Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Friday 13 July 2007
Yesterday morning I met Marie-Antoinette for the first time in a long time and we chatted about the weather (what else?) She is going on holiday to the Vendée area with family as last year, and didn’t expect it to be much better there. I mentioned our newly painted façades, which she said she had noticed, along with our cleaner roofs, and she talked about her proposed new floor - we had seen (from our front bedroom window!) that the room is clear of furniture and the floor covered with plastic sheeting; it has been like this for some time. She said the man doing the work has had to stop for an eye operation, the work was started in June, and that you didn’t expect that sort of thing!
I am pleased to report however, that after confirmation in last night’s weather forecast, summer weather has duly arrived today as promised. We could feel that it was getting warmer yesterday evening, even when it was cloudy and/or dark. Today is sunny and warm (26 degrees in the garden) with blue skies and odd bits of cloud and breeze, and is due to stay like this until Sunday night when thunderstorms are promised. We managed to remember how to live like this (although only just!) and have the verandah doors open; I breakfasted in the garden after having done my exercise DVD, N finished all the weeding and half of the grass cutting (he has had to stop because the mower ran out of petrol) we had lunch at the big garden table and sat having coffee in our Italian chairs, where it was very pleasant, and not too hot. I am back in my summer « uniform » of t-shirt vest and cropped trousers.
Sunday July 15 2007
The warm summer weather continues, apart from a little cloud yesterday morning. Both yesterday and today we have visited foires à tout (bric-à-brac fairs); there were a lot to choose from as this is the main weekend of the summer season.
Yesterday morning we set off towards La Barre-en-Ouche, mainly to get more petrol for the lawn mower, but I went to get bread and we also visited a small fair there; I was pleased that we had actually walked around the village, as so often we drive straight through it without stopping on our way to Bernay.
There was the usual mixture of old clothes and toys, tools, wash basins, bedpans, phones, pet cages, china of varying quality, books, magazines and antiques. N found another framed 19th century fashion print, and a very useful tourist Guide to Brittany (just in time for next week!) and I got a lovely blue and white round tablecloth. I was particularly pleased as I had considered buying another round cloth for the verandah table as we are eating in there so much now (or were before the weather improved) but the tablecloth stall hasn’t been at L’Aigle market for the last two weeks. No doubt they thought no-one needed garden tablecloths at the moment.
Anyway, the blue cloth has a circular pattern of elephants on it in an Indian-looking design, and once home I read on the label that it was in fact made in India. It is cotton and very large and cost me four euros (as opposed to a synthetic market one for about ten.) The lady selling it said what it needed was some nice plain blue serviettes; I said I didn’t have any of those but I did have plain white china and we agreed that would be perfect.
We then went on to a much larger fair at Beaumont-le-Roger; not up in the high town like the last one there, but down in the town centre. This involved parking some way out, and then walking back and all round many, many streets full of stalls and merchandise of varying standards. We were still looking for a tall vase ready for the gladioli which are almost in flower in the garden, and found a nice plain blue glass one, the shape of an ice cream cone on a flat base. The seller assured us it was a gladioli vase; but whether it is or not, it only cost five euros, and will do the job marvellously. It is currently on the sideboard full of tall pink hydrangeas.
At another stall I came across a seller and a customer arguing over the price of a five-branched silver(?) candelabra, another thing I had been looking for, as my small candlesticks from Cambridge look rather lost on the large Italian dining table. The price had got down to 8 euros, which the customer declined and walked away; so I said I would give 8 for it and the seller said how about 10, as it had started at 20. I happily paid 10, and carried it away with some difficulty; it was heavy and an awkward shape. Once home I got rid of the remains of a lot of brightly coloured candle grease and polished it with silver polish, which removed most of the tarnish. I then put five plain white candles in it and stood it in the middle of the dining room table, where it looks very good indeed.
Meanwhile N had bought a set of five German wine glasses, with green stems and wide glass bases, not that we need any more glasses, but he said he had always wanted some like these. They have since been washed and found a nice place in the glass-fronted sideboard.
Apart from washing and polishing what N referred to as our « swag » we spent the rest of the day sitting in the garden, after he had finished mowing the lawns; quickly getting back into our old summer habits, and in the evening watching the televised highlights of the military parade down the Champs Elysées in Paris that morning, and President Sarkozy’s walkabout. Today, after breakfasting in the garden, we set off (reasonably) early again, this time to L’Aigle, where the fair was all over the town like the market, and included braderie, like the fair at Bernay; shopkeepers joining in and putting inexpensive ends of ranges out on the pavement in front of their shops. I actually bought one of these - a long-sleeved olive green Esprit T-shirt for 8 euros. I also saw my friend the curtain lady and her husband in front of their shop with lots of rolls of net curtaining. (When I said to N that they reminded me of Fanny & Johnny Craddock, he said he saw what I meant.)
N managed to find two over-sized bottles for his bottle collection; a very elegant Lanson champagne bottle, which he found early on and took back to the car, and then a large Ricard bottle which he carried round with him, much to the amusement of several passers-by, who kept asking whether it was full. There were a lot more antique and bric-à-brac stalls with more interesting things to look at than at Beaumont, all of which took some time but was very entertaining, and I also bought a tiny shelf unit and a glass preserving jar on which was written « conserves maison. » Towards the end we found our best acquisition for only 3 euros; a large very decorative pink and white Italian pottery jar which had previously contained preserved cherries. N has hopes of filling it with more of our own cherries, but first of all it will need a large wooden or cork lid. It too has been washed and looks much better; although it has yet to be found a home on the sideboard.
Monday 16 July 2007
The three-day « summer » is now over, for the time being at least, and as promised there have been thunderstorms and torrential rain today; at least I got some washing dry first. We had lunch in the verandah during the heaviest rain and it was falling so loudly on the roof we could hardly hear ourselves speak. At the moment we are still planning to leave for Bayeux and the Mont St Michel tomorrow morning, and then perhaps a little further along the northern coast.
Saturday 21 July 2007
We set off for Brittany - via north Normandy - on Tuesday morning, and after a windy but enjoyable picnic lunch at a motorway service station arrived at Bayeux about 2.00. It was a pretty old town with the Tapestry housed in an old seminary, (N remembered seeing it in a smaller building some years ago.) It was all very well set out and we saw a little film about it first; there were alternate showings in English and French; far more customers for the English version! The Tapestry itself was displayed in a very long dark room, and we listened to the well-described commentary through audio guides. It was full of detail and colour, only looking rather faded at either end, which was to be expected. I especially liked the embroidered detail of the horses’ gentalia! and the fact that the soldiers took their leggings off to wade ashore from their boats.
After a visit to the Shop, where we bought postcards and a useful genealogical table showing links by marriage of French and English kings and queens, we looked at the shops in the streets of Bayeux. We decided it was too far to go on to the Mont Saint Michel that day, so headed for Avranches, the nearest large town. At another motorway services en route we stopped and picked up a leaflet on hotels which was very helpful, and found a very good hotel by the Jardin des Plantes in Avranches.
After checking in there was time for a walk before dinner, first to the Jardin des Plantes, where from a viewing platform we saw the Mont Saint Michel 20 kms away in the distance. There were more hydrangeas in the garden and in the whole of Avranches than I have ever seen before - not just the pink ones we see all over Normandy (and in our own garden!) but bright blue, almost mauve, pale pink and several varieties of white.
