Sunday, May 28, 2006
Wednesday 17 May 2006
We are now eating our own produce - lettuces, radishes and rhubarb - and N has a total of 26 rows of vegetables planted! The weather has been grey and muggy so not many meals or drinks in the garden lately, although we did have couple of breakfasts in the verandah, but only last night did it really rain heavily.
On Saturday afternoon N went up into the hayloft for the first time. This is over the top of the garage (presumably originally a stable) with a hole in the garage ceiling through which we have looked, but this time he entered by means of a ladder up to an outside door at first floor level. Once up there - apart from lots of hay - he found many off cuts of different bedroom carpets, various pieces of old iron, a cardboard box full of bits of china and other treasures, and most interesting of all, spare bathroom lino and a wooden screen. Finding bathroom lino was pertinent as we had just arrived at the stage of considering buying new lino for the downstairs shower room, now that all that new fittings are in and most of the painting is done; I am still very conscious of the fact that the yellow and black tiled floor clashes horribly with the pale blue and white wall tiles. This lino - as used in the two other bathrooms - is a vague little blue/grey mottled pattern, and will be just right. The screen was a wonderful find - three panels, latticed wood backed with something between fabric and paper in a dirty white colour, with a sort of Japanese look about it. I have never owned a screen before, but have always fancied one - I think I like the idea of undressing behind it and throwing my stockings over the top…… Anyway, it could come in useful in the grande pièce if guests were sleeping on the bed settee, or in the attic if two not very intimate guests were sleeping each end of the room. At the moment it is awaiting attention in the first outhouse. The box of treasures mostly contained good candidates for a jumble sale, but there was a nice blue-grey pottery jug, which I whisked away, washed and filled with some anonymous blue flowers from the garden. It was strange to think that I owned all these things and had bought them along with the house almost six months ago, but had only just discovered them, it having been far too cold and dark to investigate the hay loft until recently. There are more « attics » over the rest of the outbuildings, but I don’t know whether there will be anything worth discovering in them.
Monday was market day as usual; N bought the leek plants he had been waiting for, and I got some long trailing geraniums with small-petalled bright pink flowers for the troughs on the railing of the bedroom balcony. These - and the white busy lizzies in pots on the balcony itself - give me great pleasure when lying in bed or walking though the bedroom. On the way back from the market N stopped and had a word with the blacksmith - I think I may have omitted to say that we live a few hundred metres from a forge! - and asked whether he would be interested in taking away some of the old iron. He had already had dealings with him over a metal table leg which needed mending, and which is now attached to a huge heavy table (left by Madame V) in the studio, waiting until there is very strong team of people around to put it upright. The blacksmith is a little round man with a beard, who when he was permanently wearing a woolly hat in the winter reminded me of a garden gnome; he looks more human now summerly bareheaded, and came round the next day to look at our collection of old iron and said he would let N know when he was next ready to take a load away. He saw the garden lamps which Emanuel the electrician had not long ago disconnected, and said it was he who had made them!
In the event we went to Bernay on Monday afternoon, as the weather wasn’t very good for gardening, and the visit to the social security office was very brief. It was worth going just to be able to get a numbered ticket with my own Carte Vitale! We didn’t have to wait long, and in answer to my questions I was told that no, they didn’t need details of my complémentaire and no, I didn’t need to make any payments - if I hadn’t been asked, I didn’t need to pay anything. N was surprised, but I was quite happy, and could then concentrate on the other things we needed to do in Bernay. It was some time since we had been there, but we called in at Monsieur Bricolage as usual, where N bought lots of locks and asked about cement, and I bought - for the final time, I hope - a towel rail for the ground floor shower room and a toilet brush and a towel ring for the one upstairs, and a final black rubber door mat. I also found some transparent plastic for sticking on windows to give a frosted effect, which I bought for the window of the boiler room - when walking past in the garden it is not good to see pipes and taps and plastic buckets on the shelves.
At the garden centre we bought a large ornate terra cotta pot so that my birthday hydrangea could go outside (but I miss it in the salon!) two basil plants - I have never seen such a large selection in my life! - and pots for them to go in. N got some melon plants, as he realised he had a couple of square feet of space having finally got rid of the roots of the banana tree (he hopes) and cloches to put over them. I was disappointed not to find a book on garden birds, especially as there was such a large book section, but decided it was now time to buy something I have looked at every time we have been there - a pair of green rubber clogs for wearing in the garden; a cross between clogs and wellingtons. I said hello to the black cat who was stretched out asleep on a pile of sacks of barbecue charcoal. At the supermarket N stocked up with cider and vin ordinaire to begin filling the wine cellar, already swept out in preparation.
Thursday 18 May 2006
In the last day or so before leaving La Neuve Lyre to come back here to Paris yesterday afternoon we finished off lots of odd jobs; N fitted locks and padlocks on various outbuildings, and I painted the inside of the ground floor shower room door, and the door of the corner cupboard in the dining room, which was badly in need of another coat, and stuck the « frosting » on the window of the boiler room. We also both finally got things done which we had been promising ourselves to do as soon as we moved in: N repaired a gap in the crazy paving along the side of the house under the kitchen window, and I cleaned the outside windows of the verandah, plus two tiny windows on the staircase, only reachable with a long-handled window sponge while standing on a ladder. Less than a day later they were covered in cobwebs again! We continued trying to get to know our new heating system, having had a first lesson from the technician, but it is not easy. N says he thinks it has to get to know us, as well as us getting to know it; I think that mid-May is not the best time of year for such an exercise, as we are still turning it off every morning after breakfast and on again at about 8.45 every evening. When Guillaume first put it in he said that it takes the outside temperature (we haven’t yet found out how) and looks at the desired indoor temperature we have set, and heats up accordingly. So the radiators might be hot or tepid; it will do what it needs. It is also apparently possible to switch it down low when we are away in the winter, and then phone it up and ask it to turn up the temperature ready for when we get back! Wonder if we can ask it to open the shutters and put a casserole in the oven?? Currently all this works from a thermostat like a TV remote control (various jokes were made about how many channels it could get), and we are waiting for Monsieur A or one of his team to come and fix it and its holder onto the wall. I rang him just before we left to let him know we would be away; he said that was a pity as next week there was a jour de fête (Thursday, Ascension Day) and they wouldn’t be working then or Friday and in any case he was moving house. When I said there was just a little work left for the electricians to do, he laughed and said whenever they nearly got to the end we added more. As far as N is concerned this is probably true, but even he is running out of things which need fixing. The final list includes neon lights in the atelier, tidying wires in the verandah and the removal of all the wires from the old garden lamps. We also received the Very Large Bill for the heating installation; what we expected from the estimate, but I don’t propose to pay it until we have the thermostat on the wall, and a few more instructions.
We arrived here at Saint-Denis yesterday afternoon and as always relaxed as there are no jobs to do, except for N catching up with his post and taking the car to the garage and himself to the doctor for repeat prescriptions. I had a phone call from the « chef » of the chorale to say that this evening’s rehearsal (for Saturday’s concert) will be in the museum, the concert venue. N and I discussed what we will cook for Sunday’s lunch party; at the moment it is possibly oeufs mimosa or some kind of fish to start, coq au vin (made by N) and mousse au chocolat (made by me) and strawberries. Subject to change, however. This morning I caught up with the local shops as usual; Carrefour and cosmetics and clothes shops, as there is limited scope for shopping in La Neuve-Lyre, this is always a ritual. I have loyalty cards from two cosmetics shops in Saint-Denis - Sephora and Yves Rocher - and there is usually some special offer waiting here in the post when I get back.
Sunday 21 May 2006
The rehearsal and singing on Thursday and Saturday respectively went very well, apart from the weather, which has been alternately bright and sunny and very windy and rainy. I wished I had with me my umbrella with the words and music of « Singing in the Rain », but it was at LNL. On Thursday evening much time was spent in finding a suitable position in which to sing outside; the museum is a former convent - there are several in Saint-Denis! - and it was decided the middle of the cloisters was best. This was for the unaccompanied part of the programme; the rest (with portable organ) was to be in a lecture room indoors. It was part of a free open day/evening for museums nationally, and also because the Saint-Denis museum was celebrating its 25th anniversary. On Saturday afternoon we had a little rehearsal at the Conservatoire, and then sang at the museum from 5 o’clock, even though it was very windy - but dry - outside; I think the outdoor part was better then the indoor! The programme itself was not decided until Thursday evening and on Friday N helped me with some of the pieces I didn’t know so well, at the piano. It was interesting to see different members’ interpretations of the red and black dress code - especially in view of the weather - ranging from full dress suit with red shirt, through red twin sets, scarves and blouses to sweatshirts and old woollies with black jeans. I was very pleased I had been able to take part, as the date of the June concert seems to have been changed from the 25th to the 18th when we shall be in the UK. I hope I shall make a few more rehearsals before then, though.
