Creeping in

For those who have followed my posts for a while now, you may remember the painting Brian had started on the library wall. Well it’s time to progress it.

He’d been a little unsure as to how to develop the leaves, and it had slowed progress. He’d thought of being more graphic, but I liked the idea of a more natural approach, like the outside was creeping in.

He has rekindled his motivation now, and has a plan to push ahead and work on it over the coming weeks.

I can’t wait to see it develop and grow across the wall, creeping in from the outside.

Eclipsed

Our friend Sharon arrived earlier this week to stay for a few days. It was the evening of the eclipse, so we decided to enjoy a glass or two in the garden before the big event.

The rosé de saignée from Drappier was a rather delicious way to set the mood. It’s full of red fruit flavours, strawberries really come through, and makes for a delightful summer aperitif.

The time flew past as we chatted and sipped, catching up on each other’s news, whilst waiting for the sun and moon to do their thing. What we soon realised though, was that we would need to go to the top of the house to see the actual eclipse.

Brian left us enjoying our Champagne in the garden whilst he went to take me a photo. We enjoyed the ambiance, with the fading light in the garden, and the stillness of the birds that this rare occasion created.

What was your experience like?

The Race

In France, ‘JA Warrior’ is a popular farming themed event. The young farmers of France, Jeunes Agriculteurs, organise it during the regional agricultural festivals. It takes the form of various different farm-themed challenges, which may include: climbing giant walls of straw bales, moving heavy hay bales, running through tractor tires, or other similar tests of stength and agility — which I must say all sound pretty difficult in such hot weather. However, our Jeunes Agriculteurs had a different idea, and organised a combine harvester race! It sounded pretty thrilling.

We took a position by the fence, to see the drivers preparing, which obviously included some last minute tweaks with a welder.

The young contestants seemed fearless, perched up high in their home-built safety cages, as they trundled to the start line. The flag was waved, and, to a chorus of revving engines, they started chasing each other around the hay bale track, often side-swiping the vehicle in front to try and gain an advantage.

What fun it was to watch, and a real delight to see the support they gave each other to get their ancient harvesters moving.

La Fete de l’agriculture

At the weekend we enjoyed a day out at our local farming show. We’d never been before, and were rather impressed with the scale of the event, and the amount of effort that had been put into making it such a fabulous experience.

We didn’t spend too much time looking at all the oversized machinery, and instead headed off to see the prized animals.

The sheep were looking particularly cute, with their little black faces and feet.

They had set up a free ride for the children, being pulled around the show ground in converted oil drums behind a small tractor — what fun.

A little more exhilarating , perhaps, were the ‘half-cars’, racing around a dirt track with no tyres on their back wheels! Now that was potty and made for a great spectacle.

However, what we saw next made even the half-cars look tame. Brian has a ‘video-in-the-making’ to follow tomorrow, so brace yourselves!

Affouage

Some friends had asked for our help collecting their ‘affouage’ from the forest. They take an allocation from their commune each year to cut firewood for their domestic heating needs, and in French that’s known as affouage.

Apparently it is an ancient legal right dating back to the Middle Ages that allows local residents of a French commune to harvest firewood from municipal communal forests. It is not something we do, as it is a big investment in kit, and a very labour intensive task. Something we do not have the skill or muscle to fulfill.

They had been allocated a patch deep in the forest to cut, and had previously done the work of chopping down the marked trees, and chopping them up into logs, earlier in the year. They had then stacked them in to piles, ready to be collected. That’s what we were here for. Brian got stuck in, helping load the trailer.

It was heavy, and hot, work. Once we’d loaded the trailer we drove back to the house and helped unload it. This wood needs to sit now for three years to season before burning.

A swim in the river was a welcome relief to cool down and chill out before a delicious dinner at the trois pianos.

Cocktails & sundaes

Last night we met up with some friends for pizza. First, we met at theirs for cocktails, a Hugo spritz—apparently it’s all the rage. It’s an extremely refreshing drink, with lots of floral notes, with a real citrusy kick, I have to say, it was rather delicious.

It’s made with Elderflower cordial, sparkling water, or soda water, and Prosecco, or some other type of sparkling wine. It was quite delightful, and set us up well for our dinner of pasta and pizza.

