Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Monday 14 May 2007
Yesterday we came back here to Normandy after three days in Paris. It is a sad fact that she who has two homes has twice the amount of housework; double the cleaning, hoovering, dusting etc, but I can’t quite understand why twice the ironing. I had forgotten how much ironing I had left at Saint-Denis when we came away from there about eight weeks ago. Anyway, the urgency over the watering of the geraniums was less as N had been to see to them last week; he had decided it was too short notice to try and make an appointment with the solicitor regarding our Wills, and I had been unable to get an appointment for my eyebrows (this salon is more and more disorganised - not at all like it was when I first went there) so the main reasons for our visit were so that N could collect various family photos to take to his newly-found cousin and so that we could both buy family birthday presents, shopping opportunities in La Neuve-Lyre being somewhat limited.
Throughout our stay the weather was cool and windy but mostly dry, at least we managed to avoid any rain falling on us. N didn’t go far as he was having trouble with his back, a trouble which he later diagnosed - via the dictionary and the internet - as sciatica. On Friday morning I went to stock up with food supplies at Carrefour and discovered that all the checkouts had been renewed and replaced; a great improvement. There was an improvement in our road too; all the scaffolding, workmen’s huts and barriers had finally gone, leaving much more space and a more pleasant vista, and the new block of flats further down the street looking very smart.
I came out of Carrefour with my trolley very full of shopping and immediately noticed some linen two-piece suits reduced to half price outside one of the funny little shops nearby. I was able to leave my shopping behind the counter and climb a spiral staircase to try one on in a dark rust red, which I eventually bought, thinking that if ever the weather were to turn hot again I would be glad of such an outfit - loose drawstring trousers and short-sleeved jacket/shirt, reaching almost to my knees, with various sparkly beads on the front; Moroccan in style, N decided later.
In the afternoon I went into Paris by RER, mainly for present buying but also to get N computer ink cartridges at FNAC in the Forum des Halles. I then went on to the (for me) newly-discovered shopping centre at Carrousel, and across Palais Royale and up the Avenue de l’Opéra, to Monoprix and other shops. It felt very good to be in the centre of Paris once again. Someone asked me for directions, and I was able to tell them the way!
On Saturday morning I was able to do my Pilates DVD; not the shorter one which I must have brought back to LNL, but the longer original one, which was not too dull as I hadn’t looked at it for such a long time. I then visited local shops in the other direction (i.e. not Carrefour) and after lunch N and I went into Paris together, as his back had improved with rest, a hot bath, hot cushion etc. We had to go back to FNAC again, as one of the cartridges I had got the day before was faulty; I was glad N was there and I didn’t have to do the explaining or argue about it. We then found a branch of Nature et Découvertes - still in the Forum des Halles - which is excellent for presents for the young, and chose birthday presents for both his granddaughters. In between times and on both days we seemed to do lots of sleeping and watched some really interesting TV; a long travel programme and a fascinating film set in pre-war Poland; I never did find out what it was.
We set off back here later than we originally meant to yesterday morning because of waiting for the washing machine to finish, due to late waking up in the first place! The weather was fine and blue, but cold; we had seen from the weather forecast that it was to be fine in Paris but wet in Normandy. We intended to have lunch at Evreux, but were running rather late so when we stopped to get bread at a little place called Chaufour where we had stocked up once before, and saw a Hotel/Restaurant over the road, we decided to try it.
It turned out to be the most interesting and creative meal we have had for a long time, perhaps ever. It was a lovely warm room decorated with stuffed birds and animals, pictures and flowers, full of what looked like regular clients, all tucking in to the most marvellous food. The service was prompt, friendly and excellent, and we were required to order all our four courses right from the start. I had seen someone being served port and melon as we arrived so ordered it myself: a large plate on which there was a melon with the top ingeniously cut, a small glass of port, ham decorated with more melon balls, and the whole thing garnished with what looked like very thin green grape hyacinths, we never did decide what they were; N’s hors d’oeuvres was decorated with them too.
My main course was an assiette de mer (plate of the sea) and consisted of poached salmon and two different kinds of white fish, mussels and two largish prawns; all in a buttery hollandaise sauce. N had duck - decorated with thin strips of orange and little heaps of all kinds of vegetables around the plate. Fortunately there was a longish gap after this, whether by design or not we didn’t know, but we were slowing down considerably! Our « cheese course » was melted camembert wrapped up in filo pastry on a bed of caramelised onions, bordered with a fine salad which included chopped walnuts.
At this stage we noticed it had become very dark outside and then saw torrential rain and trees bent over sideways - this was the rain forecast for the west which seemed to be rushing down the road towards Paris. Two women came in soaked - having just come as far as the car park - and seated themselves down at the next table, looking at our food with interest!
My dessert - which I had naively supposed would be some kind of fruit salad - took me a minute or two to admire and to try and take everything in. A « basket » of thin biscuit was filled with balls of blackcurrant sorbet, whipped cream and lemon ice cream all in a row, with a kind of « handle » made of éclair. The rest of the plate was covered with delicious raspberry coulis, patterned with cream, and all round the edge were tiny pieces of every fruit imaginable. N’s dessert - mainly chocolate charlotte with pear - was equally involved. We declined coffee, but were pleased to see that the weather was now fine again, and made sure we took a card with the name and details of the restaurant, in case we couldn’t find it again! At a table nearby there was an extremely large, round young woman; N said that was obviously what happened if you had lunch there every Sunday. He asked his compliments to be passed on to the chef, but on the way out we saw him; he was a little nervous at first at being identified, but pleased when N congratulated him on such a creative meal.
All the way back to La Neuve-Lyre we saw lots of wind and rain damage, pieces of tree blown down in the road, and lots of puddles. It was the same in our garden too, lots of petals dashed down and garden chairs upside down and blown over. There was no sign of the painters having been to do the cementing. N’s third water butt was not filling up, despite all the rain; he decided the outlet pipe from butt 2 to butt 3 was too low. I found a nice friendly phone message from Robert Urset asking us to dinner some time soon, so called back but was only able to leave another message. Still very full of lunch, we sat down quietly to have a cup of tea and finished our current Sunday reading - the medieval tale « Aucassin & Nicolette » (N’s choice.) We are determined not to put the heating back on, but it’s very chilly.
Today I have called the painters; they are very anxious to let us know we are not forgotten, but it is a question of weather, they said! And they will call round tomorrow morning. We have eaten two more of our (rather smaller) artichokes for lunch. Since the morning have got lighter we have been having breakfast in the verandah, and lunch too on these chilly days. I was pleased to get out again my round tablecloth decorated with the black olives which goes on the verandah table. N has got so fed up with the pain in his back that he has phoned the local village doctor and has made an appointment to see him; also tomorrow morning.
Tuesday 15 May 2007
It was an early start this morning; N’s appointment was at 9.00 and the painter was due at 9.30. In the event N left before 8.30, to give time to go the bank en route; was seen by the doctor straight away and was back by 9.20, just as the painter arrived. The latter completed the cementing, but didn’t seem to think the weather would be right for coming back tomorrow - a few days ago the forecast was fine, but now it has changed, as is often the case. He was interested in my sweeping up of the rhododendron petals all dashed down on the path, and asked if it was as a result of the storm. Think this was what happened on Sunday afternoon.
The doctor didn’t think N’s back problem was sciatica, merely a sprain, and prescribed painkillers and a nasty-smelling embrocation to be rubbed in. During the morning I finally caught up with all the washing dating from last week’s guests, and started on some mending waiting in the sewing room, including darning holes in two pairs of N’s trousers. This evening Robert Urset phoned back in response to my message, and we have been invited there for lunch next Sunday! He and his wife Monique live in a village called Saint Sebastian de Morsent, which we pass through every time we go between here and Saint-Denis, so it will be interesting to see more of it.
