Winter jackets

I’d been really disappointed yesterday as we’d been invited to our friends annual Beaujolais Nouveau soiree and due to my poorlyness we had to let her know that we couldn’t go.

Faced instead with a quiet night in, Brian put us a couple of large jacket potatoes in the oven, to get nice and crispy, before serving them up with lashings of butter. Delightfully fluffy baked potato is rather delicious and very comforting.

This morning we woke, rather late it should be said, to a snow covered garden.

It looked like a little winter wonderland, all cold and frosty.

Looks like being another quiet day in the warm, with plenty of hot tea.

Under the weather

It’s snowing here this morning. It’s a good job we’ve got all our ‘closing up for winter’ jobs done.

I’m also feeling rather under the weather, with a bad sore throat and zero energy. So a day of curling up in front of the fire will suit me nicely.

Pharmacy bottles

In the summer, we purchased a couple of old pharmaceutical bottles at a vide grenier. We like these kinds of things, as they bring an immediate period feel to wherever they are put. However, they were looking a bit grubby and too much of their age, and really not great for displaying, so Brian set about cleaning them up and mending any fragile areas of the labels.

First things first, they needed flushing through with a lot of very soapy water. During their wash Brian dealt with the cork that had got pushed through into one of the bottles. He did this by stabbing it with a sturdy kebab rod, which broke it into two parts, which then made it easier to pull it out.

Next were the labels. Parts of them were torn or coming away. The trick was simply to softly clean the surfaces, then apply a PVA based glue with a tiny brush and push the edges back into place. Both bottles needed work, but a little care meant nothing was lost or damaged further.

Hey presto! The two bottles are looking much better, and I can’t wait to see how they’ll look when we choose their final home.

Wintering

With the pool now closed for the winter it was time to start closing down the outside water systems. The first part is to drain the water pipes leading up to the pool. This begins with shutting off the power to the water pump, then opening all the taps, which are scattered around the gardens.

The next step is to drain all the water from the circuit. This happens in the unsalubrious surroundings of the cellar.

It’s important to drain everything, as it gets cold in there over winter, and any trapped water will freeze solid, probably breaking something in the process.

It didn’t take Brian long though, he’s getting pretty used to it now.

French property news

When we first arrived in France we were often asked, ‘Why have you chosen here to live?’ Our response was often that we didn’t chose here, it chose us. It’s a delightful story that we still often share with our guests, if they want to hear it.

So recently when we were approached by a French property news journalist, to feature in an article she was writing, we welcomed the opportunity to be involved. The series of articles she wanted to include us in are based around ‘What is village life like in rural France?’. The readers of French property news are often people looking to buy a house in France, either as a holiday home or a relocation; like us. Although when we first bought the house we were not looking to relocate…but that’s another story.

It was a delight to answer the questions posed to us, letting us reflect on our decision to live in France, which was so right for us. It was a huge compliment to be asked to contribute.

Here is the article below, if you are interested in reading it. You can also access the magazine online, via the France Media group, if you are interested in reading other stories about life in France.

Day dreams

Brian took this picture of three passing clouds because he thought they didn’t really look very real. He said they look like someone had drawn them badly in Photoshop. He’s always looking up, and I often think he is just day dreaming, but then see him taking photos of the sky or cloud formations. I think they fascinate him. Here are some more that he’s taken over the year which are quite spectacular, and often very beautiful.

Closure

Brian woke early this morning, ready for a last minute job. The pool was due to be closed today, and he still had a few things to do to prepare. So off he set up the hill.

He’d already spent some time cleaning it yesterday, so that it’s ready to be winterised, but he needed to prepare the floats and bungs ready to go into the pool to protect it from the winter temperatures.

it’s quite late this year, closing up the pool, but the temperatures have been a little high to add the winter chemicals. It’s finally cold enough now, but November is rather late in the year for us to be closing the pool, we’ve normally closed it by now. See you again in May for our daily swims.

Brush cutter

After our visit to the shop to get our brush cutter sorted, it was just a matter of waiting for a bright, warm day to finish the garden, and we didn’t have to wait long.

With the sun rising in the sky Brian wasted no time getting up the hill and attacking the meadow areas that had very much gone to seed.

The three bladed disc was so much better than the wire for this job, and he was soon sweeping his way through the thick foliage.

A tiring few hours later and all is looking better, and promising a healthy start for next spring. Hoorah!

