My name is Jo, and in 2020 I moved to France with my husband, Brian. From our move to France, to running our B&B, my blog, which you can read below, is a diary of ‘Our French Adventure’. I share short stories about the Champagne region, and its people, and the life we have embraced here.
River runs deep
It was absolutely wonderful being able to entertain friends again. I really enjoy cooking for people, especially when they enjoy eating it.
It had rained earlier in the day, quite heavily, so we thought it wise to eat indoors. We have had a day of short, sharp showers, but they are heavy when they happen, just like having a bucket of water thrown over you. The little river in front of our house had risen slightly and was not looking its normal crystal clear self, but I do love the sound as it sploshes past the window
Dinner tonight
We are having friends over for dinner tonight, so looking forward to it. Table all laid and ready for them to arrive.’
Slow roast pork cooked in wine and fennel with plenty of crackling.
Rose to the occasion
Great excitement this morning as the lady from Colissimo (parcel delivery) blew her horn on the van as she approached our gate. ‘It must be the ceiling rose’ Brian exclaimed. Out he ran to greet her and take receipt of our parcel, before she sped off to the next delivery with a smile.
After I had given the chandelier a really good clean and replaced the bulbs, Brian carefully fitted the rose to the ceiling and rehung the lamp. It has become a really useable space with the vitrine, which we had bought from the depot vente in Troyes, now in place.
Too hot, just yet
Absolutely beautiful blue sky today, and although we had a big day tidying up the garden, pruning roses, mowing the lawn and trimming the laurels, I made time during morning coffee to enjoy reading my magazine that arrived in this morning’s post. It is so delightful to sit under the umbrella, listening to the bees collecting their bounty from the lavender, whilst reading what’s happening across the diverse regions of France and sipping at my ‘too hot to drink just yet’ coffee.
One year on
It was a year ago today when we arrived in France anxious but excited, and so looking forward to our new adventure.
I cannot say that I wouldn’t change a thing, as we have had some low times, but we have also had some glorious highs and learnt so much. I know that moving to France was a wonderful decision for us, and with the support of family and friends we are thriving here. My mum and dad and Brian’s mum (Hilda) were so supportive of our move, and dad and Hilda continue to encourage us and share in our successes.
We will shortly be opening our chambre d’hôte, something we have been working towards, and cannot wait to welcome guests into our home and share our hospitality and a little bit of the region with them. Exciting times ahead, and we are looking forward to our next chapter.
I hope you all will continue reading and enjoying my blog, and providing your comments. I love receiving them. Please feel free to share it with friends and family if you think they will also enjoy the read.
Sunflowers
We had a day of getting lots of little jobs finished off, and it was all very rewarding. I scrubbed the stairs, then polished them, which they soaked up and are looking much healthier. Brian waxed the landing floor, which again was very dry and looked much better for being nourished with a good dollop of beeswax. I then cleaned the window and we hung the curtains back up. We brought my new vitrine in, and after Brian had stabilised it on the very wonky floor, we stood back and admired the look. We just have a couple of bits still to do and then I will photograph it, but I can say it is looking good.
After all that, we loaded up the trailer and took a lot of rubbish and garden waste to the decheterie, it was quite a full mixed load, but the chaps at the tip are so helpful, directing us to the right container and helping out to get the job done. It’s great knowing it’s all gone again. Well, until the next time.
On the way back we pulled over to take in a gorgeous field of sunflowers. They looked so bright and beautiful against the striking blue sky, enjoying the warmth of the day.
The roads were quiet as it was lunch time, so no one was there to mind us pulling along the side of the road to take in the view. I just love being able to take the time and delight in simple pleasures like this field of stunning yellow sunflowers all smiling and staring at the sun, and stretching to be just that little bit taller.
Toile de jouy
I’d been looking for some fabric to make a curtain for the shower room door in the Jeraboam and had decided I wanted to get some ‘toile de jouy’. Toile de Jouy is a fabric that originated in France in the late 18th century and originally comes from the town Jouy-en-Josas in a south-west suburb of Paris. You would probably recognise it as it has quite a distinctive look. It tends to have a white or cream background with a repeated pattern printed on it. The patterns will often tell a story, normally involving a french country scene, but some included more industrial stories or detailed fables. The fabric used is normally linen or a light canvas, but now often cotton. Toile made a bit of a comeback in the 70’s when designers started using the patterns for shirts, and then again in 2000 when the patterns started to appear on teapots and other homeware. But toile has also appeared in other countries, it was popular in the US in the 1930s, particularly in the historical areas such as Williamsburg, all having their own stories to tell. Modern fabric designers today, such as Timorous Beasties, are still producing it.