Wednesday 16 May 2007
Today we have spent a lot of time watching television, various présidentialisation (wonderful word) ceremonies to inaugurate Nicolas Sarkozy as the new president of the French Republic, and goodbyes to Jacques Chirac. The weather is grey and cloudy here - fortunately it was a bit brighter in Paris - so our painter hasn’t been.
Tomorrow is Ascension Day, another jour de fête, and like last year the day of the La Neuve Lyre Foire à Tout. A few weeks ago I was very much in favour of N and I having a stall and trying to get rid of a lot of the surplus stuff we have here; unneeded things from both Cambridge and Italy, not to mention things we found in the house when we arrived. When we were at the fairs at La Ferrière-sur-Risle and at Beaumont and when the weather was warm and sunny it seemed an excellent idea, and I hoped to be able to talk to my hairdresser about the practicalities, as she was the only person I knew with a stall there last year. But then I didn’t see her, the weather deteriorated rapidly and I discovered another Foire à Tout to visit at Bernay on the same day, so am now quite glad we haven‘t got to sit out in the village square in the cold all day tomorrow.
Thursday 17 May 2007
We made the right decision. We visited our local village fair this morning in wind and rain, and as we left the house saw lots of vintage cars marked Le Mans driving in the other direction; obviously some kind of annual rally. At the fair only those stallholders with some kind of rain canopy were really doing any business, others with piles of clothes covered in plastic sheeting were getting nowhere. I didn’t see the hairdresser this time, but we ran into our next-door neighbours with their stall behind the church - a little difficult to reorganise under their rain gear; N didn’t recognise them at all. The woman said perhaps we had noticed their house was for sale - we had to admit we had - she said they had found somewhere else out in the countryside with more land, and hoped to advertise their house via internet, but meanwhile if we knew of any English friends who might be interested….. (When we got home we both agreed that the last thing we wanted was English neighbours; N said they would always be coming round wanting to borrow cups of sugar.) We have since wondered if the dogs have moved already, as it has been much quieter of late. I felt I should buy something from their stall and found a tall red Amaretti biscuit tin, matching the square one I already have. N bought an earthenware jug for Pineau (it was written on the side) from another stall and we went back home.
The rain had been going on for most of the night, and N was very pleased to report that all three linked water butts were now full, including of course the original one by the first outhouse. He estimates that we have about 1200 litres of rainwater! This will be extremely useful when/if the next drought comes and should save a lot on my water bill.
After lunch (lettuce soup from the freezer to warm us up) we set out for Bernay, not really sure what kind of fair we were going to. It turned out to be Braderie & Brocante, plus lots of vide-grenier, in other words people clearing their own junk, bric-à-brac and shops putting outside sale rails or reduced things on special offer. There were also things to ride on, and food stalls - crêpes, sausages, candy floss, plus usual market traders.
We weren’t that interested in the shop things - except in an expensive shoe shop with a rail of pairs reduced to 10 euros each, but none were the right size, style and colour! After much wandering up and down - it stretched a long way all through the town - and going back to the car once to deposit our purchases, N had bought two enormous wine bottles, a violin, a metronome, a key case and a Breton bowl marked Claire to take to his daughter; and I had a book on George Sand (complete with dedication from her great-grand-daughter) two pieces of china which match my fondue plates, and a small white wooden photo frame. The rain stopped and it was almost warm and bright. On our way back to the car we found the Italian delicatessen open and bought various items, which was just as well as the supermarket - where we had planned to stock up on the way home - was closed because of the jour de fête.
Sunday 20 May 2007
On Friday it warmed up a little; it was still cloudy and damp but yesterday we had lunch in the garden for the first time for a fortnight! N did lots of gardening: weeding, hedge-clipping and mowing the lawns, which was a good thing, but it made his back hurt again, which was not. Today it has been rained again almost all day, so we are both glad the gardening was done. On Friday afternoon the painter rang again to reassure us; we have told him we are going away next week so he will come to collect the key on Monday and - hopefully - do the painting while we are not here.
Last night courtesy of our new TV film channels we watched « Educating Rita » which neither of us had ever seen before, and which we enjoyed apart from arguing afterwards whether or not this portrayed a true picture of British university life.
Bird news: N is still regularly buying nuts for wild birds and hanging them in a little net on the big fir tree outside our bedroom window, so we can watch the birds - mostly bluetits - feed in the mornings. He has also bought « grease balls » for them too, tied to the branches they look rather like decorations suspended on a Christmas tree. At Champion supermarket on Friday he bought an attractive wooden bird-feeder and tied it to the birch tree near the potager, spread with nuts; it looks very good but the birds are still getting used to it and we haven’t actually seen any of them approach it yet. Yesterday N spent a lot of the day worrying about (what we thought was) a young thrush just sitting around in the garden, not appearing injured but not able to fly very far and not in the least frightened of us. N tried giving it water, nuts and worms, but it didn’t respond, and by the evening I resorted to consulting the RSPB website for information; not surprisingly it told us in these situations it was best to do nothing, and that the parent birds would probably come and fetch it. There is no sign of it this morning, so we hope that was the case. As for the swallows in the garage - we had seen nothing of them for some time, so were pleased when we discovered on the garage floor two halves of a tiny broken egg shell, and some small feathers, so think there are some hatched young in the nest above.
Today we have been to the Ursets for Sunday lunch. The weather was cold and wet and got worse; as we suspected they had planned to eat in the garden, but had to re-think. We were there about five hours in all, and enjoyed it very much. Once again it did us good to speak French for all that time, and we got as far as calling them both « tu » which is good progress, together with kissing as we left! It was interesting to see their house; small and fairly modern and cosy, lots of family photographs and tapestries on the walls. N cautiously raised the subject of the presidential election, and it transpired that Robert had right-wing sympathies and was pleased with Sarkozy’s success. They also talked a lot about their family, several children and grandchildren, and as before, the time when they both worked at the Bon Marché store in Paris. We ate and drank very well too; comfortingly the sort of meal I might have put together! Robert even promised to speak to someone on my behalf about a local choir which needed more women’s voices; but I’ve heard that before, so shan’t hold my breath.
When we came back we had a very late afternoon tea and began reading some stories translated into English from The Decameron, my choice as I had studied it at university and found some of them very amusing.
Tuesday 22 May 2007
This morning our painter has finally been to collect our key, in order to try and paint the front façades while we are away in Britain. N has also asked him for an estimate for clearing all the moss off the lower roofs, and for cleaning the - once transparent! - roof of the verandah. Apparently while our musical guests were having drinks in there with N a couple of weeks ago, they said as we had made the rest of the verandah look so nice it was a pity we hadn’t done anything about the roof! We had previously decided we couldn’t get up there to clean or replace it ourselves and were beginning to consider covering it with something from the inside, but cleaning the outside with a professional machine is a much better idea.
Yesterday we came back here to Normandy after three days in Paris. It is a sad fact that she who has two homes has twice the amount of housework; double the cleaning, hoovering, dusting etc, but I can’t quite understand why twice the ironing. I had forgotten how much ironing I had left at Saint-Denis when we came away from there about eight weeks ago. Anyway, the urgency over the watering of the geraniums was less as N had been to see to them last week; he had decided it was too short notice to try and make an appointment with the solicitor regarding our Wills, and I had been unable to get an appointment for my eyebrows (this salon is more and more disorganised - not at all like it was when I first went there) so the main reasons for our visit were so that N could collect various family photos to take to his newly-found cousin and so that we could both buy family birthday presents, shopping opportunities in La Neuve-Lyre being somewhat limited.