Otherwise I have had my eyebrows shaped, bought a couple more of the excellent square pillows I got before, been round the market and got two more satin cushion covers for the salon at LNL, plus root ginger and bay leaves (unobtainable in LNL); to Carrefour where I got blue pillow cases for « cushions » for the flowery settee in the verandah, and into Paris on Friday afternoon. First stop was FNAC, which I find very confusing and antipathique, but a visit was necessary to get a new cartridge for the printer at LNL (unobtainable at Bernay) and at last a book on garden birds to help us with identification. I was pleased to find I knew more names of French birds than I thought, and also to learn a nice new word: nidification (nesting habits). I also bought a little book I had flicked through before: « Chic et Jolie à Petits Prix » full of useful adresses for cut-price clothes stores, some of which I am delighted to say I have found already, but several more I shall visit as soon as I can. With this in mind, I found just such a shop in the Avenue de l’Opéra, where I bought a wonderfully chic reversible raincoat reduced from 129 euros to 50. The weather has been so unseasonable I have actually been able to wear it twice!
We enjoyed our lunch party today; enjoyed the preparation of it between us, and the good company and conversation, and to find that our guests - who both work in the film world - know N‘s friend Odile, who runs a children‘s film festival. However, we have far too much food left over; I can see it not all being eaten before we go back to LNL on Tuesday, and having to take a lot with us. Inevitably there are always a few food items which have to be taken in one direction or the other, but not usually this many! Then there are things I find here which are unobtainable in LNL; fresh spices in the market for example, and on this trip I have found Pecorino Romano cheese from an Italian stall.
Wednesday 24 May 2006
On Monday afternoon we had a trip to IKEA, for the first time for several months, with the aim of finally getting book cases, but have still not got them. This is because Normandy is too far away to have them delivered, but it seems we can order them over the internet (and haven’t had time yet) but were at least able to decide which colour wood was best and got a lot more literature about sizes, prices etc. It would all have been a lot easier if we hadn’t both forgotten to take our glasses with us, so only read much of the small print once we got home. (I had been telling our recent visitors how much exercise we get here in this house wandering about on three floors and two staircases looking for our glasses, and then found a wonderful quotation in the 1930’s book Issy gave me for my birthday: « Hunting for spectacles is the only sport left for old age. »)
We had been to IKEA so many times before Christmas that it was strange to see it full of summer garden furniture, and not a Santa in sight. We came away with lots of smaller things though, some of them even planned! N got presents to take back to the UK, wine glasses and a useful little TV table for his attic, which means we have been able to dispense with the cardboard-box-covered-with-a-blanket which he was using. I got a waste paper basket for the spare bedroom and a middle-sized saucepan - when I put the Italian pans and my own together had lots of large and small but no useful middle size. These two were planned, but I also came away with a mouse mat, some useful drawer dividers, a wooden bath rack and a shelf for the downstairs shower room. We had been looking for something to fit behind the loo for so long, that when I saw a black wrought iron shelf unit which was exactly the right size (and only 15 euros) I decided to get it, even though it really should have been white. There will be black and white pictures on the walls, so hopefully it will all look of a piece.
We came back here yesterday (Tuesday) after having broccoli soup for lunch, made from much of the leftovers from Sunday - broccoli, potatoes and cream - and having frozen the rest. The garden was drier than expected, and the poor hydrangea extremely dry, but very pretty with pink flowers, instead of white. Almost the first thing that happened was a phone call from M Urset the house agent to apologise for not having responded before to my letter; but saying that he and his wife would be delighted to come to lunch next Saturday. He also promised to chase up my notaire re the deeds of the house. I was pleased, not only because they were coming, but also because it put an end to a mystery, and my wondering if I should contact him again.
Saturday 27 May 2006
The heating - which had been temperamental the day we left - refused to work at all, and as the house had been empty for six days, and the weather unseasonably cool, we and especially N were frozen. It seems hard to remember now that at one time we were having meals in the garden regularly. Anyway I rang Monsieur A on Wednesday morning and left him a message, and not long after Guillaume arrived and had a good look at everything and told us the expert would be along at lunch time. This was the chap who had been before a couple of times to talk us through it, whom we later found out was called Olivier.
Before this happened however, there was a ring at the front door and a man in blue overalls representing EDF (Electricité de France) asking if Madame V was still in residence. This cleared up another mystery - for the five and a half months since we’ve been here we have had no contacts or documents at all concerning electricity; unlike the water which I had to ring up and get switched on, the electricity has always worked from day one but I have never been asked for a bill! Despite Madame V saying she would mention it to EDF. (Occasionally I wondered if she was still paying for our electricity all this time, but it seemed unlikely ….) So here they were, having finally caught up with me! I gave him my details so he could put the contract in my name and said I supposed they would now send me a large bill; he just smiled and said he didn’t know about that.
Olivier came and looked at the heater, and said it was a problem with the electricity (quite an electric day!) and we wondered if Emanuel would be along, but Guillaume came back and got it all going again; explained lots of things to N, and fixed the thermostat/remote control onto the wall. It has been fine ever since, sometimes too hot, so I have sent Monsieur A his very large cheque.
Guillaume was anxious to go home and start his long weekend -Thursday to Sunday, as Thursday was a jour de fête and they were all making it a four-day holiday - so no chance of seeing Emanuel before Monday, in spite of N murmuring from time to time: « O come, o come Emanuel… » Thursday was also the day of the La Neuve-Lyre Village Brocante Sale, and I was very glad in the end that we had decided not to have a stall of our own, as the weather was absolutely freezing cold and windy, and those who had stalls sat huddled in coats and jumpers - sometimes with their own heaters - and looked very miserable. The stalls were spread all throughout the village, and I stopped and had a word with my hairdresser at her stall; she said they had always been lucky with the weather in previous years. There was a mixture of people selling their own junk - much as we might have done! - and bona fide antique dealers, and all I bought was a nice little grape basket with a handle (since used for gathering flowers from the garden) and two glass storage jars with red plastic lids. The day before N had found three more boxes of « treasure » in the loft over the woodshed; nothing very special; a selection of small glasses which scrubbed up well, some rather damp books, toys and plates, including one I have put on display with a picture of red striped beach huts. There were many similar things on offer at the village sale.
The other great event since we have been back is that N has finally received his money for the sale of the Italian apartment! Minus quite a few hundred euros in fees, and after many e-mails to and from various conseillers and a strongly worded letter to the « médiatre ». It is quite strange not to see him consult the computer every morning and say, « It still hasn’t come yet. »
Otherwise I have finished the last two cushions for the sofa and armchairs; we have found it impossible to order the bookshelves we want from IKEA by internet, and are considering something more local as I am getting tired of seeing all the books on the floor, and we are eating home-grown radishes and lettuce at almost every meal, and sometimes rhubarb too. We put up the new black wrought-iron shelf up in the ground floor shower room, plus the towel rail and picture, and the towel ring in the upstairs shower room. All that remains to be done in the ground floor room is the lino! N bought a magnificent-sounding steam cleaning machine from Tele Shopping, hoping to clean the glue off the hall floor (and other projects) but it only worked for about half an hour and had to be sent back to the manufacturers, necessitating a drive to the post office.
We are now eating our own produce - lettuces, radishes and rhubarb - and N has a total of 26 rows of vegetables planted! The weather has been grey and muggy so not many meals or drinks in the garden lately, although we did have couple of breakfasts in the verandah, but only last night did it really rain heavily.
