August in Chateau, 2013

16th August  2013

There is a slight touch of autumn in the air these mornings when I open the door.  A clean moist freshness – the heavy dew around until the morning sun dries it up.    After a month of extremely hot weather it is quite a relief!  Its particularly pleasant to go for an early morning walk and smell the freshness of the vegetation.  

Blackberry bushes laden with small green berries – another 3 weeks or so, we will be eating them.  Look forward to those blackberry breakfasts and of course delicious blackberry and apple tarts.

On Saturday our neighbours invited us to dinner – that is, a picnic dinner on the “Plateau”  a flat area on the highest hill in Chateau.  There was a pleasant warm breeze and the profile of the ruins of an old wind mill standing out against wonderful views. 

A sliver of a moon - us watching the sun go down!

It was a true French picnic – tables and chairs, a four course meal and the wine was flowing.   We watched the sun go down – I guess it was around 9.45pm, whereas the sun has gone over the hill from our house by 8.15 or so these days.

A young sliver of a moon and bright stars… what a perfect way to spend an evening.  This is the season for shooting stars, but no we didn’t see any that night.

Our trip to Paris was a great success. Photos below.  It is so easy on the TGV (fast train) only an hour and a half from our local station to travel the 450kms.   Paris was very hot and therefore tiring, but we made sure we had a siesta every afternoon.   Very few places are air conditioned in this country, certainly not the metro, so that was pretty uncomfortable.  Particularly as it was very crowded with tourists, and there is a lot of climbing up and down stairs to do in the metro.     Some museums are in ancient buildings and are not air conditioned, so again wonderful to see, but airless and tiring.   We walked along the Seine, saw people sunning themselves on the temporary beaches, playing games and listening to music. 

We wandered into the small back streets and found delightful restaurants where we had wonderful inexpensive meals.   One evening we took the metro to one of our favourites – a restaurant run by a Cooperative for the workers.  It used to be run by the Communist Party!  It has lots of character and history.   Hot summer nights with lots of fun music and a lively atmosphere.

Our hotel had a bar on the 9th floor on the roof terrace.  360 degree views of Paris with the Eiffel tower lighting up, Sacre cour in the distance on the hill, and Notre Dame on the other side.

We wouldn’t normally go to Paris in August, but we were invited to a 60th birthday party and it seemed a good excuse to go!   However four days were quite enough, and we were happy to get on the train again for home.

John is playing bridge – he has joined a small club at Charnay Les Macons – and is really enjoying it.  One of his ‘bridge friends’ has invited us to an apero at her vineyard in the Beaujolais next week.

Repas d'ete

le Repas d’étè

In July we had several local social events – the village summer feast, le Repas d'Ete, and our street party la fête de voisins.  We passed many enjoyable evenings sharing meals with local friends and have enjoyed some visitors at our home. 

la fête de voisins. 

We met some of the new residents of Chateau at the summer feast, three houses have been sold recently in the village,  mostly to young families which of course is good for the village.

One of the new residents has a house away from the road on the side of a small walking track which we use every morning.   One morning we discovered an easel, canvas and felt pens on the track.  At the top of the canvas was an invitation to walkers, neighbours to draw a flower!!   What a lovely way to be inclusive of your neighbours.   We passed the word around, and of course the canvas is covered with colourful flowers by now.

Our neighbours had their grandchildren staying for two weeks of the school holidays and they asked me if I could show the children the spinning wheel in action.  They enjoyed it very much and asked lots of questions.   

This evening an apero with some neighbours and later this week we have some Aussie visitors arriving, and some Aussies who live in Geneva coming for the weekend.  Shortly after that John goes into hospital for yet another operation to clear some scar tissue.  Can we hope this time it will be resolved for good!  As a result of his health we have had a quiet summer and I am well into another book.  This time a historical novel set here in this village in the Middle Ages.  I have chosen the time period because there is so much information on record about this region – it was the time when the great Abbey of Cluny was in its heyday. 

The first toast - Martin the younger...

We had a great reunion of the “three brothers”  John, Stephen and Martin and their spouses of course.  Martin and Anne also brought their 16 yr old daughter Kate. It was a very special time. We have not seen Martin for about 7 years and Anne for about 10 years.

A concert by the brass band of the Air Force turned out to be popular and fun.  It was supposed to be on the lawns of the Abbey but because of uncertain weather the organisers moved it into the cloisters so the volume was a bit strong!!!

Family dinner on the old stone table

Stephen and Martin working on family history

brothers and spouses

Paris from the 9th floor bar as the sun goes down

Glorious Notre Dame - those carvings!!!

Interior of Notre Dame

Town hall - Mandela exhibition

Au Temps de Cerise - waiting for dinner

reading the menu at the Co-op

Flashing madly

Hotel de Ville - Town Hall

The streets of Paris buzzing on a summer night

Luxembourg gardens and a contented 

A carved door at the Medieval History Museum

The fountain at St Sulpice - and a reminder of Tallong

John, Rosemary and Ian at La Maison de Charolle

Making hay while the sun shines....

Chateau June 2013

Blog,  22 June 2013

The clouds are hanging low over the valley this Saturday morning, and its cooler.  We don’t mind, but our deprived neighbours are not happy, they were enjoying the sunshine so much.

A young neighbour!