Throughout our stay the weather was cool and windy but mostly dry, at least we managed to avoid any rain falling on us. N didn’t go far as he was having trouble with his back, a trouble which he later diagnosed - via the dictionary and the internet - as sciatica. On Friday morning I went to stock up with food supplies at Carrefour and discovered that all the checkouts had been renewed and replaced; a great improvement. There was an improvement in our road too; all the scaffolding, workmen’s huts and barriers had finally gone, leaving much more space and a more pleasant vista, and the new block of flats further down the street looking very smart.
I came out of Carrefour with my trolley very full of shopping and immediately noticed some linen two-piece suits reduced to half price outside one of the funny little shops nearby. I was able to leave my shopping behind the counter and climb a spiral staircase to try one on in a dark rust red, which I eventually bought, thinking that if ever the weather were to turn hot again I would be glad of such an outfit - loose drawstring trousers and short-sleeved jacket/shirt, reaching almost to my knees, with various sparkly beads on the front; Moroccan in style, N decided later.
In the afternoon I went into Paris by RER, mainly for present buying but also to get N computer ink cartridges at FNAC in the Forum des Halles. I then went on to the (for me) newly-discovered shopping centre at Carrousel, and across Palais Royale and up the Avenue de l’Opéra, to Monoprix and other shops. It felt very good to be in the centre of Paris once again. Someone asked me for directions, and I was able to tell them the way!
On Saturday morning I was able to do my Pilates DVD; not the shorter one which I must have brought back to LNL, but the longer original one, which was not too dull as I hadn’t looked at it for such a long time. I then visited local shops in the other direction (i.e. not Carrefour) and after lunch N and I went into Paris together, as his back had improved with rest, a hot bath, hot cushion etc. We had to go back to FNAC again, as one of the cartridges I had got the day before was faulty; I was glad N was there and I didn’t have to do the explaining or argue about it. We then found a branch of Nature et Découvertes - still in the Forum des Halles - which is excellent for presents for the young, and chose birthday presents for both his granddaughters. In between times and on both days we seemed to do lots of sleeping and watched some really interesting TV; a long travel programme and a fascinating film set in pre-war Poland; I never did find out what it was.
We set off back here later than we originally meant to yesterday morning because of waiting for the washing machine to finish, due to late waking up in the first place! The weather was fine and blue, but cold; we had seen from the weather forecast that it was to be fine in Paris but wet in Normandy. We intended to have lunch at Evreux, but were running rather late so when we stopped to get bread at a little place called Chaufour where we had stocked up once before, and saw a Hotel/Restaurant over the road, we decided to try it.
It turned out to be the most interesting and creative meal we have had for a long time, perhaps ever. It was a lovely warm room decorated with stuffed birds and animals, pictures and flowers, full of what looked like regular clients, all tucking in to the most marvellous food. The service was prompt, friendly and excellent, and we were required to order all our four courses right from the start. I had seen someone being served port and melon as we arrived so ordered it myself: a large plate on which there was a melon with the top ingeniously cut, a small glass of port, ham decorated with more melon balls, and the whole thing garnished with what looked like very thin green grape hyacinths, we never did decide what they were; N’s hors d’oeuvres was decorated with them too.
My main course was an assiette de mer (plate of the sea) and consisted of poached salmon and two different kinds of white fish, mussels and two largish prawns; all in a buttery hollandaise sauce. N had duck - decorated with thin strips of orange and little heaps of all kinds of vegetables around the plate. Fortunately there was a longish gap after this, whether by design or not we didn’t know, but we were slowing down considerably! Our « cheese course » was melted camembert wrapped up in filo pastry on a bed of caramelised onions, bordered with a fine salad which included chopped walnuts.
At this stage we noticed it had become very dark outside and then saw torrential rain and trees bent over sideways - this was the rain forecast for the west which seemed to be rushing down the road towards Paris. Two women came in soaked - having just come as far as the car park - and seated themselves down at the next table, looking at our food with interest!
My dessert - which I had naively supposed would be some kind of fruit salad - took me a minute or two to admire and to try and take everything in. A « basket » of thin biscuit was filled with balls of blackcurrant sorbet, whipped cream and lemon ice cream all in a row, with a kind of « handle » made of éclair. The rest of the plate was covered with delicious raspberry coulis, patterned with cream, and all round the edge were tiny pieces of every fruit imaginable. N’s dessert - mainly chocolate charlotte with pear - was equally involved. We declined coffee, but were pleased to see that the weather was now fine again, and made sure we took a card with the name and details of the restaurant, in case we couldn’t find it again! At a table nearby there was an extremely large, round young woman; N said that was obviously what happened if you had lunch there every Sunday. He asked his compliments to be passed on to the chef, but on the way out we saw him; he was a little nervous at first at being identified, but pleased when N congratulated him on such a creative meal.
All the way back to La Neuve-Lyre we saw lots of wind and rain damage, pieces of tree blown down in the road, and lots of puddles. It was the same in our garden too, lots of petals dashed down and garden chairs upside down and blown over. There was no sign of the painters having been to do the cementing. N’s third water butt was not filling up, despite all the rain; he decided the outlet pipe from butt 2 to butt 3 was too low. I found a nice friendly phone message from Robert Urset asking us to dinner some time soon, so called back but was only able to leave another message. Still very full of lunch, we sat down quietly to have a cup of tea and finished our current Sunday reading - the medieval tale « Aucassin & Nicolette » (N’s choice.) We are determined not to put the heating back on, but it’s very chilly.
Today I have called the painters; they are very anxious to let us know we are not forgotten, but it is a question of weather, they said! And they will call round tomorrow morning. We have eaten two more of our (rather smaller) artichokes for lunch. Since the morning have got lighter we have been having breakfast in the verandah, and lunch too on these chilly days. I was pleased to get out again my round tablecloth decorated with the black olives which goes on the verandah table. N has got so fed up with the pain in his back that he has phoned the local village doctor and has made an appointment to see him; also tomorrow morning.
Tuesday 15 May 2007
It was an early start this morning; N’s appointment was at 9.00 and the painter was due at 9.30. In the event N left before 8.30, to give time to go the bank en route; was seen by the doctor straight away and was back by 9.20, just as the painter arrived. The latter completed the cementing, but didn’t seem to think the weather would be right for coming back tomorrow - a few days ago the forecast was fine, but now it has changed, as is often the case. He was interested in my sweeping up of the rhododendron petals all dashed down on the path, and asked if it was as a result of the storm. Think this was what happened on Sunday afternoon.
The doctor didn’t think N’s back problem was sciatica, merely a sprain, and prescribed painkillers and a nasty-smelling embrocation to be rubbed in. During the morning I finally caught up with all the washing dating from last week’s guests, and started on some mending waiting in the sewing room, including darning holes in two pairs of N’s trousers. This evening Robert Urset phoned back in response to my message, and we have been invited there for lunch next Sunday! He and his wife Monique live in a village called Saint Sebastian de Morsent, which we pass through every time we go between here and Saint-Denis, so it will be interesting to see more of it.
Wednesday 16 May 2007
Today we have spent a lot of time watching television, various présidentialisation (wonderful word) ceremonies to inaugurate Nicolas Sarkozy as the new president of the French Republic, and goodbyes to Jacques Chirac. The weather is grey and cloudy here - fortunately it was a bit brighter in Paris - so our painter hasn’t been.