On Saturday afternoon N went up into the hayloft for the first time. This is over the top of the garage (presumably originally a stable) with a hole in the garage ceiling through which we have looked, but this time he entered by means of a ladder up to an outside door at first floor level. Once up there - apart from lots of hay - he found many off cuts of different bedroom carpets, various pieces of old iron, a cardboard box full of bits of china and other treasures, and most interesting of all, spare bathroom lino and a wooden screen. Finding bathroom lino was pertinent as we had just arrived at the stage of considering buying new lino for the downstairs shower room, now that all that new fittings are in and most of the painting is done; I am still very conscious of the fact that the yellow and black tiled floor clashes horribly with the pale blue and white wall tiles. This lino - as used in the two other bathrooms - is a vague little blue/grey mottled pattern, and will be just right. The screen was a wonderful find - three panels, latticed wood backed with something between fabric and paper in a dirty white colour, with a sort of Japanese look about it. I have never owned a screen before, but have always fancied one - I think I like the idea of undressing behind it and throwing my stockings over the top…… Anyway, it could come in useful in the grande pièce if guests were sleeping on the bed settee, or in the attic if two not very intimate guests were sleeping each end of the room. At the moment it is awaiting attention in the first outhouse. The box of treasures mostly contained good candidates for a jumble sale, but there was a nice blue-grey pottery jug, which I whisked away, washed and filled with some anonymous blue flowers from the garden. It was strange to think that I owned all these things and had bought them along with the house almost six months ago, but had only just discovered them, it having been far too cold and dark to investigate the hay loft until recently. There are more « attics » over the rest of the outbuildings, but I don’t know whether there will be anything worth discovering in them.
Monday was market day as usual; N bought the leek plants he had been waiting for, and I got some long trailing geraniums with small-petalled bright pink flowers for the troughs on the railing of the bedroom balcony. These - and the white busy lizzies in pots on the balcony itself - give me great pleasure when lying in bed or walking though the bedroom. On the way back from the market N stopped and had a word with the blacksmith - I think I may have omitted to say that we live a few hundred metres from a forge! - and asked whether he would be interested in taking away some of the old iron. He had already had dealings with him over a metal table leg which needed mending, and which is now attached to a huge heavy table (left by Madame V) in the studio, waiting until there is very strong team of people around to put it upright. The blacksmith is a little round man with a beard, who when he was permanently wearing a woolly hat in the winter reminded me of a garden gnome; he looks more human now summerly bareheaded, and came round the next day to look at our collection of old iron and said he would let N know when he was next ready to take a load away. He saw the garden lamps which Emanuel the electrician had not long ago disconnected, and said it was he who had made them!
In the event we went to Bernay on Monday afternoon, as the weather wasn’t very good for gardening, and the visit to the social security office was very brief. It was worth going just to be able to get a numbered ticket with my own Carte Vitale! We didn’t have to wait long, and in answer to my questions I was told that no, they didn’t need details of my complémentaire and no, I didn’t need to make any payments - if I hadn’t been asked, I didn’t need to pay anything. N was surprised, but I was quite happy, and could then concentrate on the other things we needed to do in Bernay. It was some time since we had been there, but we called in at Monsieur Bricolage as usual, where N bought lots of locks and asked about cement, and I bought - for the final time, I hope - a towel rail for the ground floor shower room and a toilet brush and a towel ring for the one upstairs, and a final black rubber door mat. I also found some transparent plastic for sticking on windows to give a frosted effect, which I bought for the window of the boiler room - when walking past in the garden it is not good to see pipes and taps and plastic buckets on the shelves.
At the garden centre we bought a large ornate terra cotta pot so that my birthday hydrangea could go outside (but I miss it in the salon!) two basil plants - I have never seen such a large selection in my life! - and pots for them to go in. N got some melon plants, as he realised he had a couple of square feet of space having finally got rid of the roots of the banana tree (he hopes) and cloches to put over them. I was disappointed not to find a book on garden birds, especially as there was such a large book section, but decided it was now time to buy something I have looked at every time we have been there - a pair of green rubber clogs for wearing in the garden; a cross between clogs and wellingtons. I said hello to the black cat who was stretched out asleep on a pile of sacks of barbecue charcoal. At the supermarket N stocked up with cider and vin ordinaire to begin filling the wine cellar, already swept out in preparation.
Thursday 18 May 2006
In the last day or so before leaving La Neuve Lyre to come back here to Paris yesterday afternoon we finished off lots of odd jobs; N fitted locks and padlocks on various outbuildings, and I painted the inside of the ground floor shower room door, and the door of the corner cupboard in the dining room, which was badly in need of another coat, and stuck the « frosting » on the window of the boiler room. We also both finally got things done which we had been promising ourselves to do as soon as we moved in: N repaired a gap in the crazy paving along the side of the house under the kitchen window, and I cleaned the outside windows of the verandah, plus two tiny windows on the staircase, only reachable with a long-handled window sponge while standing on a ladder. Less than a day later they were covered in cobwebs again! We continued trying to get to know our new heating system, having had a first lesson from the technician, but it is not easy. N says he thinks it has to get to know us, as well as us getting to know it; I think that mid-May is not the best time of year for such an exercise, as we are still turning it off every morning after breakfast and on again at about 8.45 every evening. When Guillaume first put it in he said that it takes the outside temperature (we haven’t yet found out how) and looks at the desired indoor temperature we have set, and heats up accordingly. So the radiators might be hot or tepid; it will do what it needs. It is also apparently possible to switch it down low when we are away in the winter, and then phone it up and ask it to turn up the temperature ready for when we get back! Wonder if we can ask it to open the shutters and put a casserole in the oven?? Currently all this works from a thermostat like a TV remote control (various jokes were made about how many channels it could get), and we are waiting for Monsieur A or one of his team to come and fix it and its holder onto the wall. I rang him just before we left to let him know we would be away; he said that was a pity as next week there was a jour de fête (Thursday, Ascension Day) and they wouldn’t be working then or Friday and in any case he was moving house. When I said there was just a little work left for the electricians to do, he laughed and said whenever they nearly got to the end we added more. As far as N is concerned this is probably true, but even he is running out of things which need fixing. The final list includes neon lights in the atelier, tidying wires in the verandah and the removal of all the wires from the old garden lamps. We also received the Very Large Bill for the heating installation; what we expected from the estimate, but I don’t propose to pay it until we have the thermostat on the wall, and a few more instructions.
We arrived here at Saint-Denis yesterday afternoon and as always relaxed as there are no jobs to do, except for N catching up with his post and taking the car to the garage and himself to the doctor for repeat prescriptions. I had a phone call from the « chef » of the chorale to say that this evening’s rehearsal (for Saturday’s concert) will be in the museum, the concert venue. N and I discussed what we will cook for Sunday’s lunch party; at the moment it is possibly oeufs mimosa or some kind of fish to start, coq au vin (made by N) and mousse au chocolat (made by me) and strawberries. Subject to change, however. This morning I caught up with the local shops as usual; Carrefour and cosmetics and clothes shops, as there is limited scope for shopping in La Neuve-Lyre, this is always a ritual. I have loyalty cards from two cosmetics shops in Saint-Denis - Sephora and Yves Rocher - and there is usually some special offer waiting here in the post when I get back.
Sunday 21 May 2006
The rehearsal and singing on Thursday and Saturday respectively went very well, apart from the weather, which has been alternately bright and sunny and very windy and rainy. I wished I had with me my umbrella with the words and music of « Singing in the Rain », but it was at LNL. On Thursday evening much time was spent in finding a suitable position in which to sing outside; the museum is a former convent - there are several in Saint-Denis! - and it was decided the middle of the cloisters was best. This was for the unaccompanied part of the programme; the rest (with portable organ) was to be in a lecture room indoors. It was part of a free open day/evening for museums nationally, and also because the Saint-Denis museum was celebrating its 25th anniversary. On Saturday afternoon we had a little rehearsal at the Conservatoire, and then sang at the museum from 5 o’clock, even though it was very windy - but dry - outside; I think the outdoor part was better then the indoor! The programme itself was not decided until Thursday evening and on Friday N helped me with some of the pieces I didn’t know so well, at the piano. It was interesting to see different members’ interpretations of the red and black dress code - especially in view of the weather - ranging from full dress suit with red shirt, through red twin sets, scarves and blouses to sweatshirts and old woollies with black jeans. I was very pleased I had been able to take part, as the date of the June concert seems to have been changed from the 25th to the 18th when we shall be in the UK. I hope I shall make a few more rehearsals before then, though.
