Monday, April 30, 2007
Wednesday April 25 2007
Last Wednesday N’s sister Bobbie and her husband Guthrie came to stay with us, arriving at about 11.30 in the morning. Unlike the last two sets of guests, who had taken mid-morning Dover/Calais crossings arriving at LNL in the late afternoon, they had come on an overnight ferry from Portsmouth to Caen, easier to get to as they live in Plymouth. They brought us a bag of good west-country things to eat and drink; preserves (some home-made), Plymouth gin, cheese biscuits, chilli chocolate from a Devon chilli farm (?) and several others. The weather had got colder and cloudier over the last day or so, and I wasn’t sure if lunch in the garden was a viable proposition, but we moved the long table into the sunshine, and it was a great success, apart from the fact that the grass was rather bumpy nearer the house and we had to be careful not to fall backwards off our chairs.
After the restrictions in cuisine of the previous week, and the « family » meals of the week before, it was wonderful to be able to cook for adults who eat and enjoy everything! I hadn’t planned these menus in the same rigorous way as for the larger numbers last August (all courses worked out ahead for a week, and saved on the computer) but had three cards on which I had written down appropriate ideas in pencil, tearing each one up as the visitors left. When Bobbie and Guthrie arrived I was making apple cake - in which they were interested - and we had this warm at lunchtime after salade niçoise, which looked (and tasted) very successful in a large round white Italian salad bowl, with local cider which slid down very easily in the sunshine. Definitely worth repeating next time guests arrive for lunch in the garden. N thought it was strange to give cider to people who come had from Devon.
The rest of the day passed in viewing the house, outbuildings and vegetable garden, sitting in the garden, having tea (also in the garden) and dinner. On Thursday we went to Conches market again - a more leisurely visit this time! - and bought fish and flowers as before, Bobbie paying for the last two bunches from the same stall as last time, lovely mixed tulips and the last of the narcissus. We looked at the election posters outside Conches Mairie, and walked round the castle and up the main street again, buying bread and croissants at the boulangerie.
After lunch at home in the garden, we all went out for a walk in the afternoon, a shorter version of the one taken by Phil & Steve, only about two and a quarter hours, and very enjoyable. B & G also had walking shoes but assured us we would be all right without them (almost all the walking was on paths) and we went down the hill in the village, turning right at the bottom and following a path which connected to a little road joining the junction at La Vieille Lyre that we knew well, as we drive that way every time we come back from Bernay and from other places too. The sunshine was beautiful, warm without being too hot, and the skies brilliant blue over wide fields of bright yellow rape, and there were cows to look at and apple blossom in front of timbered farm buildings. I was surprised at how many wild flowers I saw and recognised, in English anyway. This really is an excellent time of year to visit Normandy, although autumn is arguably as good, with golden leaves and red apples. Cows and farm buildings are the same too, then! N & I enjoyed walking through LVL more slowly than usual, and looking at the church and Le Trou Normand again, and at all the houses we usually pass very quickly, and agreed it was definitely time we knew a little more about the area around where we live. We walked by a half-built construction between LVL and LNL which Guthrie (a retired civil engineer) told us was a new sewage plant; we hope this is good news as we currently have strange unexplained « drain » smells in the house at odd times, and have decided it is probably the smell of sewage creeping up our pipes rather than anything wrong on our property. At least that’s what we hope.
It was my turn for a day off on Friday when N took the guests to Giverny for the day. I stayed behind to catch up with washing, correspondence etc, wondering if I would be tempted to sit in the garden reading all day instead, but perhaps it was just as well that it was cloudy and windy, and the only time I spent in the garden was trying to eat lunch and finish my book (« Gli Indifferenti » by Alberto Moravia) which kept blowing about. I went along to the local butchers in search of veal paupiettes for Saturday dinner (neat little meat parcels tied up with string) and was told they needed to be ordered - not surprising as there must be a great deal of work involved, so placed an order for the next day, my name going down in the butchers’ book for the first time. Guthrie, who was an early riser, and could usually be found in the verandah with a mug of tea and a book by the time I arrived downstairs, had gone out early on Wednesday to get croissants; which he offered to do again on Saturday, and managed to collect the paupiettes from the butcher too. (I had written it all down for him in case of misunderstandings.) Later on we all successfully went on the train to Rouen again, via Bernay this time, as N had found (on the internet) a train leaving at 11.44; the distance to drive the same as to Serquigny, and G & B had offered to buy us lunch!