Troyes has a strong history in textiles, and has an amazing collection of fabric outlets in the old warehouse area under the Ellen brand. The ladies in the upholstery and curtain outlet that we went into were super helpful, They had a good selection of toile for me to chose from. And I will definitely be going back for some upholstery fabric too.
It was great having my sewing machine all set up in the atelier ready to cut out and sew up my curtain.
Relève le barre
We nipped out this morning for coffee and a pastry and noticed this sign en route.
I said to Brian that I thought it was to advise that the maire would be taking water meter readings next week. I didn’t know exactly what it meant, but from what I did know this seemed a fair translation. He asked me if I knew what relève meant, which I didn’t. So a quick look at our translate app revealed it meant ‘relief’. Which then didn’t seem to make sense of my translation. So he looked up ‘relève de’ which means ‘succession’, so ‘relève de famille’, means family succession. So again, it did not make sense of my translation. So this time he looked up ‘relève des compteurs’. Voila! it means ‘meter readings’. He then mistakenly typed in ‘releve’ (without a grave accent) and got ‘raise’. So as a joke he typed ‘relève le barre’, (this time correctly with a grave accent) and that translated to ‘raise the bar’. So, it seems, relève can mean relief, succession, raise or reading (at least, but there may be others examples!).
I think we need to understand the use of this a bit more, but for now it’s a good example that when translating a sentence, it needs to be as a whole sentence, as words on their own can often have totally different meanings when taken out of context.
Ups and downs
I’d managed to get a first coat on the landing by early afternoon, so Brian was then filling all those little gaps with decorators caulk. It makes such a difference.
Then after lunch we were both painting. The stairs are a little bit tricky as there are lots of nooks and crannies just out of reach - so Brian came along with his new invention, his ‘brush-o-matic’, a stick with a paint brush gorilla taped to the end.
Above the window has come out really well. A clear example of why the hallway needed work.
Before/after
All white
Some of the areas that needed to be fixed.
The weather the last couple of days, where we are in France, has been very persistent rain. So much so we needed to let some water out of the pool - but that’s another story! Firstly, we have been using the cooler days to focus on decorating the landing and stairs. There has been lots of having to make good, which Brian has been doing, and it is now starting to look like I can begin the painting.
Above the window, Brian cleaned it down and added a round wooden edge, this matches how the sides of the window are finished. He then filled and sanded it. Looks far more considered now.
The hole in the ceiling is now filled, it has had a few layers and once it dries tomorrow we can sand it and get the ceiling painted
Fête Nationale
Today is Fête Nationale.
Celebrated across France, and marks the anniversary of the storming of the Bastille, which happened on this day in 1789. The Bastille was a medieval armoury/fortress and political prison, and represented royal authority in the centre of Paris. There were only seven inmates at the time, but it was seen as a strike against the monarchies’ abuse of power. Its fall was the kick off for the French Revolution. A key moment in French history.
Our village held its own celebrations last night with a candle lit walk through the village, followed by a spectacular firework display, which lit up the Champagne vineyards with its own fizzing and popping.
Chateau de Taisne
Church of Saint Peter in Chains in Les Riceys
On Sunday we visited Chateau de Taisne in the beautiful little village of Les Riceys, which is about 20 minutes from where we live. The family still live in the chateau, so you cannot visit the interiors of the main building, but you can visit the 12th century Cellar and the Grande Cuisine, including the bread oven room. The really beautiful part of the visit though is taking in the view of the chateau from the gardens - and the gardens themselves, which are open to visitors. It’s wonderful to be able to visit a chateau that is still being enjoyed and used today.
In the centre of the extremely manicured box hedging they had grown a very colourful meadow, which was delightful. It felt like we had walked into a painting by Seurat, one of his bright, colourful, pointillist pieces.
They were hosting a gathering of artisans, who were producing some very high quality products. There were a few different wood workers, one making shingles for roof tiles, another carving a very large piece of oak into a twisted pillar, and another making large wooden garden games. There was also someone restoring, and producing, very beautiful guilded picture frames. Within the Chateau, in one of the cool stone rooms that was topped by a vaulted ceiling, there was a costumier, a basket maker, a lady recaning chairs and a lady potter.
I was particularly taken by the pottery by GG, who has a poterie at the ferme BELAIR, in Bouix (21330). We will go and visit her studio at some point, but whilst we were at the Chateau we decided to treat ourselves to one of the gorgeously shaped jugs she had created. The soft light made the pearlescence of the glaze glitter against the gentle brown and cream sheen of the fired clay - it now stands proudly on my jug cupboard.
We finished the day enjoying a chilled bottle of Pouilly Fuissé and some locally produced mozzarella, with a tomato salad, and with basil from the garden, accompanied by some charcuterie.
A very pleasant Sunday.
Marché nocturne
Couldn’t be a better evening for me. Champagne, a night market, and a marching brass band - just love it.