Otherwise I have had my eyebrows shaped, bought a couple more of the excellent square pillows I got before, been round the market and got two more satin cushion covers for the salon at LNL, plus root ginger and bay leaves (unobtainable in LNL); to Carrefour where I got blue pillow cases for « cushions » for the flowery settee in the verandah, and into Paris on Friday afternoon. First stop was FNAC, which I find very confusing and antipathique, but a visit was necessary to get a new cartridge for the printer at LNL (unobtainable at Bernay) and at last a book on garden birds to help us with identification. I was pleased to find I knew more names of French birds than I thought, and also to learn a nice new word: nidification (nesting habits). I also bought a little book I had flicked through before: « Chic et Jolie à Petits Prix » full of useful adresses for cut-price clothes stores, some of which I am delighted to say I have found already, but several more I shall visit as soon as I can. With this in mind, I found just such a shop in the Avenue de l’Opéra, where I bought a wonderfully chic reversible raincoat reduced from 129 euros to 50. The weather has been so unseasonable I have actually been able to wear it twice!
We enjoyed our lunch party today; enjoyed the preparation of it between us, and the good company and conversation, and to find that our guests - who both work in the film world - know N‘s friend Odile, who runs a children‘s film festival. However, we have far too much food left over; I can see it not all being eaten before we go back to LNL on Tuesday, and having to take a lot with us. Inevitably there are always a few food items which have to be taken in one direction or the other, but not usually this many! Then there are things I find here which are unobtainable in LNL; fresh spices in the market for example, and on this trip I have found Pecorino Romano cheese from an Italian stall.
Wednesday 24 May 2006
On Monday afternoon we had a trip to IKEA, for the first time for several months, with the aim of finally getting book cases, but have still not got them. This is because Normandy is too far away to have them delivered, but it seems we can order them over the internet (and haven’t had time yet) but were at least able to decide which colour wood was best and got a lot more literature about sizes, prices etc. It would all have been a lot easier if we hadn’t both forgotten to take our glasses with us, so only read much of the small print once we got home. (I had been telling our recent visitors how much exercise we get here in this house wandering about on three floors and two staircases looking for our glasses, and then found a wonderful quotation in the 1930’s book Issy gave me for my birthday: « Hunting for spectacles is the only sport left for old age. »)
We had been to IKEA so many times before Christmas that it was strange to see it full of summer garden furniture, and not a Santa in sight. We came away with lots of smaller things though, some of them even planned! N got presents to take back to the UK, wine glasses and a useful little TV table for his attic, which means we have been able to dispense with the cardboard-box-covered-with-a-blanket which he was using. I got a waste paper basket for the spare bedroom and a middle-sized saucepan - when I put the Italian pans and my own together had lots of large and small but no useful middle size. These two were planned, but I also came away with a mouse mat, some useful drawer dividers, a wooden bath rack and a shelf for the downstairs shower room. We had been looking for something to fit behind the loo for so long, that when I saw a black wrought iron shelf unit which was exactly the right size (and only 15 euros) I decided to get it, even though it really should have been white. There will be black and white pictures on the walls, so hopefully it will all look of a piece.
We came back here yesterday (Tuesday) after having broccoli soup for lunch, made from much of the leftovers from Sunday - broccoli, potatoes and cream - and having frozen the rest. The garden was drier than expected, and the poor hydrangea extremely dry, but very pretty with pink flowers, instead of white. Almost the first thing that happened was a phone call from M Urset the house agent to apologise for not having responded before to my letter; but saying that he and his wife would be delighted to come to lunch next Saturday. He also promised to chase up my notaire re the deeds of the house. I was pleased, not only because they were coming, but also because it put an end to a mystery, and my wondering if I should contact him again.
Saturday 27 May 2006
The heating - which had been temperamental the day we left - refused to work at all, and as the house had been empty for six days, and the weather unseasonably cool, we and especially N were frozen. It seems hard to remember now that at one time we were having meals in the garden regularly. Anyway I rang Monsieur A on Wednesday morning and left him a message, and not long after Guillaume arrived and had a good look at everything and told us the expert would be along at lunch time. This was the chap who had been before a couple of times to talk us through it, whom we later found out was called Olivier.
Before this happened however, there was a ring at the front door and a man in blue overalls representing EDF (Electricité de France) asking if Madame V was still in residence. This cleared up another mystery - for the five and a half months since we’ve been here we have had no contacts or documents at all concerning electricity; unlike the water which I had to ring up and get switched on, the electricity has always worked from day one but I have never been asked for a bill! Despite Madame V saying she would mention it to EDF. (Occasionally I wondered if she was still paying for our electricity all this time, but it seemed unlikely ….) So here they were, having finally caught up with me! I gave him my details so he could put the contract in my name and said I supposed they would now send me a large bill; he just smiled and said he didn’t know about that.
Olivier came and looked at the heater, and said it was a problem with the electricity (quite an electric day!) and we wondered if Emanuel would be along, but Guillaume came back and got it all going again; explained lots of things to N, and fixed the thermostat/remote control onto the wall. It has been fine ever since, sometimes too hot, so I have sent Monsieur A his very large cheque.
Guillaume was anxious to go home and start his long weekend -Thursday to Sunday, as Thursday was a jour de fête and they were all making it a four-day holiday - so no chance of seeing Emanuel before Monday, in spite of N murmuring from time to time: « O come, o come Emanuel… » Thursday was also the day of the La Neuve-Lyre Village Brocante Sale, and I was very glad in the end that we had decided not to have a stall of our own, as the weather was absolutely freezing cold and windy, and those who had stalls sat huddled in coats and jumpers - sometimes with their own heaters - and looked very miserable. The stalls were spread all throughout the village, and I stopped and had a word with my hairdresser at her stall; she said they had always been lucky with the weather in previous years. There was a mixture of people selling their own junk - much as we might have done! - and bona fide antique dealers, and all I bought was a nice little grape basket with a handle (since used for gathering flowers from the garden) and two glass storage jars with red plastic lids. The day before N had found three more boxes of « treasure » in the loft over the woodshed; nothing very special; a selection of small glasses which scrubbed up well, some rather damp books, toys and plates, including one I have put on display with a picture of red striped beach huts. There were many similar things on offer at the village sale.
The other great event since we have been back is that N has finally received his money for the sale of the Italian apartment! Minus quite a few hundred euros in fees, and after many e-mails to and from various conseillers and a strongly worded letter to the « médiatre ». It is quite strange not to see him consult the computer every morning and say, « It still hasn’t come yet. »
Otherwise I have finished the last two cushions for the sofa and armchairs; we have found it impossible to order the bookshelves we want from IKEA by internet, and are considering something more local as I am getting tired of seeing all the books on the floor, and we are eating home-grown radishes and lettuce at almost every meal, and sometimes rhubarb too. We put up the new black wrought-iron shelf up in the ground floor shower room, plus the towel rail and picture, and the towel ring in the upstairs shower room. All that remains to be done in the ground floor room is the lino! N bought a magnificent-sounding steam cleaning machine from Tele Shopping, hoping to clean the glue off the hall floor (and other projects) but it only worked for about half an hour and had to be sent back to the manufacturers, necessitating a drive to the post office.
Friday, May 12, 2006
Saturday 6 May 2006
The week-end with visitors went well I think, apart from appalling weather. The temperature went down to about 14 or 15 degrees, it was very grey and windy; and rained all day Monday. They arrived safely with N from the Gare du Nord at about 4.50 on Saturday afternoon, and we didn’t do much after that except visit the house and outbuildings, which took some time, and showed them their rooms; Issy in the smaller attic where Madeleine had stayed, Steve in the newly refurbished blue and gold Italian room - he said he felt very important sleeping in such a high grand bed - and Caroline in N’s study in the larger attic, where she was re-united with her old bed from Ainsworth Street.
It was nice to have five of us round the large dining table for Saturday and Sunday dinner and Sunday lunch; we had breakfast in the dining room. They took themselves out for a little walk round the village on Saturday evening and found that there wasn’t much to see; I went out with them on Sunday morning when the principal activity was fetching bread and patîsserie for lunch. They also had a good look round the supermarket and bought a few things.
In the afternoon we drove to a little town called Beaumesnil to visit the château. N and I go through Beaumesnil sometimes when we go to Bernay and always catch a tantalizing glimpse of a wonderful large baroque house at the end of a road. Only a very small part of it was open to the public, and included a museum of bookbinding with a filmstrip to watch. There was also - not surprisingly - a large library, and several impressive drawing rooms, with one or two features like ours. The gardens would have been impressive too, if only it hadn’t been so cold and windy; I had had to lend Issy a coat for most of the weekend. On the way back we had a look at La Ferrière-sur-Risle where we planned to go to the fair the following morning, but there was nothing happening there so far. Once back home we lit the fire, and had afternoon tea in front of it.