We then explored a very large church on the other side of square opposite our hotel, and went down into the town. There were lots of little streets and shops, and N was pleased when he saw and remembered the Scriptorial - a museum in the old castle housing ancient manuscripts from the Abbey at the Mont Saint Michel. Not surprisingly it was by then closing time, so we noted that it opened at 10.00 next morning. We bought a copy of Le Figaro and read it while drinking apéritifs in the sunshine at large pavement café, a lovely thing to do when you‘re away from home and not getting dinner ready in the kitchen!
We dined in the excellent hotel restaurant, a meal memorable for its excellent local cheeses, and whole bottle of very good Chinon wine. This resulted in a very good night’s sleep; a good thing it wasn‘t far to go upstairs.
First thing next morning after breakfast and leaving the hotel, we drove to the Scriptorial, and waited for it to open at 10.00. While waiting I found a local camera shop and bought yet more camera batteries (the camera handbook says different brands vary; so I tried to get the sort that came with the camera, but was assured those I bought are just as good.)
N found the Scriptorial a little disappointing; there were only a very few manuscripts on display, at the end in a very dark room. As for those of us who are not medievalists, I thought it was well laid out and well explained; there were several rooms full of a good lead-up showing how before any manuscripts could be written, both parchment and ink had to be manufactured by the monks, and there was a lot of detailed explanation as to how this was done. The visit was a little spoiled by a rather noisy school party which we kept trying to avoid. There was also an exhibition of work by Dali in the Scriptorial, very well advertised throughout the whole town; which we found moderately interesting. At the end there was a museum shop where N bought a guide to the manuscripts and I got him a biro disguised as a quill pen. These were in a variety of lurid colours, but I chose white as it looked the most realistic.
At about 11.00 we set off for the Mont Saint Michel which was not far, and just as the day before we kept getting tantalizing glimpses of it every so often in the distance, sometimes dark in the shadow and at other times clear and bright. The road leading up to it was full of campsites, little hotels and posters for local produce - cider, calvados, Breton cookies - and lots of people all travelling in the same direction by car, camper van, bus, bicycle and on foot like twenty-first century pilgrims, which I suppose we were, in a sense. I had read somewhere recently that the Mont Saint Michel is the most visited place in France; it certainly looked like it.
There were huge car parks on the shore, at least half of them full of camper vans and caravans. I had prepared by wearing jeans and flat shoes, and took my raincoat to wear on top of my jacket, expecting it to be cold and windy, but in fact it was quite sunny and warm! In the end it was too hot, and we both carried our raincoats round with us for the whole visit.
When we arrived at the Mount itself, there were suddenly crowded narrow streets mostly full of tourist shops, more like things I had visited in Italy rather than anywhere else, and I was certain that the only place I have ever queued for so long behind so many people was at the Vatican Museums in Rome. There was a wide variety of nationalities too; quite a novelty after having been in La Neuve-Lyre for several weeks. After walking up many steep paths behind hundreds of people we found ourselves at the end of a queue to enter the Abbey itself right at the top; we must have spent at least 20 minutes waiting and slowly shuffling forward but once in it was all worth it.
It was very large and we certainly got our money’s worth. It was difficult to understand just how it had been built - starting in the 8th century with parts added later - so high and so steep in the middle of the sea. There was a Mass going on in the chapel, and many other rooms of all sizes and functions, and gardens; I wondered how many of the trees and plants had been purposefully taken there across the sea, and how many had blown in and planted themselves.
Eventually we came out on to one of the crowded streets once again, and looked for somewhere to have (a rather late) lunch. The restaurant was crowded too, and we were squashed in between and English family and a Spanish couple, but it was good to sit down at last and there was a splendid view of the damp sands and the sea behind the Mount. N ate mussels and a Breton omelette; I chose giant prawns which were served with a rather odd combination of rice, carrots and pineapple, and we drank a bottle of local cider.
After a few purchases in some of the tourist shops, we started the long walk back to the car, not really completely sure where it was, and N somehow managed to trip over a low rope and fall dramatically flat on his face on the gravel; fortunately no harm was done except a graze to his chin and a few bruises, but he did seem to cover an awful lot of ground while flat. The car park was by now very full of coaches, and it took some time to get out and retrace our journey along past the hotels and campsites and stalls selling cider, cookies etc.
We drove west along the north coast, and sometimes a little inland; the place names became more Breton and the houses grey and slate-like. There were many sheds selling mussels, and also carrots, cauliflower and other vegetables. We passed St Malo, where I had been many years ago, the sea walls looked familiar, and headed for Dinard which I had thought looked interesting - it was, but by that time it was raining hard, and there was nowhere to park. The streets were full of holiday-makers sheltering under their beach towels, but there was nowhere to stop and have a drink, so we left and set off in the direction of Dinan, which N knew as a medieval town.
Here it was not raining, and we found a very good hotel in the main square, where there were notices forbidding car parking on Wednesday evenings as the market took place in the square from 6.00 am Thursday mornings. After checking in N was allotted a hotel car space, and we set off to explore the town. There were even more tourist shops than at the Mont Saint Michel, all selling Breton name bowls, blue & white striped t-shirts, cookies, painted china from Quimper and all kinds of pictures and calendars of the Mont Saint Michel. We also found two or three churches, including one with the buried heart of Bertrand du Guesclin, a fourteenth-century hero of N’s, a lovely English garden, a theatre and several convents. It began to rain again, and we had rather wet apéritifs in front of a café, before looking for somewhere for dinner, as our hotel did not have a restaurant.
We ended up in a small but typically Breton créperie, where N had both kinds of pancakes, the savoury galette followed by the sweet crêpe; I could only manage the first. Once again we drank cider, this time in the traditional pottery bowls, and went back to the hotel for an early night after all our walking.
The next morning after a very good and varied breakfast we explored the hotel garden at the back, which went right up to the edge of the ramparts. (More hydrangeas.) N asked one of the hotel staff if she had heard any weather forecast; she told us it should be a warm and sunny day, with a possibly of more rain later.
It was very warm as we left the hotel and immediately came across the market, which overflowed the square and which we explored in detail. Parts of it reminded me of the market at L’Aigle and others of Saint-Denis, but a lot was very local, not only Breton t-shirts but cheeses, honey, sausages, cider, plants and a lot of organic vegetables. I bought honey, a little lined basket for potatoes (every time I bring in potatoes from the garden our other baskets leak earth onto the kitchen table) Rooibos tea and a string of chunky wooden beads on elastic. We went back to some of the tourist shops we had seen the night before - quite different in the sunshine - and N bought a large tin of Breton cookies in a Quimper tin, and I got a set of pottery cider bowls. We had an early lunch outside a café in a small square in the very warm sunshine before starting off home again, having decided not to go deeper into Brittany because of the possibility of rain. In fact the whole of the rest of the day was very sunny and warm!
It was a fairly long way back to La Neuve-Lyre from Dinan, but we made two stops; the first at an Italian-style medieval mountain village called Domfront where we had tea in a village café (avoiding the English bookshop serving cream teas) and strolled around the tourist shops - by now more Norman than Breton - and then a longer stop at Argentan.