Tomorrow is Ascension Day, another jour de fête, and like last year the day of the La Neuve Lyre Foire à Tout. A few weeks ago I was very much in favour of N and I having a stall and trying to get rid of a lot of the surplus stuff we have here; unneeded things from both Cambridge and Italy, not to mention things we found in the house when we arrived. When we were at the fairs at La Ferrière-sur-Risle and at Beaumont and when the weather was warm and sunny it seemed an excellent idea, and I hoped to be able to talk to my hairdresser about the practicalities, as she was the only person I knew with a stall there last year. But then I didn’t see her, the weather deteriorated rapidly and I discovered another Foire à Tout to visit at Bernay on the same day, so am now quite glad we haven‘t got to sit out in the village square in the cold all day tomorrow.
Thursday 17 May 2007
We made the right decision. We visited our local village fair this morning in wind and rain, and as we left the house saw lots of vintage cars marked Le Mans driving in the other direction; obviously some kind of annual rally. At the fair only those stallholders with some kind of rain canopy were really doing any business, others with piles of clothes covered in plastic sheeting were getting nowhere. I didn’t see the hairdresser this time, but we ran into our next-door neighbours with their stall behind the church - a little difficult to reorganise under their rain gear; N didn’t recognise them at all. The woman said perhaps we had noticed their house was for sale - we had to admit we had - she said they had found somewhere else out in the countryside with more land, and hoped to advertise their house via internet, but meanwhile if we knew of any English friends who might be interested….. (When we got home we both agreed that the last thing we wanted was English neighbours; N said they would always be coming round wanting to borrow cups of sugar.) We have since wondered if the dogs have moved already, as it has been much quieter of late. I felt I should buy something from their stall and found a tall red Amaretti biscuit tin, matching the square one I already have. N bought an earthenware jug for Pineau (it was written on the side) from another stall and we went back home.
The rain had been going on for most of the night, and N was very pleased to report that all three linked water butts were now full, including of course the original one by the first outhouse. He estimates that we have about 1200 litres of rainwater! This will be extremely useful when/if the next drought comes and should save a lot on my water bill.
After lunch (lettuce soup from the freezer to warm us up) we set out for Bernay, not really sure what kind of fair we were going to. It turned out to be Braderie & Brocante, plus lots of vide-grenier, in other words people clearing their own junk, bric-à-brac and shops putting outside sale rails or reduced things on special offer. There were also things to ride on, and food stalls - crêpes, sausages, candy floss, plus usual market traders.
We weren’t that interested in the shop things - except in an expensive shoe shop with a rail of pairs reduced to 10 euros each, but none were the right size, style and colour! After much wandering up and down - it stretched a long way all through the town - and going back to the car once to deposit our purchases, N had bought two enormous wine bottles, a violin, a metronome, a key case and a Breton bowl marked Claire to take to his daughter; and I had a book on George Sand (complete with dedication from her great-grand-daughter) two pieces of china which match my fondue plates, and a small white wooden photo frame. The rain stopped and it was almost warm and bright. On our way back to the car we found the Italian delicatessen open and bought various items, which was just as well as the supermarket - where we had planned to stock up on the way home - was closed because of the jour de fête.
Sunday 20 May 2007
On Friday it warmed up a little; it was still cloudy and damp but yesterday we had lunch in the garden for the first time for a fortnight! N did lots of gardening: weeding, hedge-clipping and mowing the lawns, which was a good thing, but it made his back hurt again, which was not. Today it has been rained again almost all day, so we are both glad the gardening was done. On Friday afternoon the painter rang again to reassure us; we have told him we are going away next week so he will come to collect the key on Monday and - hopefully - do the painting while we are not here.
Last night courtesy of our new TV film channels we watched « Educating Rita » which neither of us had ever seen before, and which we enjoyed apart from arguing afterwards whether or not this portrayed a true picture of British university life.
Bird news: N is still regularly buying nuts for wild birds and hanging them in a little net on the big fir tree outside our bedroom window, so we can watch the birds - mostly bluetits - feed in the mornings. He has also bought « grease balls » for them too, tied to the branches they look rather like decorations suspended on a Christmas tree. At Champion supermarket on Friday he bought an attractive wooden bird-feeder and tied it to the birch tree near the potager, spread with nuts; it looks very good but the birds are still getting used to it and we haven’t actually seen any of them approach it yet. Yesterday N spent a lot of the day worrying about (what we thought was) a young thrush just sitting around in the garden, not appearing injured but not able to fly very far and not in the least frightened of us. N tried giving it water, nuts and worms, but it didn’t respond, and by the evening I resorted to consulting the RSPB website for information; not surprisingly it told us in these situations it was best to do nothing, and that the parent birds would probably come and fetch it. There is no sign of it this morning, so we hope that was the case. As for the swallows in the garage - we had seen nothing of them for some time, so were pleased when we discovered on the garage floor two halves of a tiny broken egg shell, and some small feathers, so think there are some hatched young in the nest above.
Today we have been to the Ursets for Sunday lunch. The weather was cold and wet and got worse; as we suspected they had planned to eat in the garden, but had to re-think. We were there about five hours in all, and enjoyed it very much. Once again it did us good to speak French for all that time, and we got as far as calling them both « tu » which is good progress, together with kissing as we left! It was interesting to see their house; small and fairly modern and cosy, lots of family photographs and tapestries on the walls. N cautiously raised the subject of the presidential election, and it transpired that Robert had right-wing sympathies and was pleased with Sarkozy’s success. They also talked a lot about their family, several children and grandchildren, and as before, the time when they both worked at the Bon Marché store in Paris. We ate and drank very well too; comfortingly the sort of meal I might have put together! Robert even promised to speak to someone on my behalf about a local choir which needed more women’s voices; but I’ve heard that before, so shan’t hold my breath.
When we came back we had a very late afternoon tea and began reading some stories translated into English from The Decameron, my choice as I had studied it at university and found some of them very amusing.
Tuesday 22 May 2007
This morning our painter has finally been to collect our key, in order to try and paint the front façades while we are away in Britain. N has also asked him for an estimate for clearing all the moss off the lower roofs, and for cleaning the - once transparent! - roof of the verandah. Apparently while our musical guests were having drinks in there with N a couple of weeks ago, they said as we had made the rest of the verandah look so nice it was a pity we hadn’t done anything about the roof! We had previously decided we couldn’t get up there to clean or replace it ourselves and were beginning to consider covering it with something from the inside, but cleaning the outside with a professional machine is a much better idea.
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Thursday 3 May 2007
May Day in France meant as usual a Jour de Fête, La Fête du Travail as well as La Fête du Muguet (lily of the valley) so that markets and florists were full of sprigs and plants, and pâtisseries were selling cakes decorated with real or plastic lily of the valley.
There is no lily of the valley in our garden, but the newly enlarged flower bed is looking marvellous, with red and white tulips, the original roses, lupins, transplanted irises and peonies and lots of little pansies and other small flowers. The cherry blossom has been over now for a week or so, but there are already lots of little green fruits which I see when I look up to hang washing on the line. Last year the apple blossom arrived as the cherry blossom finished; not so this year, there seems to be hardly any apple blossom at all, just lots of green leaves. We think this may be the kind of tree which has a large harvest every other year, which is fine by me as we still have lots of apples in the freezer and on the shelves in the outhouse. The red rhododendrons are just coming into flower, the new pink ones from last year are a little behind. The hydrangea foliage is wonderfully green, although no flowers yet as they are very sheltered, but there are one or two flowers on the oleanders. The roses are almost in flower, in fact the « hidden » bush between my study window and the road is a mass of buds, and today I have cut roses for indoors from it for the first time, two vases full, reddish yellow.
