Who Ate My Cheese?

Karen, this one is for you

bisous, LGG

We are feeling stressed

This week has been thin on postings. The pace of renovation work could be called "fever pitched". Monday there were so many workers and trucks in the garden it looked like a parking lot for a construction company. The plasterers came back to finish the reception and loft, the macon came back to set the stones around the door (photos of before and after), we had the plumber installing the shower, the electrician making the wires to the bedrooms hot, and RXC tiling floors. They arrive at 8 am and yet again work until 8 pm, even the lunch break is shortening. Tuesday however, the macon arrived before we woke up! Monday the painter arrives to prep the walls.

There is no time in this schedule to look at fixtures, tiles, and the hundred other things that are needed to finish up the work. This means that we have to go to Bordeaux on Saturdays. So again this morning we will take off shopping. Last Saturday we ordered wall tiles for the bathroom and sinks. We still need a tiny hand sink for upstairs, 2 toilets, tiles for the shower floor, grout, faucets, you get the drift. We can buy these things in town but the choice is limited. Our taste goes more towards the traditional and what we find close-by is moderne, eurostyle.

And in all of the dust and deafening noise of construction, I sit 6 feet away at the computer and write. Volume 1 of THE BOOK is due at Alta Mira Press on Tuesday. It is just about pulled together, formatted, page numbers have been added, but illustrations still need to be labeled and the chapter on emergency planning, safety, and security is a bit thin, so I continue to write. Postings for next week may be a bit thin as well.

Pastel

In the Gascogne village of Lectoure there is an enterprise that is devoted to the blue color derived from pastel in French or woad in English. They are trying to revive growing woad as a crop and then using the colorant for making paint (low VOCs), dyeing fabrics, selling pigment for artists, and they also use the plant oils for making skin care products. All of it is bio or organic. We stopped in their shop in Toulouse last year, and Sunday on the way back from Castelsarrasin we took a detour to their headquarters. Because it was Sunday only the shop was open, but we got to walk around the site which is an 18th century tannery. The owners are truly hooked on the idea of blue from the pastel plant. Pictured in the photo is their Jaguar that they had painted blue using their pastel pigment. The second photo shows the woad plant in seed.

A Happy Man

We finally caught up with our friend Bob on Sunday. Bob and his wife Peggy are building their dream to be able to sail in the US and in France. They sail on the Bay now and last fall bought a canal boat over here. It is on the Canal laterale a la Garonne in one of our favorite market towns, Castelsarrasin. The boat works just fine but needs some TLC inside. That will take Peggy no time at all to fit out with bright curtains etc.

Bob is retired and does not yet speak French; Peggy's French is very good. So this summer's plan is for Bob to live on the boat in Toulouse and take an intensive French language course there. Here is the newly arrived Bob! We had a great visit on Sunday, an excellent lunch at the St. Louis, and by this posting Bob may already be on his way to Toulouse at a very civilized 8 km an hour. It is important to dream but even better when we are able to make our dreams a reality. Peggy joins Bob in June for her vacation and we plan to catch up with her then. I will post for more images of Castelsarassin and lunch tonight when web traffic is lighter at http://www.flickr.com/photos/petillant

Yesterday's Lunch

Just so I don't go on and on too much about the renovation I have included a photo of the delicious dessert I had with my lunch yesterday. We thought we would go to the Leroy Merlin in Perigueux instead of Bordeaux. Big mistake. Small store, nothing in stock. But as consolation, we ate lunch at a restaurant along the road home. It turned out to be fabulous. Most of the food was produced locally. The front page of the menu listed each producer, few were further than 10 miles away. I had a wild salmon starter that was smoked in-house. My main course was sturgeon from Montpon. There was a cheese course and then this panne cotta. Rxc had a duck meal starting with a salade perigourdine, then confit with wild mushrooms (it is morrel season), and fromage blanc with red fruit coulis instead of a selection of cheese. He had strawberries and whipped cream for dessert. The wine came from about one mile from our house.

A Day Shopping

Today is a holiday (Ascension Thursday) and we were going to meet a friend in Castelsarrasin. But Aer Lingus has not been kind to him so he has yet to get there. Instead we are off to Bordeaux to order tiles for the bathroom and pick up toilets and sinks. We could buy them through the plumber but his catalogs have units which are ultra moderne so he said we could just buy what we want ourselves. Luckily Leroy Merlin (the French Home Depot) is open today.

