom is coming very gradually. Weather is now alternately cloudy and sunny, but dry, and the grass will need cutting again soon.
Indoors however, things are not so good; problems with the loo « broyeur » which is flushing itself back up into the wash basin; not nice at all. We have sent an e-mail to the Artisan, as this too needs to be sorted before our Visitors arrive.
We drove back here to La Neuve-Lyre last Monday afternoon; very eager to see what had been happening in the garden during the ten days or so we had been away. No blossom on either the cherry tree or the apple tree yet, but the mystery shrub with furry buds is now full of white flowers, rather like a magnolia, and there is a wonderful round yellow forsythia bush. The main development was the grass, which had grown very long and lush, and N gave it its first cut with the new lawnmower on Tuesday and Wednesday, which made a tremendous difference to the look of the whole garden. All the daffodils are now out; some narcissi still in bud, and more primulas in various pale colours, and lots of wild violets, including dark pink ones and a patch of white ones in the corner of the front garden. There are several pink flowers on the camellia, and fat buds on the rhododendrons and hydrangeas.
What we expected to happen as soon as we arrived at la Neuve-Lyre was a phone call from Monsieur A telling us that the new heater was ready for installation, but so far we have heard nothing and have decided to leave it until after the Easter weekend before phoning him.
As always, there seems so much to do when we get here that it is difficult to know where to start, and while N was in the garden in beautiful spring sunshine on Tuesday and Wednesday I caught up with the cleaning and finished organising the kitchen. I also went out for the first time as far as the Post Office (to post family Easter cards) without my coat! As I had left last time as soon as the artisan had finished, there was hoovering to do where he had been working by the garden door and the back stairs, and after all the drilling in the kitchen a fine dust everywhere, so after hoovering I washed the floors in the kitchen dining room and salon. The kitchen is now quite finished apart from the curtains - the spice and herb jars are all filled and labelled and on their shelves, the towel rack up and in use, the kitchen roll holder in position, the olive oil dispenser filled and ready, and a wooden shelf we bought on Tuesday has had two coats of varnish and is now on the wall under the cupboards holding the storage jars I optimistically bought back in November at IKEA.
And I am so enjoying using this kitchen! Cooking and preparing meals in a civilised way as opposed to picnicking in the dining room or opening things quickly out of packets. So far I have baked cookies, made soup and cooked local asparagus, and today we have had roast lamb with roast potatoes, rosemary and mint from the garden and home-made individual treacle sponge puddings for lunch.
But I digress. On Tuesday morning we went into Bernay as N wanted to go to the France Telecom shop because he was still unable to access his e-mail messages here. They weren’t a lot of help, and merely suggested we phone the service help line, so after a lot of wasted time N reloaded the disc. Anyway, this gave us another opportunity to visit the garden centre at Bernay, where N bought vast quantities of canes for beans and tomatoes, which kept falling all over the place, more artichokes and tomato plants, and I got some very inexpensive little cream pansies (1 euro for 6) for the front window boxes. He asked after the black cat, and they pointed her out, lying in the sun on the top of a huge pile of sacks of barbecue fuel, only the ends of her black paws visible. We also went to the supermarket where we bought the afore-mentioned lamb and some fish to eat on Good Friday with home-made parsley sauce (parsley also from the garden) We were recommended an unheard-of African fish called Panga; white and firm and boneless or so it seemed, anyway very good. At Monsieur Bricolage we got the shelf for the kitchen; nicely shaped and with wooden brackets, all in a kit.
In the afternoon it was very warm, and I enjoyed planting my pansies in pots to go in white wrought-iron troughs I had brought from Ainsworth Street (originally bought in Saint-Denis.) They look very good on the windowsills of the salon and study, visible from the road. I had over-calculated and had a lot left over, which I planted in two concrete urns, also from Ainsworth Street, outside the wine cellar. What I really enjoyed was being able to do this straight away in the middle of a Tuesday afternoon and not have to wait - as in other years - until after work or the weekend when I had a spare moment, by which time it was usually raining. N spent nearly all day in the garden and has now almost finished digging the entire vegetable plot, and has planted several rows already, and from time to time consults his seed collection, neatly filed in a box on the table in the verandah. The grass cuttings more than filled the compost bin, but the level is now going down.
Monday 17 April 2006
By Saturday the weather had reverted to winter again, and we had quite the strongest winds we have had since we’ve been here. The badly fixed window in the salon (waiting for Monsieur P the carpenter) kept blowing open, and we later discovered that the heavy iron weight propping back the bedroom shutter had blown across the balcony. The pine trees higher than the house leaned over dangerously. In the afternoon we lit the fire, as the principal event of Saturday was that at long last Marie-Antoinette came to tea! After weeks of not seeing her at all, or only from a distance or in a shop, we finally ran into each other on the pavement outside the antique shop, and I was able to invite her, and pleased because she said she was spending Easter on her own. I said there were lots of things we needed to ask her, and she replied that as she had been living in her house since 1967 she should know most things about the village. I spent a long time reflecting on this afterwards; I have lived in so many places doing so many different things since 1967 that it was difficult to imagine being in the same place all that time. I later discovered that she is four years older than me. She said she often went walking or cycling with a group of women in the village, and yes, she would take me along too.
I showed her round the house - and we both showed her the garden - which she had last visited about 25 years ago, and she told us various things about the previous occupants, and how the house and garden used to be. She said she had seen me sewing; the machine is in the window which looks out on to the road. I explained about all the curtains, and she said more than once what a lot of work we had to do here; we kept insisting we quite enjoyed it. N asked how we got rid of large items of rubbish (there are lots of pieces of old iron in the hay loft) but it turns out we have to drive them to Rugles. Not easy. We asked about good restaurants too, but are not sure now we can remember all the answers. N was surprised that she didn’t think much of the present traiteur; apparently the former one was much better.
On Sunday it was cloudy but dry and we spent a lot of the time preparing, eating and recovering from our Easter lunch, but in the afternoon went to an antiques fair at La Ferrière-sur-Risle. I had seen several posters for these fairs - about one per month - since we have been here, and lots of other references to La Ferrière-sur-Risle, which is not on the bus route, and now we have finally visited it. (The Risle is the river which runs through La Neuve-Lyre; La Ferrière-sur-Risle is about 9 kilometres from here) The fair was under « Les Halles » an ancient beamed roof with open sides in the middle of the very pretty village. There was a lot to look at, mostly expensive but very interesting, and I managed to buy three items from the « everything for 0.50 euro » stall. The rest of the day we spent reading in the salon and having supper. N finally finished reading « Lark Rise to Candleford » which I had given him for Christmas after he had completed his family history and wondered what sort of lives his village ancestors lived. I have finished reading Benjamin Constant and am now reading « Carmen » , the original story by Prosper Merimée. After supper we watched an excellent programme on Arte (the German/French channel) about Michelangelo, which I had previously seen in Britain. Once you got used to the idea of Michelangelo speaking German (no stranger than English, really) it was very good, and full of views of places we had visited in Florence and Rome.
I also found a new telephone directory had been delivered, and I am in it! As N says, this is the first time I have been in a foreign phone directory; put like that it sounds like an achievement. The directory is for the department of Eure (department number 27) and divided alphabetically into towns and villages, with pages and pages for somewhere like Evreux, but barely a third of a page for La Neuve-Lyre. With all the names and addresses set out, it’s easy to see who one’s neighbours are.
This morning I left a phone message for Monsieur A - obviously taking Easter Monday off - and went to the local market. It was larger and busier than I had ever seen before; not sure if this was because of Easter, or if it gets busier as the season progresses - there were certainly far fewer stalls in January. N had asked me to look out for lettuce plants, of which there were several varieties, so I took some back and suggested he come and have a look at the stall selling all sorts of bedding plants, herbs and vegetables. He came along and bought some reddish-coloured lettuce plants, and little cauliflower and cabbage plants. (When I saw the cabbage plants had a desire to begin singing « Savez-vous planter les choux? ») There was also a large haberdashery, wool, embroidery, buttons and beads stall - I looked for rufflette tape, which was the only thing in that line I currently require, but there wasn‘t any. Wonder if it will be there every week? I saw a jewellery stall which wasn’t there before, and one selling slightly more fashionable jumpers than the usual basic one. I bought a lot of good fruit & veg. (including asparagus) from a stall I hadn‘t seen before. Another first - I heard people speaking English in the little supermarket. Decided on consideration not to speak to them.
N planted his lettuces very decoratively in alternating colours along the edge of the rose garden, beside the paved path outside the dining room and the grande pièce. They look very good now but, as he says, once we eat them it will spoil the pattern. The cabbages and cauliflowers have all gone in rows in the vegetable plot; almost all dug over now, and filling up with rows of plants and seedlings. I cycled bottles and papers and the old phone directory to the recycling area down the back road, and - at Ns’ suggestion - cleaned all the blackened leaves of the camellia plant by the water butt. This took a long time, and I was quite sure I had better things to do, but suppose this is what being The Lady of The Camellias entails. I bet Dumas’ heroine didn’t have to clean hers with a bowl of washing-up water.
Wednesday 19 April 2006
The vegetable garden is now all dug, apart from a permanent bonfire area left at one end, and a « bean corner » ready with canes for them to climb. Four varieties of potatoes have been planted, and there is just a little space left now for other things to be come later on. N has gone back to Paris this afternoon for an appointment with the bank tomorrow, as ever since he received the cheque for the sale of the Italian apartment and safely deposited it in a branch of his own bank as soon as he was over the border, there has been no sign of it in his account. Given that both countries are in the Euro Zone, and the possibility of electronic transfer, this seems rather a long time - N says it would have been quicker if a man on a horse had ridden to Paris with the money in a bag. It has also been very difficult to get any information, or any reply at all, from his local bank, so the appointment is a good sign.
Monsieur A has just rung this afternoon, and the new heating installation (plus new electric water heater, and fixing of non-working radiator) will start on Monday. This will give us time to clear the boiler room and verandah on Sunday, and should be finished in time before our Family Visitors arrive on the following Saturday.