Monday was Steve’s birthday - part of the reason for the visit, as mine was the following Thursday - so he opened presents over breakfast and then we all got ready to leave as soon as we could, N and I preparing to leave the house as after visiting the fair we had arranged to take our visitors back to the Gare du Nord and then stay on in Paris. I was handed a large bag of presents to take with me!
The fair at La Ferrière-sur-Risle was billed as a « Foire à Tout » (An Everything Fair) so it had been a little difficult to describe to our guests as we had no idea what it was going to be. Unlike the day before the village was full of people and cars, and N had to park a long way out. There were many bric-a-brac stalls; some more professional than others, and real antique stalls under the covered market in the same way as a fortnight before. There were also a few selling produce and lots to eat and drink. It rained steadily the whole time we were there, and stallholders were having problems keeping everything dry, and no doubt felt that would have taken much more money on a fine day. At one of the antique stalls I caught sight of my friend the curtain lady from L’Aigle! The only thing I bought was a little wicker hanging shelf (for 1 euro!) but N bought a violin for 60 euros - mass-produced, but brand new with case and bow - and a book of walks though Normandy with quotations from Flaubert. Unfortunately I don’t Flaubert can’t have walked near La Neuve-Lyre very often, and we will have to drive a fair way in order to walk these routes. Still, it looks good on the coffee table, and N has already had great fun getting the violin into shape. (The wicker shelf has since been hung in our bathroom, and filled with spare toilet rolls.)
After some fortifying hot drinks in a café, we found the car again and set off for Paris, still not quite sure where, or of what nature, Steve’s birthday lunch would be. In the end we stopped at the Hotel de l’Ouest opposite the station at Evreux; it was a little early for a long lunch and we hadn’t got a lot of time, but ate very well in the brasserie, mostly Croque Monsieurs, for which our guests kindly insisted on paying.
We reached the Gare du Nord just nicely in time for them to check in for their train due to depart at 16.07, after a spectacular drive in via La Défense, l’Avenue de la Grande Armée and the Champs Elysées, and past metro Anvers where I visit the material shops. Usually when I drive with N to the Gare du Nord it’s me saying goodbye and going off somewhere, so it was nice to drive back together to Saint-Denis, where we arrived before 4 o’clock.
This was a short stay; from Monday afternoon to Friday afternoon. On Tuesday morning N was playing string quartets, so I decided to see if there was a free concert at l’Eglise Saint Roch; there was so I had a sandwich at the café next door while I waited and marvelled at the sunshine - the temperature had risen since the day before from 15 to 24 degrees! I felt sorry for my visitors and also for all the stallholders at the fair at La Ferrière-sur-Risle. A trio - violin, oboe and organ - played Bach, Handel and others which I enjoyed very much, and was pleased to see the church again after having read about it so recently as it in was in the 1830’s.
Afterwards I went to the Monoprix in l’Avenue de l’Opéra and bought myself a dress for my birthday, black linen with a cross-over front, short sleeves and flared skirt, and reminiscent, I realised later, of at least two other dresses I’ve had in the past. I then went on to the branch of Leroy Merlin near the Pompidou Centre to get the last remaining curtain fittings for the sewing room, enjoying the masses of people in the sunshine, and having my first outdoor ice cream of the season from a nearby stall.
Wednesday morning I spent in various household tasks; washing, cleaning, taking both our winter coats to the dry cleaners, and ironing, including ironing the afore-mentioned black linen dress. N spent a lot of time reading the thesis he is due to examine in June; he now has the printed copy, which is approximately the size of a large dictionary or family Bible. He is also still involved in frantic communications with the bank regarding the missing money from the Italian house sale; the latest information is that the money should arrive in his account during the week beginning 8 May. When not doing either of these, he has been translating into English an article he wrote in French a few years ago about a painting called « Fête des Archers », to send to a Spanish early music magazine, which he keeps referring to as the latest episode of The Archers. I was involved with the proof-reading and checking of this too, on Monday evening and Tuesday morning, as sometimes his English is more French than it should be.
On Wednesday afternoon I went to Montmartre, probably for the last curtain buying trip. I bought fine white cotton for the landing window, helped by a lady with whom I got chatting; she said she was responsible for furnishing several flats, and always got curtain material at the Marché Saint Pierre, and had never been disappointed. I said I had been very pleased with them too, and these were the last curtains for a large house in Normandy which I had bought not long ago. The man serving me, rather disagreeably, I thought, said so we won’t be seeing you again, then?
All of this didn’t take long, so I walked further up to Barbès- Rochechouart and looked at all the cut-price clothes shops. There are often tourists in this area, even in the middle of winter, but that day it was full of them enjoying the sunshine; Russian women and Swedish girls all rummaging through the stalls and holding up skirts and T-shirts in front of themselves. I walked all though the different Tati shops (there is even a Tati bridal department - no doubt there are those whose ambition is to be married in a Tati wedding dress) and bought myself a little wicker bag for 3 euros 90.
Thursday was my birthday, and quite a different kind of day, a complete change of activity for us both. We went into Paris in the morning, me in my new dress - the weather so pleasantly warm no need to think of a jacket to go with it - and N in his new blue cotton suit. First we went to BHV where I chose my present from him, a much needed new watch, as the clasp on my old one kept coming unfastened. (The day before he had bought me a beautiful big white hydrangea in a pot; almost nicer than the watch. It has come back with us to La Neuve-Lyre where it is standing in a large white china bowl on the side table in the salon, until it’s time for it to go in the garden.) The choice of watch was determined by practicality in the end; I wanted an expanding bracelet so I didn’t have the same problem with the clasp again, and a dial with all 12 numbers as opposed to four spots - very difficult to change the time on these! So the one I chose has a large white face with clear figures and minutes marked off in between and is very easy to see without my glasses. It was also very reasonably priced!
We had lunch at a restaurant called Chez Julien, near the Pont Saint Louis; the only other time I had been there was on Good Friday last year, in similar lovely sunshine. Everything about the restaurant was exactly as it should have been; and I had a very good mixture of salmon and Coquilles Saint Jacques, the first time I have eaten the latter. Afterwards we went to an exhibition at the Hôtel de Ville entitled « Paris au Cinéma », with lots of stills, photos, interviews and posters, and clips of films divided by category - lovers, chases, bistros, Parisian women and the Eiffel Tower. When we came out we sat for some time in front of Notre Dame, watching the tourists, couldn’t decide what to do next, but not really ready to go home. I suggested we went part of the way by bus, so we managed to get the 24 which we discovered last autumn at Bercy; it goes all the way along the left bank, then crosses the river and terminates at the Gare St Lazare, on our metro line. It was a wonderful treat again like last time, and going along so slowly there was plenty of time to see everything.
One of the reasons for going out for lunch instead of dinner was so that I could go to the chorale, so after a good rest and a large bowl of strawberries each, I set off round the corner to the Conservatoire. A woman I had sat with before came and sat next to me again - this chorale sometimes reminds me of a class of 12-year olds, and she is definitely the bad girl who usually sits on the back row and calls out and all the others wait to see what she will say, so I suppose I ought to be flattered. She asked how I was, so I said it was my birthday, whereupon she asked my age and said I couldn’t possibly be that old. Once we were ready to start she announced to everybody that it was my birthday - though not my age! - and they all launched into « Happy Birthday to you » twice, with piano accompaniment.
The other good thing about the evening was that an extra concert has been arranged, on 20 May, when N and I will be in Paris anyway; at the Saint-Denis museum, only a few minutes away opposite the Chinese restaurant. There is no rehearsal next week - another holiday - and the one just before the concert may be in the museum itself. As yet, it hasn’t been decided exactly what we will sing! (but we will wear red tops) We learned a few new pieces, gospel and traditional French songs. Where else could you go and sing Vivaldi and Charles Trenet in the same evening??
I also spent quite a lot of time typing out the Lexique during the few days we were in Saint-Denis, but have still only got as far as the end of the letter C - there were 9 pages of it. On Friday morning I fetched our coats back from the cleaners and bought some more cushion covers from the market, a little more luxurious than the first ones. We had fun unpacking five large glass cloches which had been stored in N’s garage for years, from the previous occupant, an antique dealer. There was finally room to take them with us in the car, and so far two have been put to work in the vegetable garden, one covering peppers and the other an artichoke.