May Day also meant the Foire à Tout at La Ferrière sur Risle, very different from last year when we (and family guests) went in the pouring rain and cold. This year it was warm and sunny and consequently far more difficult to park, as there were so many extra visitors. We had to park so far down a road leading out of the village that the man in the next car said any further and we should be in Paris!
It always amazes me that there are the same kind of things on sale every time; for example at any given fair there are always at least two or three bedpans; and some animal cages, aquariums and pet beds, presumably complete with the ghosts of long-departed pets. There are also several books on slimming, whether the owners have been so successful they don’t need them any more, or have given up in despair, is not clear. Less interestingly, there are always lots of children’s clothes and toys, knickknacks from the 1970’s and coffee cups which appear to have come from cafés.
The La Ferrière sur Risle fair is a bit more varied however because of the monthly antique fairs there, so the usual junk was diluted amongst more unusual items, for example a large white cardboard box labelled Christian Dior de Paris, containing a voluminous white net wedding veil, fastened to a small headdress of white flowers, also labelled Christian Dior de Paris. I would like to know who bought it, if anyone. There was a Bible in eight volumes for 10 euros, and lot of interesting furniture, including a mirror which I thought might do instead of the one we saw at the antiques barn - at a much better price - but N thought it wasn’t big enough.
Since the last fair, and since he found a huge empty wine bottle abandoned at the bottle bank (it wouldn’t fit in the hole at the top) N has been collecting interesting old bottles for a display in one of the outhouses, and managed to find a couple more at La Ferrière sur Risle. He also bought two nineteenth-century framed fashion prints. I bought a little sign saying « Vestiaires » which I thought would do for the coat cupboard and a video of the film « Sense and Sensibility » part of which I saw on TV recently, but my best buy was a footstool. I have been looking at/for these for some time now, and admired one I saw on a BBC antiques programme; mounted on rockers with a slatted part on one side (for the feet) and an upholstered part one the other (for the calves). The one I found was just such a model; the upholstery is golden velvet, so blends in nicely with everything here, and it was 6 euros! It needed some dusting and cleaning and all the joints tightening, but is wonderfully comfortable. What is more, it means that the white plastic footstool has now gone out into the garden as an outdoor coffee table, something else I was looking for at the fair. (We had a nice little wooden one from IKEA, but had to keep bringing it in whenever it rained.)
Since then N has decided that the framed prints would make an admirable birthday present for his daughter, and that the mirror bought at the fair last week - the frame of which he has since gilded - is to be given to the other daughter. This gives him an excuse to buy things at fairs, without having to decide where to put them once they are home. It also means we can take them in the car with us in 3 week’s time, and not have to worry about buying something postable.
Over the last month or so lots of new film channels have been added to our satellite TV possibilities; films of all kinds, old, new, French, English, American, comedies, classics and so on. It means checking through hundreds of lists of films in small print in order not to miss anything, and so far I have seen « The Talented Mr Ripley » several weeks ago, and last week « Psycho » which I very bravely sat up late to watch on my own, and one afternoon this week « Maurice » from the novel by E M Forster. Each film seems to be shown a few times over a few days, which makes it easier not to miss. It certainly makes up for there being no cinema near here. Nothing else very interesting at the moment, but a few more towards the end of the month (when we will probably not be here!)
We have been enjoying the peace and quiet in the garden, and not having to go anywhere in particular. N is trying to practice Brahms ready for next week, and I have spent some time re-drafting my Will, using N’s as a model. It has taken him some months to sort out the best way of doing this, and managed at last to discuss it with a solicitor (someone at the same firm who acted for me with my house purchase) when we were both last in Paris. My own Will was something I was leaving until all the guests had gone, and I’m pleased to say it is now more or less finished, and we hope to see the solicitor again when we are next in Paris. The other thing I am pleased to have finished and out of the way is my tax return - not very complicated, but the first time I have done it on my own, as last year the lady at the tax office in Verneuil filled it in for me. N has not received his yet; Saint-Denis must take longer then LNL.
I have also managed to do two lots of exercise DVDs, including the new one, and am enjoying smaller and simpler meals, especially getting back to my usual pre-guest breakfasts (grapefruit, yoghurt and a small piece of toast) instead of croissants, although they are nice occasionally. Today we have both been to the hairdresser, so are both nice and tidy. My usual stylist was not there, so I was cut by the younger woman who usually deals with N; we had a nice talk about gardens and cats.
Saturday 5 May 2007
Yesterday was my birthday, so we had decided on a day out to Caen, somewhere we’ve not been to since arriving in Normandy, and, like Rouen, easy to get to by train from Bernay. The weather was a shock; cold and cloudy with temperatures a lot lower than Thursday, when I was sitting in the garden in a sleeveless T-shirt, thinking it was so hot I should have to go in. Yesterday I had decided to wear my new suit, but had to wear a raincoat over the top and was still cold, wishing I had socks on. It didn’t actually rain all day, but rather coloured our impression of Caen.
We hadn’t been able to get a street plan of the city, either before we left or at the station - an uninspiring modern building presumably built after the bombing of WW2 - but on coming out found a tram stop and took one to a stop marked City Centre and Tourist Office. Unlike at Rouen, it was quite a distance. We then found a very old church called Saint Pierre, both of us surprised as we knew there was very little of the old Caen left, and further surprised when we went in as it was actually warmer than outside! (Usually, especially in Italy, it is a relief to get out of the heat into a cool church.)
We found the excellent Tourist Office, and spent some time there; not only was it warm but there was a lot to look at, and we got a street plan and I found some nice postcards, and an interesting free English-language magazine for people living in Normandy. (I thought perhaps we should tell them about the Lexique. We need to get some handbills made.) The most interesting thing to see seemed to be the Château, so we made our way there, up a very grassy, very cold and windy hill.
It was William the Conqueror’s castle; he seemed by far to be the most notable figure in Caen, but as far as I was concerned the best thing was the Musée de Normandie, lots of Gallic and Roman things to see, maps and layouts, and quite a few 19th century things - pottery, costumes, farm implements, not surprisingly lots of things for cider-making and dairy equipment, but not much from the centuries in between! In fact N asked why there were no medieval exhibits, and was told that they preferred to have real relics to models or pictures, which presumably meant they didn‘t have any. They did have good postcards however, and much cheaper than at the Tourist Office.
After this we wandered down a nearby main street full of little shops, but remarkably few restaurants. I nipped into a branch of Sephora while N looked in another church and we finally decided on a modest little restaurant (mainly in order to get warm) where I had an tasty open Greek sandwich and N had fish. Not the most memorable of birthday meals!
The two things N remembered from his previous visit to Caen were the Abbaye aux Femmes (for nuns) and the Abbaye aux Hommes (for monks) both high monuments, still visible high above the more modern buildings. After lunch we set off for the Abbaye aux Hommes; the original building had been added to in the 18th century and part is now used as municipal offices. We saw guided tours advertised and on enquiring found they took an hour and half, which is rather long if you’re only there for the day, so declined but were told we could visit the chapel to see the tomb of William the Conqueror, which we did, and were very pleased to have seen it.