This was a town we had read about and thought perhaps of visiting, with a wide flower-lined main street in which we managed to park. I also managed to buy some nail polish; quite a feat for someone who hadn’t been out of La Neuve-Lyre for more than a month, at a branch of Marionnaud, one of a chain of older-established cosmetic shops which I always think must be suffering since the arrival of Yves Rocher and Sephora. Here too we had an apéritif in the sunshine (25 degrees by that time) while reading Le Figaro, definitely a habit to be encouraged. We arrived home in time for a not-too-late supper; N requested home-made soup from the freezer. We found several scarlet and yellow gladioli in bloom, and lots of post in our box.
Tuesday 24 July 2007
The promised rain arrived on the night of Thursday/Friday; very loud and heavy apparently although we did not hear it. In the morning however, there was a large dirty puddle on the verandah floor which seemed to have leaked from the disused chimney going horizontally across the ceiling.
We decided Monsieur A must be summoned; I did not feel inclined to phone him as he always answers his phone very busy in the middle of a building site, and I thought it ought to be put in writing as N said we should remind him about the maintenance contract for the new heating system. In the end N drafted and printed a letter and I cycled up to Monsieur A’s « office » with it so that he would get it before the weekend. Before I left I put the dirty rag from the verandah in the washing machine with the rest of the laundry we had brought home from our few days away.
Luckily Monsieur A was there, just as he had been the very first time we got in touch with him, talking on the phone and looking as though he had just got out of bed. I gave him the letter, and explained as best I could, he seemed rather amused that we always put things in writing; I said that way he would have it to refer to. He asked how much flooding there was, and said could it wait till Monday morning; I got the impression he had other more urgent rain-induced flooding to deal with. He said he would send his « couvreur » (roofer) Jean-Claude. I cycled off and did the rest of my shopping - not nearly as easy as on foot - and went back home.
When I opened the washing machine I discovered everything was a horrible dirty shade of yellow; the dirty « water » from the disused verandah chimney was in fact rain mixed with heating oil. I went back to the village shop to get a product for removing dye, but this had no effect, and by the end of the morning I had to resign myself to an awful lot of new candidates for the rag bag. A few old things were not much loss, and the round synthetic tablecloth hadn’t absorbed any colour; two of N’s shirts in the load were yellow anyway, so are now just a little darker. The worst things were several white t-shirts of mine, including a new one only worn once, and my new cream jacket just bought from L’Aigle market; the latter wasn’t as stained as it might have been as it is only partly cotton - I shall iron it and see whether or not it looks fashionably patchy.
I spent the afternoon doing things I had planned for the morning -all taken up with my cycle ride and the washing and re-washing - unpacking and putting way all our new Breton purchases, and cutting the first gladioli and putting them in their special vase, and cutting flowers for other vases.
On Saturday afternoon we went to Bernay, with a variety of tasks in mind. Apart from supermarket shopping at Intermarché (we seemed to have run out of everything) we went to Monsieur Bricolage as N thought he had seen decorative lampshades there to match an Italian one that got broken; we needed to go along with the one we still had to match it, which it did very well. We also need to get more gas canisters; N wanted more bird food from Vive le Jardin! (but they had run out) and I wanted to investigate a cheap clothes shop called Vêti on the same site as the supermarket, to see if I could possibly replace my jacket.
Some of the clothes at Vêti were very cheap; a woman in front of me was paying a total of 4 euros for three items. I tried on all the jackets I found and came way with a lovely light brown one, with appliquéd flowers and embroidery in the same colour. Not that cheap, but at least sale price.
On Sunday morning we went to a « marché aux puces » (one up from a « foire à tout », I think) at Verneuil-sur-Avre, where we hadn’t been for some time. N thought it was the biggest fair we had been to, and it was certainly one of the most interesting; it took a lot of viewing, and as always just looking at things is sometimes as entertaining as actually buying them.
N found another large bottle for his collection - an art deco-style decorated champagne bottle (dated 1971), a half-size violin which « needs seeing to », several framed prints and an album full of British stamps, mostly Queen Victoria and George V. There were also some postcards in it which entertained us when we looked at them after lunch. One was from someone in Ceylon in 1937 asking if he could possibly be sent pictures of nude women, and another sent from Oxford to France in 1940 asked the addressee to come home « before it got too late » and described in detail a whole host of nasty symptoms from which the writer was suffering.
I spent far less money than N and bought a couple more antique glass jam-pots similar to those I bought before, a small white jug (I know I have a lot of white jugs but this was a particularly French café design), an elegant glass sugar sifter with a silver top, and, most useful of all, a shallow basket with a big handle for one euro just the right shape for collecting cut flowers and herbs from the garden. It is covered with patchy white paint, but, as N says, when there is a nice hot day, I can repaint it.
Sunday afternoon and almost all day Monday I spent dealing with two very large marrows; peeling and chopping them into small pieces, then making more Marrow & Ginger Jam, Marrow Chutney for the first time, and freezing the rest.
The weather is till not really settled - it is difficult to believe the warm sunshine we had in Brittany and on our way home - and N is waiting for a row of warm days to lift the potatoes and to plant more leeks, lettuces and beans he bought at Vive Le Jardin! at the weekend. He has made a wonderful broad bean soup; an English vegetable tasting very Italian because of the sage and thyme in it, and today has frozen lots of yellow beans. I used the first of some lovely leeks in a leek & mushroom tart; like the spinach tart made earlier, a lot of work but very delicious.
Both yesterday morning and today we have waited in vain for Monsieur A’s roofer to turn up; yesterday it poured with rain all day so we weren’t surprised - perhaps today he is seeing to urgent damage done yesterday? I feel another phone call to Monsieur A will soon be necessary.
Yesterday morning I met Marie-Antoinette for the first time in a long time and we chatted about the weather (what else?) She is going on holiday to the Vendée area with family as last year, and didn’t expect it to be much better there. I mentioned our newly painted façades, which she said she had noticed, along with our cleaner roofs, and she talked about her proposed new floor - we had seen (from our front bedroom window!) that the room is clear of furniture and the floor covered with plastic sheeting; it has been like this for some time. She said the man doing the work has had to stop for an eye operation, the work was started in June, and that you didn’t expect that sort of thing!
I am pleased to report however, that after confirmation in last night’s weather forecast, summer weather has duly arrived today as promised. We could feel that it was getting warmer yesterday evening, even when it was cloudy and/or dark. Today is sunny and warm (26 degrees in the garden) with blue skies and odd bits of cloud and breeze, and is due to stay like this until Sunday night when thunderstorms are promised. We managed to remember how to live like this (although only just!) and have the verandah doors open; I breakfasted in the garden after having done my exercise DVD, N finished all the weeding and half of the grass cutting (he has had to stop because the mower ran out of petrol) we had lunch at the big garden table and sat having coffee in our Italian chairs, where it was very pleasant, and not too hot. I am back in my summer « uniform » of t-shirt vest and cropped trousers.
Sunday July 15 2007
The warm summer weather continues, apart from a little cloud yesterday morning. Both yesterday and today we have visited foires à tout (bric-à-brac fairs); there were a lot to choose from as this is the main weekend of the summer season.
Yesterday morning we set off towards La Barre-en-Ouche, mainly to get more petrol for the lawn mower, but I went to get bread and we also visited a small fair there; I was pleased that we had actually walked around the village, as so often we drive straight through it without stopping on our way to Bernay.