This was in a little restaurant on the side of the cathedral square, next to where we had lunched in the snow in February last year, all to do with chickens and eggs, which they managed somehow to work into every item on the menu. There was even a monthly dinner-for-two prize for the best answer to « Which came first, the chicken or the egg? » which we didn’t attempt, but I did leave them my favourite chicken quotation written on the paper place mat: The cock may crow, but it’s the hen that lays the eggs - Margaret Thatcher) plus the French translation.
The others all looked round the cathedral, which I didn’t think I needed to do again, so I went off in search of some of the same shops as before and more (including Maisons du Monde and a large Nouvelles Galeries) and when we all met up again we walked over to the Jeanne d’Arc square and old market - not far at all - which I remembered from my first visit, and was full of people sitting outside cafés in the sunshine. We joined in! After that there was just time to wander back to the station, fetching bread and cakes on the way and N eventually finding a newspaper, eager to read the last articles on the presidential candidates before the first round of the elections the next day.
The veal paupiettes - which I had partially cooked in the morning before we left - were excellent, in a mustard and white wine sauce (a recipe from the back of packet of supermarket ones I had bought before) served with rice and green beans. Not for the first - or last - time did Guthrie say « This is the business! » as he enjoyed them.
On Sunday morning B & G went for a longer walk, towards Neaufles Auvergny where Monsieur P the carpenter lives. We had lunch in garden again, including my favourite rhubarb pudding recipe made with the first rhubarb of the season, harvested that morning, and local farm cream. In the afternoon - after a suitably short rest - we all drove out to the Grange des Ongliers, an antiques and bric-a-brac barn where we had been once before. N hoped to find a larger gold-framed mirror than the one we currently have over the mantelpiece in the salon, (bought at the Marché aux Puces) and after carefully measuring the space available and several mirrors we found there, decided we had found one to fit, but that it wouldn’t go in the car while there were four passengers! So we thought we would leave it for the moment, but came away with some china instead - two each dinner plates, side plates and soup plates bordered in red, and decorated with Japanese-looking birds and the words: Luigi’s - Paris & Deauville. (N has since tried to find out who Luigi of Paris and Deauville is, but without success.) He also took a fancy to five white soup bowls with the word Gratinée printed on in black, presumably for grilling and serving onion soup. (We now have so many soup plates in this house - some belonging to my grandparents came with the delivery from my mother’s house - that we could eat soup every day for a week and use a different set each time.)
On the way home we visited Verneuil, another place we are unused to seeing in the sunshine, and showed our guests the principal architectural features, as everything else was closed. I also checked the Hotel du Saumon where we had stayed and had such a marvellous dinner when we first came to Normandy as N is always wondering whether or not they serve lunch. They do.
For dinner we had some of our first little lettuces, two red and two green, under smoked salmon, preceded by sorrel soup from the freezer and followed enthusiastically by yet more rhubarb pudding and cream. Dinner was early as a special request from N, so that we could watch the election results at 8 pm; Segolène Royal and Nicolas Sarkozy through to the second round in two weeks time, as could have been predicted some months ago!
Monday was Guthrie’s birthday; N gave him a silk tie he had bought in Milan, and he was let off buying croissants before breakfast (I had bought them on Sunday) and allowed a lie-in. He and I went to the village market in morning, while Bobbie was showing N pictures of some of their recent trips on his computer. In the afternoon we all visited the Château at Beaumesnil and its grounds, which they enjoyed very much. So did we, it was the third time we had been there - fourth if you count the Chopin/George Sand evening, and we like the thought of it being our « local » château. (I especially like one of the bedrooms, which has exactly the same window fastenings as our bedroom, with the same flaky old white paint. If it’s good enough for them, I think ….)
On the way home we visited Vive le Jardin, where our guests limited themselves to a few packets of seeds, and we somehow ended up buying white New Guinea Busy Lizzies for the outside windows of the verandah. (On our previous visit with Phil I asked his advice on what to put in the white troughs in the shade outside the grande pièce and he recommended geraniums; I chose white ones there and red for the bedroom balcony, and some lovely dark red petunias for the iron urns in front of the wine cellar.) N and I also bought more bird seed as the net on the fir tree was almost empty, and I chose another Venus fly-trap plant for the attic bedroom.
Unfortunately we were very delayed buying petrol at the filling station in Bernay, and got back too late for any tea - a pity as we had decided it was time to open the Italian cake I had bought at the station in Milan, and for which there didn’t seem to have been an appropriate occasion up to then. For the « gala » dinner in the evening we had Fondue Bourguignonne, preceded by a bottle of champagne which had been nestling in our fridge since last August, and followed by patîsseries from our local shop, so we didn’t really need cake at tea time too. We drank the champagne on the terrace and Bobbie and Guthrie « dressed » for dinner, he in his new tie, so N and I thought we’d better go and make the effort too. They really enjoyed the fondue - as did we - and it was nice that the birthday dinner fell on their last evening.
