Swallows and irises

The irises up near the pool are now in full bloom, and looking absolutely gorgeous. Brian popped up to take this photo for me.

I’d just been doing a few bits indoors and had left the front door open. As I was just finishing a phone call, two swallows flew in. One darted into the salon, while the other flew the other way and ended up with me in the salle à manger. I think I was way more panicked at them being there than they were. After a scary, high speed fly around both birds settled quietly. Luckily Brian came in just as I was starting to flap! He calmly opened the windows and out they flew.

Such beautiful elegant birds, and so stunning on how they manoeuvre without hitting or knocking anything. Just delightful. I’m not sure I’d have said that if there had been any little accidents on my newly covered chairs though.

Set for summer

It was a day full of excitement yesterday. First of all I finally managed to finish my little upholstery project, and all six chairs are now completed. There is certainly a lot I’ve learnt about upholstery in doing them, and things I’d do differently, but I love the finished look. Ideally I’d like to do another chair straight away, to see if I can apply what I’ve learnt, but I’ve got so many other things I need to be doing that I think it will need to wait for a while. A jolly good job done for now though.

The other piece of excitement was our pool has been opened today. The pool company arrived to put the pump back together, remove all the wintering devices and set us up for summer. I have to say I am quite looking forward to some quiet time relaxing by the pool, when the sun finally comes out!

Festival des jardins

It was a little overcast on Sunday, but I’d wanted to visit a garden festival at Rumilly-lés-Vaudes. It’s a pretty little village with a delightful mediaeval styled chateau that was finished in 1532.

I was happily surprised that there was a large and colourful array of plants and flowers on sale to brighten up the day.

I was soon immersed in the process of choosing which plants I wanted to buy. I was looking for some geraniums for my window boxes and my planters around the house. I decided these are a good option this year, as they are predicting that it’s going to be a hot dry summer.

There were also a number of craft stalls selling some gorgeous handmade products. It really is delightful seeing the care and time that people invest in their craft and love of making things.

Coronation day

Brian was meeting a producer we hadn’t visited before in Landreville, as we had arranged for our guests to do a tasting on their way to Troyes. Landreville is literally the next village to us, so an ideal option for our guests. I decided to stay back to have a little tidy up, then once I’d done that I settled myself down with a coffee and a prime viewing seat for the coronation of King Charles 111 and Queen Camilla.

It was such a wonderful event, and the coverage was excellent. Brian returned around noon, just in time to top me up with another coffee, then we sat together enjoying what was a magnificent spectacle.

Champagne and gougères

Our guests arrived around 6pm. It was a warm evening, so after a quick freshen up they were soon enjoying gougères and a glass of champagne in the garden before joining us for dinner in the salle à manger.

It was a wonderful evening. It didn’t take long before we were all chatting, sharing stories, telling them about our journey to create the bed and breakfast and how we’d moved to France, and learning just enough about their very interesting lives, to understand they are all very well traveled, and they love champagne.

It makes us feel really good when our guests leave feeling rested and refreshed. They left us with a wonderful gift from Estonia, a little sign of their appreciation, which we now can’t wait to try. Thank you ladies hopefully we will see you all again one day.

For the love of champagne

Our guests are arriving shortly, and we are really looking forward to meeting them. They are three ladies from Estonia who love champagne. It’s a long journey for them, so I think they will be ready to relax when they get here. It will be interesting to learn a bit about their country, as I’m not sure I know that much.

I’ve cut some flowers and foliage from the garden, placed some in their room and arranged some around the other rooms in the house, which they can enjoy whilst staying here. I do love to bring the outside in.

Relaxing garden

It was another glorious day today. We have some guests arriving tomorrow evening, so I wanted to have a tidy up in the garden. I’d mowed it earlier in the week, so Brian got the strimmer out to tidy up around the edges whilst I did a bit of weeding and planted out some geraniums. I need to buy a lot more, but these will give a bit of instant colour.

Brian has also started to prune the box trees, although it is quite a task, so the others will happen over the coming weeks.

For now though, as the sun sets, the garden is looking like a wonderful place to relax.