Pictured is the finished loft ceiling which now has a skylight to give us more light in the space above the old kitchen. We already have a skylight in the loft space above the living room.

The New Door Arrives

The new front door and window showed up today-a week early! We open the sliding glass doors everyday by 8 AM but on some days we have no expectation of workers arriving. Today was just one of those days. We were just discussing going up to town for breakfast when I saw someone in the old kitchen and received a cheery bonjour. Two workmen came in with the new wood window and door. The window went in easily, but they are having to fiddle a bit with the door. Zabelle who misses nothing was the first to go and check out the new entrance. She stood there for awhile hoping for a demonstration but as it was not functional yet she sat down to wait for the workers to come back from lunch and let her in.

Bottles to Market

Yesterday was a day to label and put tax capsules on wines at Chateau BasMonts. Our neighbor's brother (and partner) is recovering from a very serious surgery and is not able to work. So other family and friends (us) pitched in for a day of work. Palmeiro has a nice set up of conveyor belts and a labelling machine that enabled us to label and box about 4,000 bottles of wine yesterday. The 2007 rose, 1998 Bordeaux, the 2005 in oak and not in oak were the wines we labeled and boxed. Work began at 8:30 am and went until 7 pm but there was a delicious 2 hour lunch (bien sur) in the middle. What I found interesting is that every bottle gets a capsule which is how the tax on the wine is paid for. In the morning Palmeiro went up to town to get his capsules for that day. Look at the photo in which they are stacked in the box, they are represent a lot of money he has paid out to the government well before the wine is actually sold. The whole process can be seen at http://www.flickr.com/photos/petillant/sets/72157618339140957/

Sketching the Doors and Windows of Ste. Foy

Saturday the town of Ste. Foy invited the locals to come out into the streets and sketch. There were many people who participated in "la journee des portes and fenetres" and artists could be seen scattered in the alleys, streets, and along the river with their sketch pads. At the end of the day, the sketches would be assembled in the town's gallery for a showing and to be judged by a jury. This young artist is sketching the window across the street from her which happend to have a cat sitting in it.

Birthday Lunch

Yesterday was rxc's birthday so we celebrated it by going out for lunch. We have yet to investigate all of the restaurants around Ste. Foy, but for 10 years we have heard that the resto at the aerodrome was the best. It is perched on a hill overlooking the Dordogne valley and has a lovely view. It is open by reservation only and mostly at the weekend. So we had a 12:30 seating for our celebration lunch. We got there and it looked closed, not a car or evidence of people anywhere. But we parked and walked up to the door and there was the owner Madame Raffin waiting at the door to take us upstairs to the dining room. We spent the next 3 hours having an exqisite meal in an otherwise totally emply restaurant. M. Raffin prepared everything with skill and care and the meal will be remembered for one of the best we have had in years. Menu included jumbo shrimp flammed with whiskey, coquilles St. Jacques, lamb (rxc), tournados Rossinni (moi) cheese, salade, dessert, coffee, and a 2005 Pecharment. Same time, same place l'annee prochaine.

la Comedie Francaise

During April and May the small paper signs appear in most towns. They announce the annual piece de theatre by the local troupe. In our little village we have les Amuses-Gueules who put on a comedy each year. They are the same 5 or 6 folks who love comedy, theatre, and to ham it up in front of their neighbors. Last night was the first time we have been here to attend a show. We know most of the group and stage helpers and as it turned out other villagers who attended. It was a typical farce with doors opening and closing, funny accents, missed telephone calls, and men wrapped in towels. It was well attended and truly a night to be en fete. A special note, not many stage sets have an award winning quilt on the wall. At left is Isabell's quilt which won first prize in the September Patchwork de Pays-Foyen exhibition.

Roofers Return

I was incorrect to think that work on the house was stopping until the plumber arrived. The roofers returned yesterday afternoon to insulate the roof and install the wood slat ceiling (lambris) in the loft. Three workers showed up just after lunch and stayed until well after 6 PM. They have returned this morning and I suspect by lunch we will have a new ceiling in the loft. With all of the insulation we have put in the house, I think we will stay very warm this winter and have lower fuel bills.