They left early on Tuesday morning, not to catch the boat straight away, but for a further week in Brittany, and then taking a ferry from Roscoff to Plymouth. (If we go to visit them later in the year, as has been suggested, we shall take this route too. I think N is waiting to see what they think of it.) After they had gone, I took the opportunity to go to go to L’Aigle market, as there hadn’t been time the week before.
The main reason I wanted to go was to look at a stall selling very stylish women’s clothes, in particular various matching cotton jackets and trousers such as I had noticed smart French women wearing last summer, and which I had decided to look for this season. I had tried some in C & A when they appeared earlier in the year, but wasn‘t tempted. I also wanted to take another load of things to the one charity shop in L’Aigle; this I did first and they were very pleased as before, then I made straight for the clothes stall.
I had wondered whether it was possible to try things on at market stall; there were in fact two little tent cubicles but I was allowed to use the van, although this involved coming of it to look in the mirror! The two men running the stall were extremely helpful, in fact more helpful than the staff in a lot of shops I’ve been in. What I had in mind had been blue denim with cropped trousers, but the latter were all the wrong length so I ended up - and am very pleased with - off-white with full length trousers. (Although I haven’t altered them yet, so we shall see.)
I had a good look round the market as I hadn’t been there for a few months; didn’t buy smoked haddock as we’d had a lot from Conches market recently, but got cheeses and strawberries. There were two new stalls I hadn’t seen before; a tempting one full of inexpensive white porcelain and one selling grandfather clocks. I don’t know how you were supposed to get these home, certainly not on the bus. I had a drink in my regular café, where I think I am now recognised, and read a local newspaper all about the elections.
Monday 30 April 2007
On Wednesday I did a lot of post-guest catching up, including a vast amount of washing, and beginning on what must be the largest pile of ironing I have ever had. (When I’d had time to iron, I’d concentrated in essentials, so there was a large back-log, some of it bedding from Saint-Denis, which I’m pleased to say is all done now.) N said he was very pleased to have the place to ourselves again; at first I missed all the outings and gala meals, but soon came round to appreciating cosy dinners for two at the little dining table, and just pottering. One of the things I found time to do was Rationalising the Cutlery, of which we seem to have even more than soup plates. In addition to all I brought from Cambridge, there is the Best Set of N’s, plus all the stuff from the Italian house - very copious and not very good quality. There was also a very tinny set N got free from somewhere, (brought here to use when we first moved in) which has since been passed on to my sister Issy; at least it was all brand new and matching! The Cambridge cutlery was not sorted before it left; it just came as it was in the drawer, packed by Abels. Last week I sorted and dusted it all, putting a lot of unnecessary stuff at the back of the sideboard and making it much easier to get at, choosing some of the better Italian knives to use as breakfast knives.
We decided we’d better make a short trip to the Gamm Vert garden centre at Conches for troughs for the new white Busy Lizzies as their roots were coming out of the pots, but were disappointed that we couldn’t find white plastic ones to match the trays we already have on the windowsills. Managed to find some off-white ones though, which just fitted, two to a tray, making eight troughs in all, on four trays at four windows, one plant to a trough, as they are quite large. I also chose little red Busy Lizzies for the other urn, to go with the white geraniums. Once we got back it took me some time to plant all these, while N was doing other gardening, but the effect is well worth it, especially as it’s the first things one sees on coming out of the garage.
The next day I found in the post box a card from M Urset, thanking us for the copy of the Lexique, and saying no luck again! (at not finding us in) and he was still hoping to invite us soon; presumably he left the card while we were out the afternoon before. It’s good to know we are not forgotten; The other interesting item in the box was an issue of the London Review of Books, courtesy of Nigel Palmer, who had asked if I would be interested in a free six months’ trial. I said I would, having seen it once in Cambridge thanks to Samin next door. I have since read it all, mostly while sitting in the sun in the garden, interesting articles as well as reviews, several about British politics. Fortunately just before this I had finally finished the Alberto Moravia novel, which I had very much enjoyed. This is the second of his I have easily read, understood and enjoyed in the last few months, and as I know there are at least a couple of dozen more, shall look forward to trying others. Before the LRB arrived I had just got back to the Life of George Sand; I am now about three-quarters of the way through and am only just getting to her adult life as a writer and her interesting acquaintances.