I have finished and hung the red kitchen curtains; having been alternatively pleased and not sure about them. We certainly need a longer pole,; hopefully N will call at Leroy Merlin on Friday on his way back and get one along with other things. I decided not to try and mitre the corners with the red border, but sewed the side strips first and then the tops and bottoms. What I am pleased with is the similarity of the two fabrics; I bought the plain red from memory, but the weight and weave is almost the same and the red a good match. I shall give myself a short break before starting on the next ones - pale blue for the guest bedroom. The first step has been to wash the four pale blue single sheets I am going to use; so far 3 out of 4 have been washed.
N said yesterday that we had visitors; they turned out to be swallows (or possibly swifts) which he thinks are nesting in what we thought were two abandoned nests on the rafters of the garage. The nests looked fairly permanent, and now look as though they might have been refurbished a bit. There are so many birds in this garden, and we both feel we could do with bird book (or two, one in French and one in English) to identify exactly what we see. We have also discovered a lot of what appear to be small black bees coming out of holes in the ground on the front lawn, and N has been attacking them with an anti-wasp spray. The other thing in the garden we are looking at a lot at the moment is the cherry tree - the blossom is coming very gradually. Weather is now alternately cloudy and sunny, but dry, and the grass will need cutting again soon.
Indoors however, things are not so good; problems with the loo « broyeur » which is flushing itself back up into the wash basin; not nice at all. We have sent an e-mail to the Artisan, as this too needs to be sorted before our Visitors arrive.
Thursday, April 13, 2006
Wednesday 5 April 2006
Before leaving La Neuve-Lyre last week we arranged for another delivery of heating fuel, as the level had gone down to 50. It was a measure of how far we had come that this now seemed so straightforward and easy, unlike the first time I ordered it from Saint-Denis not really having much idea of what I was doing, and having to make sure we arrived there in time for the delivery from Le Relais de Amis on a bitterly cold December morning. It was brought by the same driver, with the same Johnny Hallyday-iana all over the front of his lorry, but whereas last time he had to fill the tank in the garage perched on top of a cane chair with the seat out, the chair is now nicely re-caned and in position by the phone, and he was able to use a sturdy stepladder which had since arrived from Italy. Progress!
We also received a bill from Monsieur A, only the second one ever, and as expected fairly substantial, including lots of electrical work – which is almost all finished now; only a few outhouses and the garden lamps – and the socle, but, strangely enough, not the chimney sweeping. Perhaps that will be included with the fitting of the new heating system. Before I left I put the cheque in the post, together with a letter we had drafted together, thanking him and saying that we would be away until 10 April, after which we would be ready for the installation of the new heating, which had been scheduled for April. We think it should only take about four days, unlike Lapeyre! and will obviously be less in the house; mainly in the boiler room and veranda and garden.
Just before leaving on Friday morning I took several photos of the new kitchen and bathrooms, which should be ready here in Paris in a day or two. I caught the bus as planned – far fuller than usual! – but found when I got to Evreux station that the train I had intended to catch only ran on Saturdays; I don't think I was the only one to make this mistake. This meant I had an hour and a half to wait instead of half an hour, so went across to the Hôtel de l'Ouest and had a long chicken salad sandwich in the bar. Fortunately I had my book with me: "Adolphe" by Benjamin Constant, which I had studied at university and recently re-found in N's library; written in 1828 and a poignant and agonising account of the breakdown of a love affair. It is so full of anguish that I can only read it in small doses. By the time the train came it was very bright and sunny, and the platform was very crowded – perhaps people in Normandy only come out in the spring?
When I arrived at Saint-Denis N had only just arrived from meeting Clare and Charlotte. They stayed until just after Sunday lunch and it was the first time for a long while that I had been in the company of an almost two-year-old, which I found very entertaining, unlike N who thinks granddaughters are only of any use once they are old enough to play duets. On Saturday afternoon we all went to the local park where we found swings and slides and toys to ride on, and the weather was even warmer, and I thought perhaps I had brought the wrong clothes. As it was I brought a big coat and a short coat and think I will leave the thick winter coat here, and certainly didn't need to bring boots at all. The weather forecast keeps mentioning what a long cold winter this has been; it's hard to believe it is finally over. On Sunday morning however it rained hard while we were going round the market, but we found the Vietnamese artist at his portrait stall and introduced our visitors and I said I would like to come and have a sketch portrait done but he said he was only there on Sundays and next Sunday I have to be at the St John Passion rehearsal by 10.00 in the morning, so can't see how it is possible at the moment. Fortunately the rain had stopped by the time C & C left; N went on the train with them as far as the Gare du Nord; and after I had cleared lunch I collapsed on the sofa with a cup of tea. I found – as N had said – that with digital TV we now receive Tele Monte Carlo and every afternoon there are continuous episodes of Poirot and Morse, so was very happy watching one of the former. (Poirot seems much more logical in French, but Morse not at all. N does not like Morse as he thinks he treats his sergeant so badly.)
On Monday there was much clearing up to be done; wiping of sticky finger marks and retrieving of pieces of Fuzzy Felt from under the sofa, not to mention bed changing and hoovering up remains of food from under both kitchen and dining room tables. N was very busy getting to the end of his history of the Ursuline Convent, so after lunch I went into Paris firstly to FNAC at Châtelet to take several films to be developed and to look for slide mounts for microfilms he had been sent by archives. I then went on to the branch of Leroy Merlin we had found by the Pompidou Centre, and had a very good look round, and bought a square basket to go under my new rectangular wash basin, plus tooth brush holder and soap dispenser to go on top. (No luck however with bathroom bins, toilet roll holders or curtain poles.) I enjoyed watching all that was going on front of the Pompidou Centre, and remembering as always that the first sunny days in Paris mean hordes of people strolling up and down and sitting outside cafés. Perhaps even more so than usual, given the long hard winter. Once back at the Forum des Halles shopping centre at Châtelet I looked briefly in Habitat and in Muji, where I found a very elegant simple rail of hooks for kitchen towels, which sticks on the wall, (no need for the drill!) and then came across a shop I had never been in before called Jacqueline Riu and inspired by the sunshine, bought a lovely dark orange tiered cotton skirt, just the right length.
Tuesday was a day to avoid going into Paris as there was another general strike – the first one last Tuesday had no effect whatsoever in Normandy – so we ended up doing an awful lot of local shopping. In the morning I went to the market, quite unlike Sunday, beautifully dry and sunny, and bought fish, garlic, spices, very cheap brown and gold satin cushion covers for the Italian sofa at LNL, and then on to Carrefour for an extension lead/adaptor so that I can use my Cambridge ironing board in the bathroom at Saint-Denis instead of having to clear the kitchen table. (And listen to the radio at the same time! At LNL I am now using the Italian ironing board, which is very wide and suitable for ironing large sheets and king size quilt covers, and also has a sleeve board and a useful shelf underneath.) The only local evidence of the strike at Saint-Denis was at the nursery school round the corner; a large grève notice on the door and a pizza delivery drawing up outside as I went past.
In the afternoon we planned to go to the Quai des Marques – a local warehouse full of cut price famous brands, just the other side of the river - to replenish N's wardrobe; always an complicated business as he has no idea what size he takes in anything, and has to rely on an ancient Marks & Spencer list in his wallet. In the event he took a wrong turning and we ended up going to Castorama (DIY) and Auchan (supermarket) first. In Castorama we bought wallpaper for the back hall, 20 rolls of a nice vague cream pattern; curtain pole, fittings and rings for the kitchen window in a natural wood that N suggests I paint in the same red as the kitchen stool (but I am not convinced) and two very simple white toilet roll holders for our two very simple new white loos. I found a bathroom bin in Auchan, along with all the usual bulky things we get when we go there; toilet rolls, kitchen rolls, milk and wine. N was very pleased to find larger than usual blank CDs for reproducing his Ursuline history. I remembered that the last time we had been to Auchan it had snowed hard and N had trouble identifying the car when we came out.
We did eventually get to the Quai des Marques, at about five o'clock, and N bought a wonderfully rejuvenating blue denim coloured cotton suit at my suggestion, along with the trousers and shirts he had originally gone for. After having carried all this, plus the heavy stuff from Auchan, from the garage all the way up to the apartment, we sat down for a very welcome aperitif, and then a wonderful dinner – one of my favourites – salmon and asparagus with hollandaise sauce and rosé wine, followed by strawberries.
Thursday 6 April 2006
Also since arriving here I have had my eyebrows shaped, less drastically than last time I'm pleased to say, and have done my original Pilates video once so far, but intend to do it again on Friday. It didn't seem so dull now it was less familiar, but I was certainly stiff about the hips. Once I get back to LNL must establish a proper exercise regime, which should be easier since the DVD player works and now that there won't be workmen arriving every morning at 8.00, well not for very long. I have also got up to date with washing and ironing, and put aside a bag of sheets to wash and dry in the Normandy wind and sunshine, as opposed to an expensive Saint-Denis laundry. I have listened to my St John Passion Chorales several times while reading the German words; despite N saying that it sounds like Christmas whenever I do it.
Yesterday afternoon I went to the material shops in Montmartre, and Sacré Coeur looked beautiful against the sunny blue sky. I spent a long time in a fabric department store called Reine; six floors with different sorts of fabric on each, dressmaking, furnishings and haberdashery. On the ground floor with the dress fabrics there were little shop models in the centre of each display dressed in a variety of exquisitely made tiny garments – dresses, wedding outfits, trousers, ball gowns, suits, each about two feet high. I was gazing at these and thinking how much I would have loved them when I was a teenager when a lady customer behind me said weren't they wonderful, ces petits mannequins? And that she always admired them whenever she came.
I bought white lining for the curtains I am proposing to make out of four pale blue single sheets (part of the Italian inheritance) for the spare blue and yellow bedroom and finally found four blue and gold tie backs to hold them – I have been searching for these for some time and until now whenever I found anything suitable there were never as many as four. I also got some plain red cotton as on examining my tomato material discovered there was even less than I thought, and now plan to put a red border around each curtain. (Perhaps not with a red rail now….) I also got three buttons to replace a broken set on one of N's jackets, which involved taking a tube of buttons to a vendeuse, who wrote me out the inevitable little ticket and put three buttons in a little basket, which I took along to the caisse in order to pay; the princely sum of 1 euro 80.