Tuesday 9 May 2006
When we got back here on Friday afternoon we found a lot had changed in the garden in only five days. The blossom on the cherry tree was over, and on the apple tree it had just arrived. The daffodils, tulips and grape hyacinths were almost over, and the tulip-like bush had lost its flowers and got its leaves, and a very ugly mystery bush in the front garden (which was nearly uprooted in the winter) had become a beautiful pink peony-like tree. My pots of herbs had grown a lot and the petunia s were beginning to come out. The dark red rhododendrons are beginning to flower, very impressively.
Since then as always, there have been so many things to so. I have stripped all four beds and washed all the bed linen - over a few days, as it then began to rain again. During a wet afternoon N repainted the walls of the little lobby by the garden door and downstairs shower room, and finally painted the crépi over the bare patches on the veranda walls. I have also written thank you letters and e-mails and generally caught up with correspondence. Monday was another bank holiday like last week; this time it was the anniversary of the Liberation of France in 1945 and as I was leaving the market on Monday morning I was lucky enough to see La Neuve-Lyre’s own contribution: a procession led by firemen with a colourful banner, then one or two anciens combattants, followed by, it seemed, everyone in the village. This was just before midday; at 12 the church bell tolled for some time, and I think they had probably marched round to the war memorial, in the next square along, in front of the post office.
Wednesday 10 May 2006
We - especially me - have spent a lot of time over the last few days dealing with paperwork, having decided it really was time to chase up the social security offices at Bernay as I had heard nothing about the Carte Vitale, and to visit the tax office in Verneuil. This latter visit was as a result of a letter I sent them last November, with forms for the UK tax offices; to which they replied that they could do nothing before March 2006. (In order to get out of the UK tax system, and be refunded any unnecessarily paid tax, I need to get into the French system)
Fortunately before any of this happened, my Carte Vitale finally arrived in the post on Saturday, so I now have a social security number and a nice green shiny card, in case I need to claim money from doctor, chemist or hospital, and we didn‘t need to visit the office in Bernay again. The next thing to be done was to enrol me in a « complémentaire » (complementary medical insurance) which was done very painlessly over the Internet, but which will relieve me of several euros every month. This I found extremely strange as I have never paid for any kind of medical treatment or insurance before, but am assured by N it is well worth it, and I may see some of it back in the form of dentist or optician fees.
Another thing I achieved was a phone call to TPS, our satellite TV provider. We have now had this for three months, and had made our choice as to which « bouquet » of channels we wanted, only to discover that four of our favourites were no longer available to us: BBC Prime, RAI 2, Mezzo (the opera channel) and the History Channel. After much research on the website, I managed to phone, explain and find out which « bouquet » we would need to get them (not the most expensive, fortunately) and get this set up for June, the May payment having been made. I felt this was no small achievement, as the last time I called I had to wait ages, give my details several times and then speak to someone who only communicated in jargon.
On Tuesday, once everything was open again after the holiday, we drove to the tax office at Verneuil-sur-Avre, me with my dossier containing everything I thought they could possibly want to see. The office was an imposing building in the same square as the Hôtel Saumon where we had stayed last September. I can’t imagine an English tax office like this; because everyone has to fill in and submit their own tax declarations locally people were coming in for all sorts of advice, and sometimes being given it by others in the queue!
Inevitably, they needed to see something I hadn’t thought of bringing - my pay slips from May to September 2005 - so today we went back there again after I had managed to find them packed in a file where they had been put into store, just in case they ever came in useful. Fortunately I managed to see the same woman again straight away, and she took all the information she needed and promised to send my forms to the UK office. Joining the French system also involves my becoming eligible for local housing tax, but according to N I will be exempt from a lot of things because of earning so little.
Because this second visit to the tax office took far less time than the first, and because it was warmer than yesterday, we spent some time looking round Verneuil. Apart from some very picturesque old buildings, we found two very interesting - and different - shops. The first was called « Vermillon » and was full of stylish red things for red kitchens and obscure food items such as Colman’s mustard powder, Wilkin’s jam and Tate & Lyle’s black treacle (which we bought) and Marmite and Bird’s custard, which we didn’t. We thought it was a good shop to go back to for Christmas presents - lots of chocolate, liqueurs, sauces, pasta and so on. The other shop was much more down-market but full of useful household things; we bought two black rubber doormats for two of our many outside doors, a padlock for the wine cellar (not that there is any wine in it yet) and some cushion stuffing, as I had been unable to find cushion pads for the satin covers I got in Saint-Denis market last week. I quickly made my own cushion pads in the afternoon using some of our seemingly inexhaustible supply of old cotton sheets, and am very pleased with the look of the cushions on the sofa and armchairs. Will see if I can get two more covers when next in Saint-Denis; there is plenty of stuffing left.
On the way home we took an obscure lane with a sign to La Neuve-Lyre, and came back a totally different way, through deep countryside, now beginning to look really summery, with trees in blossom just like the postcards and dark yellow fields of rape on all sides. We passed a village so small that there was only one name on the war memorial! I couldn’t help wondering if his family had had a struggle to get it put up…… The day before we had come home the usual way through Conches, and had stopped for the first time at the Champion supermarket, and found it much more impressive than we expected, with all sorts of non-food items. This is good, as in theory I can get there on the bus from La Neuve-Lyre, although the timings are a little strange.
Thursday 11 May 2006
A lovely warm day today, probably the warmest yet, it started yesterday afternoon. We have had lunch, coffee and two afternoon teas outside in the garden, and sit in our familiar old Italian chairs under the apple blossom marvelling at how our vision of a house and garden in Normandy seems to have come about just as we expected.
Yesterday evening N got chatting to Marie-Antoinette while sowing seeds by the front gate and asked her in for an apéritif, also in the garden. She was impressed (quite rightly) with how much had been achieved in the vegetable plot since she last saw it on a very cold and windy Easter Saturday. As usual there were things we had to ask her; about the new road we had discovered that morning (she goes that way often, was surprised we would go to Verneuil any other way) about the village doctor - I am wondering now I have my Carte whether I ought to go and see him to introduce myself for a chat; M-A was non-committal! We also asked her about the proposed Brocante sale in La Neuve-Lyre on Thursday 25th; she said it was smaller than the one at La Ferrière-sur-Risle, just a chance for everyone to have a turn out, like a car boot sale really. (I think we ought to have a stall, but N says best to wait and see the sort of things other people are trying to sell and have one next year.)
Wild life update:
Not much seemed to have happened lately in the nest in the garage, so N got out the ladder and put a finger in, and felt at least two warm eggs! We have since noticed the swallows (or maybe swifts) going in and out, so it doesn’t seem to have worried them. When we came back last Friday it was very warm and an attic window got left open all night. I went up to fetch something just before going to bed a couple of nights later , and found a bat flying round the room, obviously having mistaken our attic for a barn, and then having a nasty shock when the light went on. It took some time with two windows open before it finally flew off.
Friday 12 May 2006
Today M Boisseau the TV man is here again as the digital set in N’s attic is not working and also the heating technician is here to fix the timer and talk us through it. I have received a large envelope of papers from my complémentaire medical insurance, some of which I must sign and return. We will need to go to Bernay again, N says, as I must inform the social security office of the details of my complémentaire. He suggested going this morning, but I felt that two mornings out in a week was enough, and needed to catch up with the hoovering, which I’m glad to say has now been done. Have also cleaned two windows and taken photographs of lovely views of the lawn and flowers. We may go on Tuesday, as on Wednesday afternoon we will be going back to Paris again, ready for the weekend‘s events.
The week-end with visitors went well I think, apart from appalling weather. The temperature went down to about 14 or 15 degrees, it was very grey and windy; and rained all day Monday. They arrived safely with N from the Gare du Nord at about 4.50 on Saturday afternoon, and we didn’t do much after that except visit the house and outbuildings, which took some time, and showed them their rooms; Issy in the smaller attic where Madeleine had stayed, Steve in the newly refurbished blue and gold Italian room - he said he felt very important sleeping in such a high grand bed - and Caroline in N’s study in the larger attic, where she was re-united with her old bed from Ainsworth Street.