On Saturday morning N went out on his way to the shops - as he had decided it was his turn to cook dinner that evening - and came back straight away with a momentous piece of news: the house next door (the one with the barking dogs and loud neighbours) had a For Sale sign outside! I went to look; we thought at first it was M Urset’s office, which might have explained his presence in the neighbourhood, but it was a different branch. We mustn’t get too excited though, this isn’t Cambridge where houses can sell in a couple of days, and it could take months, if not for ever. Since the weather has been warm, the next-door dogs have been very much in evidence again, as last summer. N is already hoping we might have new neighbours who would be willing to feed a cat, so that we could have one. (N’s dinner was wonderful, perhaps because I’d been doing so much of the cooking recently - beetroot soup made from cooked beet frozen last summer; wiener schnitzel with pommes Anna, lemon and spinach; and strawberry tarts from the boulangerie.)
One morning last week when I was returning from the boulangerie I saw Monsieur P driving past in his car, and he waved in a very friendly fashion. N also met Monsieur A in the Quincaillerie, who said he would be in touch with us this week. Apart from the estimates for the garden wall and the painting of the façade of the house, N had contacted him about a maintenance contract for the new heating system, which is just a year old. Because of the very warm April weather, we must have saved a lot of fuel; we had already turned down the temperature level some time ago.
Our next guests are due next week, those for the string quartet arranged when we went to stay with Simone at Le Mans. There has been a slight change in arrangements however, as Maryse is now not able to come; I am sorry as I was looking forward to welcoming her here and getting to know her better. N’s other cellist friend Jean is coming instead though, but the transport arrangements are rather complicated, and it will now be Monday to Wednesday, instead of Monday and Tuesday. Brahms is on the programme, causing N to worry about practising.
We have also been planning for more guests further ahead; N’s friend Odile got in contact again, and we hope she will come in June, with or without her friend Thérèse. Meanwhile my friend Gill from Cambridge should be coming in early June. Before then we are due to go to the UK for a visit to several members of N’s family at the end of May, with a quick day trip to see some of mine in Ipswich.
On Saturday afternoon the warm sunny weather began to change and for the first time in five weeks, it actually rained! It was quite a novelty, and we went all round the house listening to it and watching it from different windows. N went out with an umbrella to see how much there was in the water butts; not a lot. Although the forecast was for more of the same plus lower temperatures, on Sunday morning it was hot and sunny again as we set out for Beaumont le Roger for a Foire à Tout, the first of this season. It was due to take place in the Bourg Dessus (town above) which turned out to be high above the part of the town we knew, up an incredibly steep hill next to the church. Once we had found it, it was much the same as other fairs, mostly private individuals trying to sell their junk, a few market and craft stalls, and hardly any bric-à-brac or antiques. I bought a ceramic pot for one of my fly-trap plants, a small oven-proof dish and a little sign saying « Cuisine » covered in tomatoes. N bought a very heavy small mirror, of which he hopes to gild the frame, and a couple of interesting bottles. It was very hot indeed as we left and walked the long way round down into the town again, getting to know a whole new residential area of Beaumont le Roger. We even saw a hotel we had seen on our first visit to Normandy, closed that day, which I don’t think I had realised was the same town when we got to know it later.
We had lunch in the garden and finished reading « The Diary of a Nobody » still surprised at the lovely weather as thunderstorms had been forecast. Later in the afternoon however, it felt very close and eventually there was a big storm with lightning, thunder and a good deal of rain. At least it seemed like a good deal, but there was still not much to see in the water butts. N has a theory that dry hot roofs absorb a lot of water. I kept thinking about all the stallholders at the Foire at Beaumont, which was due to last all day.
Before the rain N harvested a lot of rhubarb which was suddenly ready, and after consulting many recipes I decided to make rhubarb and strawberry jam, covering the rhubarb with sugar overnight and finishing it off this morning having bought strawberries at the market. It has a beautiful colour and smell, but not a very firm set.
N had planned to go back briefly to Saint-Denis next week, but decided to go for the day today as he was worried about his geraniums being left unattended for five weeks. He has gone on the train from Evreux, a new departure for him, and has since phoned to report safe arrival and that the geraniums are fine. (These are miracle geraniums, I think; they survived the heat wave of 2003, and last year.) Apart from the jam, I have done my exercise DVD this morning, and had a look at the new one, which I will try to do later on in the week. Just as on my last day on my own here, I had lunch in the garden in sun and wind. There has been another big thunderstorm this afternoon; we - and our April guests - have all been extremely lucky to have had fine, dry, and for the most part, very warm weather earlier this month.