Fold away

When we went to view some tools for sale the other evening, I spotted a beautiful little bench under a pile of bits and pieces. I couldn’t quite see it, but liked what I could see. Mainly the painted slats. I asked the lady if it was for sale, and if so how much? “30 euros” she replied. I didn’t even ask Brian if we should have it, which is very unlike us. I just said I’d like to have it please. and found 30 euros in cash in my purse to give her.

Our friends very kindly offered to bring it round to us in the back of their van. Which was lucky as I’m not sure it would have fitted in our trailer.

Since getting it home, Brian released the nut where the bench folds up from with some WD40 and we now have a pretty little bench I can fold away for winter. I will look to danish oil it in the spring to protect it against the weather.

Five euros!

Every now and then we see something at a market that we can’t pass up, even if we don’t know what to do with it.

In 2022 we saw a tired, slightly damaged and very dirty shelf at a stall in a marché aux puces. It wasn’t attractive, but on closer inspection Brian realised it was oak, and for five euros it was worth it just for the wood. So we bought it, with the intention of using the wood or putting it up in Brian’s workshop. But the other day, whilst he was working on the oak for the library wall, I noticed it leaning up against a wall, and thought it might work well in the library. So to see if it would work, he first sanded it down.

The sanding got rid of the stains, but the wood still looks very dry. He next glued the broken section together.

It’s now ready to oil, which will hopefully bring the richness of the wood out. Then we’ll have to see what it looks like on the wall.

Brushed off

Kneeling on the garden slope, with a half finished job and the sun fading fast, is not the best time to try and understand how to swap the end of the strimmer for the brush cutter blade. However, we hadn’t predicted we would run out of wire, and we definitely hadn’t predicted the swap would be so complicated. According to the less-than-perfect instructions we were missing two very important parts, and could do nothing about it. So work stopped, and we were forced to plan a trip to the shop we bought it from, to hopefully work things out there. We’d had a good experience buying the strimmer, and could only hope we would have just as good an experience going back.

The next day at the shop we were greeted warmly, and before we knew it the two staff at the counter were reading manuals, taking things apart and working hard to understand how it all went together.

Within minutes they had worked it out. Apparently the two missing parts are found by taking even more of it apart, then reassembling them in a different order. I don’t think there’s any way we would have worked that out for ourselves.

We were already delighted with the service, but when we went to pay for the new wire the lady looked at me and said, “Votre nom est Simpson, oui ?”. Now we had only ever visited the shop once, at the beginning of summer, and yet she remembered our name. Incroyable !

Visitors

The autumn sun was out, and the sky a beautiful, vivid blue, it was just a perfect day to show some of our friends around our little ‘coin de France’. We wanted to take them on a walk up into the vineyards, and finish up at the point de vue.

As we strolled, and chatted about our different lives in France, the cranes appeared overhead, and decided to join in with their own chattering. I think the whole village could hear them. They are truly delightful.

Such large distinguished birds, that despite their size are very elegant in the air.

As we reached the point de vue the sun was just starting to set. The air was starting to chill, and we could see the smoke of the wood fires being lit in the houses below. The cranes had flown back to the lake, to settle down for the evening, and all was silent again.

The changing sky always delights me, and the stillness of our little village makes for a beautiful place to live. I can see why the cranes like to visit.

Rolling home

Where has this week gone? It seems to have flown by.

It began last Friday when some friends invited us over for a Vietnamese dinner. It was rather spectacular, and started with little, deep fried prawn balls on sticks, presented in a glass vase. They really did look like little flowers, as they were covered in fried glass noodles.

There was delicious treats to follow, spring rolls, panko fried prawns, pork dumplings, Vietnamese spiced chicken and beef and mango salad. Then finished off with sweet, mung bean and sesame treats.

We really did roll home. Thankfully they only live just 100 metres from us.

Onion tarte

I thought I’d try out making an onion tarte today. I wanted something similar to what we’d eaten at the onion festival, which we all loved. I was pretty pleased with the outcome, and it got the thumbs up from my taste testers, who all thought it was delicious.

I started by blind baking the puff pastry for just ten minutes. I used puff pastry as I prefer the lightness it gives a tart.

I caramelised about six, sliced shallots, then popped those into the tart case before crisping off some bacon and adding that in. I peppered it and added a few leaves of thyme, with a sprinkling of Comté cheese. I then whisked up three eggs with some creme fraiche and a bit more pepper. I poured this into the tart case before sprinkling a bit more cheese on and baking it for 20 minutes.

