It’s always a little
overwhelming when we arrive and have to start cleaning up the weeds, and the millions of dead flies in the house. However,
the warm welcome we receive from our neighbours and friends makes up for
it all.
The day we arrived was VE
Day, Victory in Europe Day, so a public holiday in France. We drove through the lush green
countryside coming from Geneva passing through several tunnels and emerging
into yet another dramatic scene of tree covered mountains, with still some snow
on the tops and sparkling lakes.
The wild flowers are
beautiful, meadows covered in buttercups, roadside covered in
cowslips,
dandelions and clover flowers, hawthorn bushes loaded in creamy white blossom, poppies
in abundance.
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| Crashed pergola, oh dear! |
The drive to our village
takes 2 hours, and we arrived in the village about midday. As we drove up the road there was a
crowd of our old friends standing outside the Mairie, celebrating VE Day with a
Vin d’Honneur. So we had to stop,
massive kisses and hugs and a very warm welcome. Eventually we made it home, and Alain had opened the
shutters and lit a fire, as the house inside was very cold, the fire made a
huge difference.
Our pergola had crashed
during the winter with the weight of thick snow. It is normally covered in a beautiful pink rambling
rose. Sadly we have had to cut
that back, but it is a pleasure to work outside, writing at the stone table
beneath our new pergola, ably put up by Alain.
It was very cold when we
first arrived, so a good time to plant the vegetable garden. Neighbours offered excess plants and
seeds, so now there are tomatoes, beans, spinach, carrots, salad, peppers,
onions, sorrel and one courgette.
No room for anything else.
The fruit trees are
absolutely laden with young fruit.
In our garden, we have a pear, an apple, a quince, a fig tree and lots
of currants and gooseberries, cherries, plums and raspberries. They are all laden, but I guess some of
the fruit will fall.
The roses are incredible,
and sometimes I walk in the garden just to be surrounded by that wonderful heady
perfume.
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| wild rose on side of the house |
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| wild strawberries & raspberries |
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| in the garden |
We have harvested buckets of
cherries, and are picking raspberries every second day. The currants and gooseberries will be
ready in no time. I have made
elderberry flower cordial and cherry cordial, both delicious in a long glass
with ice.
We have just returned from a trip north to Belgium, Flanders
and Picardy for John to research an article he is writing for the Goulburn Post
on 4 young Tallong men who fought in the 1st World War, and are buried there.
A very moving experience. It was a good trip, but very long.
We stayed in the nature park of ornithology at
the Baie de Somme for a few days, a wonderful place to see. So after our
hard work looking at excellent museums and sad cemeteries, we needed a treat. We stayed in
a very nice hotel - on a small hill overlooking the bay, in grounds of 15
hectares, a kind of series of cottages, - very pleasant, with a good restaurant
etc and set by the bird sanctuary. We treated ourselves to a very special sea food platter, wonderful. Always amusing to see the dogs tucked
under arms and on laps in the hotel restaurants, I was astonished to see them arriving even at breakfast time as well as dinner!!
We have been drowning in cemeteries galore, French,
commonwealth, even German (mind you crosses shared with 4 dead) the weather was
very cold, I was wearing my down coat every day, and so glad of a quick crochet
hat I made before we left our home!!!
What a surprise to find a Chinese cemetery - to
learn that thousands of Chinese were
brought here to work during the first
world war, not only backing up the armies with munitions skills, but also
working on farms because there were no longer any men to do so. The Chinese
were prisoners in camps supervised by the British, but strangely enough
paid the same rate as a French journalier. 5 francs a day. Most of the
unfortunate Chinese died after the war of Spanish flu. The other
surprise was that the cemetery is kept by the Commonwealth War graves
commission just like the thousands of others, and kept beautifully.
I never thought we would go into a church or
cathedral to keep warm, to get out of the cold wind - in the past it has always been a trip into history,
beauty of art work and to cool down in the heat…. the weather has been
terrible. We ran into First Communion day when we got to Reims - the cathedral
was packed and we couldn’t walk around. Listened not for the first time
to a sermon on the five loaves and 2 fishes! don’t know how many of the
young things were listening...
However, the grey cold, damp, foggy weather went
with our project, a melancholy one. In Flanders we were treading on the
dead everywhere. How can people live from day to day on top of 500,000
dead? would you not wake up at night thinking of a young man’s face as he
drowned - wounded - in the mud??? I imagined their ghostly voices
talking, crying…
cemeteries everywhere, we have done enough…
We visited the Vis en Artois cemetery where my uncle’s
name is carved in stone. Robert William McMurtry.
Sadly he
died at the end of the war, 20 years old, having fought in and survived the
most horrific battles, including the terrible battles at Passchendaele, in the previous few years. This is a place where there are thousands of unknown
soldiers - bodies have never been identified, and were never accounted for,
presumed dead. One very sad addition on a cemetery register was a young
man of 24 years who was shot at dawn for deserting. Couldn’t cope with the
horror and was punished by death.
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| Ypres cathedral, completely rebuilt after the bombing |
Amiens cathedral was so rich and luxurious - (even a
little cage with a “genuine” head of John the Baptist!!)…… everywhere gold, I
thought several times of the child abuse enquiries and the wealth of the
church, the carvings, ornaments, paintings too much. I always find
the confessional cages worrying.
We stayed overnight in Troyes before setting off for
home. Nice town with half-timbered houses and the River Seine snaking
around it linked with canals. You can see at the end of this blog, we took lots of
photographs.