On coming out we found ourselves in front of little shopping centre, which looked attractively warm; so went in and N spent a long time looking in FNAC and I looked mainly in card shops, but also at Maisons du Monde. After that it seemed to be time to make for home, so we found the return tram to the railway station (the woman in the next seat had a cat in a travelling basket and was busy telling all the passengers how it had jumped out of a fourth floor window and broken its front paw, and this was the third day running they had been on the bus to the vet …….) At the station we had to wait 45 minutes for the next train, so had tea outside a café opposite; outside rather than inside as N found it too smoky. By the time the train arrived we were very cold indeed.
Once back at Bernay station it was still quite early, so we called in at the supermarket to buy some birthday dinner and special offer champagne (I had imagined we would be back quite late having had a large lunch, so hadn’t planned anything.) We also went to the garden centre as N wanted to replace two more currant bushes, and I said I would get a new watering can - as a sort of birthday present from me to us both; the one I brought from Cambridge having finally died, in spite of N’s clever repairs. We wanted to do the garden centre shopping on Friday rather than having to make a special trip today, as there was food shopping to be done at Champion this morning (much nearer) for the musical guests due on Monday and N is still trying to find time to practise Brahms. When we got back to the house in the evening it was so cold we switched on the heating again.
Wednesday 9 May 2007
Sunday was the second round of the presidential election; the excitement mounted all day (although not much to be seen in our village) and the TV coverage got more and more dramatic - although very professional - until the result was announced at 8.00; the next president of France will be Nicolas Sarkozy, not really a great surprise.
For the string quartets visit, Jean and Brigitte were coming from Paris by car in time for lunch on Monday, and N was due to pick up Simone from L’Aigle station at about 2.00, so we hoped J & B would arrive reasonably early, in time for N to have some lunch. In the morning I went along to the market to get strawberries, raspberries and cheese, and found myself looking a large poster advertising painting, re-roofing and re-surfacing of façades; the last word caught my eye as not only did we never have a response from the original « façade man » but had heard nothing from Monsieur A on the subject either, and were beginning to think we would never be able to get it done. The man took my name and door number, and said he would be in touch; I couldn’t help thinking it was not well timed, with N being busy with musicians.
But he turned up not long after with a colleague; fortunately before any music began - and after they had both discussed things with N said he would be back later with an estimate. Meanwhile I continued preparing salade niçoise and apple cake, and wishing lunch could be in garden as with the last guests, but it was far too cold, grey and windy. J & B arrived at about 12.45, so we had lunch straight away, in the dining room as we were only four, giving me the chance to use a tablecloth and napkins that hadn’t seen the light of day since Ainsworth Street. N left to fetch Simone before dessert while I sat and chatted with J & B.
We had just finished when Jean called that there was someone at the front door to discuss painting, and I let in the man with the estimate at the same moment as N and Simone came in the garden door. N took the painter into my study - the salon was all set up and rearranged with music stands and lamps ready for playing - while I welcomed Simone, showed her her room, and made coffee. (Jean had the Italian room, Simone the attic bedroom and Brigitte was in N’s study.)
They played various quartets - not only Brahms but Schubert and Dvorak too - all the rest of Monday afternoon and most of Tuesday. As last August - but much more peacefully! - I enjoyed cooking and preparing meals with my own private string quartet in the next room; it was amazing to come in from the outhouse or fetching the bread and there they all were, still playing! A couple of times I went in to sit down and listen properly - N specially wanted me to hear the Dvorak American Quartet - and this was an even greater pleasure, looking round at the room and the house while I listened; the sofa was pushed back against the French windows which gave quite a different aspect. Once or twice there was even some sunshine.
Tuesday - May 8 - was another jour de fête, to commemorate the ending of WW2, and like last year there were posters in the village advertising the ceremony at the War Memorial. I wanted to go as before, but wondered if the French guests would think it rather strange; in the event by the end of Tuesday morning they wanted a break and some fresh air, so we ended up going along, all five of us; first of all in the rain, then when it cleared under clouds and strong winds. We arrived well in time; the ceremony started late but began eventually, this time with the local volunteer firemen marching with banners, followed as before by a few anciens combattants and some stray gendarmes, some of them with medals.
Like last year, it was the same mixture of the moving and the comical (tinny recording of the Marseillaise; different shapes and sizes of firemen and women shuffling into position) but differently, the names of the dead on the War Memorial were all called out loud, about a dozen from each world war, each followed by the words « Mort pour la France », (Died for France) which I had heard of but never witnessed. We saw our deputy mayor lay the wreath, and the mayor - whom we had not seen before - thanked us all for coming, and asked everyone back to the Mairie for a glass of wine. We discussed this but decided not to go; we needed to have lunch and play more music, but N and I thought if we had been on our own it would have been the right thing to do; we could have met more people and showed them that les anglais thought it was an important event, and that we felt part of the village.
J, B and S enjoyed their stay very much - kindly said it was a five star establishment, and seemed to find it difficult to believe that it was as much pleasure for me, cooking for such appreciative guests and having all the music to listen to. N and I agreed it did us a lot of good to speak French for a couple of days; we had agreed to keep off politics as we suspected that all three guests were not entirely happy with the election result, but in the event, ended up discussing - and learning a lot about - the processes of French government and elections. For example, most people don’t vote at the Mairie as I had thought, but in schools and crèches; this seems to make sense as voting is always on a Sunday, so presumably the schools and crèches are unoccupied. Brigitte had been involved in sorting though family archives recently, and was interested when I told her about - and then showed her - my War Letters project. She liked the fact that we had both been working on the same period in history, although her family correspondence seemed far more wide-ranging.
I was particularly pleased with Tuesday dinner. I had finally managed to find some white candles (at the village shop) which fitted two silver candlesticks that came with the items from my mother’s house, and which matched the silver cutlery. We started with hard-boiled eggs and home-made mayonnaise, served à la Delia Smith with cornichons and black olives, a new and tasty combination. I then served fillets of trout (usually salmon but there wasn’t any, and this was even better) covered with pesto, pecorino cheese and breadcrumbs, also D Smith, followed by a dessert which I haven’t made for over 30 years, for which I have recently been trying to collect together the ingredients, and from time to time mislaying the recipe! It finally all came together though, raspberries, raspberry liqueur, Amaretti biscuits and cream, and more Amaretti biscuits to eat with it. N produced a particularly good white wine too, which accompanied the fish beautifully.
This morning the façade men were due at 9.00 but were late. Jean and Brigitte left about 9 by car; after many thanks for having looked after them so well; I insisted it had been a pleasure. I went with Simone to the bus stop to catch the regular 10.19 bus to L’Aigle to get her train back to Le Mans, while N waited for the men, whom I found busily spraying the front of the house with a high-powered water spray when I got back. They have also cleaned the front paths in the same way, and the paving stones are now their original colour - a pretty pinkish tone - instead of dirty grey. They wanted to continue tomorrow, but we are due to go to Paris in the afternoon, so they will come back on Monday morning to give the façade two coats of paint, (weather permitting) but need to repair a little piece of cement first so have the key to the wood shed to get that done while we are not here.
The rest of the day we have spent in being very quiet - I am beginning to think one of the best things about having guests is when they leave, although it has to be said that the water-spraying was very noisy too - the main event being the consummation for lunch of our very first home-grown artichoke.
May Day in France meant as usual a Jour de Fête, La Fête du Travail as well as La Fête du Muguet (lily of the valley) so that markets and florists were full of sprigs and plants, and pâtisseries were selling cakes decorated with real or plastic lily of the valley.