A new project: about fifteen years ago N published a dictionary of useful terms for English speakers buying property in France, and when we began searching for The House in Normandy I even started to make a list of important omissions. We also began thinking that with the rise of British TV programmes on buying French property it should perhaps be re-issued, or at least brought to the attention of the relevant TV producers. Last week N heard from a new editor who wants to bring out another edition, and as it was originally compiled on some long dead computer system, the first thing to be done (by me!) is the re-typing of the existing text in Word on the computer at LNL.
Friday 7 April 2006
Yesterday I received an e-mail from the organisers of the St John Passion with a last minute change of venue for the Saturday rehearsals - probably due to the Sorbonne being “blocked” by striking students - from a place I didn't know some way away to the Salle Gaveau. I have been there a couple of times to see N play with the RATP orchestra, and in addition to being only about 20 minutes down our metro line, it is a beautiful hall with Proustian connections.
I went into Paris to collect our photos from FNAC in the afternoon; lots of the house and garden at LNL and I am especially pleased with the pictures of the new kitchen. I looked at shops in the Forum des Halles again, and went as far as BHV and bought several bits and pieces for the new kitchen. It is such a pleasure to be out in the Paris streets in the sunshine! In the evening I went to the local chorale; the first time since before Christmas, as since the week when the chef was ill, I have only been in Saint-Denis during the February holidays, or if on a Thursday, when something else was happening. I was especially pleased as having not sung for so long, I felt ill prepared for the weekend.
They seemed pleased to see me, although there were not that many of them there, and several well known faces were missing. We started with voice exercises as usual, which did me good, and then went on to a song we had been learning when I was last with them, and which they didn't seem to have worked at much since. They had given a concert at Stains – the one which was postponed because of the riots in November – wearing red, I was shown the photos! The next concert will be in Saint-Denis on 25 June, with a chamber orchestra; we are due in Cambridge just before that, so don't know if I will be back in time. We spent the bulk of the rehearsal learning a Credo by Vivaldi; very simple even for my basic sight-reading skills, and very beautiful. For the next two weeks there are Easter holidays, and it starts again on Thursday 27.
This afternoon we have done yet more shopping; at a garden centre called Truffaut where most of what N bought was for the window boxes and little garden here in Saint-Denis. He has done a lot of work on it this week and it's looking very good. We also went to Leroy Merlin for La Neuve-Lyre shopping and got curtain poles and related accessories for the spare bedroom - I really think these are the last! – more white paint, red picture frames for the kitchen, kitchen roll holder, wood to border the socle under the shower and glue to stick it, and wood to repair the bottom panels of the French windows in our bedroom.
Wednesday 12 April 2006
The whole of last weekend was taken up with the Saint John Passion – an amazing experience. The Saturday afternoon rehearsal at the Salle Gaveau was due to start at 3.00; I got there very early and enjoyed watching the others arrive. The members of the « choir for a day » were much like singers in Cambridge, lots of women in their fifties and sixties - only more chic and bien coiffée - and fewer men. As we all had name badges I enjoyed seeing what everyone was called; many of the women seemed to be Marie-Something. We all sat in the stalls; the orchestra and soloists were on the stage - the orchestra with their backs to us - and the Sorbonne choirs, two or three of them I think, were in the galleries. The first event was the news that the original Evangelist was ill and had been replaced at the last moment by an exuberant young Norwegian.
The singing went well - much more easy then when practising at home with N and his viola, more slowly for a start, and surrounded by excellent singers. I sat next to two sixty-something sisters, one of whom had taught English, who were very friendly. There was a brief supper break before the evening rehearsal, during which I made a quick dash to a brasserie I had seen on the way in, on the opposite corner. This was a wise move, as it filled up quickly with choir and orchestra, and there was not room for all, even conductor and soloists who wandered in late. I had a large salad and a glass of red wine and watched everybody else in between reading another novella by Benjamin Constant called Le Cahier Rouge, in the same volume as Adolphe, and not nearly so melodramatic. I felt it would make an excellent film. (The story, not the restaurant…)
The evening rehearsal was very enjoyable; the soloists were excellent and I became so involved with the German recitative and arias that it was a shock each time when the rehearsal picked up again in French. I remembered that I liked the German version because the disciples are referred to as « Jünge » (lads) and I like the part where Pilate says « Was ich geschrieben habe, das ich habe geschrieben. » We finished earlier than the scheduled time of 10.00; our conductor said he was thinking of those of us who lived out in the suburbs who would have an early start the next day. I realised this included me! By the time I had taken the metro home, and gone to bed it was time to get up again and leave at 8.45 the next morning; a bit like commuting.
The venue for Sunday’s rehearsal and performance was the Cirque d’Hiver Bouglione, a place I had never heard of let alone visited, in the 11th arondissement which I don’t know at all. I discovered during the course of the day that it had been built as a permanent winter circus about 150 years ago, but that in 1934 had been bought by the Bouglione family, who had owned it ever since. Inside it was full of faded glory, painted red and gold everywhere, with old posters of lion tamers and human canon balls and trapeze artists, and there were wonderful indoor stables with red and gold painted stalls, but no longer sign of any horses. I can’t imagine how animals lived or came in and out in the centre of a city.
The rehearsal was due to start at 10.00 in the morning, but it was about 11.40 before we actually started singing. Those of us who arrived early went in by the stage door as directed, and made our way through a smaller theatre to the main arena and gazed in amazement; a woman next to me said she had not been there for forty years, when she used to be taken every year for a Christmas treat by her father’s work. We were all ushered out again while a lighting engineer was hoisted up onto a rope, and then spent a long time hanging around in the bar, holding onto coats and bags, (the lucky ones found seats) and doing some warm-up breathing and singing exercises, which made me think of the exercises before a Fun Run.
Eventually we got into our seats in the auditorium, shaped rather like a mini Albert Hall, with the orchestra and soloists in the centre, the Sorbonne choirs immediately behind and the « choir for a day » high up around half of the sharply tiered seating; the remaining half was reserved for the audience. Both I and my two companions - the sisters I had found again - thought we had sung far better on the Saturday; it was very difficult to hear anyone else around us, and also difficult to see our music as the lighting was not good. There was also the problem of standing and sitting; we had tip-up seats which made quite a noise when multiplied by 600, so were asked to sit on the top edge of the seats in the upright position. This was all right for a while, but then became rather uncomfortable.
However it was fascinating to see the orchestra down in the arena, and although the soloists now had their backs to us, it was just as dramatic. There was a longish break before the afternoon session, so I settled down to eat my (supermarket) sandwich in the bar, and was joined by my two companions with their home-made picnic, and they kindly bought me coffee afterwards. We agreed that fresh air and a stretch of the legs was needed, and I set off round the block; down the Boulevard Voltaire to the Place de la République, still full of police buses, and back up to the little street where the stage door was.
The performance was due to start at 4.30 and we were to take our seats between 3.30 and 4.00; it was quite a feat to remember which staircase and door number to get to the right seat! And interesting to watch the auditorium fill up. I saw N arrive early and get a very good ringside seat; I kept waving from time to time and eventually he saw me, only because of my new bright green jumper, he said. Every place was sold and the ushers had a difficult task squeezing the last few people in. The orchestra and choirs made a dramatic entrance, all in impeccable evening dress with all the girls in strappy little black dresses, unlike many of their Cambridge equivalents who often perform in a variety of shapeless black t-shirts.
The President of the Sorbonne made an encouraging speech; the event was to celebrate 30 years of the choir and orchestra, and he and the conductor were ex-colleagues of N‘s. The performance was very dramatic - the lighting had been sorted out at last, and our seats were lit just for the duration of each chorale. The Evangelist was dramatic - especially describing Peter weeping and Barabbas the murderer - and the arias and choruses beautiful and our chorales suitably full-sounding! There was much applause and much coming in and out of the soloists and conductor; N had a very good view of all of this. Eventually we were able to leave; I said goodbye to my two fellow singers and we shook hands and kissed on both cheeks and said perhaps we would see each other again one day. I managed to find N outside quite easily; he had thought the whole performance was marvellous - especially his colleagues and his view of all of it! And was interested in the programme I had, and the details of the soloists, one of whom was English (from Cambridge University!) and one German.
Instead of going straight back home as I had imagined, (as I knew N had made Spaghetti Bolognese and I had been looking forward to it during the afternoon) he wanted to walk a little in the Marais, near to where we were, so we stopped for a much needed apéritif, and then walked for ages, through very interesting streets, ending up at Châtelet, where we took the RER train home. I would really have enjoyed it all if only my legs hadn’t been so tired from propping myself up on the back of my seat.
Before leaving La Neuve-Lyre last week we arranged for another delivery of heating fuel, as the level had gone down to 50. It was a measure of how far we had come that this now seemed so straightforward and easy, unlike the first time I ordered it from Saint-Denis not really having much idea of what I was doing, and having to make sure we arrived there in time for the delivery from Le Relais de Amis on a bitterly cold December morning. It was brought by the same driver, with the same Johnny Hallyday-iana all over the front of his lorry, but whereas last time he had to fill the tank in the garage perched on top of a cane chair with the seat out, the chair is now nicely re-caned and in position by the phone, and he was able to use a sturdy stepladder which had since arrived from Italy. Progress!
We also received a bill from Monsieur A, only the second one ever, and as expected fairly substantial, including lots of electrical work – which is almost all finished now; only a few outhouses and the garden lamps – and the socle, but, strangely enough, not the chimney sweeping. Perhaps that will be included with the fitting of the new heating system. Before I left I put the cheque in the post, together with a letter we had drafted together, thanking him and saying that we would be away until 10 April, after which we would be ready for the installation of the new heating, which had been scheduled for April. We think it should only take about four days, unlike Lapeyre! and will obviously be less in the house; mainly in the boiler room and veranda and garden.