Last Wednesday N’s sister Bobbie and her husband Guthrie came to stay with us, arriving at about 11.30 in the morning. Unlike the last two sets of guests, who had taken mid-morning Dover/Calais crossings arriving at LNL in the late afternoon, they had come on an overnight ferry from Portsmouth to Caen, easier to get to as they live in Plymouth. They brought us a bag of good west-country things to eat and drink; preserves (some home-made), Plymouth gin, cheese biscuits, chilli chocolate from a Devon chilli farm (?) and several others. The weather had got colder and cloudier over the last day or so, and I wasn’t sure if lunch in the garden was a viable proposition, but we moved the long table into the sunshine, and it was a great success, apart from the fact that the grass was rather bumpy nearer the house and we had to be careful not to fall backwards off our chairs.
After the restrictions in cuisine of the previous week, and the « family » meals of the week before, it was wonderful to be able to cook for adults who eat and enjoy everything! I hadn’t planned these menus in the same rigorous way as for the larger numbers last August (all courses worked out ahead for a week, and saved on the computer) but had three cards on which I had written down appropriate ideas in pencil, tearing each one up as the visitors left. When Bobbie and Guthrie arrived I was making apple cake - in which they were interested - and we had this warm at lunchtime after salade niçoise, which looked (and tasted) very successful in a large round white Italian salad bowl, with local cider which slid down very easily in the sunshine. Definitely worth repeating next time guests arrive for lunch in the garden. N thought it was strange to give cider to people who come had from Devon.
The rest of the day passed in viewing the house, outbuildings and vegetable garden, sitting in the garden, having tea (also in the garden) and dinner. On Thursday we went to Conches market again - a more leisurely visit this time! - and bought fish and flowers as before, Bobbie paying for the last two bunches from the same stall as last time, lovely mixed tulips and the last of the narcissus. We looked at the election posters outside Conches Mairie, and walked round the castle and up the main street again, buying bread and croissants at the boulangerie.
After lunch at home in the garden, we all went out for a walk in the afternoon, a shorter version of the one taken by Phil & Steve, only about two and a quarter hours, and very enjoyable. B & G also had walking shoes but assured us we would be all right without them (almost all the walking was on paths) and we went down the hill in the village, turning right at the bottom and following a path which connected to a little road joining the junction at La Vieille Lyre that we knew well, as we drive that way every time we come back from Bernay and from other places too. The sunshine was beautiful, warm without being too hot, and the skies brilliant blue over wide fields of bright yellow rape, and there were cows to look at and apple blossom in front of timbered farm buildings. I was surprised at how many wild flowers I saw and recognised, in English anyway. This really is an excellent time of year to visit Normandy, although autumn is arguably as good, with golden leaves and red apples. Cows and farm buildings are the same too, then! N & I enjoyed walking through LVL more slowly than usual, and looking at the church and Le Trou Normand again, and at all the houses we usually pass very quickly, and agreed it was definitely time we knew a little more about the area around where we live. We walked by a half-built construction between LVL and LNL which Guthrie (a retired civil engineer) told us was a new sewage plant; we hope this is good news as we currently have strange unexplained « drain » smells in the house at odd times, and have decided it is probably the smell of sewage creeping up our pipes rather than anything wrong on our property. At least that’s what we hope.
It was my turn for a day off on Friday when N took the guests to Giverny for the day. I stayed behind to catch up with washing, correspondence etc, wondering if I would be tempted to sit in the garden reading all day instead, but perhaps it was just as well that it was cloudy and windy, and the only time I spent in the garden was trying to eat lunch and finish my book (« Gli Indifferenti » by Alberto Moravia) which kept blowing about. I went along to the local butchers in search of veal paupiettes for Saturday dinner (neat little meat parcels tied up with string) and was told they needed to be ordered - not surprising as there must be a great deal of work involved, so placed an order for the next day, my name going down in the butchers’ book for the first time. Guthrie, who was an early riser, and could usually be found in the verandah with a mug of tea and a book by the time I arrived downstairs, had gone out early on Wednesday to get croissants; which he offered to do again on Saturday, and managed to collect the paupiettes from the butcher too. (I had written it all down for him in case of misunderstandings.) Later on we all successfully went on the train to Rouen again, via Bernay this time, as N had found (on the internet) a train leaving at 11.44; the distance to drive the same as to Serquigny, and G & B had offered to buy us lunch!