Brian and I declined on dessert, however, after seeing JM’s red fruit sundae I have to say I may be tempted next time.

Simply irresistible.

Dinner with friends

It’s always such a delight being invited out for dinner with friends, but it’s also important to remember a little gift. My dahlias are thriving in the warm weather, so I picked a few, and scented them with some rosemary to take to our hosts. Brian picked out a bottle of wine.

The view over our village was spectacular from their balcony, and it’s a perfectly shaded spot on a warm evening.

As the sun set, Marinus lit the candles, so beautiful against the red rooftops of the little stone houses. A simply delightful evening

Skies

I always find seeing the moon during the day fascinating. Apparently, it’s because the sun reflecting on it is brighter than the daytime sky.

Our sunset this evening was rather glorious too, as we had just enough cloud to create an orange glow, making for such a serene and pleasant evening.

Then around 1am, the clouds had built, and the storm came. The sky was a vivid lilac every time the lightening cracked across it, framing the edge of the valley. I managed to sleep right through it, but Brian woke to a clattering shutter, and took the opportunity of taking a photograph.

Such a wonderful, changeable world we live in.

Voigny

Day two of the champagne festival we headed to Voigny, a village we hadn’t visited before. It had 4 producers open for tastings, so our taste buds soon came alive, and we were all up for the day.

Things, in more ways than one, were looking similar to the day before, with Jon enjoying another plate of oysters—this time with a few prawns as well.

Voigny was a very interesting village, with a number of the producers featuring Pinot meunier quite strongly in their assemblage. We will definitely go back to revisit some of these.

The next village was Arrentières, which again had 4 producers. The day was hotting up though, and we realised, after about our 7th glass of the day, that things were getting too hot, and our pool was beckoning.

It was another wonderful champagne festival, shared with family and friends, and full of beautiful memories.

La Route du Champagne 2026

This year the champagne festival was focused around the area of Colombey-les-deux-églises and Bar-sur-Aube.

It was an area we have not really explored before with regard to their champagnes, so made for a fabulously different event, with 22 different producers to try.

We started early, excited to try as many as we could. The group were keen to find a favourite champagne, but my brother Jon seemed more interested in the oysters that were on offer.

It was a fabulous day, and we didn’t finish tasting until final orders at 6pm, a slow drive home, and a simple supper before bed, and do it all again tomorrow.

Fresh as a daisy

We enjoyed a little bit of rain last night, which the garden has just slurped up. It is smelling clean and fresh this morning, with a crispness in the air. I love those sorts of mornings, they remind me of camping holidays.

The dahlias, have sprung into life, with droplets of rain still clinging onto their petals, savouring the nourishment for when they need it later in the day.

Along with the daisies they are actually flourishing in the heat, with just a little bit of water.

These are my large daisies, which I haven’t dead headed, I thought I’d leave the flower heads for some snacks for the birds.

Beads of glass

We woke early, anxious about the pool technicians arrival — He was due at 11am. I had some shopping I needed to do, so headed out, and left Brian to open the pool in readiness for them.

He had been worrying about how they were going to get all their kit up to the pool to change the sand for the filter. The best way, of course, would be to drive their van up to the top of the hill, but as I was the only one who knew the way through the vineyard I also needed to get back in time. Luckily I did, and we were able to navigate the bumpy path. It was a bit hairy though!

They were soon unloading the van, and getting on with replacing the sand with fine beads of glass.

With the filter now complete again, and the pump re-primed, they vacuumed the pool, and checked the chemical levels. All that was left for Brian were the final touches.

Imbalance

The pool has been very well used this summer, and, with such warm weather, Brian has had to work very hard on keeping it healthy.

When the pool is open all day, he has to monitor the chemical levels daily, as the sun breaks down the chlorine, which in turn can create other challenges. So, as a precaution, he wanted to get the water analysed. To do this, we take a sample to the pool company we use in Troyes, Eau Devine.

The technician had soon tested the water, and advised that our phosphate levels were looking high. This could also be contributing to the levels of chlorine declining. She soon provided us with a list of tasks to undertake, and a solution to add overnight to bring the phosphate levels down. Advising us the pool would look very dirty and cloudy in the morning, so more work to sort this out, but a better position on the chemicals.