It’s so easy, and definitely worth it.

Snipping again

I’d asked Brian if he could come and help me in the garden. The area in the corner of the walled garden was looking a bit untidy. The lavender I’d had there had died, and the irises needed tidying up. I think I will look to move one of my hydrangeas to the corner, although first we want to repair the lime mortar in the wall, to help strengthen the stonework.

I left him digging it over, whilst I went to prune and tidy some of the roses and peonies. The tree peonie’s buds have dried out by this time of year, so they are ready to be snipped off.

The new buds are starting to form, so I snip them just above the bud, careful not to damage any new growth.

We then got the shredder out to clean up all the pruning. It’s great being able to reduce the rose cuttings down to a bag of mulch for the garden. It saves us from driving it to the tip, and gives us a great base for our soil.

Speeding up

Last year there was a flurry of activity in Viviers, in fact in all the villages around, as the workmen descended to lay fibre optics.

It’s something of a mission of the French government to ensure everyone has access to high speed internet, but I really didn’t imagine a small village like ours would be so quickly included. Anyway, this month we finally decided to join in, and get a speedier connection. It all started with a man and a van.

The chap began by accessing the connection across the road. Then he quickly decided we would have the same set up for our wiring, which was overhead.

he was swiftly up his ladder and threading a cable across the top of the house. Next he needed to have access for the cable into the house. I made sure I was right there when he did it, as I don’t like surprises, but he was surprisingly careful and efficient.

After putting a plug on the end of the cable inside, all that was left was to connect to the main box across the road.

Voilà. All was done in super fast time. For all those that knows about these things, you may be interested to see what a little village in the French countryside can offer in internet speed terms.

Me, I just know it’s fast.

Halloween

We set the pumpkin up outside, positioned on a log. Lit it, and waited to see if we’d get anyone passing by.

We didn’t have to wait long before we could hear the chatter coming down the road. Some very excited children, already I think high on sugar, were gleefully rushing from house to house. They didn’t disappoint, about 20 kids came running across the road when they heard one of their mates call out to them ‘Bonbons’. My copper cauldron of chocolates and toffees soon disappeared. I think next year we may have to get more creative.

Pumpkins

I love Halloween, with all the brightly coloured pumpkins and squash. I enjoy making pumpkin soup, or roasting it with cumin to have with your roast chicken, or pouring a tahini dressing over it to eat as a main dish and let it just stand out on its own. But apart from eating it, I also love the art of pumpkin carving, although not something I excel in. This year, I bought a pumpkin for Brian to carve, so we can put it outside the gate on Halloween and wait for the kids to pass by with their ‘trick or treating’.

The pumpkin is looking great and I have the treats all ready. Whoo-ha-ha!

That time of the day

After visiting the market and having a wonderful lunch we went for a stroll around Sens.

It’s a beautiful city with picturesque views. From the long, tree lined avenues, to the wide, glistening river.

We wandered across the bridge and found the covered food market, in a square with the cathedral opposite. We will need to revisit here one day to take a look inside the cathedral, and hopefully visit the market.

It was the perfect spot for a late afternoon drink and a chat with friends.

And as we headed home the sun began to fall on the horizon. What a lovely day.

Marché du puces in Sens

On Sunday there was a flea market in Sens. It’s about a 90 minute drive, but it was such a beautiful day, and the drive is super easy, so we thought we’d make the most of it and travel down for the day with our friends, and of course there’s always something else I need.

We arrived around 11am. It wasn’t too busy, but there was a satisfying buzz about the place and the stall holders were in good humour.

We had some fun rooting through the various stalls, and enjoying a little chatter with the sellers. It didn’t take us long before we had made some purchases

It’s fascinating finding little, old gems that would have been once loved by someone, we give them a good clean, and sometimes they need a little bit of a mend, then we treasure them once again.

Our treasures from the day were two Johnny Cash records, a fun little man on the bongos – which will look great brightening up a shelf – a beautiful old round glass vase (which I’d been looking for ever since my friend gave me some flowers and lent me a similar one) and a small, framed oil painting dated 1849, which is delightful. It’s one of those paintings that wants you to peer in, and see all that’s in the view. Finally, a pretty little frame that needs some work. The photograph in it is actually very sweet, but I’ll put one of ours in it when I’m ready.