This was in a little restaurant on the side of the cathedral square, next to where we had lunched in the snow in February last year, all to do with chickens and eggs, which they managed somehow to work into every item on the menu. There was even a monthly dinner-for-two prize for the best answer to « Which came first, the chicken or the egg? » which we didn’t attempt, but I did leave them my favourite chicken quotation written on the paper place mat: The cock may crow, but it’s the hen that lays the eggs - Margaret Thatcher) plus the French translation.
The others all looked round the cathedral, which I didn’t think I needed to do again, so I went off in search of some of the same shops as before and more (including Maisons du Monde and a large Nouvelles Galeries) and when we all met up again we walked over to the Jeanne d’Arc square and old market - not far at all - which I remembered from my first visit, and was full of people sitting outside cafés in the sunshine. We joined in! After that there was just time to wander back to the station, fetching bread and cakes on the way and N eventually finding a newspaper, eager to read the last articles on the presidential candidates before the first round of the elections the next day.
The veal paupiettes - which I had partially cooked in the morning before we left - were excellent, in a mustard and white wine sauce (a recipe from the back of packet of supermarket ones I had bought before) served with rice and green beans. Not for the first - or last - time did Guthrie say « This is the business! » as he enjoyed them.
On Sunday morning B & G went for a longer walk, towards Neaufles Auvergny where Monsieur P the carpenter lives. We had lunch in garden again, including my favourite rhubarb pudding recipe made with the first rhubarb of the season, harvested that morning, and local farm cream. In the afternoon - after a suitably short rest - we all drove out to the Grange des Ongliers, an antiques and bric-a-brac barn where we had been once before. N hoped to find a larger gold-framed mirror than the one we currently have over the mantelpiece in the salon, (bought at the Marché aux Puces) and after carefully measuring the space available and several mirrors we found there, decided we had found one to fit, but that it wouldn’t go in the car while there were four passengers! So we thought we would leave it for the moment, but came away with some china instead - two each dinner plates, side plates and soup plates bordered in red, and decorated with Japanese-looking birds and the words: Luigi’s - Paris & Deauville. (N has since tried to find out who Luigi of Paris and Deauville is, but without success.) He also took a fancy to five white soup bowls with the word Gratinée printed on in black, presumably for grilling and serving onion soup. (We now have so many soup plates in this house - some belonging to my grandparents came with the delivery from my mother’s house - that we could eat soup every day for a week and use a different set each time.)
On the way home we visited Verneuil, another place we are unused to seeing in the sunshine, and showed our guests the principal architectural features, as everything else was closed. I also checked the Hotel du Saumon where we had stayed and had such a marvellous dinner when we first came to Normandy as N is always wondering whether or not they serve lunch. They do.
For dinner we had some of our first little lettuces, two red and two green, under smoked salmon, preceded by sorrel soup from the freezer and followed enthusiastically by yet more rhubarb pudding and cream. Dinner was early as a special request from N, so that we could watch the election results at 8 pm; Segolène Royal and Nicolas Sarkozy through to the second round in two weeks time, as could have been predicted some months ago!
Monday was Guthrie’s birthday; N gave him a silk tie he had bought in Milan, and he was let off buying croissants before breakfast (I had bought them on Sunday) and allowed a lie-in. He and I went to the village market in morning, while Bobbie was showing N pictures of some of their recent trips on his computer. In the afternoon we all visited the Château at Beaumesnil and its grounds, which they enjoyed very much. So did we, it was the third time we had been there - fourth if you count the Chopin/George Sand evening, and we like the thought of it being our « local » château. (I especially like one of the bedrooms, which has exactly the same window fastenings as our bedroom, with the same flaky old white paint. If it’s good enough for them, I think ….)
On the way home we visited Vive le Jardin, where our guests limited themselves to a few packets of seeds, and we somehow ended up buying white New Guinea Busy Lizzies for the outside windows of the verandah. (On our previous visit with Phil I asked his advice on what to put in the white troughs in the shade outside the grande pièce and he recommended geraniums; I chose white ones there and red for the bedroom balcony, and some lovely dark red petunias for the iron urns in front of the wine cellar.) N and I also bought more bird seed as the net on the fir tree was almost empty, and I chose another Venus fly-trap plant for the attic bedroom.
Unfortunately we were very delayed buying petrol at the filling station in Bernay, and got back too late for any tea - a pity as we had decided it was time to open the Italian cake I had bought at the station in Milan, and for which there didn’t seem to have been an appropriate occasion up to then. For the « gala » dinner in the evening we had Fondue Bourguignonne, preceded by a bottle of champagne which had been nestling in our fridge since last August, and followed by patîsseries from our local shop, so we didn’t really need cake at tea time too. We drank the champagne on the terrace and Bobbie and Guthrie « dressed » for dinner, he in his new tie, so N and I thought we’d better go and make the effort too. They really enjoyed the fondue - as did we - and it was nice that the birthday dinner fell on their last evening.