Wheelie heavy

Our sideboard was being delivered today. We’d prepared the ‘library’ as best as we could for its arrival. We have a pair of doors that exit into the courtyard, so the plan was for them to bring it in this way.

However, one man and a van with two wheelie pallets was going to make the delivery quite difficult across the gravel courtyard.

Brian realised the wheelie pallets were just a hindrance, so went and got our trolley, and although this was not ideal, it was a help as the cabinet was extremely heavy for two guys to lift. I have to say though that the delivery chap really threw himself into getting it in place.

it was a huge struggle, and we were very glad when it was finally in situ. After seeing the delivery man off Brian put the drawers back in, and I got to cleaning it.

We are loving our latest purchase but won’t be doing much more now with it, or the room, until next autumn, but we do have lots of ideas.

Feeding time

We woke to beautiful blue skies this morning, and it didn’t take us long to set our table up outside where we could enjoy an idyllic little breakfast.

We have a pair of blackbirds that have returned for another year, so we sat quietly trying to work out where they have nested. Daddy bird is definitely bringing in plenty of food for Mummy bird and possibly chicks, as he is making regular trips flying in and out of the barn. We have yet to see the nest though, but hopefully it’s also suitably difficult for predators to find.

Musée d’art moderne

We had some friends from the UK visiting us last weekend. On Saturday we decided to go to the ‘musée d’art moderne’ in Troyes. It has just reopened after an extensive refurbishment, taking about three years. They are still working on one of the floors, but they have not let that delay the opening any further. Even though it is not finished, they still have a great collection of artwork on display, which is well worth a visit.

I think Brian’s favourite piece is a sculpture of a jesters head by Picasso, a really delightful bronze. I have to say it really is quite beautiful.

However, I do love Degas. I’ve always loved the way in which he depicts people, and the dancers he paints are just exquisite. They have a rather cheeky statue of a girl bathing, which I really admired. I love how he has captured the movement of the girl, how you can really feel her washing her hair.

Over the two floors there was an interesting selection of artists, including Picasso, Degas, Rodin, Seurat and Modigliani to name but a few.

Morning sun

Last week we bought a beautiful Acer. We both love the vibrant green, delicate leaves it has through summer, which turn a deep red in autumn. I am a bit concerned the hot summers here may burn the leaves, but we have chosen a spot that only gets the morning sun, so fingers crossed.

I think it will add a delicate contrast to the roses in the garden.

La Fête du muguet

‘Le Premier Mai’ or ‘la Fête du Muguet’, or even ‘Fête du Travail’ is a reason for a public holiday in France. La Fête du Muguet, which is the ancient name for the festival, is when you see people selling little bunches of Lily of the Valley in the street. I just love seeing them, and they are most often outside the boulangeries, as they are probably the only places open for business. It’s the only paid holiday day in France when employers absolutely cannot ask their employees to work, hence the other name for it ‘Fête du Travail’, or Labour Day. It had been celebrated on and off until 1948, when it was finally written into law, and definitively established as a public holiday.

Das wonky

I bought this little porcelain statue last year at a vide grenier. I think I paid about 5 euros for it. I love using it as a table decoration when we are having dinner, as it has a view from 360°.

The trouble was though it had a missing foot at the base, so sat rather wonky.

Brian assured me he could fix it, but I have to say it was never a priority and I didn’t really mind it’s wonkiness too much. However, he has been working on fixing it for me bit by bit. It was quite genius how he did it, and with such patience.

He used some white clay called Das, which dries in the air. He first made a cast from one of the other two feet. He used this dried mould to make the new foot, which needed some finessing before fitting it to the statue.

No more wonkiness.

Tree down

We’d had a day pottering around in the garden, and we’d been talking about removing some dead fir trees that are looking brown and twiggy. There’s five of them in all. We are not sure why they died, although I do think they just didn’t like the hot summers we have here. We agreed it would be good to wait for some help, to pull them out completely with the roots attached.

I’d nipped in to sort some lunch, and when I came back out Brian had taken three of the trees down and laid them in the courtyard.

“Wow! How did that happen?” I asked. “Thought I’d just give it a go, and they just pulled straight out”.