There was the usual mixture of old clothes and toys, tools, wash basins, bedpans, phones, pet cages, china of varying quality, books, magazines and antiques. N found another framed 19th century fashion print, and a very useful tourist Guide to Brittany (just in time for next week!) and I got a lovely blue and white round tablecloth. I was particularly pleased as I had considered buying another round cloth for the verandah table as we are eating in there so much now (or were before the weather improved) but the tablecloth stall hasn’t been at L’Aigle market for the last two weeks. No doubt they thought no-one needed garden tablecloths at the moment.
Anyway, the blue cloth has a circular pattern of elephants on it in an Indian-looking design, and once home I read on the label that it was in fact made in India. It is cotton and very large and cost me four euros (as opposed to a synthetic market one for about ten.) The lady selling it said what it needed was some nice plain blue serviettes; I said I didn’t have any of those but I did have plain white china and we agreed that would be perfect.
We then went on to a much larger fair at Beaumont-le-Roger; not up in the high town like the last one there, but down in the town centre. This involved parking some way out, and then walking back and all round many, many streets full of stalls and merchandise of varying standards. We were still looking for a tall vase ready for the gladioli which are almost in flower in the garden, and found a nice plain blue glass one, the shape of an ice cream cone on a flat base. The seller assured us it was a gladioli vase; but whether it is or not, it only cost five euros, and will do the job marvellously. It is currently on the sideboard full of tall pink hydrangeas.
At another stall I came across a seller and a customer arguing over the price of a five-branched silver(?) candelabra, another thing I had been looking for, as my small candlesticks from Cambridge look rather lost on the large Italian dining table. The price had got down to 8 euros, which the customer declined and walked away; so I said I would give 8 for it and the seller said how about 10, as it had started at 20. I happily paid 10, and carried it away with some difficulty; it was heavy and an awkward shape. Once home I got rid of the remains of a lot of brightly coloured candle grease and polished it with silver polish, which removed most of the tarnish. I then put five plain white candles in it and stood it in the middle of the dining room table, where it looks very good indeed.
Meanwhile N had bought a set of five German wine glasses, with green stems and wide glass bases, not that we need any more glasses, but he said he had always wanted some like these. They have since been washed and found a nice place in the glass-fronted sideboard.
Apart from washing and polishing what N referred to as our « swag » we spent the rest of the day sitting in the garden, after he had finished mowing the lawns; quickly getting back into our old summer habits, and in the evening watching the televised highlights of the military parade down the Champs Elysées in Paris that morning, and President Sarkozy’s walkabout. Today, after breakfasting in the garden, we set off (reasonably) early again, this time to L’Aigle, where the fair was all over the town like the market, and included braderie, like the fair at Bernay; shopkeepers joining in and putting inexpensive ends of ranges out on the pavement in front of their shops. I actually bought one of these - a long-sleeved olive green Esprit T-shirt for 8 euros. I also saw my friend the curtain lady and her husband in front of their shop with lots of rolls of net curtaining. (When I said to N that they reminded me of Fanny & Johnny Craddock, he said he saw what I meant.)
N managed to find two over-sized bottles for his bottle collection; a very elegant Lanson champagne bottle, which he found early on and took back to the car, and then a large Ricard bottle which he carried round with him, much to the amusement of several passers-by, who kept asking whether it was full. There were a lot more antique and bric-à-brac stalls with more interesting things to look at than at Beaumont, all of which took some time but was very entertaining, and I also bought a tiny shelf unit and a glass preserving jar on which was written « conserves maison. » Towards the end we found our best acquisition for only 3 euros; a large very decorative pink and white Italian pottery jar which had previously contained preserved cherries. N has hopes of filling it with more of our own cherries, but first of all it will need a large wooden or cork lid. It too has been washed and looks much better; although it has yet to be found a home on the sideboard.
Monday 16 July 2007
The three-day « summer » is now over, for the time being at least, and as promised there have been thunderstorms and torrential rain today; at least I got some washing dry first. We had lunch in the verandah during the heaviest rain and it was falling so loudly on the roof we could hardly hear ourselves speak. At the moment we are still planning to leave for Bayeux and the Mont St Michel tomorrow morning, and then perhaps a little further along the northern coast.
Saturday 21 July 2007
We set off for Brittany - via north Normandy - on Tuesday morning, and after a windy but enjoyable picnic lunch at a motorway service station arrived at Bayeux about 2.00. It was a pretty old town with the Tapestry housed in an old seminary, (N remembered seeing it in a smaller building some years ago.) It was all very well set out and we saw a little film about it first; there were alternate showings in English and French; far more customers for the English version! The Tapestry itself was displayed in a very long dark room, and we listened to the well-described commentary through audio guides. It was full of detail and colour, only looking rather faded at either end, which was to be expected. I especially liked the embroidered detail of the horses’ gentalia! and the fact that the soldiers took their leggings off to wade ashore from their boats.
After a visit to the Shop, where we bought postcards and a useful genealogical table showing links by marriage of French and English kings and queens, we looked at the shops in the streets of Bayeux. We decided it was too far to go on to the Mont Saint Michel that day, so headed for Avranches, the nearest large town. At another motorway services en route we stopped and picked up a leaflet on hotels which was very helpful, and found a very good hotel by the Jardin des Plantes in Avranches.
After checking in there was time for a walk before dinner, first to the Jardin des Plantes, where from a viewing platform we saw the Mont Saint Michel 20 kms away in the distance. There were more hydrangeas in the garden and in the whole of Avranches than I have ever seen before - not just the pink ones we see all over Normandy (and in our own garden!) but bright blue, almost mauve, pale pink and several varieties of white.
We then explored a very large church on the other side of square opposite our hotel, and went down into the town. There were lots of little streets and shops, and N was pleased when he saw and remembered the Scriptorial - a museum in the old castle housing ancient manuscripts from the Abbey at the Mont Saint Michel. Not surprisingly it was by then closing time, so we noted that it opened at 10.00 next morning. We bought a copy of Le Figaro and read it while drinking apéritifs in the sunshine at large pavement café, a lovely thing to do when you‘re away from home and not getting dinner ready in the kitchen!
We dined in the excellent hotel restaurant, a meal memorable for its excellent local cheeses, and whole bottle of very good Chinon wine. This resulted in a very good night’s sleep; a good thing it wasn‘t far to go upstairs.
First thing next morning after breakfast and leaving the hotel, we drove to the Scriptorial, and waited for it to open at 10.00. While waiting I found a local camera shop and bought yet more camera batteries (the camera handbook says different brands vary; so I tried to get the sort that came with the camera, but was assured those I bought are just as good.)
N found the Scriptorial a little disappointing; there were only a very few manuscripts on display, at the end in a very dark room. As for those of us who are not medievalists, I thought it was well laid out and well explained; there were several rooms full of a good lead-up showing how before any manuscripts could be written, both parchment and ink had to be manufactured by the monks, and there was a lot of detailed explanation as to how this was done. The visit was a little spoiled by a rather noisy school party which we kept trying to avoid. There was also an exhibition of work by Dali in the Scriptorial, very well advertised throughout the whole town; which we found moderately interesting. At the end there was a museum shop where N bought a guide to the manuscripts and I got him a biro disguised as a quill pen. These were in a variety of lurid colours, but I chose white as it looked the most realistic.
At about 11.00 we set off for the Mont Saint Michel which was not far, and just as the day before we kept getting tantalizing glimpses of it every so often in the distance, sometimes dark in the shadow and at other times clear and bright. The road leading up to it was full of campsites, little hotels and posters for local produce - cider, calvados, Breton cookies - and lots of people all travelling in the same direction by car, camper van, bus, bicycle and on foot like twenty-first century pilgrims, which I suppose we were, in a sense. I had read somewhere recently that the Mont Saint Michel is the most visited place in France; it certainly looked like it.