They left early on Tuesday morning, not to catch the boat straight away, but for a further week in Brittany, and then taking a ferry from Roscoff to Plymouth. (If we go to visit them later in the year, as has been suggested, we shall take this route too. I think N is waiting to see what they think of it.) After they had gone, I took the opportunity to go to go to L’Aigle market, as there hadn’t been time the week before.
The main reason I wanted to go was to look at a stall selling very stylish women’s clothes, in particular various matching cotton jackets and trousers such as I had noticed smart French women wearing last summer, and which I had decided to look for this season. I had tried some in C & A when they appeared earlier in the year, but wasn‘t tempted. I also wanted to take another load of things to the one charity shop in L’Aigle; this I did first and they were very pleased as before, then I made straight for the clothes stall.
I had wondered whether it was possible to try things on at market stall; there were in fact two little tent cubicles but I was allowed to use the van, although this involved coming of it to look in the mirror! The two men running the stall were extremely helpful, in fact more helpful than the staff in a lot of shops I’ve been in. What I had in mind had been blue denim with cropped trousers, but the latter were all the wrong length so I ended up - and am very pleased with - off-white with full length trousers. (Although I haven’t altered them yet, so we shall see.)
I had a good look round the market as I hadn’t been there for a few months; didn’t buy smoked haddock as we’d had a lot from Conches market recently, but got cheeses and strawberries. There were two new stalls I hadn’t seen before; a tempting one full of inexpensive white porcelain and one selling grandfather clocks. I don’t know how you were supposed to get these home, certainly not on the bus. I had a drink in my regular café, where I think I am now recognised, and read a local newspaper all about the elections.
Monday 30 April 2007
On Wednesday I did a lot of post-guest catching up, including a vast amount of washing, and beginning on what must be the largest pile of ironing I have ever had. (When I’d had time to iron, I’d concentrated in essentials, so there was a large back-log, some of it bedding from Saint-Denis, which I’m pleased to say is all done now.) N said he was very pleased to have the place to ourselves again; at first I missed all the outings and gala meals, but soon came round to appreciating cosy dinners for two at the little dining table, and just pottering. One of the things I found time to do was Rationalising the Cutlery, of which we seem to have even more than soup plates. In addition to all I brought from Cambridge, there is the Best Set of N’s, plus all the stuff from the Italian house - very copious and not very good quality. There was also a very tinny set N got free from somewhere, (brought here to use when we first moved in) which has since been passed on to my sister Issy; at least it was all brand new and matching! The Cambridge cutlery was not sorted before it left; it just came as it was in the drawer, packed by Abels. Last week I sorted and dusted it all, putting a lot of unnecessary stuff at the back of the sideboard and making it much easier to get at, choosing some of the better Italian knives to use as breakfast knives.
We decided we’d better make a short trip to the Gamm Vert garden centre at Conches for troughs for the new white Busy Lizzies as their roots were coming out of the pots, but were disappointed that we couldn’t find white plastic ones to match the trays we already have on the windowsills. Managed to find some off-white ones though, which just fitted, two to a tray, making eight troughs in all, on four trays at four windows, one plant to a trough, as they are quite large. I also chose little red Busy Lizzies for the other urn, to go with the white geraniums. Once we got back it took me some time to plant all these, while N was doing other gardening, but the effect is well worth it, especially as it’s the first things one sees on coming out of the garage.
The next day I found in the post box a card from M Urset, thanking us for the copy of the Lexique, and saying no luck again! (at not finding us in) and he was still hoping to invite us soon; presumably he left the card while we were out the afternoon before. It’s good to know we are not forgotten; The other interesting item in the box was an issue of the London Review of Books, courtesy of Nigel Palmer, who had asked if I would be interested in a free six months’ trial. I said I would, having seen it once in Cambridge thanks to Samin next door. I have since read it all, mostly while sitting in the sun in the garden, interesting articles as well as reviews, several about British politics. Fortunately just before this I had finally finished the Alberto Moravia novel, which I had very much enjoyed. This is the second of his I have easily read, understood and enjoyed in the last few months, and as I know there are at least a couple of dozen more, shall look forward to trying others. Before the LRB arrived I had just got back to the Life of George Sand; I am now about three-quarters of the way through and am only just getting to her adult life as a writer and her interesting acquaintances.