There is no lily of the valley in our garden, but the newly enlarged flower bed is looking marvellous, with red and white tulips, the original roses, lupins, transplanted irises and peonies and lots of little pansies and other small flowers. The cherry blossom has been over now for a week or so, but there are already lots of little green fruits which I see when I look up to hang washing on the line. Last year the apple blossom arrived as the cherry blossom finished; not so this year, there seems to be hardly any apple blossom at all, just lots of green leaves. We think this may be the kind of tree which has a large harvest every other year, which is fine by me as we still have lots of apples in the freezer and on the shelves in the outhouse. The red rhododendrons are just coming into flower, the new pink ones from last year are a little behind. The hydrangea foliage is wonderfully green, although no flowers yet as they are very sheltered, but there are one or two flowers on the oleanders. The roses are almost in flower, in fact the « hidden » bush between my study window and the road is a mass of buds, and today I have cut roses for indoors from it for the first time, two vases full, reddish yellow.
May Day also meant the Foire à Tout at La Ferrière sur Risle, very different from last year when we (and family guests) went in the pouring rain and cold. This year it was warm and sunny and consequently far more difficult to park, as there were so many extra visitors. We had to park so far down a road leading out of the village that the man in the next car said any further and we should be in Paris!
It always amazes me that there are the same kind of things on sale every time; for example at any given fair there are always at least two or three bedpans; and some animal cages, aquariums and pet beds, presumably complete with the ghosts of long-departed pets. There are also several books on slimming, whether the owners have been so successful they don’t need them any more, or have given up in despair, is not clear. Less interestingly, there are always lots of children’s clothes and toys, knickknacks from the 1970’s and coffee cups which appear to have come from cafés.
The La Ferrière sur Risle fair is a bit more varied however because of the monthly antique fairs there, so the usual junk was diluted amongst more unusual items, for example a large white cardboard box labelled Christian Dior de Paris, containing a voluminous white net wedding veil, fastened to a small headdress of white flowers, also labelled Christian Dior de Paris. I would like to know who bought it, if anyone. There was a Bible in eight volumes for 10 euros, and lot of interesting furniture, including a mirror which I thought might do instead of the one we saw at the antiques barn - at a much better price - but N thought it wasn’t big enough.
Since the last fair, and since he found a huge empty wine bottle abandoned at the bottle bank (it wouldn’t fit in the hole at the top) N has been collecting interesting old bottles for a display in one of the outhouses, and managed to find a couple more at La Ferrière sur Risle. He also bought two nineteenth-century framed fashion prints. I bought a little sign saying « Vestiaires » which I thought would do for the coat cupboard and a video of the film « Sense and Sensibility » part of which I saw on TV recently, but my best buy was a footstool. I have been looking at/for these for some time now, and admired one I saw on a BBC antiques programme; mounted on rockers with a slatted part on one side (for the feet) and an upholstered part one the other (for the calves). The one I found was just such a model; the upholstery is golden velvet, so blends in nicely with everything here, and it was 6 euros! It needed some dusting and cleaning and all the joints tightening, but is wonderfully comfortable. What is more, it means that the white plastic footstool has now gone out into the garden as an outdoor coffee table, something else I was looking for at the fair. (We had a nice little wooden one from IKEA, but had to keep bringing it in whenever it rained.)
Since then N has decided that the framed prints would make an admirable birthday present for his daughter, and that the mirror bought at the fair last week - the frame of which he has since gilded - is to be given to the other daughter. This gives him an excuse to buy things at fairs, without having to decide where to put them once they are home. It also means we can take them in the car with us in 3 week’s time, and not have to worry about buying something postable.
Over the last month or so lots of new film channels have been added to our satellite TV possibilities; films of all kinds, old, new, French, English, American, comedies, classics and so on. It means checking through hundreds of lists of films in small print in order not to miss anything, and so far I have seen « The Talented Mr Ripley » several weeks ago, and last week « Psycho » which I very bravely sat up late to watch on my own, and one afternoon this week « Maurice » from the novel by E M Forster. Each film seems to be shown a few times over a few days, which makes it easier not to miss. It certainly makes up for there being no cinema near here. Nothing else very interesting at the moment, but a few more towards the end of the month (when we will probably not be here!)
We have been enjoying the peace and quiet in the garden, and not having to go anywhere in particular. N is trying to practice Brahms ready for next week, and I have spent some time re-drafting my Will, using N’s as a model. It has taken him some months to sort out the best way of doing this, and managed at last to discuss it with a solicitor (someone at the same firm who acted for me with my house purchase) when we were both last in Paris. My own Will was something I was leaving until all the guests had gone, and I’m pleased to say it is now more or less finished, and we hope to see the solicitor again when we are next in Paris. The other thing I am pleased to have finished and out of the way is my tax return - not very complicated, but the first time I have done it on my own, as last year the lady at the tax office in Verneuil filled it in for me. N has not received his yet; Saint-Denis must take longer then LNL.
I have also managed to do two lots of exercise DVDs, including the new one, and am enjoying smaller and simpler meals, especially getting back to my usual pre-guest breakfasts (grapefruit, yoghurt and a small piece of toast) instead of croissants, although they are nice occasionally. Today we have both been to the hairdresser, so are both nice and tidy. My usual stylist was not there, so I was cut by the younger woman who usually deals with N; we had a nice talk about gardens and cats.
Saturday 5 May 2007
Yesterday was my birthday, so we had decided on a day out to Caen, somewhere we’ve not been to since arriving in Normandy, and, like Rouen, easy to get to by train from Bernay. The weather was a shock; cold and cloudy with temperatures a lot lower than Thursday, when I was sitting in the garden in a sleeveless T-shirt, thinking it was so hot I should have to go in. Yesterday I had decided to wear my new suit, but had to wear a raincoat over the top and was still cold, wishing I had socks on. It didn’t actually rain all day, but rather coloured our impression of Caen.
We hadn’t been able to get a street plan of the city, either before we left or at the station - an uninspiring modern building presumably built after the bombing of WW2 - but on coming out found a tram stop and took one to a stop marked City Centre and Tourist Office. Unlike at Rouen, it was quite a distance. We then found a very old church called Saint Pierre, both of us surprised as we knew there was very little of the old Caen left, and further surprised when we went in as it was actually warmer than outside! (Usually, especially in Italy, it is a relief to get out of the heat into a cool church.)
We found the excellent Tourist Office, and spent some time there; not only was it warm but there was a lot to look at, and we got a street plan and I found some nice postcards, and an interesting free English-language magazine for people living in Normandy. (I thought perhaps we should tell them about the Lexique. We need to get some handbills made.) The most interesting thing to see seemed to be the Château, so we made our way there, up a very grassy, very cold and windy hill.
It was William the Conqueror’s castle; he seemed by far to be the most notable figure in Caen, but as far as I was concerned the best thing was the Musée de Normandie, lots of Gallic and Roman things to see, maps and layouts, and quite a few 19th century things - pottery, costumes, farm implements, not surprisingly lots of things for cider-making and dairy equipment, but not much from the centuries in between! In fact N asked why there were no medieval exhibits, and was told that they preferred to have real relics to models or pictures, which presumably meant they didn‘t have any. They did have good postcards however, and much cheaper than at the Tourist Office.
After this we wandered down a nearby main street full of little shops, but remarkably few restaurants. I nipped into a branch of Sephora while N looked in another church and we finally decided on a modest little restaurant (mainly in order to get warm) where I had an tasty open Greek sandwich and N had fish. Not the most memorable of birthday meals!
The two things N remembered from his previous visit to Caen were the Abbaye aux Femmes (for nuns) and the Abbaye aux Hommes (for monks) both high monuments, still visible high above the more modern buildings. After lunch we set off for the Abbaye aux Hommes; the original building had been added to in the 18th century and part is now used as municipal offices. We saw guided tours advertised and on enquiring found they took an hour and half, which is rather long if you’re only there for the day, so declined but were told we could visit the chapel to see the tomb of William the Conqueror, which we did, and were very pleased to have seen it.