There were huge car parks on the shore, at least half of them full of camper vans and caravans. I had prepared by wearing jeans and flat shoes, and took my raincoat to wear on top of my jacket, expecting it to be cold and windy, but in fact it was quite sunny and warm! In the end it was too hot, and we both carried our raincoats round with us for the whole visit.
When we arrived at the Mount itself, there were suddenly crowded narrow streets mostly full of tourist shops, more like things I had visited in Italy rather than anywhere else, and I was certain that the only place I have ever queued for so long behind so many people was at the Vatican Museums in Rome. There was a wide variety of nationalities too; quite a novelty after having been in La Neuve-Lyre for several weeks. After walking up many steep paths behind hundreds of people we found ourselves at the end of a queue to enter the Abbey itself right at the top; we must have spent at least 20 minutes waiting and slowly shuffling forward but once in it was all worth it.
It was very large and we certainly got our money’s worth. It was difficult to understand just how it had been built - starting in the 8th century with parts added later - so high and so steep in the middle of the sea. There was a Mass going on in the chapel, and many other rooms of all sizes and functions, and gardens; I wondered how many of the trees and plants had been purposefully taken there across the sea, and how many had blown in and planted themselves.
Eventually we came out on to one of the crowded streets once again, and looked for somewhere to have (a rather late) lunch. The restaurant was crowded too, and we were squashed in between and English family and a Spanish couple, but it was good to sit down at last and there was a splendid view of the damp sands and the sea behind the Mount. N ate mussels and a Breton omelette; I chose giant prawns which were served with a rather odd combination of rice, carrots and pineapple, and we drank a bottle of local cider.
After a few purchases in some of the tourist shops, we started the long walk back to the car, not really completely sure where it was, and N somehow managed to trip over a low rope and fall dramatically flat on his face on the gravel; fortunately no harm was done except a graze to his chin and a few bruises, but he did seem to cover an awful lot of ground while flat. The car park was by now very full of coaches, and it took some time to get out and retrace our journey along past the hotels and campsites and stalls selling cider, cookies etc.
We drove west along the north coast, and sometimes a little inland; the place names became more Breton and the houses grey and slate-like. There were many sheds selling mussels, and also carrots, cauliflower and other vegetables. We passed St Malo, where I had been many years ago, the sea walls looked familiar, and headed for Dinard which I had thought looked interesting - it was, but by that time it was raining hard, and there was nowhere to park. The streets were full of holiday-makers sheltering under their beach towels, but there was nowhere to stop and have a drink, so we left and set off in the direction of Dinan, which N knew as a medieval town.
Here it was not raining, and we found a very good hotel in the main square, where there were notices forbidding car parking on Wednesday evenings as the market took place in the square from 6.00 am Thursday mornings. After checking in N was allotted a hotel car space, and we set off to explore the town. There were even more tourist shops than at the Mont Saint Michel, all selling Breton name bowls, blue & white striped t-shirts, cookies, painted china from Quimper and all kinds of pictures and calendars of the Mont Saint Michel. We also found two or three churches, including one with the buried heart of Bertrand du Guesclin, a fourteenth-century hero of N’s, a lovely English garden, a theatre and several convents. It began to rain again, and we had rather wet apéritifs in front of a café, before looking for somewhere for dinner, as our hotel did not have a restaurant.
We ended up in a small but typically Breton créperie, where N had both kinds of pancakes, the savoury galette followed by the sweet crêpe; I could only manage the first. Once again we drank cider, this time in the traditional pottery bowls, and went back to the hotel for an early night after all our walking.
The next morning after a very good and varied breakfast we explored the hotel garden at the back, which went right up to the edge of the ramparts. (More hydrangeas.) N asked one of the hotel staff if she had heard any weather forecast; she told us it should be a warm and sunny day, with a possibly of more rain later.
It was very warm as we left the hotel and immediately came across the market, which overflowed the square and which we explored in detail. Parts of it reminded me of the market at L’Aigle and others of Saint-Denis, but a lot was very local, not only Breton t-shirts but cheeses, honey, sausages, cider, plants and a lot of organic vegetables. I bought honey, a little lined basket for potatoes (every time I bring in potatoes from the garden our other baskets leak earth onto the kitchen table) Rooibos tea and a string of chunky wooden beads on elastic. We went back to some of the tourist shops we had seen the night before - quite different in the sunshine - and N bought a large tin of Breton cookies in a Quimper tin, and I got a set of pottery cider bowls. We had an early lunch outside a café in a small square in the very warm sunshine before starting off home again, having decided not to go deeper into Brittany because of the possibility of rain. In fact the whole of the rest of the day was very sunny and warm!
It was a fairly long way back to La Neuve-Lyre from Dinan, but we made two stops; the first at an Italian-style medieval mountain village called Domfront where we had tea in a village café (avoiding the English bookshop serving cream teas) and strolled around the tourist shops - by now more Norman than Breton - and then a longer stop at Argentan.
This was a town we had read about and thought perhaps of visiting, with a wide flower-lined main street in which we managed to park. I also managed to buy some nail polish; quite a feat for someone who hadn’t been out of La Neuve-Lyre for more than a month, at a branch of Marionnaud, one of a chain of older-established cosmetic shops which I always think must be suffering since the arrival of Yves Rocher and Sephora. Here too we had an apéritif in the sunshine (25 degrees by that time) while reading Le Figaro, definitely a habit to be encouraged. We arrived home in time for a not-too-late supper; N requested home-made soup from the freezer. We found several scarlet and yellow gladioli in bloom, and lots of post in our box.
Tuesday 24 July 2007
The promised rain arrived on the night of Thursday/Friday; very loud and heavy apparently although we did not hear it. In the morning however, there was a large dirty puddle on the verandah floor which seemed to have leaked from the disused chimney going horizontally across the ceiling.
We decided Monsieur A must be summoned; I did not feel inclined to phone him as he always answers his phone very busy in the middle of a building site, and I thought it ought to be put in writing as N said we should remind him about the maintenance contract for the new heating system. In the end N drafted and printed a letter and I cycled up to Monsieur A’s « office » with it so that he would get it before the weekend. Before I left I put the dirty rag from the verandah in the washing machine with the rest of the laundry we had brought home from our few days away.
Luckily Monsieur A was there, just as he had been the very first time we got in touch with him, talking on the phone and looking as though he had just got out of bed. I gave him the letter, and explained as best I could, he seemed rather amused that we always put things in writing; I said that way he would have it to refer to. He asked how much flooding there was, and said could it wait till Monday morning; I got the impression he had other more urgent rain-induced flooding to deal with. He said he would send his « couvreur » (roofer) Jean-Claude. I cycled off and did the rest of my shopping - not nearly as easy as on foot - and went back home.
When I opened the washing machine I discovered everything was a horrible dirty shade of yellow; the dirty « water » from the disused verandah chimney was in fact rain mixed with heating oil. I went back to the village shop to get a product for removing dye, but this had no effect, and by the end of the morning I had to resign myself to an awful lot of new candidates for the rag bag. A few old things were not much loss, and the round synthetic tablecloth hadn’t absorbed any colour; two of N’s shirts in the load were yellow anyway, so are now just a little darker. The worst things were several white t-shirts of mine, including a new one only worn once, and my new cream jacket just bought from L’Aigle market; the latter wasn’t as stained as it might have been as it is only partly cotton - I shall iron it and see whether or not it looks fashionably patchy.