On Saturday morning N went out on his way to the shops - as he had decided it was his turn to cook dinner that evening - and came back straight away with a momentous piece of news: the house next door (the one with the barking dogs and loud neighbours) had a For Sale sign outside! I went to look; we thought at first it was M Urset’s office, which might have explained his presence in the neighbourhood, but it was a different branch. We mustn’t get too excited though, this isn’t Cambridge where houses can sell in a couple of days, and it could take months, if not for ever. Since the weather has been warm, the next-door dogs have been very much in evidence again, as last summer. N is already hoping we might have new neighbours who would be willing to feed a cat, so that we could have one. (N’s dinner was wonderful, perhaps because I’d been doing so much of the cooking recently - beetroot soup made from cooked beet frozen last summer; wiener schnitzel with pommes Anna, lemon and spinach; and strawberry tarts from the boulangerie.)
One morning last week when I was returning from the boulangerie I saw Monsieur P driving past in his car, and he waved in a very friendly fashion. N also met Monsieur A in the Quincaillerie, who said he would be in touch with us this week. Apart from the estimates for the garden wall and the painting of the façade of the house, N had contacted him about a maintenance contract for the new heating system, which is just a year old. Because of the very warm April weather, we must have saved a lot of fuel; we had already turned down the temperature level some time ago.
Our next guests are due next week, those for the string quartet arranged when we went to stay with Simone at Le Mans. There has been a slight change in arrangements however, as Maryse is now not able to come; I am sorry as I was looking forward to welcoming her here and getting to know her better. N’s other cellist friend Jean is coming instead though, but the transport arrangements are rather complicated, and it will now be Monday to Wednesday, instead of Monday and Tuesday. Brahms is on the programme, causing N to worry about practising.
We have also been planning for more guests further ahead; N’s friend Odile got in contact again, and we hope she will come in June, with or without her friend Thérèse. Meanwhile my friend Gill from Cambridge should be coming in early June. Before then we are due to go to the UK for a visit to several members of N’s family at the end of May, with a quick day trip to see some of mine in Ipswich.
On Saturday afternoon the warm sunny weather began to change and for the first time in five weeks, it actually rained! It was quite a novelty, and we went all round the house listening to it and watching it from different windows. N went out with an umbrella to see how much there was in the water butts; not a lot. Although the forecast was for more of the same plus lower temperatures, on Sunday morning it was hot and sunny again as we set out for Beaumont le Roger for a Foire à Tout, the first of this season. It was due to take place in the Bourg Dessus (town above) which turned out to be high above the part of the town we knew, up an incredibly steep hill next to the church. Once we had found it, it was much the same as other fairs, mostly private individuals trying to sell their junk, a few market and craft stalls, and hardly any bric-à-brac or antiques. I bought a ceramic pot for one of my fly-trap plants, a small oven-proof dish and a little sign saying « Cuisine » covered in tomatoes. N bought a very heavy small mirror, of which he hopes to gild the frame, and a couple of interesting bottles. It was very hot indeed as we left and walked the long way round down into the town again, getting to know a whole new residential area of Beaumont le Roger. We even saw a hotel we had seen on our first visit to Normandy, closed that day, which I don’t think I had realised was the same town when we got to know it later.
We had lunch in the garden and finished reading « The Diary of a Nobody » still surprised at the lovely weather as thunderstorms had been forecast. Later in the afternoon however, it felt very close and eventually there was a big storm with lightning, thunder and a good deal of rain. At least it seemed like a good deal, but there was still not much to see in the water butts. N has a theory that dry hot roofs absorb a lot of water. I kept thinking about all the stallholders at the Foire at Beaumont, which was due to last all day.
Before the rain N harvested a lot of rhubarb which was suddenly ready, and after consulting many recipes I decided to make rhubarb and strawberry jam, covering the rhubarb with sugar overnight and finishing it off this morning having bought strawberries at the market. It has a beautiful colour and smell, but not a very firm set.
N had planned to go back briefly to Saint-Denis next week, but decided to go for the day today as he was worried about his geraniums being left unattended for five weeks. He has gone on the train from Evreux, a new departure for him, and has since phoned to report safe arrival and that the geraniums are fine. (These are miracle geraniums, I think; they survived the heat wave of 2003, and last year.) Apart from the jam, I have done my exercise DVD this morning, and had a look at the new one, which I will try to do later on in the week. Just as on my last day on my own here, I had lunch in the garden in sun and wind. There has been another big thunderstorm this afternoon; we - and our April guests - have all been extremely lucky to have had fine, dry, and for the most part, very warm weather earlier this month.
# posted by Chez Katherine @ 9:50 AM 
