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.
# posted by Chez Katherine @ 3:36 AM 