I spent the afternoon doing things I had planned for the morning -all taken up with my cycle ride and the washing and re-washing - unpacking and putting way all our new Breton purchases, and cutting the first gladioli and putting them in their special vase, and cutting flowers for other vases.
On Saturday afternoon we went to Bernay, with a variety of tasks in mind. Apart from supermarket shopping at Intermarché (we seemed to have run out of everything) we went to Monsieur Bricolage as N thought he had seen decorative lampshades there to match an Italian one that got broken; we needed to go along with the one we still had to match it, which it did very well. We also need to get more gas canisters; N wanted more bird food from Vive le Jardin! (but they had run out) and I wanted to investigate a cheap clothes shop called Vêti on the same site as the supermarket, to see if I could possibly replace my jacket.
Some of the clothes at Vêti were very cheap; a woman in front of me was paying a total of 4 euros for three items. I tried on all the jackets I found and came way with a lovely light brown one, with appliquéd flowers and embroidery in the same colour. Not that cheap, but at least sale price.
On Sunday morning we went to a « marché aux puces » (one up from a « foire à tout », I think) at Verneuil-sur-Avre, where we hadn’t been for some time. N thought it was the biggest fair we had been to, and it was certainly one of the most interesting; it took a lot of viewing, and as always just looking at things is sometimes as entertaining as actually buying them.
N found another large bottle for his collection - an art deco-style decorated champagne bottle (dated 1971), a half-size violin which « needs seeing to », several framed prints and an album full of British stamps, mostly Queen Victoria and George V. There were also some postcards in it which entertained us when we looked at them after lunch. One was from someone in Ceylon in 1937 asking if he could possibly be sent pictures of nude women, and another sent from Oxford to France in 1940 asked the addressee to come home « before it got too late » and described in detail a whole host of nasty symptoms from which the writer was suffering.
I spent far less money than N and bought a couple more antique glass jam-pots similar to those I bought before, a small white jug (I know I have a lot of white jugs but this was a particularly French café design), an elegant glass sugar sifter with a silver top, and, most useful of all, a shallow basket with a big handle for one euro just the right shape for collecting cut flowers and herbs from the garden. It is covered with patchy white paint, but, as N says, when there is a nice hot day, I can repaint it.
Sunday afternoon and almost all day Monday I spent dealing with two very large marrows; peeling and chopping them into small pieces, then making more Marrow & Ginger Jam, Marrow Chutney for the first time, and freezing the rest.
The weather is till not really settled - it is difficult to believe the warm sunshine we had in Brittany and on our way home - and N is waiting for a row of warm days to lift the potatoes and to plant more leeks, lettuces and beans he bought at Vive Le Jardin! at the weekend. He has made a wonderful broad bean soup; an English vegetable tasting very Italian because of the sage and thyme in it, and today has frozen lots of yellow beans. I used the first of some lovely leeks in a leek & mushroom tart; like the spinach tart made earlier, a lot of work but very delicious.
Both yesterday morning and today we have waited in vain for Monsieur A’s roofer to turn up; yesterday it poured with rain all day so we weren’t surprised - perhaps today he is seeing to urgent damage done yesterday? I feel another phone call to Monsieur A will soon be necessary.
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Friday 6 July 2007
Last Sunday morning we set out on an abortive outing to two separate destinations; the second in fact was literally a fruitless journey. The only consolation was that the weather had temporarily improved and driving though country lanes, past farms and hamlets in what N called « la France profonde » (deepest France) was very enjoyable indeed. Our first destination was Saint-Antonin-de-Sommaire, a hamlet the other side of Rugles, where we had hoped to find a bric-à-brac fair, but there were only a couple of uninteresting stalls in a school yard. We then went on some way in quite the opposite direction from La Neuve-Lyre to Les Jonquerets de Livet (as always the smallest villages have the longest names!) looking for raspberries on sale as advertised on the leaflet, only to find when we arrived at the little hut that it was closed on Sundays! (very ambiguous leaflet.) Once home again however, we did manage to have lunch in the garden, for the first and last time for some days.
As the raspberry selling outfit (no currants ready yet) was only open on certain days of the week, we went again and bought some on Monday morning, and in the afternoon I made raspberry jam. I was a little disappointed as all the books said it was so easy that having followed the instructions to the letter, the pips rose to the top in several jars and there was a layer of clear jam at the bottom. However, the little amount left over tasted wonderful at breakfast the next day. Once back from buying the raspberries, I went to the local market and boulangerie as usual, and had a good look at the newly opened traiteur/character shop, and bought two small quiches for lunch. I thought the range of produce on offer was not quite as luxurious as before; more plain meat, pâté and salads, but then it occurred to me that this might be what was wanted round here, and that perhaps it was the beautifully decorated avocados with lobster - although we loved them! - which caused the previous business to make a loss. At the boulangerie they were saying that as the new proprietors were an older couple, they should be more experienced!
On Tuesday, still in pursuit of ingredients for preserves, I took the bus to L’Aigle market, the only place we have ever been able to find crystallized ginger. It rained most of the morning - even when the sun was shining - and the weather was the main topic of conversation amongst several little old ladies waiting for the bus; one of them kept declaring it was « pourri » (rotten) with which I agreed. I thought, not for the first time, that talking about the weather is not unique to the English, the inhabitants of La Neuve-Lyre seem to do to all the time.
I managed to get the ginger (the stallholder seem very surprised when I said I was going to use it for marrow jam) and bought olives and dried tomatoes at the same stall, and strawberries and flowers from the regular stalls. I found that my favourite clothes stall where I had bought the cream trouser suit was having a sale - 30% off everything - so bought a very stylish jacket in the same material. It’s no good thinking about real summer clothes at the moment (I haven’t even got any dresses out yet!) so one might as well enjoy wearing jackets. The young men running the stall were as charming and helpful as ever, and once again admired my accent. I also bought a local paper with a supplement listing all the bric-à-brac fairs in three départements from now until the end of the season! (September.)
Apart from the proposed marrow jam - the marrow hasn’t quite reached the correct size yet - I wanted the ginger for making more apple chutney, thereby using up the last of the carefully preserved apples on the top shelf of the first outhouse. On Tuesday afternoon I made half the quantity I did last year, using some frozen apple to make up the amount. This meant that the shelves N had put up in the first outhouse against the boarded-up door were now all full (raspberry jam, apple chutney and last week’s beetroot pickle) and that the top wide shelf on the side wall was empty of apples; so time for a rearrangement. We were due to go to Bernay on Thursday for the car’s appointment at the Renault garage to have a new door strip fitted, and had a list of other things to do while in Bernay, wondering if it would take all day like the week before. Fortunately the strip was done straight away, so we went on to Monsieur Bricolage to look at the plastic shelf units for outhouses and garages that we had seen and considered before. There was one just the right size, so we got that and some plastic baskets to go on it, put them all in the car, and left it all conveniently in the car park while we went on to the museum.