On coming out we found ourselves in front of little shopping centre, which looked attractively warm; so went in and N spent a long time looking in FNAC and I looked mainly in card shops, but also at Maisons du Monde. After that it seemed to be time to make for home, so we found the return tram to the railway station (the woman in the next seat had a cat in a travelling basket and was busy telling all the passengers how it had jumped out of a fourth floor window and broken its front paw, and this was the third day running they had been on the bus to the vet …….) At the station we had to wait 45 minutes for the next train, so had tea outside a café opposite; outside rather than inside as N found it too smoky. By the time the train arrived we were very cold indeed.
Once back at Bernay station it was still quite early, so we called in at the supermarket to buy some birthday dinner and special offer champagne (I had imagined we would be back quite late having had a large lunch, so hadn’t planned anything.) We also went to the garden centre as N wanted to replace two more currant bushes, and I said I would get a new watering can - as a sort of birthday present from me to us both; the one I brought from Cambridge having finally died, in spite of N’s clever repairs. We wanted to do the garden centre shopping on Friday rather than having to make a special trip today, as there was food shopping to be done at Champion this morning (much nearer) for the musical guests due on Monday and N is still trying to find time to practise Brahms. When we got back to the house in the evening it was so cold we switched on the heating again.
Wednesday 9 May 2007
Sunday was the second round of the presidential election; the excitement mounted all day (although not much to be seen in our village) and the TV coverage got more and more dramatic - although very professional - until the result was announced at 8.00; the next president of France will be Nicolas Sarkozy, not really a great surprise.
For the string quartets visit, Jean and Brigitte were coming from Paris by car in time for lunch on Monday, and N was due to pick up Simone from L’Aigle station at about 2.00, so we hoped J & B would arrive reasonably early, in time for N to have some lunch. In the morning I went along to the market to get strawberries, raspberries and cheese, and found myself looking a large poster advertising painting, re-roofing and re-surfacing of façades; the last word caught my eye as not only did we never have a response from the original « façade man » but had heard nothing from Monsieur A on the subject either, and were beginning to think we would never be able to get it done. The man took my name and door number, and said he would be in touch; I couldn’t help thinking it was not well timed, with N being busy with musicians.
But he turned up not long after with a colleague; fortunately before any music began - and after they had both discussed things with N said he would be back later with an estimate. Meanwhile I continued preparing salade niçoise and apple cake, and wishing lunch could be in garden as with the last guests, but it was far too cold, grey and windy. J & B arrived at about 12.45, so we had lunch straight away, in the dining room as we were only four, giving me the chance to use a tablecloth and napkins that hadn’t seen the light of day since Ainsworth Street. N left to fetch Simone before dessert while I sat and chatted with J & B.
We had just finished when Jean called that there was someone at the front door to discuss painting, and I let in the man with the estimate at the same moment as N and Simone came in the garden door. N took the painter into my study - the salon was all set up and rearranged with music stands and lamps ready for playing - while I welcomed Simone, showed her her room, and made coffee. (Jean had the Italian room, Simone the attic bedroom and Brigitte was in N’s study.)
They played various quartets - not only Brahms but Schubert and Dvorak too - all the rest of Monday afternoon and most of Tuesday. As last August - but much more peacefully! - I enjoyed cooking and preparing meals with my own private string quartet in the next room; it was amazing to come in from the outhouse or fetching the bread and there they all were, still playing! A couple of times I went in to sit down and listen properly - N specially wanted me to hear the Dvorak American Quartet - and this was an even greater pleasure, looking round at the room and the house while I listened; the sofa was pushed back against the French windows which gave quite a different aspect. Once or twice there was even some sunshine.
Tuesday - May 8 - was another jour de fête, to commemorate the ending of WW2, and like last year there were posters in the village advertising the ceremony at the War Memorial. I wanted to go as before, but wondered if the French guests would think it rather strange; in the event by the end of Tuesday morning they wanted a break and some fresh air, so we ended up going along, all five of us; first of all in the rain, then when it cleared under clouds and strong winds. We arrived well in time; the ceremony started late but began eventually, this time with the local volunteer firemen marching with banners, followed as before by a few anciens combattants and some stray gendarmes, some of them with medals.
Like last year, it was the same mixture of the moving and the comical (tinny recording of the Marseillaise; different shapes and sizes of firemen and women shuffling into position) but differently, the names of the dead on the War Memorial were all called out loud, about a dozen from each world war, each followed by the words « Mort pour la France », (Died for France) which I had heard of but never witnessed. We saw our deputy mayor lay the wreath, and the mayor - whom we had not seen before - thanked us all for coming, and asked everyone back to the Mairie for a glass of wine. We discussed this but decided not to go; we needed to have lunch and play more music, but N and I thought if we had been on our own it would have been the right thing to do; we could have met more people and showed them that les anglais thought it was an important event, and that we felt part of the village.
J, B and S enjoyed their stay very much - kindly said it was a five star establishment, and seemed to find it difficult to believe that it was as much pleasure for me, cooking for such appreciative guests and having all the music to listen to. N and I agreed it did us a lot of good to speak French for a couple of days; we had agreed to keep off politics as we suspected that all three guests were not entirely happy with the election result, but in the event, ended up discussing - and learning a lot about - the processes of French government and elections. For example, most people don’t vote at the Mairie as I had thought, but in schools and crèches; this seems to make sense as voting is always on a Sunday, so presumably the schools and crèches are unoccupied. Brigitte had been involved in sorting though family archives recently, and was interested when I told her about - and then showed her - my War Letters project. She liked the fact that we had both been working on the same period in history, although her family correspondence seemed far more wide-ranging.
I was particularly pleased with Tuesday dinner. I had finally managed to find some white candles (at the village shop) which fitted two silver candlesticks that came with the items from my mother’s house, and which matched the silver cutlery. We started with hard-boiled eggs and home-made mayonnaise, served à la Delia Smith with cornichons and black olives, a new and tasty combination. I then served fillets of trout (usually salmon but there wasn’t any, and this was even better) covered with pesto, pecorino cheese and breadcrumbs, also D Smith, followed by a dessert which I haven’t made for over 30 years, for which I have recently been trying to collect together the ingredients, and from time to time mislaying the recipe! It finally all came together though, raspberries, raspberry liqueur, Amaretti biscuits and cream, and more Amaretti biscuits to eat with it. N produced a particularly good white wine too, which accompanied the fish beautifully.
This morning the façade men were due at 9.00 but were late. Jean and Brigitte left about 9 by car; after many thanks for having looked after them so well; I insisted it had been a pleasure. I went with Simone to the bus stop to catch the regular 10.19 bus to L’Aigle to get her train back to Le Mans, while N waited for the men, whom I found busily spraying the front of the house with a high-powered water spray when I got back. They have also cleaned the front paths in the same way, and the paving stones are now their original colour - a pretty pinkish tone - instead of dirty grey. They wanted to continue tomorrow, but we are due to go to Paris in the afternoon, so they will come back on Monday morning to give the façade two coats of paint, (weather permitting) but need to repair a little piece of cement first so have the key to the wood shed to get that done while we are not here.
The rest of the day we have spent in being very quiet - I am beginning to think one of the best things about having guests is when they leave, although it has to be said that the water-spraying was very noisy too - the main event being the consummation for lunch of our very first home-grown artichoke.