Straight after lunch the chain saw came out and he made short work of cutting them up. Three down, two to go…

The power of flowers

The days and evenings are warming up, which means a lot more of the flowers in the garden are starting to bloom. The daffodil’s which have been out now for a few weeks, are just starting to fade, but the tulips are looking bright and gorgeous.

I just love the vibrancy of the yellow tulips. My tree peony is also just starting to bloom, it’s a beautiful cheeky pink. I think a few of its flowers will definitely make it into a vase.

For now though it’s an eclectic mix of colour from the tulips, purple irises and some lilac, mixed in with some garden greenery. I just love this time of year for flowers, they do bring me such a lot of joy.

Sourdough

Brian has been trialling making some sourdough bread. I have to say he is getting rather good at it. A friend gave us some of her starter to get us going, and explained the method she uses. He decided to bake it in a cast iron pot as a round loaf and it came out really well.

I was cooking us some white asparagus for tea as it’s currently in season. So we had a simple supper of asparagus sautéed in a little butter, lemon juice, water and seasoning, served with freshly baked bread and salty butter. Delicious.

Clean sweep

We are starting our big deep clean. I’m expecting it will take a good couple of weeks, as we will break the jobs down and do a bit every day. Brian started on the oven and canopy. He regularly cleans the filters, but today he had the whole canopy gleaming from top to bottom.

I have started on the china shelf. It’s a delicate operation, but I love taking the time and care to check over and wash all my pretty little tea cups and items I’ve collected.

Hardcore

Sunday morning we decided to pop out for coffee and a pain aux raisin. It was a bit of a threatening looking sky, but it was warm and there is a small veranda to enjoy the view of the vines from. We we sat and enjoyed our coffee together.

When we got home Brian asked if I could just help him in the well room to move some wood. I couldn’t just move the wood as it was all a bit of a muddle in there, so we got changed and set to work. I started by tidying an area over the actual well where I could store some pots. Brian started putting some hooks up on the walls to hang our gardening tools. It wasn’t long before we felt we’d already achieved. Cleaning and sweeping as we went.

We then needed to address the wood. It was a mixture of old beams and floor boards, all useful at some point in the future. We moved it to the back of the room, out of the way, but easy enough for Brian to get to if he needed to.

We obviously couldn’t stop there! He had a pile of stone, which he was keeping to use as hardcore (yes another project on the list) which was currently in his cave. He needed it to be moved to progress the cave further, so we spent the next 30 minutes moving it into our now nice, ‘clean’ and tidy well room.

A good job done.

Brushing up

Mushrooms are one of my favourite foods, I find them very versatile to cook with, and can often be the centre part of a dish or as a side. They are delicate little things, which grow in the dark, and need a lot of humidity to produce their familiar caps.

We have a farm about 45 minutes from us who grow some delicious mushrooms, and sell them at the local markets in the area. I particularly like their Champignon de Paris brun, which are quite tight in texture, very tasty, and their pleurottes, a bluish mushroom shaped a bit like a trumpet. These are wonderful sautéed in a bit of butter, garlic and parsley.

These fragile fungi often have the remnants of the earth they were grown in embedded in their caps and stalks. Washing them also washes away their flavour, and rubbing them with a tea towel easily damages them. So the other day, whilst we were in Troyes, we visited one of our favourite hardware stores and purchased a ‘Mushroom brush’. Shaped like a little mushroom itself, this brush allows us to get the dirt off of the mushrooms without causing harm. Splendid!

Blossom and wine

The plum tree is full of blossom this year, so I’m really hopeful that we are going to get a bumper crop. We had pruned a few of the trees in the garden some weeks ago, I’m not sure if that made a difference, but all the fruit trees are definitely looking healthier. Today we spent the day mowing, strimming and generally tidying up on the slope.

The grass is looking lush and green, after enjoying the mix of rain and sunshine we’ve had lately. It is spotted with patches of yellow cowslips and daffodils, which always makes for an interesting mow.

It was such a glorious evening we decided to enjoy an early supper up in the garden. A choice of local cheeses, some homemade chutney and a rather nice bottle of Morey Saint Denis.