5 October 2012
Greetings from an autumnal Burgundy. We are surrounded by rich autumn
colours, the change from summer to autumn has all happened so quickly.
This has been a very busy month, starting with
my birthday, and culminating in a celebration of our joint 140 years at the end
of the month.
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| This little gate was a birthday surprise from our kind neighbours Jacqueline and Alain Argant |
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| Birthday delivery! |
We celebrated my birthday with an outing to a
restaurant in Cluny, a beautiful meal and lots of fun. At the table next to us a couple were
speaking quietly, and we were curious to make out what language they were
speaking. Eventually we realised
they were speaking Irish, and finally asked them if that was so. It was indeed,
and they were surprised they were ‘sprung’ so to speak.
John’s brother Stephen and partner Barbara
arrived later in the week with their new Labrador puppy, Coco. They were breaking the journey on the
way from Ireland to their home in Spain.
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| Breakfast juice for months! |
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| Amazing grape harvest this year |
One of the major happenings this month has been
– at long last – the installation of ADSL in our house. We signed up
immediately it became available. And we get free phone calls to 100 countries!
So hopefully that is the end of our internet struggles.
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| John holding the big horn of a very tame sheep |
Sunday 16th we drove to Geneva airport to meet
Jane, John and Ciara after their long trip from Sydney. It all went well, and
home they came to establish themselves here for a while. Since then, we have had no time to
ourselves, busy, busy, busy. Doing
things with the children, cooking, walking etc etc. Jane went to Ireland the
following Thursday, so we applied ourselves to entertaining the children with
outings. This included a visit to
the Plassard woollen mills, and their park with 96 breeds of sheep and
goats. John and Ciara had great
fun running around feeding all the strange kinds of sheep. The next day a
farmer friend took the children for a ride on his tractor and allowed John to
steer. All very exciting for the
children. Another day we visited
Cluny Abbey as well as having a very popular bonfire in the garden. Sunday we
started with the vendage at Chateau, where the children joined in picking
grapes in our one remaining small, vineyard. Later we took a picnic to Azé, and
went on a conducted tour of the underground ‘grottes’ - prehistoric caves. All fascinating! |
| Fun in Pierre's tractor |
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| Chateau Vendange |
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| Solitaire lessons.... |
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| What a load! |
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| Harnessing up |
The next day Nick arrived from Canberra, via
Geneva again, and Friday Patrick arrived.
Both fathers/husbands, had picked up hire cars at Geneva so we were
saved the long drive. Friday with
the help of some friends we organised a ride in a caleche, drawn by a very
beautiful dray horse. We went to
the owner’s farm at Jalogny, a village nearby, saw the horse being harnessed
up, and then the children with their mothers rode from Jalogny to Chateau and
were deposited at our gate. Great
fun all round.
During the week we had a panic about the
weather – it was obviously going to be too cold to have the party in our
courtyard, the numbers had now grown to 52. This is a gathering that started off with a small group of
family and very close friends. We contacted the mairie and had an anxious 24
hours before finding out that the community hall was available. What a relief.
Friday evening lots of other guests arrived, so
a pre-party party at Le Nid.
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| Eli and his Orgue de Barbary |
Saturday was a busy day, setting up, decorating
the hall. But all organised by
Una, Jane, and Brigid, with another friend, Amanda, doing the flowers and the
candles and the guys helping.
We pushed off at 5pm, and the hall quickly
filled up. A local played the
Orgue de Barbary, old fashioned French songs – gorgeous, the children loved
having a go.
At 7pm we sat down to dinner and the other
musicians had arrived - a cellist
and piano keyboard player. 
The evening went very well, lots of music, singing
and dancing. Former colleagues
from our Moscow days sang – Kyle Wilson, a friend with a very deep base voice -
“God save the Czar” in Russian, and another folk song about the steppes. Powerful and moving. Another journalist colleague, Trevor
Fishlock, from Moscow days sang Happy Birthday in Welsh, beautiful, and the
French guests sang it in French, as well as an old Burgundy folk song.
It was a great occasion, and a happy one.
Sunday morning a big clean up at the hall and
in the evening - another gathering around the piano at Le Nid, and most of the
guests left Monday morning. We
moved back home with old friends Humphrey and Amanda. Jane and Patrick and their children left for Basel, Una left
for Ireland and we had Brigid, Nick, Conor and Daniel until Wednesday, when
they left for Barcelona for a week. Amanda and Humphrey left for long drive to Caen
in Normandy where they caught the ferry to England.
The last two days have been continually washing
sheets and towels and tidying up toys, sorting out the warriors’ equipment and
putting everything back in order.
During the month I had some wonderful walks
with Katia. Around 8-10kms on the
local walking tracks, up hill and down dale and so enjoyable. Katia knows all the tracks and the
various historic points we passed on the way. Including a Merovinginian burial
site, a cross dated 1242 where the Abbot Guillaume of Cluny met St Louis… and
so on.
We continue with the big tidy up, and look
forward to a several evenings of quiet dinners with friends to say farewell
until next year.
We leave for Geneva on Wednesday, where we will
be meeting Jane, John and Ciara.
We are all staying overnight in a hotel ready to fly out the next
morning. We are going as far as
Abu Dhabi, and then on to Istanbul for a week, Jane and the children fly
straight back to Sydney.
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| Enjoying the orgue de barbary |
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| Rachel and Jean Sabitini |
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| Kyle singing Russian song about the steppes |
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| Too tired....... |
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