It was nice to have five of us round the large dining table for Saturday and Sunday dinner and Sunday lunch; we had breakfast in the dining room. They took themselves out for a little walk round the village on Saturday evening and found that there wasn’t much to see; I went out with them on Sunday morning when the principal activity was fetching bread and patîsserie for lunch. They also had a good look round the supermarket and bought a few things.
In the afternoon we drove to a little town called Beaumesnil to visit the château. N and I go through Beaumesnil sometimes when we go to Bernay and always catch a tantalizing glimpse of a wonderful large baroque house at the end of a road. Only a very small part of it was open to the public, and included a museum of bookbinding with a filmstrip to watch. There was also - not surprisingly - a large library, and several impressive drawing rooms, with one or two features like ours. The gardens would have been impressive too, if only it hadn’t been so cold and windy; I had had to lend Issy a coat for most of the weekend. On the way back we had a look at La Ferrière-sur-Risle where we planned to go to the fair the following morning, but there was nothing happening there so far. Once back home we lit the fire, and had afternoon tea in front of it.
Monday was Steve’s birthday - part of the reason for the visit, as mine was the following Thursday - so he opened presents over breakfast and then we all got ready to leave as soon as we could, N and I preparing to leave the house as after visiting the fair we had arranged to take our visitors back to the Gare du Nord and then stay on in Paris. I was handed a large bag of presents to take with me!
The fair at La Ferrière-sur-Risle was billed as a « Foire à Tout » (An Everything Fair) so it had been a little difficult to describe to our guests as we had no idea what it was going to be. Unlike the day before the village was full of people and cars, and N had to park a long way out. There were many bric-a-brac stalls; some more professional than others, and real antique stalls under the covered market in the same way as a fortnight before. There were also a few selling produce and lots to eat and drink. It rained steadily the whole time we were there, and stallholders were having problems keeping everything dry, and no doubt felt that would have taken much more money on a fine day. At one of the antique stalls I caught sight of my friend the curtain lady from L’Aigle! The only thing I bought was a little wicker hanging shelf (for 1 euro!) but N bought a violin for 60 euros - mass-produced, but brand new with case and bow - and a book of walks though Normandy with quotations from Flaubert. Unfortunately I don’t Flaubert can’t have walked near La Neuve-Lyre very often, and we will have to drive a fair way in order to walk these routes. Still, it looks good on the coffee table, and N has already had great fun getting the violin into shape. (The wicker shelf has since been hung in our bathroom, and filled with spare toilet rolls.)
After some fortifying hot drinks in a café, we found the car again and set off for Paris, still not quite sure where, or of what nature, Steve’s birthday lunch would be. In the end we stopped at the Hotel de l’Ouest opposite the station at Evreux; it was a little early for a long lunch and we hadn’t got a lot of time, but ate very well in the brasserie, mostly Croque Monsieurs, for which our guests kindly insisted on paying.
We reached the Gare du Nord just nicely in time for them to check in for their train due to depart at 16.07, after a spectacular drive in via La Défense, l’Avenue de la Grande Armée and the Champs Elysées, and past metro Anvers where I visit the material shops. Usually when I drive with N to the Gare du Nord it’s me saying goodbye and going off somewhere, so it was nice to drive back together to Saint-Denis, where we arrived before 4 o’clock.
This was a short stay; from Monday afternoon to Friday afternoon. On Tuesday morning N was playing string quartets, so I decided to see if there was a free concert at l’Eglise Saint Roch; there was so I had a sandwich at the café next door while I waited and marvelled at the sunshine - the temperature had risen since the day before from 15 to 24 degrees! I felt sorry for my visitors and also for all the stallholders at the fair at La Ferrière-sur-Risle. A trio - violin, oboe and organ - played Bach, Handel and others which I enjoyed very much, and was pleased to see the church again after having read about it so recently as it in was in the 1830’s.
Afterwards I went to the Monoprix in l’Avenue de l’Opéra and bought myself a dress for my birthday, black linen with a cross-over front, short sleeves and flared skirt, and reminiscent, I realised later, of at least two other dresses I’ve had in the past. I then went on to the branch of Leroy Merlin near the Pompidou Centre to get the last remaining curtain fittings for the sewing room, enjoying the masses of people in the sunshine, and having my first outdoor ice cream of the season from a nearby stall.
Wednesday morning I spent in various household tasks; washing, cleaning, taking both our winter coats to the dry cleaners, and ironing, including ironing the afore-mentioned black linen dress. N spent a lot of time reading the thesis he is due to examine in June; he now has the printed copy, which is approximately the size of a large dictionary or family Bible. He is also still involved in frantic communications with the bank regarding the missing money from the Italian house sale; the latest information is that the money should arrive in his account during the week beginning 8 May. When not doing either of these, he has been translating into English an article he wrote in French a few years ago about a painting called « Fête des Archers », to send to a Spanish early music magazine, which he keeps referring to as the latest episode of The Archers. I was involved with the proof-reading and checking of this too, on Monday evening and Tuesday morning, as sometimes his English is more French than it should be.
On Wednesday afternoon I went to Montmartre, probably for the last curtain buying trip. I bought fine white cotton for the landing window, helped by a lady with whom I got chatting; she said she was responsible for furnishing several flats, and always got curtain material at the Marché Saint Pierre, and had never been disappointed. I said I had been very pleased with them too, and these were the last curtains for a large house in Normandy which I had bought not long ago. The man serving me, rather disagreeably, I thought, said so we won’t be seeing you again, then?
All of this didn’t take long, so I walked further up to Barbès- Rochechouart and looked at all the cut-price clothes shops. There are often tourists in this area, even in the middle of winter, but that day it was full of them enjoying the sunshine; Russian women and Swedish girls all rummaging through the stalls and holding up skirts and T-shirts in front of themselves. I walked all though the different Tati shops (there is even a Tati bridal department - no doubt there are those whose ambition is to be married in a Tati wedding dress) and bought myself a little wicker bag for 3 euros 90.
Thursday was my birthday, and quite a different kind of day, a complete change of activity for us both. We went into Paris in the morning, me in my new dress - the weather so pleasantly warm no need to think of a jacket to go with it - and N in his new blue cotton suit. First we went to BHV where I chose my present from him, a much needed new watch, as the clasp on my old one kept coming unfastened. (The day before he had bought me a beautiful big white hydrangea in a pot; almost nicer than the watch. It has come back with us to La Neuve-Lyre where it is standing in a large white china bowl on the side table in the salon, until it’s time for it to go in the garden.) The choice of watch was determined by practicality in the end; I wanted an expanding bracelet so I didn’t have the same problem with the clasp again, and a dial with all 12 numbers as opposed to four spots - very difficult to change the time on these! So the one I chose has a large white face with clear figures and minutes marked off in between and is very easy to see without my glasses. It was also very reasonably priced!
We had lunch at a restaurant called Chez Julien, near the Pont Saint Louis; the only other time I had been there was on Good Friday last year, in similar lovely sunshine. Everything about the restaurant was exactly as it should have been; and I had a very good mixture of salmon and Coquilles Saint Jacques, the first time I have eaten the latter. Afterwards we went to an exhibition at the Hôtel de Ville entitled « Paris au Cinéma », with lots of stills, photos, interviews and posters, and clips of films divided by category - lovers, chases, bistros, Parisian women and the Eiffel Tower. When we came out we sat for some time in front of Notre Dame, watching the tourists, couldn’t decide what to do next, but not really ready to go home. I suggested we went part of the way by bus, so we managed to get the 24 which we discovered last autumn at Bercy; it goes all the way along the left bank, then crosses the river and terminates at the Gare St Lazare, on our metro line. It was a wonderful treat again like last time, and going along so slowly there was plenty of time to see everything.
One of the reasons for going out for lunch instead of dinner was so that I could go to the chorale, so after a good rest and a large bowl of strawberries each, I set off round the corner to the Conservatoire. A woman I had sat with before came and sat next to me again - this chorale sometimes reminds me of a class of 12-year olds, and she is definitely the bad girl who usually sits on the back row and calls out and all the others wait to see what she will say, so I suppose I ought to be flattered. She asked how I was, so I said it was my birthday, whereupon she asked my age and said I couldn’t possibly be that old. Once we were ready to start she announced to everybody that it was my birthday - though not my age! - and they all launched into « Happy Birthday to you » twice, with piano accompaniment.