Waiting for Joe (the Plumber)

Renovation work is at a virtual stand still. The new porch is attached but the front needs the window and door which are being custom made. All necessary work for the bedroom area is done except for digging drains for the new bathroom. This work needs the plumber and of all the workers, he has been the one who is rarely here. The master bedroom has it's new walk-in closet which is created from space in the large central hall. The walls are all plasterboarded and insulation is everywhere, the new electric, telephone, and cable lines are run, the second bedroom has the ensuite bathroom framed and cement boarded (colored green in the photo). RXC is to tile the floors and all the tiles are staged. But nothing can move forward until the plumber comes to create a water line and drains into the new bathroom. So all this great progress we made in the first 3 weeks has finally caught up with us. We do not expect any workers for at least a week maybe two as the plumber is on some type of training course. Sigh.

Dessert of the Day or Plan de Travail

You may have noticed fewer dessert of the day postings. The calorie content was getting to the waisteline. However, there are strawberries everywhere now so an indulgence was called for. This tart is a sublime combination of lemon custard topped with fresh strawberries and slivers of almonds on a cookie crust. It also gave me the chance to photograph it on our new granite island or plan de travail. It took about 6 weeks to get made but works well in the kitchen. The color is called Kashmir White and is a warm gray with gold and brown flecks. It sits on top of Metro shelving racks which we cut a to height that was comfortable for kneading bread and making pastry.

Market Change

May is the month of holidays: May Day, Victory in Europe (1945), and Ascension Thursday. And with these holidays there is a noticible change in the region. The weather is mild and conducive to sitting outside at the cafe. Today there was a marked increase in the English who have arrived to spend the summer at their maisons secondaire. The Saturday market has become a "summer" market. There are many more vendors and they sell clothes, jewelry, perfume, candles, and straw bags. The produce is green, abundant, and the reigning vegetable at this moment is asperagus. We love both the green and the white types and end up eating one or the other most days. Eventully we will feel sated, but not yet.

Calypso Demands Equal Time on Blog

Calypso too enjoys the terrace and garden. She is affected most by the renovation. She gets quite skittish and wants outside as soon as the workers arrive. She has her own little hidy-hole where I suspect she observes all but is completely hidden. But at dinner time she comes out and hangs on the patio with the rest of us. That white blob in the lower left corner of the photo is Dante's big foot.

Zabelle's Garden

Zabelle continues to enjoy the simple things in life. As her 19th birthday approaches, she has slowed down a lot, is quite stiff, and much more mellow. She tolerates Dante and Calypso much better than she did her own children. She is taking the renovation work in stride. She dines most days on poached chicken and milk. I buy a whole chicken a week for her and she never seems to get tired of it. She loves heat from any source, so you can find her in front of the fire on a chilly evening, on top of a big transformer which supplies our house with 110 volt power, or like today on our bright sunny terrace.

Ain't No Rock That's Big Enough

Yesterday the noise inside the house was deafening. The electrician was drilling through 2 1/2 inch thick concrete walls positioning new switches and sockets. So Dante, Calypso, and I spent the afternoon outside. Belle is deaf so she heard nothing. Afternoon being high nap time, Dante needed to find a nice place of repose. He decided on this rock, but as you can see it was not big enough. It took him quite some time to get comfortable.

The Gendarme's Conundrum

Those of you who have heard our nightmare stories about trying to get the US made Ford pickup we (impulsively) sent over here approved to drive on French roads will recall that it took nearly a year, 2 trips up and back to Paris, 1 trip to Bordeaux, purchasing temporay liscense plates, months when the vehicle was off the road, and close to 5,000 euros. So thinking all was good, we drove the pickup into Bordeaux and on the way home were stopped by 3 gendarmes. They did not like the rear liscense plate. Not legal, can't read the bottom row of letters well enough. Yes, yes, yes we insist. It was passed by the DRIRE! That means we got exemptions to all sorts of French codes. Silence. No ticket to give out with this stop. So after 45 minutes discussing life in France, size of plate letters, and how we could make the gendarmes happy we agreed there was no immediate solution and we should go back to the DRIRE (over my dead body). But once again we are hesitant to drive the truck. Hopefully we can get a custom-made plate that is smaller but still have regulation size letters and numbers of between 70-80 mm.

Fete du Travail and the Sounds of Silence or Not

Today is May Day, the worker's holiday, and pretty much everthing is shut down here except for cafes and restaurants. The news is reporting that over 300 demonstrations are being planned by French workers. We verified with both the architect and contractor that no one would be working on the house today. They looked at us as if we were green for even asking. So we began to plan accordingly. A morning run up to town for a croissant and coffee, maybe getting the bikes on the road if the rain held off. Then the knock came at 8:45 am. Three plasterers have shown up! So we will continue to make progress on the house even on the fete du travail.