Just before leaving on Friday morning I took several photos of the new kitchen and bathrooms, which should be ready here in Paris in a day or two. I caught the bus as planned – far fuller than usual! – but found when I got to Evreux station that the train I had intended to catch only ran on Saturdays; I don't think I was the only one to make this mistake. This meant I had an hour and a half to wait instead of half an hour, so went across to the Hôtel de l'Ouest and had a long chicken salad sandwich in the bar. Fortunately I had my book with me: "Adolphe" by Benjamin Constant, which I had studied at university and recently re-found in N's library; written in 1828 and a poignant and agonising account of the breakdown of a love affair. It is so full of anguish that I can only read it in small doses. By the time the train came it was very bright and sunny, and the platform was very crowded – perhaps people in Normandy only come out in the spring?
When I arrived at Saint-Denis N had only just arrived from meeting Clare and Charlotte. They stayed until just after Sunday lunch and it was the first time for a long while that I had been in the company of an almost two-year-old, which I found very entertaining, unlike N who thinks granddaughters are only of any use once they are old enough to play duets. On Saturday afternoon we all went to the local park where we found swings and slides and toys to ride on, and the weather was even warmer, and I thought perhaps I had brought the wrong clothes. As it was I brought a big coat and a short coat and think I will leave the thick winter coat here, and certainly didn't need to bring boots at all. The weather forecast keeps mentioning what a long cold winter this has been; it's hard to believe it is finally over. On Sunday morning however it rained hard while we were going round the market, but we found the Vietnamese artist at his portrait stall and introduced our visitors and I said I would like to come and have a sketch portrait done but he said he was only there on Sundays and next Sunday I have to be at the St John Passion rehearsal by 10.00 in the morning, so can't see how it is possible at the moment. Fortunately the rain had stopped by the time C & C left; N went on the train with them as far as the Gare du Nord; and after I had cleared lunch I collapsed on the sofa with a cup of tea. I found – as N had said – that with digital TV we now receive Tele Monte Carlo and every afternoon there are continuous episodes of Poirot and Morse, so was very happy watching one of the former. (Poirot seems much more logical in French, but Morse not at all. N does not like Morse as he thinks he treats his sergeant so badly.)
On Monday there was much clearing up to be done; wiping of sticky finger marks and retrieving of pieces of Fuzzy Felt from under the sofa, not to mention bed changing and hoovering up remains of food from under both kitchen and dining room tables. N was very busy getting to the end of his history of the Ursuline Convent, so after lunch I went into Paris firstly to FNAC at Châtelet to take several films to be developed and to look for slide mounts for microfilms he had been sent by archives. I then went on to the branch of Leroy Merlin we had found by the Pompidou Centre, and had a very good look round, and bought a square basket to go under my new rectangular wash basin, plus tooth brush holder and soap dispenser to go on top. (No luck however with bathroom bins, toilet roll holders or curtain poles.) I enjoyed watching all that was going on front of the Pompidou Centre, and remembering as always that the first sunny days in Paris mean hordes of people strolling up and down and sitting outside cafés. Perhaps even more so than usual, given the long hard winter. Once back at the Forum des Halles shopping centre at Châtelet I looked briefly in Habitat and in Muji, where I found a very elegant simple rail of hooks for kitchen towels, which sticks on the wall, (no need for the drill!) and then came across a shop I had never been in before called Jacqueline Riu and inspired by the sunshine, bought a lovely dark orange tiered cotton skirt, just the right length.
Tuesday was a day to avoid going into Paris as there was another general strike – the first one last Tuesday had no effect whatsoever in Normandy – so we ended up doing an awful lot of local shopping. In the morning I went to the market, quite unlike Sunday, beautifully dry and sunny, and bought fish, garlic, spices, very cheap brown and gold satin cushion covers for the Italian sofa at LNL, and then on to Carrefour for an extension lead/adaptor so that I can use my Cambridge ironing board in the bathroom at Saint-Denis instead of having to clear the kitchen table. (And listen to the radio at the same time! At LNL I am now using the Italian ironing board, which is very wide and suitable for ironing large sheets and king size quilt covers, and also has a sleeve board and a useful shelf underneath.) The only local evidence of the strike at Saint-Denis was at the nursery school round the corner; a large grève notice on the door and a pizza delivery drawing up outside as I went past.
In the afternoon we planned to go to the Quai des Marques – a local warehouse full of cut price famous brands, just the other side of the river - to replenish N's wardrobe; always an complicated business as he has no idea what size he takes in anything, and has to rely on an ancient Marks & Spencer list in his wallet. In the event he took a wrong turning and we ended up going to Castorama (DIY) and Auchan (supermarket) first. In Castorama we bought wallpaper for the back hall, 20 rolls of a nice vague cream pattern; curtain pole, fittings and rings for the kitchen window in a natural wood that N suggests I paint in the same red as the kitchen stool (but I am not convinced) and two very simple white toilet roll holders for our two very simple new white loos. I found a bathroom bin in Auchan, along with all the usual bulky things we get when we go there; toilet rolls, kitchen rolls, milk and wine. N was very pleased to find larger than usual blank CDs for reproducing his Ursuline history. I remembered that the last time we had been to Auchan it had snowed hard and N had trouble identifying the car when we came out.
We did eventually get to the Quai des Marques, at about five o'clock, and N bought a wonderfully rejuvenating blue denim coloured cotton suit at my suggestion, along with the trousers and shirts he had originally gone for. After having carried all this, plus the heavy stuff from Auchan, from the garage all the way up to the apartment, we sat down for a very welcome aperitif, and then a wonderful dinner – one of my favourites – salmon and asparagus with hollandaise sauce and rosé wine, followed by strawberries.
Thursday 6 April 2006
Also since arriving here I have had my eyebrows shaped, less drastically than last time I'm pleased to say, and have done my original Pilates video once so far, but intend to do it again on Friday. It didn't seem so dull now it was less familiar, but I was certainly stiff about the hips. Once I get back to LNL must establish a proper exercise regime, which should be easier since the DVD player works and now that there won't be workmen arriving every morning at 8.00, well not for very long. I have also got up to date with washing and ironing, and put aside a bag of sheets to wash and dry in the Normandy wind and sunshine, as opposed to an expensive Saint-Denis laundry. I have listened to my St John Passion Chorales several times while reading the German words; despite N saying that it sounds like Christmas whenever I do it.
Yesterday afternoon I went to the material shops in Montmartre, and Sacré Coeur looked beautiful against the sunny blue sky. I spent a long time in a fabric department store called Reine; six floors with different sorts of fabric on each, dressmaking, furnishings and haberdashery. On the ground floor with the dress fabrics there were little shop models in the centre of each display dressed in a variety of exquisitely made tiny garments – dresses, wedding outfits, trousers, ball gowns, suits, each about two feet high. I was gazing at these and thinking how much I would have loved them when I was a teenager when a lady customer behind me said weren't they wonderful, ces petits mannequins? And that she always admired them whenever she came.
I bought white lining for the curtains I am proposing to make out of four pale blue single sheets (part of the Italian inheritance) for the spare blue and yellow bedroom and finally found four blue and gold tie backs to hold them – I have been searching for these for some time and until now whenever I found anything suitable there were never as many as four. I also got some plain red cotton as on examining my tomato material discovered there was even less than I thought, and now plan to put a red border around each curtain. (Perhaps not with a red rail now….) I also got three buttons to replace a broken set on one of N's jackets, which involved taking a tube of buttons to a vendeuse, who wrote me out the inevitable little ticket and put three buttons in a little basket, which I took along to the caisse in order to pay; the princely sum of 1 euro 80.
A new project: about fifteen years ago N published a dictionary of useful terms for English speakers buying property in France, and when we began searching for The House in Normandy I even started to make a list of important omissions. We also began thinking that with the rise of British TV programmes on buying French property it should perhaps be re-issued, or at least brought to the attention of the relevant TV producers. Last week N heard from a new editor who wants to bring out another edition, and as it was originally compiled on some long dead computer system, the first thing to be done (by me!) is the re-typing of the existing text in Word on the computer at LNL.
Friday 7 April 2006
Yesterday I received an e-mail from the organisers of the St John Passion with a last minute change of venue for the Saturday rehearsals - probably due to the Sorbonne being “blocked” by striking students - from a place I didn't know some way away to the Salle Gaveau. I have been there a couple of times to see N play with the RATP orchestra, and in addition to being only about 20 minutes down our metro line, it is a beautiful hall with Proustian connections.
I went into Paris to collect our photos from FNAC in the afternoon; lots of the house and garden at LNL and I am especially pleased with the pictures of the new kitchen. I looked at shops in the Forum des Halles again, and went as far as BHV and bought several bits and pieces for the new kitchen. It is such a pleasure to be out in the Paris streets in the sunshine! In the evening I went to the local chorale; the first time since before Christmas, as since the week when the chef was ill, I have only been in Saint-Denis during the February holidays, or if on a Thursday, when something else was happening. I was especially pleased as having not sung for so long, I felt ill prepared for the weekend.
They seemed pleased to see me, although there were not that many of them there, and several well known faces were missing. We started with voice exercises as usual, which did me good, and then went on to a song we had been learning when I was last with them, and which they didn't seem to have worked at much since. They had given a concert at Stains – the one which was postponed because of the riots in November – wearing red, I was shown the photos! The next concert will be in Saint-Denis on 25 June, with a chamber orchestra; we are due in Cambridge just before that, so don't know if I will be back in time. We spent the bulk of the rehearsal learning a Credo by Vivaldi; very simple even for my basic sight-reading skills, and very beautiful. For the next two weeks there are Easter holidays, and it starts again on Thursday 27.
This afternoon we have done yet more shopping; at a garden centre called Truffaut where most of what N bought was for the window boxes and little garden here in Saint-Denis. He has done a lot of work on it this week and it's looking very good. We also went to Leroy Merlin for La Neuve-Lyre shopping and got curtain poles and related accessories for the spare bedroom - I really think these are the last! – more white paint, red picture frames for the kitchen, kitchen roll holder, wood to border the socle under the shower and glue to stick it, and wood to repair the bottom panels of the French windows in our bedroom.