The other good thing about the evening was that an extra concert has been arranged, on 20 May, when N and I will be in Paris anyway; at the Saint-Denis museum, only a few minutes away opposite the Chinese restaurant. There is no rehearsal next week - another holiday - and the one just before the concert may be in the museum itself. As yet, it hasn’t been decided exactly what we will sing! (but we will wear red tops) We learned a few new pieces, gospel and traditional French songs. Where else could you go and sing Vivaldi and Charles Trenet in the same evening??
I also spent quite a lot of time typing out the Lexique during the few days we were in Saint-Denis, but have still only got as far as the end of the letter C - there were 9 pages of it. On Friday morning I fetched our coats back from the cleaners and bought some more cushion covers from the market, a little more luxurious than the first ones. We had fun unpacking five large glass cloches which had been stored in N’s garage for years, from the previous occupant, an antique dealer. There was finally room to take them with us in the car, and so far two have been put to work in the vegetable garden, one covering peppers and the other an artichoke.
Tuesday 9 May 2006
When we got back here on Friday afternoon we found a lot had changed in the garden in only five days. The blossom on the cherry tree was over, and on the apple tree it had just arrived. The daffodils, tulips and grape hyacinths were almost over, and the tulip-like bush had lost its flowers and got its leaves, and a very ugly mystery bush in the front garden (which was nearly uprooted in the winter) had become a beautiful pink peony-like tree. My pots of herbs had grown a lot and the petunia s were beginning to come out. The dark red rhododendrons are beginning to flower, very impressively.
Since then as always, there have been so many things to so. I have stripped all four beds and washed all the bed linen - over a few days, as it then began to rain again. During a wet afternoon N repainted the walls of the little lobby by the garden door and downstairs shower room, and finally painted the crépi over the bare patches on the veranda walls. I have also written thank you letters and e-mails and generally caught up with correspondence. Monday was another bank holiday like last week; this time it was the anniversary of the Liberation of France in 1945 and as I was leaving the market on Monday morning I was lucky enough to see La Neuve-Lyre’s own contribution: a procession led by firemen with a colourful banner, then one or two anciens combattants, followed by, it seemed, everyone in the village. This was just before midday; at 12 the church bell tolled for some time, and I think they had probably marched round to the war memorial, in the next square along, in front of the post office.
Wednesday 10 May 2006
We - especially me - have spent a lot of time over the last few days dealing with paperwork, having decided it really was time to chase up the social security offices at Bernay as I had heard nothing about the Carte Vitale, and to visit the tax office in Verneuil. This latter visit was as a result of a letter I sent them last November, with forms for the UK tax offices; to which they replied that they could do nothing before March 2006. (In order to get out of the UK tax system, and be refunded any unnecessarily paid tax, I need to get into the French system)
Fortunately before any of this happened, my Carte Vitale finally arrived in the post on Saturday, so I now have a social security number and a nice green shiny card, in case I need to claim money from doctor, chemist or hospital, and we didn‘t need to visit the office in Bernay again. The next thing to be done was to enrol me in a « complémentaire » (complementary medical insurance) which was done very painlessly over the Internet, but which will relieve me of several euros every month. This I found extremely strange as I have never paid for any kind of medical treatment or insurance before, but am assured by N it is well worth it, and I may see some of it back in the form of dentist or optician fees.
Another thing I achieved was a phone call to TPS, our satellite TV provider. We have now had this for three months, and had made our choice as to which « bouquet » of channels we wanted, only to discover that four of our favourites were no longer available to us: BBC Prime, RAI 2, Mezzo (the opera channel) and the History Channel. After much research on the website, I managed to phone, explain and find out which « bouquet » we would need to get them (not the most expensive, fortunately) and get this set up for June, the May payment having been made. I felt this was no small achievement, as the last time I called I had to wait ages, give my details several times and then speak to someone who only communicated in jargon.
On Tuesday, once everything was open again after the holiday, we drove to the tax office at Verneuil-sur-Avre, me with my dossier containing everything I thought they could possibly want to see. The office was an imposing building in the same square as the Hôtel Saumon where we had stayed last September. I can’t imagine an English tax office like this; because everyone has to fill in and submit their own tax declarations locally people were coming in for all sorts of advice, and sometimes being given it by others in the queue!
Inevitably, they needed to see something I hadn’t thought of bringing - my pay slips from May to September 2005 - so today we went back there again after I had managed to find them packed in a file where they had been put into store, just in case they ever came in useful. Fortunately I managed to see the same woman again straight away, and she took all the information she needed and promised to send my forms to the UK office. Joining the French system also involves my becoming eligible for local housing tax, but according to N I will be exempt from a lot of things because of earning so little.
Because this second visit to the tax office took far less time than the first, and because it was warmer than yesterday, we spent some time looking round Verneuil. Apart from some very picturesque old buildings, we found two very interesting - and different - shops. The first was called « Vermillon » and was full of stylish red things for red kitchens and obscure food items such as Colman’s mustard powder, Wilkin’s jam and Tate & Lyle’s black treacle (which we bought) and Marmite and Bird’s custard, which we didn’t. We thought it was a good shop to go back to for Christmas presents - lots of chocolate, liqueurs, sauces, pasta and so on. The other shop was much more down-market but full of useful household things; we bought two black rubber doormats for two of our many outside doors, a padlock for the wine cellar (not that there is any wine in it yet) and some cushion stuffing, as I had been unable to find cushion pads for the satin covers I got in Saint-Denis market last week. I quickly made my own cushion pads in the afternoon using some of our seemingly inexhaustible supply of old cotton sheets, and am very pleased with the look of the cushions on the sofa and armchairs. Will see if I can get two more covers when next in Saint-Denis; there is plenty of stuffing left.
On the way home we took an obscure lane with a sign to La Neuve-Lyre, and came back a totally different way, through deep countryside, now beginning to look really summery, with trees in blossom just like the postcards and dark yellow fields of rape on all sides. We passed a village so small that there was only one name on the war memorial! I couldn’t help wondering if his family had had a struggle to get it put up…… The day before we had come home the usual way through Conches, and had stopped for the first time at the Champion supermarket, and found it much more impressive than we expected, with all sorts of non-food items. This is good, as in theory I can get there on the bus from La Neuve-Lyre, although the timings are a little strange.
Thursday 11 May 2006
A lovely warm day today, probably the warmest yet, it started yesterday afternoon. We have had lunch, coffee and two afternoon teas outside in the garden, and sit in our familiar old Italian chairs under the apple blossom marvelling at how our vision of a house and garden in Normandy seems to have come about just as we expected.
Yesterday evening N got chatting to Marie-Antoinette while sowing seeds by the front gate and asked her in for an apéritif, also in the garden. She was impressed (quite rightly) with how much had been achieved in the vegetable plot since she last saw it on a very cold and windy Easter Saturday. As usual there were things we had to ask her; about the new road we had discovered that morning (she goes that way often, was surprised we would go to Verneuil any other way) about the village doctor - I am wondering now I have my Carte whether I ought to go and see him to introduce myself for a chat; M-A was non-committal! We also asked her about the proposed Brocante sale in La Neuve-Lyre on Thursday 25th; she said it was smaller than the one at La Ferrière-sur-Risle, just a chance for everyone to have a turn out, like a car boot sale really. (I think we ought to have a stall, but N says best to wait and see the sort of things other people are trying to sell and have one next year.)
Wild life update:
Not much seemed to have happened lately in the nest in the garage, so N got out the ladder and put a finger in, and felt at least two warm eggs! We have since noticed the swallows (or maybe swifts) going in and out, so it doesn’t seem to have worried them. When we came back last Friday it was very warm and an attic window got left open all night. I went up to fetch something just before going to bed a couple of nights later , and found a bat flying round the room, obviously having mistaken our attic for a barn, and then having a nasty shock when the light went on. It took some time with two windows open before it finally flew off.
Friday 12 May 2006
Today M Boisseau the TV man is here again as the digital set in N’s attic is not working and also the heating technician is here to fix the timer and talk us through it. I have received a large envelope of papers from my complémentaire medical insurance, some of which I must sign and return. We will need to go to Bernay again, N says, as I must inform the social security office of the details of my complémentaire. He suggested going this morning, but I felt that two mornings out in a week was enough, and needed to catch up with the hoovering, which I’m glad to say has now been done. Have also cleaned two windows and taken photographs of lovely views of the lawn and flowers. We may go on Tuesday, as on Wednesday afternoon we will be going back to Paris again, ready for the weekend‘s events.