It was in part of a former monastery and mainly full of paintings, sculpture, small pieces of furniture and porcelain. Not very large, so didn’t take long to see, after that we looked at the imposing War Memorial, the municipal library (from the outside, as it was shut) various views of the river, gardens and little houses; certainly a lot more of Bernay than we had seen up to then. We joined the main street again, and called in at the Italian delicatessen to buy gnocchi, a stuffed aubergine, Parma ham and some little pastries. By then it was lunch-time so N took me to the restaurant he had discovered last week; a dark little bistro down an alley leading from the street where most of the antique shops are; decorated characteristically in red and white check with plenty of old kitchen and garden items on display. It reminded me a little of Le Coup Chou in Paris, where we ate on New Year’s Eve - lots of little interconnected rooms, all packed with laid tables. Not nouvelle cuisine, as N said, definitely very hearty ancienne cuisine.
We both ordered the Menus for the Day: melon followed by three large pieces of duck (one or two would have been plenty) with delicious sauce and potatoes, and then clafoutis; an interesting experience as I had only ever made and eaten my own. This one seemed to have brown sugar and breadcrumbs on top, a definite improvement. And lots of rosé wine. The waiter - also dressed in red - was strangely entertaining and reminded N of M Perrotte. We then collected the car and went on to the Intermarché supermarket; if it is a mistake to go shopping on an empty stomach then surely it is just as foolish to go full of lunch and wine - you can’t believe you will ever need to eat anything ever again.
Saturday 7 July 2007
The next day I swept out the first outhouse and assembled the new shelf unit, with help from N for the top shelf which I couldn’t reach, and for fixing it to the wall, just to the right behind the door. So far it has empty baskets, bought pickle from the UK and spare bird food on it, but there is plenty of space for more homemade preserves when necessary.
This time last year we were harvesting and freezing lots and lots of vegetables; I’m pleased to say this year a greater variety have been planted and amounts staggered, but even though we are not panic freezing there is plenty to eat and cook. There has been a lot of nice spinach and we have eaten spinach quiche (labour-intensive but very good) spinach & bacon salad and Egg Florentine. Other vegetables - courgettes, broad beans, green beans, peas, beetroot, turnips, potatoes - are arriving in easily manageable amounts. There are also more flowers to cut and bring indoors than last year, after a special request to the Head Gardener. The roses are almost all over now, but there are currently several different kinds of nameless yellow flowers, a few Canterbury bells, and the bright pink hydrangeas are beginning to look beautiful against the walls of the outhouses; I have cut some of these and brought indoors too. The new larger flowerbed continues to look wonderful, the balance of colours changing all the while. The weather - although still far from seasonal - has got a little drier and less windy in the last day or so, so N has embarked on much overdue weeding of the vegetable garden and flower beds. He has also done a lot of hedge clipping, which makes the whole place look much tidier.
Another thing achieved this week has been the ordering of more firewood for the winter. We had got almost to the end of the delivery we had when we arrived a year and a half ago, and so I rang M Legrand to order more as instructed (order before you run out, and order during the summer.) He seemed very vague and not to recall anything about it at all, and did not seem like the loud and chatty man I remembered. However, he rang back and arranged a delivery for yesterday morning; once it was all over N came upstairs to report that it was Legrand père I had been speaking to; not Legrand fils with whom I had dealt last year, as the latter was apparently now working as a lorry driver. M Legrand père had made the delivery with what could have been his daughter-in-law, and N was particularly pleased as they had to take their trailer back straight away, and both helped him unload and stack all the wood in the woodshed, instead of us doing it ourselves as before. It was not as damp as last time (it had sat outside in December rain several days) and should be ready to use come the autumn.
Wednesday 11 July 2007
Marrow jam has now been completed, started yesterday afternoon and sat with the sugar on overnight, then finished off this morning. Only five jars, but an excellent taste and set. N says there will be another big marrow later in the season, but not yet. Fortunately I have plenty of crystallized ginger left over, carefully stored in a big jar. I have tried two excellent new recipes using produce arriving from the vegetable garden - some young leeks were used in a leek and macaroni gratin, and yesterday evening we had buttered turnips; diced and blanched then fried in butter and coated with lots of fresh herbs.
Yesterday I went to L’ Aigle market again, wondering if there might be a skirt with 30% off to go with my excellent new jacket. There wasn’t but I had quite an entertaining time looking in several clothes shops and not buying anything. It rained on and off just like last week and I only came back with cherries, strawberries and mushrooms, but enjoyed my morning out.
Over the last few days we have successfully uploaded all the pictures from my digital camera on to my computer, and have made attempts at sending them by e-mail. The camera then announced it needed new batteries, and not just any old batteries it seemed, but I managed to find the correct ones at the Quincaillerie in the village. Finally yesterday afternoon - after having waited what seemed like some time to get both a working camera and a sunny afternoon - I was able to take pictures of the furniture, pictures and china which had come from my mother’s house in their new positions here, in order to send those to the family too. The camera now says it needs new batteries again…..
Meteo France (the weather forecasters) still cannot decide on the weather forecasts; for the past two cold, windy weeks they have announced that things will brighten up and get warmer over the weekend, only to change their minds on Fridays and say perhaps they won’t after all. I said to N perhaps this was to raise the morale of the population; he said he thought it was to encourage the tourist industry. Anyway, they are now predicting sunshine and temperatures of 26 degrees even in the north of France for Saturday and Sunday; important as this is the big holiday weekend of the summer, Saturday is 14 July. We have been thinking of taking a little trip to Brittany this month, but the weather there has been even worse than in Normandy, so it keeps being put off. We are hoping for better things next week, although I find it difficult to believe anything the weather forecasters say!
Last Sunday morning we set out on an abortive outing to two separate destinations; the second in fact was literally a fruitless journey. The only consolation was that the weather had temporarily improved and driving though country lanes, past farms and hamlets in what N called « la France profonde » (deepest France) was very enjoyable indeed. Our first destination was Saint-Antonin-de-Sommaire, a hamlet the other side of Rugles, where we had hoped to find a bric-à-brac fair, but there were only a couple of uninteresting stalls in a school yard. We then went on some way in quite the opposite direction from La Neuve-Lyre to Les Jonquerets de Livet (as always the smallest villages have the longest names!) looking for raspberries on sale as advertised on the leaflet, only to find when we arrived at the little hut that it was closed on Sundays! (very ambiguous leaflet.) Once home again however, we did manage to have lunch in the garden, for the first and last time for some days.
As the raspberry selling outfit (no currants ready yet) was only open on certain days of the week, we went again and bought some on Monday morning, and in the afternoon I made raspberry jam. I was a little disappointed as all the books said it was so easy that having followed the instructions to the letter, the pips rose to the top in several jars and there was a layer of clear jam at the bottom. However, the little amount left over tasted wonderful at breakfast the next day. Once back from buying the raspberries, I went to the local market and boulangerie as usual, and had a good look at the newly opened traiteur/character shop, and bought two small quiches for lunch. I thought the range of produce on offer was not quite as luxurious as before; more plain meat, pâté and salads, but then it occurred to me that this might be what was wanted round here, and that perhaps it was the beautifully decorated avocados with lobster - although we loved them! - which caused the previous business to make a loss. At the boulangerie they were saying that as the new proprietors were an older couple, they should be more experienced!
On Tuesday, still in pursuit of ingredients for preserves, I took the bus to L’Aigle market, the only place we have ever been able to find crystallized ginger. It rained most of the morning - even when the sun was shining - and the weather was the main topic of conversation amongst several little old ladies waiting for the bus; one of them kept declaring it was « pourri » (rotten) with which I agreed. I thought, not for the first time, that talking about the weather is not unique to the English, the inhabitants of La Neuve-Lyre seem to do to all the time.