Wednesday 12 April 2006
The whole of last weekend was taken up with the Saint John Passion – an amazing experience. The Saturday afternoon rehearsal at the Salle Gaveau was due to start at 3.00; I got there very early and enjoyed watching the others arrive. The members of the « choir for a day » were much like singers in Cambridge, lots of women in their fifties and sixties - only more chic and bien coiffée - and fewer men. As we all had name badges I enjoyed seeing what everyone was called; many of the women seemed to be Marie-Something. We all sat in the stalls; the orchestra and soloists were on the stage - the orchestra with their backs to us - and the Sorbonne choirs, two or three of them I think, were in the galleries. The first event was the news that the original Evangelist was ill and had been replaced at the last moment by an exuberant young Norwegian.
The singing went well - much more easy then when practising at home with N and his viola, more slowly for a start, and surrounded by excellent singers. I sat next to two sixty-something sisters, one of whom had taught English, who were very friendly. There was a brief supper break before the evening rehearsal, during which I made a quick dash to a brasserie I had seen on the way in, on the opposite corner. This was a wise move, as it filled up quickly with choir and orchestra, and there was not room for all, even conductor and soloists who wandered in late. I had a large salad and a glass of red wine and watched everybody else in between reading another novella by Benjamin Constant called Le Cahier Rouge, in the same volume as Adolphe, and not nearly so melodramatic. I felt it would make an excellent film. (The story, not the restaurant…)
The evening rehearsal was very enjoyable; the soloists were excellent and I became so involved with the German recitative and arias that it was a shock each time when the rehearsal picked up again in French. I remembered that I liked the German version because the disciples are referred to as « Jünge » (lads) and I like the part where Pilate says « Was ich geschrieben habe, das ich habe geschrieben. » We finished earlier than the scheduled time of 10.00; our conductor said he was thinking of those of us who lived out in the suburbs who would have an early start the next day. I realised this included me! By the time I had taken the metro home, and gone to bed it was time to get up again and leave at 8.45 the next morning; a bit like commuting.
The venue for Sunday’s rehearsal and performance was the Cirque d’Hiver Bouglione, a place I had never heard of let alone visited, in the 11th arondissement which I don’t know at all. I discovered during the course of the day that it had been built as a permanent winter circus about 150 years ago, but that in 1934 had been bought by the Bouglione family, who had owned it ever since. Inside it was full of faded glory, painted red and gold everywhere, with old posters of lion tamers and human canon balls and trapeze artists, and there were wonderful indoor stables with red and gold painted stalls, but no longer sign of any horses. I can’t imagine how animals lived or came in and out in the centre of a city.
The rehearsal was due to start at 10.00 in the morning, but it was about 11.40 before we actually started singing. Those of us who arrived early went in by the stage door as directed, and made our way through a smaller theatre to the main arena and gazed in amazement; a woman next to me said she had not been there for forty years, when she used to be taken every year for a Christmas treat by her father’s work. We were all ushered out again while a lighting engineer was hoisted up onto a rope, and then spent a long time hanging around in the bar, holding onto coats and bags, (the lucky ones found seats) and doing some warm-up breathing and singing exercises, which made me think of the exercises before a Fun Run.
Eventually we got into our seats in the auditorium, shaped rather like a mini Albert Hall, with the orchestra and soloists in the centre, the Sorbonne choirs immediately behind and the « choir for a day » high up around half of the sharply tiered seating; the remaining half was reserved for the audience. Both I and my two companions - the sisters I had found again - thought we had sung far better on the Saturday; it was very difficult to hear anyone else around us, and also difficult to see our music as the lighting was not good. There was also the problem of standing and sitting; we had tip-up seats which made quite a noise when multiplied by 600, so were asked to sit on the top edge of the seats in the upright position. This was all right for a while, but then became rather uncomfortable.
However it was fascinating to see the orchestra down in the arena, and although the soloists now had their backs to us, it was just as dramatic. There was a longish break before the afternoon session, so I settled down to eat my (supermarket) sandwich in the bar, and was joined by my two companions with their home-made picnic, and they kindly bought me coffee afterwards. We agreed that fresh air and a stretch of the legs was needed, and I set off round the block; down the Boulevard Voltaire to the Place de la République, still full of police buses, and back up to the little street where the stage door was.
The performance was due to start at 4.30 and we were to take our seats between 3.30 and 4.00; it was quite a feat to remember which staircase and door number to get to the right seat! And interesting to watch the auditorium fill up. I saw N arrive early and get a very good ringside seat; I kept waving from time to time and eventually he saw me, only because of my new bright green jumper, he said. Every place was sold and the ushers had a difficult task squeezing the last few people in. The orchestra and choirs made a dramatic entrance, all in impeccable evening dress with all the girls in strappy little black dresses, unlike many of their Cambridge equivalents who often perform in a variety of shapeless black t-shirts.
The President of the Sorbonne made an encouraging speech; the event was to celebrate 30 years of the choir and orchestra, and he and the conductor were ex-colleagues of N‘s. The performance was very dramatic - the lighting had been sorted out at last, and our seats were lit just for the duration of each chorale. The Evangelist was dramatic - especially describing Peter weeping and Barabbas the murderer - and the arias and choruses beautiful and our chorales suitably full-sounding! There was much applause and much coming in and out of the soloists and conductor; N had a very good view of all of this. Eventually we were able to leave; I said goodbye to my two fellow singers and we shook hands and kissed on both cheeks and said perhaps we would see each other again one day. I managed to find N outside quite easily; he had thought the whole performance was marvellous - especially his colleagues and his view of all of it! And was interested in the programme I had, and the details of the soloists, one of whom was English (from Cambridge University!) and one German.
Instead of going straight back home as I had imagined, (as I knew N had made Spaghetti Bolognese and I had been looking forward to it during the afternoon) he wanted to walk a little in the Marais, near to where we were, so we stopped for a much needed apéritif, and then walked for ages, through very interesting streets, ending up at Châtelet, where we took the RER train home. I would really have enjoyed it all if only my legs hadn’t been so tired from propping myself up on the back of my seat.
Wednesday 5 April 2006
Before leaving La Neuve-Lyre last week we arranged for another delivery of heating fuel, as the level had gone down to 50. It was a measure of how far we had come that this now seemed so straightforward and easy, unlike the first time I ordered it from Saint-Denis not really having much idea of what I was doing, and having to make sure we arrived there in time for the delivery from Le Relais de Amis on a bitterly cold December morning. It was brought by the same driver, with the same Johnny Hallyday-iana all over the front of his lorry, but whereas last time he had to fill the tank in the garage perched on top of a cane chair with the seat out, the chair is now nicely re-caned and in position by the phone, and he was able to use a sturdy stepladder which had since arrived from Italy. Progress!
We also received a bill from Monsieur A, only the second one ever, and as expected fairly substantial, including lots of electrical work – which is almost all finished now; only a few outhouses and the garden lamps – and the socle, but, strangely enough, not the chimney sweeping. Perhaps that will be included with the fitting of the new heating system. Before I left I put the cheque in the post, together with a letter we had drafted together, thanking him and saying that we would be away until 10 April, after which we would be ready for the installation of the new heating, which had been scheduled for April. We think it should only take about four days, unlike Lapeyre! and will obviously be less in the house; mainly in the boiler room and veranda and garden.
Just before leaving on Friday morning I took several photos of the new kitchen and bathrooms, which should be ready here in Paris in a day or two. I caught the bus as planned – far fuller than usual! – but found when I got to Evreux station that the train I had intended to catch only ran on Saturdays; I don't think I was the only one to make this mistake. This meant I had an hour and a half to wait instead of half an hour, so went across to the Hôtel de l'Ouest and had a long chicken salad sandwich in the bar. Fortunately I had my book with me: "Adolphe" by Benjamin Constant, which I had studied at university and recently re-found in N's library; written in 1828 and a poignant and agonising account of the breakdown of a love affair. It is so full of anguish that I can only read it in small doses. By the time the train came it was very bright and sunny, and the platform was very crowded – perhaps people in Normandy only come out in the spring?
When I arrived at Saint-Denis N had only just arrived from meeting Clare and Charlotte. They stayed until just after Sunday lunch and it was the first time for a long while that I had been in the company of an almost two-year-old, which I found very entertaining, unlike N who thinks granddaughters are only of any use once they are old enough to play duets. On Saturday afternoon we all went to the local park where we found swings and slides and toys to ride on, and the weather was even warmer, and I thought perhaps I had brought the wrong clothes. As it was I brought a big coat and a short coat and think I will leave the thick winter coat here, and certainly didn't need to bring boots at all. The weather forecast keeps mentioning what a long cold winter this has been; it's hard to believe it is finally over. On Sunday morning however it rained hard while we were going round the market, but we found the Vietnamese artist at his portrait stall and introduced our visitors and I said I would like to come and have a sketch portrait done but he said he was only there on Sundays and next Sunday I have to be at the St John Passion rehearsal by 10.00 in the morning, so can't see how it is possible at the moment. Fortunately the rain had stopped by the time C & C left; N went on the train with them as far as the Gare du Nord; and after I had cleared lunch I collapsed on the sofa with a cup of tea. I found – as N had said – that with digital TV we now receive Tele Monte Carlo and every afternoon there are continuous episodes of Poirot and Morse, so was very happy watching one of the former. (Poirot seems much more logical in French, but Morse not at all. N does not like Morse as he thinks he treats his sergeant so badly.)
On Monday there was much clearing up to be done; wiping of sticky finger marks and retrieving of pieces of Fuzzy Felt from under the sofa, not to mention bed changing and hoovering up remains of food from under both kitchen and dining room tables. N was very busy getting to the end of his history of the Ursuline Convent, so after lunch I went into Paris firstly to FNAC at Châtelet to take several films to be developed and to look for slide mounts for microfilms he had been sent by archives. I then went on to the branch of Leroy Merlin we had found by the Pompidou Centre, and had a very good look round, and bought a square basket to go under my new rectangular wash basin, plus tooth brush holder and soap dispenser to go on top. (No luck however with bathroom bins, toilet roll holders or curtain poles.) I enjoyed watching all that was going on front of the Pompidou Centre, and remembering as always that the first sunny days in Paris mean hordes of people strolling up and down and sitting outside cafés. Perhaps even more so than usual, given the long hard winter. Once back at the Forum des Halles shopping centre at Châtelet I looked briefly in Habitat and in Muji, where I found a very elegant simple rail of hooks for kitchen towels, which sticks on the wall, (no need for the drill!) and then came across a shop I had never been in before called Jacqueline Riu and inspired by the sunshine, bought a lovely dark orange tiered cotton skirt, just the right length.