Unfortunately, the cleaning of the pool, after removing the phosphates, has not gone well, and we’ve got air in the system. Today another technician will visit to help us get back on track, and at the same time replace the sand in our sand filter, as we believe this could be a contributor to the high phosphates. 🤞

Muriel

Started our day today with a coffee and pastry at Les Halles in Bar-sur-Seine. It’s always a delight. Muriel, the chef, wasn’t too busy, so came and had a little chat with us, always pushing us on our French, which we really welcome.

We then headed round to the tourist office…

….and picked up our ‘route du champagne en fête’ passports.

Looking forward to a great weekend.

It’s a stretch

The roses have looked gorgeous this year. A friend of ours, Trevor, cut this rose back earlier in the year for me. He had been much braver than me, and had given it a really good prune, and it gave lots of beautiful flowers. It has been flourishing most of the summer, but the blooms started to die back during the last week of the canicule.

I’d managed to dead head the low stems, but needed Brian to help me with the higher up stems.

The red rose at the front of the house is still blooming, however this will need some care over the coming days.

The white rose is the rose which was pruned back when the garden wall was chauxed, and, again, got a really strong cutting back. It’s looking really healthy. I know I keep saying it, but I must be braver when pruning my roses.

Libellule

This year we’ve started seeing dragonflies in the garden. They are called libellule in french. I think that name suits them way better, as they are so delicate and graceful, darting around the flowers, resting on a leaf, or branch, to take a little breather. Then off they flit again.

I was quite surprised Brian managed to snap this photo, but this little chap was particularly brave.

Nectarine jam

I haven’t made nectarine jam before, but last year a friend gave me a pot that she had made with some nectarines I had given her, and it was so delicious, I decided to make some this year.

It is such an easy recipe: 1 kg of nectarines, chopped into 1” chunks, 750g of sugar, and the juice of one lemon. I also added a vanilla pod, which I had opened up, to add a softness to the taste.

I let it cook a little longer than normal, as I wanted a thicker set to it. The deep orangey, red colour looks so delicious, I can’t wait to try some on a piece of fresh baguette.

2kg of nectarines made me about 8 jars of jam.

Black is black

We’ve recently given our seating area on the top floor a makeover. a few years ago Brian’s mum gave us her old Ikea chair and footstool. Our cat, Boo, loved sleeping on it, so it was now looking a little bit tired, and in need of a makeover.

Recently, his mum also gave us a black leather chair with footstool, so we thought ‘what a great time to update the Ikea chair with a new black cushion’.

We were enjoying the new look, which was quite different to the rest of the house, and gave us another really comfortable place to relax.

Then, for Brian’s birthday recently, he was gifted a gorgeous round table in the shape of a muselet. It also has a cork top to it, which we were keen to protect, so we ordered a piece of round glass on Amazon, which fits perfectly on the top.

We are loving the whole look.

Coffee time

Remember back to our trip to Paris, and our visit to the Bacha coffee house, well this morning we decided it’s time to enjoy a cup of the delicious coffee we had bought from there.

I’d bought some pastel de nata, custard tarts, which I thought would go down very well with the smoothness of the coffee we had chosen.

It was everything we had remembered of it, and made for a rather special and delicious coffee break.

Été Gourmande

We then headed to the summer gourmet festival in the centre of Les Riceys.

It was coming up to lunchtime so the rather pleasant seating area that had been set up under the shade of the trees was starting to fill up.

We had not planned to stay for lunch although the moules et frites was very tempting and smelt delicious. We resisted though and headed to look around the many food stalls that were displaying their wares from all over France.

The rose garlic looked especially good. It was firm to the touch and extremely tasty. The very friendly lady behind the stall offered me some hot garlic soup, so that I could taste the garlic, and which was rather delicious. I bought the larger of the garlic plaits, €20 for 10 bulbs. I was told to keep them in the fridge and they would last up to 6 months, I don’t think mine will last that long!

We then found the stall selling mainly smoked pork products, but also smoked duck. We managed to taste our way through all of their produce, which had been reared and smoked by the father.

We bought some of the filet mignon and saucisse, both will keep for a month in the fridge.