During the last two weeks of good weather, the local farmers have been working non stop making hay, helping each other.  Tractors and loads of hay are roaring up and down the road past our house continually.  Its an abundant, wonderful crop, but so hard to get it in dry.  Shortly before we arrived some of them were forced to put their Charolais cattle back into their barns, as the fields were so sodden, the cattle were sinking in up to their shoulders and damaging the pasture.  Then there was the problem of feeding them.  I guess a farmer's life is never easy, so much depends on nature and the weather. 

It was mid summer’s day yesterday, and all over France, towns, villages and cities held their annual music festival to celebrate.    We went into Cluny (about 5kms) after dinner, and strolled around amongst the crowds to listen to every kind of music imaginable.  Every corner we turned, had a stage featuring bands playing Memphis, pop, rock, jazz, spunk, classical, or choirs singing acapella and acrobats with lively shows.  Cafes and bars were spilling out on to the narrow cobble stoned streets jammed with people, and in the squares and parks groups set up their own ‘buvettes’ - sandwich and drinks stalls.   So it was a lively evening and people came in from the villages around the 12 gates of the old town of Cluny.   After an initial stroll pushing through the crowded streets, we settled on the grass at the amphitheatre, just inside the medieval monastery walls, listened to music and watched the sun go down, sipping a glass of red.

  Children were kicking footballs in the park, or rolling down the grass banks and generally having a wonderful time.  Wine and beer were E1.50 a tumbler full, and it was all very convivial.  An interesting observation is that there are no drunks.

We drove home under a full moon in a clear sky, the countryside unfolding with shadows and light.  At home we quickly settled on the galerie for a nightcap of beautiful malt whisky enjoying the full moon.

Last Saturday was the village ‘randonné nocturnal’, an evening walk of 8-9 kms around the valley on a beautiful mild, warm evening.  We started with a group of about 35 at 6.30pm, and soon spread out walking up hill and down dale with magnificent views across the lush green valley.  Wild flowers everywhere, and beautiful evening colours and shades.

We climbed up the narrow steep track to the church to admire the new roof on the 10th century tower.  The tiles were replaced with similar tiles to the original, called louzes.  Each one has to be hand carved out of stone, and extra strong beams inserted to hold the huge weight of stone tiles.   A wonderful sight, and the effort to maintain the heritage very much to be admired.

Some of the tracks were very wet, almost running streams, so we got wet feet!   However, it didn’t seem to matter as we arrived with extremely muddy boots at the parking area where there was an excellent bbq set up.   Wine, beer, pork cutlets, sausages and frites, a hearty meal after that long walk.  We both thought we would be a bit stiff and achy, but not too bad at all.  However, it was not an easy walk home, climbing slowly up the hill in the dusk after it was all over.   We slept well for the first time in a week! 

On arrival, it’s all a bit overwhelming to see the weeds and the state of the courtyard and the house surrounds.   Our gardener had the grass cut and my veggy patch dug, so that was a help, however everything else required a lot of work.  We got to, and fortunately the ground was still quite damp, and it didn’t take many days to get it all clear and looking sooooo much better.

The roses get better and better!

It’s a wonderful season for roses after so much rain, and every time I look at them I am filled with wonder ….   The perfume as I pass by, and the gentle colours and full blooms are magnificent.

I have planted the usual in the veggy patch: tomatoes, aubergine, courgettes, salad, carrots, and onions.   We have also planted an apple tree, a gift from my birthday last year.   We don’t know the names of different kinds of apples in France, so a bit of guess work involved.  We wanted a fairly mature tree, so didn’t have a huge choice.  It’s completely the wrong time of the year to plant, but with good soil, manure and watering, hopefully it will survive.  The fig tree looks healthy after I trimmed all the dead branches, but unfortunately the first figs rotted with too much rain.   I don’t know whether we are going to get any cherries, the ripe ones now are very high, but perhaps we’ll manage to pick a few.  Too much rain in spring and not enough sun.

Repairing the internet connection

I am picking a bowl of wild strawberries most days – and they have made a good ground cover amongst the roses. Heaps of berries everywhere, gooseberries, red currants, black currants and jostaberries, so a big harvest anticipated!   My wild rose at the side of the house has gone mad, soooo much growth, and the honeysuckle has twisted amongst it, using the rose for support.

I won’t dwell on the fact that we had no internet for the first week, except to say that we went to a kind neighbour’s house twice a day to use their internet.  It was very efficiently repaired by ‘Orange’ – used to be France Telecom – and we are very happy to be fully efficiently connected as a result of the new fibre network going past our house.

Otherwise our first two weeks have been fairly sociable with visits too and fro for meals with neighbours.   The rain has produced enormous Burgundian snails – very popular cuisine here, but July starts the season, and no one is allowed to harvest them until next week!

We are always happy to discover birds nesting here, and a family of red starts seem to have successfully launched their young from a little stone house under our galerie. 

My neighbour who prunes our vines, also cut osier canes for me to make baskets, and now I am starting to sort them out and will have a go if I have time.   I must concentrate on writing and researching women of the middle ages.

So far have made green olive tapenade, walnut paste, chicken liver paté, and many other tasty bits and pieces.

So now to have a tour of the garden and see what has happened after overnight rain.

Lots of enormous snails perhaps?