Tuesday was a day to avoid going into Paris as there was another general strike – the first one last Tuesday had no effect whatsoever in Normandy – so we ended up doing an awful lot of local shopping. In the morning I went to the market, quite unlike Sunday, beautifully dry and sunny, and bought fish, garlic, spices, very cheap brown and gold satin cushion covers for the Italian sofa at LNL, and then on to Carrefour for an extension lead/adaptor so that I can use my Cambridge ironing board in the bathroom at Saint-Denis instead of having to clear the kitchen table. (And listen to the radio at the same time! At LNL I am now using the Italian ironing board, which is very wide and suitable for ironing large sheets and king size quilt covers, and also has a sleeve board and a useful shelf underneath.) The only local evidence of the strike at Saint-Denis was at the nursery school round the corner; a large grève notice on the door and a pizza delivery drawing up outside as I went past.
In the afternoon we planned to go to the Quai des Marques – a local warehouse full of cut price famous brands, just the other side of the river - to replenish N's wardrobe; always an complicated business as he has no idea what size he takes in anything, and has to rely on an ancient Marks & Spencer list in his wallet. In the event he took a wrong turning and we ended up going to Castorama (DIY) and Auchan (supermarket) first. In Castorama we bought wallpaper for the back hall, 20 rolls of a nice vague cream pattern; curtain pole, fittings and rings for the kitchen window in a natural wood that N suggests I paint in the same red as the kitchen stool (but I am not convinced) and two very simple white toilet roll holders for our two very simple new white loos. I found a bathroom bin in Auchan, along with all the usual bulky things we get when we go there; toilet rolls, kitchen rolls, milk and wine. N was very pleased to find larger than usual blank CDs for reproducing his Ursuline history. I remembered that the last time we had been to Auchan it had snowed hard and N had trouble identifying the car when we came out.
We did eventually get to the Quai des Marques, at about five o'clock, and N bought a wonderfully rejuvenating blue denim coloured cotton suit at my suggestion, along with the trousers and shirts he had originally gone for. After having carried all this, plus the heavy stuff from Auchan, from the garage all the way up to the apartment, we sat down for a very welcome aperitif, and then a wonderful dinner – one of my favourites – salmon and asparagus with hollandaise sauce and rosé wine, followed by strawberries.
Thursday 6 April 2006
Also since arriving here I have had my eyebrows shaped, less drastically than last time I'm pleased to say, and have done my original Pilates video once so far, but intend to do it again on Friday. It didn't seem so dull now it was less familiar, but I was certainly stiff about the hips. Once I get back to LNL must establish a proper exercise regime, which should be easier since the DVD player works and now that there won't be workmen arriving every morning at 8.00, well not for very long. I have also got up to date with washing and ironing, and put aside a bag of sheets to wash and dry in the Normandy wind and sunshine, as opposed to an expensive Saint-Denis laundry. I have listened to my St John Passion Chorales several times while reading the German words; despite N saying that it sounds like Christmas whenever I do it.
Yesterday afternoon I went to the material shops in Montmartre, and Sacré Coeur looked beautiful against the sunny blue sky. I spent a long time in a fabric department store called Reine; six floors with different sorts of fabric on each, dressmaking, furnishings and haberdashery. On the ground floor with the dress fabrics there were little shop models in the centre of each display dressed in a variety of exquisitely made tiny garments – dresses, wedding outfits, trousers, ball gowns, suits, each about two feet high. I was gazing at these and thinking how much I would have loved them when I was a teenager when a lady customer behind me said weren't they wonderful, ces petits mannequins? And that she always admired them whenever she came.
I bought white lining for the curtains I am proposing to make out of four pale blue single sheets (part of the Italian inheritance) for the spare blue and yellow bedroom and finally found four blue and gold tie backs to hold them – I have been searching for these for some time and until now whenever I found anything suitable there were never as many as four. I also got some plain red cotton as on examining my tomato material discovered there was even less than I thought, and now plan to put a red border around each curtain. (Perhaps not with a red rail now….) I also got three buttons to replace a broken set on one of N's jackets, which involved taking a tube of buttons to a vendeuse, who wrote me out the inevitable little ticket and put three buttons in a little basket, which I took along to the caisse in order to pay; the princely sum of 1 euro 80.
A new project: about fifteen years ago N published a dictionary of useful terms for English speakers buying property in France, and when we began searching for The House in Normandy I even started to make a list of important omissions. We also began thinking that with the rise of British TV programmes on buying French property it should perhaps be re-issued, or at least brought to the attention of the relevant TV producers. Last week N heard from a new editor who wants to bring out another edition, and as it was originally compiled on some long dead computer system, the first thing to be done (by me!) is the re-typing of the existing text in Word on the computer at LNL.
Friday 7 April 2006
Yesterday I received an e-mail from the organisers of the St John Passion with a last minute change of venue for the Saturday rehearsals - probably due to the Sorbonne being “blocked” by striking students - from a place I didn't know some way away to the Salle Gaveau. I have been there a couple of times to see N play with the RATP orchestra, and in addition to being only about 20 minutes down our metro line, it is a beautiful hall with Proustian connections.
I went into Paris to collect our photos from FNAC in the afternoon; lots of the house and garden at LNL and I am especially pleased with the pictures of the new kitchen. I looked at shops in the Forum des Halles again, and went as far as BHV and bought several bits and pieces for the new kitchen. It is such a pleasure to be out in the Paris streets in the sunshine! In the evening I went to the local chorale; the first time since before Christmas, as since the week when the chef was ill, I have only been in Saint-Denis during the February holidays, or if on a Thursday, when something else was happening. I was especially pleased as having not sung for so long, I felt ill prepared for the weekend.
They seemed pleased to see me, although there were not that many of them there, and several well known faces were missing. We started with voice exercises as usual, which did me good, and then went on to a song we had been learning when I was last with them, and which they didn't seem to have worked at much since. They had given a concert at Stains – the one which was postponed because of the riots in November – wearing red, I was shown the photos! The next concert will be in Saint-Denis on 25 June, with a chamber orchestra; we are due in Cambridge just before that, so don't know if I will be back in time. We spent the bulk of the rehearsal learning a Credo by Vivaldi; very simple even for my basic sight-reading skills, and very beautiful. For the next two weeks there are Easter holidays, and it starts again on Thursday 27.
This afternoon we have done yet more shopping; at a garden centre called Truffaut where most of what N bought was for the window boxes and little garden here in Saint-Denis. He has done a lot of work on it this week and it's looking very good. We also went to Leroy Merlin for La Neuve-Lyre shopping and got curtain poles and related accessories for the spare bedroom - I really think these are the last! – more white paint, red picture frames for the kitchen, kitchen roll holder, wood to border the socle under the shower and glue to stick it, and wood to repair the bottom panels of the French windows in our bedroom.
Wednesday 12 April 2006
The whole of last weekend was taken up with the Saint John Passion – an amazing experience. The Saturday afternoon rehearsal at the Salle Gaveau was due to start at 3.00; I got there very early and enjoyed watching the others arrive. The members of the « choir for a day » were much like singers in Cambridge, lots of women in their fifties and sixties - only more chic and bien coiffée - and fewer men. As we all had name badges I enjoyed seeing what everyone was called; many of the women seemed to be Marie-Something. We all sat in the stalls; the orchestra and soloists were on the stage - the orchestra with their backs to us - and the Sorbonne choirs, two or three of them I think, were in the galleries. The first event was the news that the original Evangelist was ill and had been replaced at the last moment by an exuberant young Norwegian.
The singing went well - much more easy then when practising at home with N and his viola, more slowly for a start, and surrounded by excellent singers. I sat next to two sixty-something sisters, one of whom had taught English, who were very friendly. There was a brief supper break before the evening rehearsal, during which I made a quick dash to a brasserie I had seen on the way in, on the opposite corner. This was a wise move, as it filled up quickly with choir and orchestra, and there was not room for all, even conductor and soloists who wandered in late. I had a large salad and a glass of red wine and watched everybody else in between reading another novella by Benjamin Constant called Le Cahier Rouge, in the same volume as Adolphe, and not nearly so melodramatic. I felt it would make an excellent film. (The story, not the restaurant…)
The evening rehearsal was very enjoyable; the soloists were excellent and I became so involved with the German recitative and arias that it was a shock each time when the rehearsal picked up again in French. I remembered that I liked the German version because the disciples are referred to as « Jünge » (lads) and I like the part where Pilate says « Was ich geschrieben habe, das ich habe geschrieben. » We finished earlier than the scheduled time of 10.00; our conductor said he was thinking of those of us who lived out in the suburbs who would have an early start the next day. I realised this included me! By the time I had taken the metro home, and gone to bed it was time to get up again and leave at 8.45 the next morning; a bit like commuting.
The venue for Sunday’s rehearsal and performance was the Cirque d’Hiver Bouglione, a place I had never heard of let alone visited, in the 11th arondissement which I don’t know at all. I discovered during the course of the day that it had been built as a permanent winter circus about 150 years ago, but that in 1934 had been bought by the Bouglione family, who had owned it ever since. Inside it was full of faded glory, painted red and gold everywhere, with old posters of lion tamers and human canon balls and trapeze artists, and there were wonderful indoor stables with red and gold painted stalls, but no longer sign of any horses. I can’t imagine how animals lived or came in and out in the centre of a city.
The rehearsal was due to start at 10.00 in the morning, but it was about 11.40 before we actually started singing. Those of us who arrived early went in by the stage door as directed, and made our way through a smaller theatre to the main arena and gazed in amazement; a woman next to me said she had not been there for forty years, when she used to be taken every year for a Christmas treat by her father’s work. We were all ushered out again while a lighting engineer was hoisted up onto a rope, and then spent a long time hanging around in the bar, holding onto coats and bags, (the lucky ones found seats) and doing some warm-up breathing and singing exercises, which made me think of the exercises before a Fun Run.