This is a photo of a
sculpture in a museum in Groesbeck, near Arnham, Netherlands – very moving – it says it all.
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| Groesbeek museum by Fransje Povel-Speleers |
For those who read the
Goulburn Post, there will be a series of articles by John soon.
After a drive of 2,000 kms
and 10 days, we are back home after climbing hundreds of steps in towers and view points, and touring the champagne cellars at Pommery.
Summer has arrived with a vengeance.
Wow it’s hot, particularly in the afternoons
and evenings. We are enjoying
having meals on our galerie (stone balcony), but have to wait until after 8pm
to have dinner, when the sun goes over the hill opposite. There is a warm breeze and we listen to the blackbirds singing. I love the warmth of the huge stone
slabs.
We have had some lovely
dinners with neighbours, and some great walks. I have rejoined a relaxation/Tai Chi group who meet once a
week in the village hall, which is always a pleasure.
John has started playing
bridge in Charnay again, he has a fan club there, and enjoys the challenge of
the game very much.
I am delighted to have found
a spinning and weaving group in the region, Le Filage de Bourgogne, and will
spend next Saturday with them, when they plan a dyeing day. I have been spinning while watching the
tennis to accumulate some skeins of wool for the dyeing day, and will have fun
experimenting with colours and meeting the other members of the group.
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| Our valley on a warm summer's day |
This is one of the many public
holidays in June in France, so today is quiet - no one cutting their lawn (yet)
and the heat is building up. I
will soon have to escape indoors.
For the rest of the month -
we plan a picnic on the plateau with a group of friends for midsummer’s night
and will make a trip to Paris for a few days on 28th to visit Stewart and
Lesley McLennan. They have
their barge parked in a bassin off the Seine near Bercy and we have managed to
book a room in our favourite eco chain of hotels, the Ibis Style, within
walking distance of them.
Next weekend we will go on
the randonné at the next village, Jalogny, the shortest walk is 10 kms, so we
might be forced to take a short cut!
However there are plenty of resting stops with refreshment and food, so
we can take our time. Hope it’s not too hot. The weather forecast says there will be a thunderstorm
on Wednesday, so that will give me a break from watering the garden, and I
guess will knock down the last cherries that are too high up for us to pick.
Photos below - I am afraid mixed up, but most have captions.
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| Open market at Reims |
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| Reims Cathderal - pulpit |
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| Reims cathedral |
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| Weeping angel - Reims |
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| St John the Baptist??? |
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| Ypres cathedral - completely rebuilt |
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| Champagne country |
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| Reims - Les Halles |
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| Tasting at Pommery |
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| Maison des Oiseaux |
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| Sea food platter at Cap Hornu |
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| A cooler at Troyes |
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| artistic neighbour... |
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| donkeys and buttercups |
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| 200 year old ledger |
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| construction of new pergola |
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| Alain with new pergola - almost finished |
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| a walk in the woods |
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| pre dinner at neighbours - cat begging to get something |
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| Tasting at Pommery cellars, champagne country |
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| The unknown soldier - in every cemetery |
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| 1st world war cemetery |
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| German cemetery, two names each side |
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| Our hotel at Cap Hornu - Baie de Somme |
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| our garden |
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| roses everywhere |
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| Elderflower juice -delicious |
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| Cherry cordial - delicious |
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| improvised weaving - without a loom |
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| Tasting at Pomery in Champagne country |
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| Passchendaele museum |
It took me about 35 minutes to drive due west to Marizy along
narrow winding roads through beautiful countryside unfamiliar to me, for the
day long session with the regional Spinners and Weavers group, Guilde de Filage
en Bourgogne. It was a dyeing day,
and amusing that they had chosen to dye with Kool Aid – a powdered drink very
popular in the USA. The powder
seems to be simply sugar and dye, and I hate to think what it is doing to
children’s insides. It is banned
here and in England for use as a drink. 
On our regular daily walks we pass an area called Nanton
where we descend into the valley using a country lane passing an isolated
house. The owner has decorated the
lane near his house with all sorts of interesting odds and ends which he has
picked up at flea markets. He has
wrapped some of the trees in colourful shawls, placed small animals, mirrors,
and nick knacks in small holes in the rocky wall. 
The garden is always a challenge, if mostly a pleasurable
one. I am ignoring the weeds
appearing in hordes after some heavy rain. However, it has been a fantastic year for fruit, there is so
much its difficult to know what to do with it, as everyone local has heaps already
for themselves. Well a rainy
day prompted me to make marmalade and jam, and now the pantry shelves are lined
with neat jars that I guess will do us for a year or so!!
I finished spinning and knitting a beanie for a local farmer who gave me some of his wool.
The problem is that Charolais wool is very short, so it wasn’t easy, but
I had to take it and give it a go.
In the end the beanie turned out well and I will give it to him before
we leave.
Fête des voisins: Each year we celebrate in our immediate neighbourhood
with what I guess would be called a street party. We all take it in turns to be hosts and this year it was
Rachel and Alain’s turn. Everyone contributes to the meal, and we were appointed to make the main course - chicken garam masala and pork curry, both seemed to be very popular. The food was delicious and a great
variety with one course after another.
There were 20 adults and 6 children and a gorgeous evening all
round. We sat at a long table outside – we had some anxious moments as a storm was forecast, but managed to
get through a very pleasant evening which went on until all hours. Don’t know when we have been up so
late, it was so warm it just seemed to flow along gently until we
suddenly realised it was 2am!
Needless to say some of the children were asleep by that time. 