I managed to get the ginger (the stallholder seem very surprised when I said I was going to use it for marrow jam) and bought olives and dried tomatoes at the same stall, and strawberries and flowers from the regular stalls. I found that my favourite clothes stall where I had bought the cream trouser suit was having a sale - 30% off everything - so bought a very stylish jacket in the same material. It’s no good thinking about real summer clothes at the moment (I haven’t even got any dresses out yet!) so one might as well enjoy wearing jackets. The young men running the stall were as charming and helpful as ever, and once again admired my accent. I also bought a local paper with a supplement listing all the bric-à-brac fairs in three départements from now until the end of the season! (September.)
Apart from the proposed marrow jam - the marrow hasn’t quite reached the correct size yet - I wanted the ginger for making more apple chutney, thereby using up the last of the carefully preserved apples on the top shelf of the first outhouse. On Tuesday afternoon I made half the quantity I did last year, using some frozen apple to make up the amount. This meant that the shelves N had put up in the first outhouse against the boarded-up door were now all full (raspberry jam, apple chutney and last week’s beetroot pickle) and that the top wide shelf on the side wall was empty of apples; so time for a rearrangement. We were due to go to Bernay on Thursday for the car’s appointment at the Renault garage to have a new door strip fitted, and had a list of other things to do while in Bernay, wondering if it would take all day like the week before. Fortunately the strip was done straight away, so we went on to Monsieur Bricolage to look at the plastic shelf units for outhouses and garages that we had seen and considered before. There was one just the right size, so we got that and some plastic baskets to go on it, put them all in the car, and left it all conveniently in the car park while we went on to the museum.
It was in part of a former monastery and mainly full of paintings, sculpture, small pieces of furniture and porcelain. Not very large, so didn’t take long to see, after that we looked at the imposing War Memorial, the municipal library (from the outside, as it was shut) various views of the river, gardens and little houses; certainly a lot more of Bernay than we had seen up to then. We joined the main street again, and called in at the Italian delicatessen to buy gnocchi, a stuffed aubergine, Parma ham and some little pastries. By then it was lunch-time so N took me to the restaurant he had discovered last week; a dark little bistro down an alley leading from the street where most of the antique shops are; decorated characteristically in red and white check with plenty of old kitchen and garden items on display. It reminded me a little of Le Coup Chou in Paris, where we ate on New Year’s Eve - lots of little interconnected rooms, all packed with laid tables. Not nouvelle cuisine, as N said, definitely very hearty ancienne cuisine.
We both ordered the Menus for the Day: melon followed by three large pieces of duck (one or two would have been plenty) with delicious sauce and potatoes, and then clafoutis; an interesting experience as I had only ever made and eaten my own. This one seemed to have brown sugar and breadcrumbs on top, a definite improvement. And lots of rosé wine. The waiter - also dressed in red - was strangely entertaining and reminded N of M Perrotte. We then collected the car and went on to the Intermarché supermarket; if it is a mistake to go shopping on an empty stomach then surely it is just as foolish to go full of lunch and wine - you can’t believe you will ever need to eat anything ever again.
Saturday 7 July 2007
The next day I swept out the first outhouse and assembled the new shelf unit, with help from N for the top shelf which I couldn’t reach, and for fixing it to the wall, just to the right behind the door. So far it has empty baskets, bought pickle from the UK and spare bird food on it, but there is plenty of space for more homemade preserves when necessary.
This time last year we were harvesting and freezing lots and lots of vegetables; I’m pleased to say this year a greater variety have been planted and amounts staggered, but even though we are not panic freezing there is plenty to eat and cook. There has been a lot of nice spinach and we have eaten spinach quiche (labour-intensive but very good) spinach & bacon salad and Egg Florentine. Other vegetables - courgettes, broad beans, green beans, peas, beetroot, turnips, potatoes - are arriving in easily manageable amounts. There are also more flowers to cut and bring indoors than last year, after a special request to the Head Gardener. The roses are almost all over now, but there are currently several different kinds of nameless yellow flowers, a few Canterbury bells, and the bright pink hydrangeas are beginning to look beautiful against the walls of the outhouses; I have cut some of these and brought indoors too. The new larger flowerbed continues to look wonderful, the balance of colours changing all the while. The weather - although still far from seasonal - has got a little drier and less windy in the last day or so, so N has embarked on much overdue weeding of the vegetable garden and flower beds. He has also done a lot of hedge clipping, which makes the whole place look much tidier.
Another thing achieved this week has been the ordering of more firewood for the winter. We had got almost to the end of the delivery we had when we arrived a year and a half ago, and so I rang M Legrand to order more as instructed (order before you run out, and order during the summer.) He seemed very vague and not to recall anything about it at all, and did not seem like the loud and chatty man I remembered. However, he rang back and arranged a delivery for yesterday morning; once it was all over N came upstairs to report that it was Legrand père I had been speaking to; not Legrand fils with whom I had dealt last year, as the latter was apparently now working as a lorry driver. M Legrand père had made the delivery with what could have been his daughter-in-law, and N was particularly pleased as they had to take their trailer back straight away, and both helped him unload and stack all the wood in the woodshed, instead of us doing it ourselves as before. It was not as damp as last time (it had sat outside in December rain several days) and should be ready to use come the autumn.
Wednesday 11 July 2007
Marrow jam has now been completed, started yesterday afternoon and sat with the sugar on overnight, then finished off this morning. Only five jars, but an excellent taste and set. N says there will be another big marrow later in the season, but not yet. Fortunately I have plenty of crystallized ginger left over, carefully stored in a big jar. I have tried two excellent new recipes using produce arriving from the vegetable garden - some young leeks were used in a leek and macaroni gratin, and yesterday evening we had buttered turnips; diced and blanched then fried in butter and coated with lots of fresh herbs.
Yesterday I went to L’ Aigle market again, wondering if there might be a skirt with 30% off to go with my excellent new jacket. There wasn’t but I had quite an entertaining time looking in several clothes shops and not buying anything. It rained on and off just like last week and I only came back with cherries, strawberries and mushrooms, but enjoyed my morning out.
Over the last few days we have successfully uploaded all the pictures from my digital camera on to my computer, and have made attempts at sending them by e-mail. The camera then announced it needed new batteries, and not just any old batteries it seemed, but I managed to find the correct ones at the Quincaillerie in the village. Finally yesterday afternoon - after having waited what seemed like some time to get both a working camera and a sunny afternoon - I was able to take pictures of the furniture, pictures and china which had come from my mother’s house in their new positions here, in order to send those to the family too. The camera now says it needs new batteries again…..
Meteo France (the weather forecasters) still cannot decide on the weather forecasts; for the past two cold, windy weeks they have announced that things will brighten up and get warmer over the weekend, only to change their minds on Fridays and say perhaps they won’t after all. I said to N perhaps this was to raise the morale of the population; he said he thought it was to encourage the tourist industry. Anyway, they are now predicting sunshine and temperatures of 26 degrees even in the north of France for Saturday and Sunday; important as this is the big holiday weekend of the summer, Saturday is 14 July. We have been thinking of taking a little trip to Brittany this month, but the weather there has been even worse than in Normandy, so it keeps being put off. We are hoping for better things next week, although I find it difficult to believe anything the weather forecasters say!