Eventually we got into our seats in the auditorium, shaped rather like a mini Albert Hall, with the orchestra and soloists in the centre, the Sorbonne choirs immediately behind and the « choir for a day » high up around half of the sharply tiered seating; the remaining half was reserved for the audience. Both I and my two companions - the sisters I had found again - thought we had sung far better on the Saturday; it was very difficult to hear anyone else around us, and also difficult to see our music as the lighting was not good. There was also the problem of standing and sitting; we had tip-up seats which made quite a noise when multiplied by 600, so were asked to sit on the top edge of the seats in the upright position. This was all right for a while, but then became rather uncomfortable.
However it was fascinating to see the orchestra down in the arena, and although the soloists now had their backs to us, it was just as dramatic. There was a longish break before the afternoon session, so I settled down to eat my (supermarket) sandwich in the bar, and was joined by my two companions with their home-made picnic, and they kindly bought me coffee afterwards. We agreed that fresh air and a stretch of the legs was needed, and I set off round the block; down the Boulevard Voltaire to the Place de la République, still full of police buses, and back up to the little street where the stage door was.
The performance was due to start at 4.30 and we were to take our seats between 3.30 and 4.00; it was quite a feat to remember which staircase and door number to get to the right seat! And interesting to watch the auditorium fill up. I saw N arrive early and get a very good ringside seat; I kept waving from time to time and eventually he saw me, only because of my new bright green jumper, he said. Every place was sold and the ushers had a difficult task squeezing the last few people in. The orchestra and choirs made a dramatic entrance, all in impeccable evening dress with all the girls in strappy little black dresses, unlike many of their Cambridge equivalents who often perform in a variety of shapeless black t-shirts.
The President of the Sorbonne made an encouraging speech; the event was to celebrate 30 years of the choir and orchestra, and he and the conductor were ex-colleagues of N‘s. The performance was very dramatic - the lighting had been sorted out at last, and our seats were lit just for the duration of each chorale. The Evangelist was dramatic - especially describing Peter weeping and Barabbas the murderer - and the arias and choruses beautiful and our chorales suitably full-sounding! There was much applause and much coming in and out of the soloists and conductor; N had a very good view of all of this. Eventually we were able to leave; I said goodbye to my two fellow singers and we shook hands and kissed on both cheeks and said perhaps we would see each other again one day. I managed to find N outside quite easily; he had thought the whole performance was marvellous - especially his colleagues and his view of all of it! And was interested in the programme I had, and the details of the soloists, one of whom was English (from Cambridge University!) and one German.
Instead of going straight back home as I had imagined, (as I knew N had made Spaghetti Bolognese and I had been looking forward to it during the afternoon) he wanted to walk a little in the Marais, near to where we were, so we stopped for a much needed apéritif, and then walked for ages, through very interesting streets, ending up at Châtelet, where we took the RER train home. I would really have enjoyed it all if only my legs hadn’t been so tired from propping myself up on the back of my seat.
Before leaving La Neuve-Lyre last week we arranged for another delivery of heating fuel, as the level had gone down to 50. It was a measure of how far we had come that this now seemed so straightforward and easy, unlike the first time I ordered it from Saint-Denis not really having much idea of what I was doing, and having to make sure we arrived there in time for the delivery from Le Relais de Amis on a bitterly cold December morning. It was brought by the same driver, with the same Johnny Hallyday-iana all over the front of his lorry, but whereas last time he had to fill the tank in the garage perched on top of a cane chair with the seat out, the chair is now nicely re-caned and in position by the phone, and he was able to use a sturdy stepladder which had since arrived from Italy. Progress!
We also received a bill from Monsieur A, only the second one ever, and as expected fairly substantial, including lots of electrical work – which is almost all finished now; only a few outhouses and the garden lamps – and the socle, but, strangely enough, not the chimney sweeping. Perhaps that will be included with the fitting of the new heating system. Before I left I put the cheque in the post, together with a letter we had drafted together, thanking him and saying that we would be away until 10 April, after which we would be ready for the installation of the new heating, which had been scheduled for April. We think it should only take about four days, unlike Lapeyre! and will obviously be less in the house; mainly in the boiler room and veranda and garden.
Just before leaving on Friday morning I took several photos of the new kitchen and bathrooms, which should be ready here in Paris in a day or two. I caught the bus as planned – far fuller than usual! – but found when I got to Evreux station that the train I had intended to catch only ran on Saturdays; I don't think I was the only one to make this mistake. This meant I had an hour and a half to wait instead of half an hour, so went across to the Hôtel de l'Ouest and had a long chicken salad sandwich in the bar. Fortunately I had my book with me: "Adolphe" by Benjamin Constant, which I had studied at university and recently re-found in N's library; written in 1828 and a poignant and agonising account of the breakdown of a love affair. It is so full of anguish that I can only read it in small doses. By the time the train came it was very bright and sunny, and the platform was very crowded – perhaps people in Normandy only come out in the spring?
When I arrived at Saint-Denis N had only just arrived from meeting Clare and Charlotte. They stayed until just after Sunday lunch and it was the first time for a long while that I had been in the company of an almost two-year-old, which I found very entertaining, unlike N who thinks granddaughters are only of any use once they are old enough to play duets. On Saturday afternoon we all went to the local park where we found swings and slides and toys to ride on, and the weather was even warmer, and I thought perhaps I had brought the wrong clothes. As it was I brought a big coat and a short coat and think I will leave the thick winter coat here, and certainly didn't need to bring boots at all. The weather forecast keeps mentioning what a long cold winter this has been; it's hard to believe it is finally over. On Sunday morning however it rained hard while we were going round the market, but we found the Vietnamese artist at his portrait stall and introduced our visitors and I said I would like to come and have a sketch portrait done but he said he was only there on Sundays and next Sunday I have to be at the St John Passion rehearsal by 10.00 in the morning, so can't see how it is possible at the moment. Fortunately the rain had stopped by the time C & C left; N went on the train with them as far as the Gare du Nord; and after I had cleared lunch I collapsed on the sofa with a cup of tea. I found – as N had said – that with digital TV we now receive Tele Monte Carlo and every afternoon there are continuous episodes of Poirot and Morse, so was very happy watching one of the former. (Poirot seems much more logical in French, but Morse not at all. N does not like Morse as he thinks he treats his sergeant so badly.)
On Monday there was much clearing up to be done; wiping of sticky finger marks and retrieving of pieces of Fuzzy Felt from under the sofa, not to mention bed changing and hoovering up remains of food from under both kitchen and dining room tables. N was very busy getting to the end of his history of the Ursuline Convent, so after lunch I went into Paris firstly to FNAC at Châtelet to take several films to be developed and to look for slide mounts for microfilms he had been sent by archives. I then went on to the branch of Leroy Merlin we had found by the Pompidou Centre, and had a very good look round, and bought a square basket to go under my new rectangular wash basin, plus tooth brush holder and soap dispenser to go on top. (No luck however with bathroom bins, toilet roll holders or curtain poles.) I enjoyed watching all that was going on front of the Pompidou Centre, and remembering as always that the first sunny days in Paris mean hordes of people strolling up and down and sitting outside cafés. Perhaps even more so than usual, given the long hard winter. Once back at the Forum des Halles shopping centre at Châtelet I looked briefly in Habitat and in Muji, where I found a very elegant simple rail of hooks for kitchen towels, which sticks on the wall, (no need for the drill!) and then came across a shop I had never been in before called Jacqueline Riu and inspired by the sunshine, bought a lovely dark orange tiered cotton skirt, just the right length.
Tuesday was a day to avoid going into Paris as there was another general strike – the first one last Tuesday had no effect whatsoever in Normandy – so we ended up doing an awful lot of local shopping. In the morning I went to the market, quite unlike Sunday, beautifully dry and sunny, and bought fish, garlic, spices, very cheap brown and gold satin cushion covers for the Italian sofa at LNL, and then on to Carrefour for an extension lead/adaptor so that I can use my Cambridge ironing board in the bathroom at Saint-Denis instead of having to clear the kitchen table. (And listen to the radio at the same time! At LNL I am now using the Italian ironing board, which is very wide and suitable for ironing large sheets and king size quilt covers, and also has a sleeve board and a useful shelf underneath.) The only local evidence of the strike at Saint-Denis was at the nursery school round the corner; a large grève notice on the door and a pizza delivery drawing up outside as I went past.
In the afternoon we planned to go to the Quai des Marques – a local warehouse full of cut price famous brands, just the other side of the river - to replenish N's wardrobe; always an complicated business as he has no idea what size he takes in anything, and has to rely on an ancient Marks & Spencer list in his wallet. In the event he took a wrong turning and we ended up going to Castorama (DIY) and Auchan (supermarket) first. In Castorama we bought wallpaper for the back hall, 20 rolls of a nice vague cream pattern; curtain pole, fittings and rings for the kitchen window in a natural wood that N suggests I paint in the same red as the kitchen stool (but I am not convinced) and two very simple white toilet roll holders for our two very simple new white loos. I found a bathroom bin in Auchan, along with all the usual bulky things we get when we go there; toilet rolls, kitchen rolls, milk and wine. N was very pleased to find larger than usual blank CDs for reproducing his Ursuline history. I remembered that the last time we had been to Auchan it had snowed hard and N had trouble identifying the car when we came out.
We did eventually get to the Quai des Marques, at about five o'clock, and N bought a wonderfully rejuvenating blue denim coloured cotton suit at my suggestion, along with the trousers and shirts he had originally gone for. After having carried all this, plus the heavy stuff from Auchan, from the garage all the way up to the apartment, we sat down for a very welcome aperitif, and then a wonderful dinner – one of my favourites – salmon and asparagus with hollandaise sauce and rosé wine, followed by strawberries.
Thursday 6 April 2006
Also since arriving here I have had my eyebrows shaped, less drastically than last time I'm pleased to say, and have done my original Pilates video once so far, but intend to do it again on Friday. It didn't seem so dull now it was less familiar, but I was certainly stiff about the hips. Once I get back to LNL must establish a proper exercise regime, which should be easier since the DVD player works and now that there won't be workmen arriving every morning at 8.00, well not for very long. I have also got up to date with washing and ironing, and put aside a bag of sheets to wash and dry in the Normandy wind and sunshine, as opposed to an expensive Saint-Denis laundry. I have listened to my St John Passion Chorales several times while reading the German words; despite N saying that it sounds like Christmas whenever I do it.