Despite the little bit of rain, everyone was in really good spirits. The shops in the main Street all had stalls outside their shops, and smaller local artisans had also set up stalls selling handmade jewellery, bags, soaps, sweets, and of course champagne.
The band was excellent, full of energy and rhythm.
Hole in one
It was a beautiful day for a spot of gardening yesterday, the sun was not too hot and there was a slight breeze. I wanted to plant up some herbs I’d bought and do some weeding. The big job is to prune the roses, but I’m tackling that one rose tree at a time.
I was slightly amazed when I stopped to make some tea and checked in with Brian on how he was getting on with the landing. Slowly was his response. He then proceeded to show me a photo of the hole that had ‘appeared’ in the ceiling. He assured me it was not as bad as it looked! I was a little bemused as to how this had appeared - and he explained that once he started to knock it, it kept falling down.
I went up to take a look, and first saw the debris on the floor. What he hadn’t told me though, was that he had already started to fill it in.
He assures me a few more layers and some sanding and I won’t notice a thing.
Namaste
The other day, before we headed home from Troyes, we decided to go and try out an Indian restaurant we had found. We’d actually been looking forward to it all day. We got there as soon as it opened, at 6.30pm, and we couldn’t help but share our enthusiasm with the young chap who owned the restaurant. He’d told us he’d owned it for just over 2 years, but had only been open for one year. Brian asked him how hot they served their dishes, as generally the french don’t eat spicy foods and we’d found that even when buying chillis in a supermarket they are never very spicy. He told us they served their dishes “quite soft” but he could make the dishes hotter if we wanted them to. “That would be great!” We both exclaimed.
I have to say the meal did not disappoint us. It was authentic, with a french twist, i.e. it was quite smooth in its taste, even though they had added more spice for us. I had a lamb and spinach dish. The lamb was succulent and tender, and full of vibrant spinach. Brian had chicken ticka masala, which again was very succulent and layered with flavours. It was an excellent meal and we will definitely be going back.
First time I’ve seen champagne served on an Indian menu
Depot vente
I wanted to look for an armoire or vitrine to go on the landing for storing linen in, so we decided to go and take a look at the depot vente’s in Troyes, of which there are a few. These are large storage houses selling second hand furniture, which they may have collected from doing house clearances or as donations, as they are often associated to a charitable organisation - but not always.
You do need to be prepared to look through a lot of stuff you would not buy to find something you would. The first couple were not very fruitful, although I nearly bought a bike, which I would like to get at some point, but for now we were focussed on the cupboard.
The third one, called General Troc, not only sold recycled stuff but new things as well. It was a real treasure trove. The first cupboard I spotted, and obviously loved, Brian didn’t like, and told me I wouldn’t either when I got it home. It was quite a different style to the rest of the house, more arts and crafts, which is a period I love, but not for our french house. The next one I found was just €50, but had a very wonky door, which Brian said he could not fix. It was french rustic with dark, glossy varnish, but I told him I would paint it and add a curtain to the glass door to cheer it up. He still didn’t agree it was the one. However, the one next to it was just what I wanted. It wasn’t too tall, or too deep. The glass door, which was lockable, had its original old, rippled glass still in it, and the wood was lighter, maybe cherry. It was delicate but not overly so, and had three good sized sturdy shelves - ideal for linen.
We are having it delivered, and I can’t wait to get it in place - need to decorate first though.
A blank canvas
This is the landing on the first floor, which links the two bedrooms - the Magnum and the Jeroboam - and which is the last room we need to decorate before opening up our Chambre d’Hôte. Over the next week or so we will be working up here to introduce some more colour and style. It is definitely a blank canvas that’s in need of some attention and I’m looking forward to seeing it come to life.
Sébastien and the robot
Sébastien, the pool technician, arrived about 9.30am and got straight to work carrying his tools and our new pump up the hill. We were pleasantly surprised when he came down around 11.30am to say he had finished and did we want to go and look. The first thing we noticed was how quiet the new pump was, and then Brian noticed the water in the pool rippling far more than it ever had done, as the pump quietly spat out the filtered water.
During the four days of no pump the water in the pool had turned green. So Sébastien needed to shock it to kill off the algae, then over the next 48 hours the algae would die and fall to the bottom of the pool, which we would then need to clean. This afternoon Brian put ‘Robbie the robot’ in to help clean the bottom, whilst Brian cleaned down the sides and steps. We cannot wait to be back into a sparkling clean pool again.
Trimming the box
We have about 20 Box bushes around the garden which all need trimming. I had initially thought to leave some and let them grow naturally, but the branches become long and heavy, and they just open up from the centre. So I’m now determined to get them all cut into shape and keep them like it.
They definitely make it look more like a french garden.