Yesterday afternoon I went to the material shops in Montmartre, and Sacré Coeur looked beautiful against the sunny blue sky. I spent a long time in a fabric department store called Reine; six floors with different sorts of fabric on each, dressmaking, furnishings and haberdashery. On the ground floor with the dress fabrics there were little shop models in the centre of each display dressed in a variety of exquisitely made tiny garments – dresses, wedding outfits, trousers, ball gowns, suits, each about two feet high. I was gazing at these and thinking how much I would have loved them when I was a teenager when a lady customer behind me said weren't they wonderful, ces petits mannequins? And that she always admired them whenever she came.
I bought white lining for the curtains I am proposing to make out of four pale blue single sheets (part of the Italian inheritance) for the spare blue and yellow bedroom and finally found four blue and gold tie backs to hold them – I have been searching for these for some time and until now whenever I found anything suitable there were never as many as four. I also got some plain red cotton as on examining my tomato material discovered there was even less than I thought, and now plan to put a red border around each curtain. (Perhaps not with a red rail now….) I also got three buttons to replace a broken set on one of N's jackets, which involved taking a tube of buttons to a vendeuse, who wrote me out the inevitable little ticket and put three buttons in a little basket, which I took along to the caisse in order to pay; the princely sum of 1 euro 80.
A new project: about fifteen years ago N published a dictionary of useful terms for English speakers buying property in France, and when we began searching for The House in Normandy I even started to make a list of important omissions. We also began thinking that with the rise of British TV programmes on buying French property it should perhaps be re-issued, or at least brought to the attention of the relevant TV producers. Last week N heard from a new editor who wants to bring out another edition, and as it was originally compiled on some long dead computer system, the first thing to be done (by me!) is the re-typing of the existing text in Word on the computer at LNL.
Friday 7 April 2006
Yesterday I received an e-mail from the organisers of the St John Passion with a last minute change of venue for the Saturday rehearsals - probably due to the Sorbonne being “blocked” by striking students - from a place I didn't know some way away to the Salle Gaveau. I have been there a couple of times to see N play with the RATP orchestra, and in addition to being only about 20 minutes down our metro line, it is a beautiful hall with Proustian connections.
I went into Paris to collect our photos from FNAC in the afternoon; lots of the house and garden at LNL and I am especially pleased with the pictures of the new kitchen. I looked at shops in the Forum des Halles again, and went as far as BHV and bought several bits and pieces for the new kitchen. It is such a pleasure to be out in the Paris streets in the sunshine! In the evening I went to the local chorale; the first time since before Christmas, as since the week when the chef was ill, I have only been in Saint-Denis during the February holidays, or if on a Thursday, when something else was happening. I was especially pleased as having not sung for so long, I felt ill prepared for the weekend.
They seemed pleased to see me, although there were not that many of them there, and several well known faces were missing. We started with voice exercises as usual, which did me good, and then went on to a song we had been learning when I was last with them, and which they didn't seem to have worked at much since. They had given a concert at Stains – the one which was postponed because of the riots in November – wearing red, I was shown the photos! The next concert will be in Saint-Denis on 25 June, with a chamber orchestra; we are due in Cambridge just before that, so don't know if I will be back in time. We spent the bulk of the rehearsal learning a Credo by Vivaldi; very simple even for my basic sight-reading skills, and very beautiful. For the next two weeks there are Easter holidays, and it starts again on Thursday 27.
This afternoon we have done yet more shopping; at a garden centre called Truffaut where most of what N bought was for the window boxes and little garden here in Saint-Denis. He has done a lot of work on it this week and it's looking very good. We also went to Leroy Merlin for La Neuve-Lyre shopping and got curtain poles and related accessories for the spare bedroom - I really think these are the last! – more white paint, red picture frames for the kitchen, kitchen roll holder, wood to border the socle under the shower and glue to stick it, and wood to repair the bottom panels of the French windows in our bedroom.
Wednesday 12 April 2006
The whole of last weekend was taken up with the Saint John Passion – an amazing experience. The Saturday afternoon rehearsal at the Salle Gaveau was due to start at 3.00; I got there very early and enjoyed watching the others arrive. The members of the « choir for a day » were much like singers in Cambridge, lots of women in their fifties and sixties - only more chic and bien coiffée - and fewer men. As we all had name badges I enjoyed seeing what everyone was called; many of the women seemed to be Marie-Something. We all sat in the stalls; the orchestra and soloists were on the stage - the orchestra with their backs to us - and the Sorbonne choirs, two or three of them I think, were in the galleries. The first event was the news that the original Evangelist was ill and had been replaced at the last moment by an exuberant young Norwegian.
The singing went well - much more easy then when practising at home with N and his viola, more slowly for a start, and surrounded by excellent singers. I sat next to two sixty-something sisters, one of whom had taught English, who were very friendly. There was a brief supper break before the evening rehearsal, during which I made a quick dash to a brasserie I had seen on the way in, on the opposite corner. This was a wise move, as it filled up quickly with choir and orchestra, and there was not room for all, even conductor and soloists who wandered in late. I had a large salad and a glass of red wine and watched everybody else in between reading another novella by Benjamin Constant called Le Cahier Rouge, in the same volume as Adolphe, and not nearly so melodramatic. I felt it would make an excellent film. (The story, not the restaurant…)
The evening rehearsal was very enjoyable; the soloists were excellent and I became so involved with the German recitative and arias that it was a shock each time when the rehearsal picked up again in French. I remembered that I liked the German version because the disciples are referred to as « Jünge » (lads) and I like the part where Pilate says « Was ich geschrieben habe, das ich habe geschrieben. » We finished earlier than the scheduled time of 10.00; our conductor said he was thinking of those of us who lived out in the suburbs who would have an early start the next day. I realised this included me! By the time I had taken the metro home, and gone to bed it was time to get up again and leave at 8.45 the next morning; a bit like commuting.
The venue for Sunday’s rehearsal and performance was the Cirque d’Hiver Bouglione, a place I had never heard of let alone visited, in the 11th arondissement which I don’t know at all. I discovered during the course of the day that it had been built as a permanent winter circus about 150 years ago, but that in 1934 had been bought by the Bouglione family, who had owned it ever since. Inside it was full of faded glory, painted red and gold everywhere, with old posters of lion tamers and human canon balls and trapeze artists, and there were wonderful indoor stables with red and gold painted stalls, but no longer sign of any horses. I can’t imagine how animals lived or came in and out in the centre of a city.
The rehearsal was due to start at 10.00 in the morning, but it was about 11.40 before we actually started singing. Those of us who arrived early went in by the stage door as directed, and made our way through a smaller theatre to the main arena and gazed in amazement; a woman next to me said she had not been there for forty years, when she used to be taken every year for a Christmas treat by her father’s work. We were all ushered out again while a lighting engineer was hoisted up onto a rope, and then spent a long time hanging around in the bar, holding onto coats and bags, (the lucky ones found seats) and doing some warm-up breathing and singing exercises, which made me think of the exercises before a Fun Run.
Eventually we got into our seats in the auditorium, shaped rather like a mini Albert Hall, with the orchestra and soloists in the centre, the Sorbonne choirs immediately behind and the « choir for a day » high up around half of the sharply tiered seating; the remaining half was reserved for the audience. Both I and my two companions - the sisters I had found again - thought we had sung far better on the Saturday; it was very difficult to hear anyone else around us, and also difficult to see our music as the lighting was not good. There was also the problem of standing and sitting; we had tip-up seats which made quite a noise when multiplied by 600, so were asked to sit on the top edge of the seats in the upright position. This was all right for a while, but then became rather uncomfortable.
However it was fascinating to see the orchestra down in the arena, and although the soloists now had their backs to us, it was just as dramatic. There was a longish break before the afternoon session, so I settled down to eat my (supermarket) sandwich in the bar, and was joined by my two companions with their home-made picnic, and they kindly bought me coffee afterwards. We agreed that fresh air and a stretch of the legs was needed, and I set off round the block; down the Boulevard Voltaire to the Place de la République, still full of police buses, and back up to the little street where the stage door was.
The performance was due to start at 4.30 and we were to take our seats between 3.30 and 4.00; it was quite a feat to remember which staircase and door number to get to the right seat! And interesting to watch the auditorium fill up. I saw N arrive early and get a very good ringside seat; I kept waving from time to time and eventually he saw me, only because of my new bright green jumper, he said. Every place was sold and the ushers had a difficult task squeezing the last few people in. The orchestra and choirs made a dramatic entrance, all in impeccable evening dress with all the girls in strappy little black dresses, unlike many of their Cambridge equivalents who often perform in a variety of shapeless black t-shirts.
The President of the Sorbonne made an encouraging speech; the event was to celebrate 30 years of the choir and orchestra, and he and the conductor were ex-colleagues of N‘s. The performance was very dramatic - the lighting had been sorted out at last, and our seats were lit just for the duration of each chorale. The Evangelist was dramatic - especially describing Peter weeping and Barabbas the murderer - and the arias and choruses beautiful and our chorales suitably full-sounding! There was much applause and much coming in and out of the soloists and conductor; N had a very good view of all of this. Eventually we were able to leave; I said goodbye to my two fellow singers and we shook hands and kissed on both cheeks and said perhaps we would see each other again one day. I managed to find N outside quite easily; he had thought the whole performance was marvellous - especially his colleagues and his view of all of it! And was interested in the programme I had, and the details of the soloists, one of whom was English (from Cambridge University!) and one German.
Instead of going straight back home as I had imagined, (as I knew N had made Spaghetti Bolognese and I had been looking forward to it during the afternoon) he wanted to walk a little in the Marais, near to where we were, so we stopped for a much needed apéritif, and then walked for ages, through very interesting streets, ending up at Châtelet, where we took the RER train home. I would really have enjoyed it all if only my legs hadn’t been so tired from propping myself up on the back of my seat.
