Glad to speak French.

I feel very fortunate in our village of choice, happy that the majority of the inhabitants are French speaking (there are a few very nice British scattered around, but not that many). This morning I went out for a little run and had a nice chat with a French woman from a house a road over (road is really not the right word, lane?- very quiet!) who is up for a vacation. Then I was walking up the road, warming up, and I overtook an elderly woman out for a walk, and again had a nice little chat. She was doing a loop and pointed out a grassy path that she was turning off on. Peter and I later went for a walk and took the same path, and what a gorgeous walk it was! Under some beautiful canopies of trees, past a lovely field complete with a deer, past a kind of creepy deserted house & barn, then through a canopied, grassy trail that led to a collection of houses, a tiny hamlet, I never knew existed. What a fun discovery, all from a conversation I was able to have with a kind, local French person in our village.

Concert at the Château Chabrol in Châlus

FAVA
We had a lovely evening last night; we attended a concert of Opera Airs by French composers performed by FAVA (Franco American Vocal Association) [http://favaopera.org/EngHome.html]. The concert was held at the Château Chabrol in Châlus (known as a major site in the Richard the Lionheart story).  The chateau is privately owned and consists of a private section where the family lives (they’re Dutch) and the great hall where the concert was, the keep and various sections of wall, arches and other ruins in the grounds (which are open to the public) It was a gorgeous setting and there was much wonderful music (and a very civilized glass of wine in the castle grounds during the intermission). FAVA looks to be an interesting organization. They offer a 6 six-week program, have approximately 35 students, nearly all from the US. I had a nice chat with some of the students, who range in age from 19 to 25. They stay in a dorm in Périgueux and walk to the conservatory where they work/practice/rehearse sometimes 7 days/week and have a series of performances, of different types, at various venues around the area. 

St. Mathieu on Thursday.

A 'posey' from Sue, very fragrant sweet peas.

Beach I hope Alex will enjoy!

 I've never seen a handicapped fishing spot.

Happy guy!

St. Mathieu:  We had a lovely lunch out at Tony & Sue Scott’s (English couple who own the gîte where Peter stayed in February, the week leading up to our purchasing in la Boissonnie. It was a harsh winter with a fair amt. of snow, when the pipes froze and the shower, etc in his gîte weren’t functioning when he arrived, much to their dismay). I stayed there for a couple nights and C&R stayed there the jetlag evening they arrived in France back in Feb, too. They’re a very nice couple that have been a good source of support to us, to Peter in particular, a veritable font of information on coping/working/projects in France and are also just plain fun. They live in St. Mathieu (where we went to the night market the other night). After our lunch w/ Sue & Tony, we went off to the lake at St Mathieu, where we hope to hang out with Alex & Sue, wow, next week!!!

La terrasse, enfin!!!

The deck is done!!!!!! Thanks in very LARGE part to Cindy & Rich, merci beaucoup!

Musical evening: France style

We had a very interesting experience last night. Peter had seen an announcement inviting people to come join a singing group. The group is organized by Ken & Eileen, an English couple of a certain age. She is a former opera singer and he, a former professional violinist. Once we found their house, we joined a group of about a dozen enthusiastic singers (mostly British, but some French), after a glass of wine. They are preparing a selection on songs from around the world for a concert in mid August. Eileen led on the piano, and you could easily imagine her in her younger days on the stage. Ken led the singing and played a double bass. He has a booming basso profundo voice (a little less so as he’s aged), an amazing face, a wild mane of white hair and quite a beard. A couple of real characters!! Their house was quite was quite a vision as well. Eileen likes ‘themes’ for rooms and requested the huge sitting room have a ‘Palais de Versailles’ theme. It was quite amazing. It made for a memorable evening and made up a bit for some of the musical involvement that Peter is missing. They invited us to a concert they are organizing at the castle, I believe, in Chalûs on Saturday, which will be fun.

Shopping to outfit house.

We’ve had some amazing shopping experiences. Lots of ‘brocantes’ which are big used furniture, antiques, bric-a-brac shops. They’re usually in huge old buildings. Many are nicely kept up, some are grossly overpriced, some are just plain nasty (dirty, pigeon poopy, etc). We have found some real treasures (including our 'new' leather easy chairs & sofa, and cute wood table in between). We’ve also been to several big ‘vide grenier’ (attic sale), which is like a market, as in the streets are closed off to traffic and people set up stalls, and have their own mini garage sale. Wares can range from total junk to antiques to tools, clothing, etc. We had a great time wandering around Rochechouart (one of our favorite towns) for many hours on Saturday. As we were leaving we passed a sign for a ‘vide maison’ (house sale) and stopped in. It was a massive house where the elderly aunt & uncle had died and all the descendants/inheritors came to have a big sale the same day as the one in Roche. We found some real treasures, maybe bargains? Old pictures, a wood box (looks a bit like an old cradle) which we’ve stained up use as a wood box in the living room, lots of earthen ware jugs, etc. Very dusty but very fun!

We were so glad to have Cindy & Rich’s arms, backs and hands to help put in the sliding glass door in the shop. Hugely heavy panels, really a chore & challenge to install. Luckily our neighbor up the road, Paul, showed up in time to help with the final install!

Brantome & Bourdeilles

Morning market, finally! We spent a lovely day at Brantome market. Brantome is an short hour from here, in northern Dordogne, and known for its market. It was a fairly miserable day to start, which probably helped us getting a place to park. Brantome is called the 'la Venise du Périgord', which is actually kind of silly, but it was very pretty with the River Drone running through it, some pretty bridge scenes, etc. The market was fun, there is a very interesting looking Abbey, many caves into the cliff sides, very ‘Dordogne’ that way. I really got my market fix, which was long overdue. We then went on to Bourdeilles for a nice lunch and a super wander around. Very pretty village, nice garden complete with some caves we would have loved to explore.  We went back to Brantome this past week for a fabulous concert of The Gregorian Voices; really, really good.

Roof project from start to finish!

Careful Cindy!!!

All done!

Projects! We deroofed and reroofed the small room which will be our dining area in the ‘shop’. It was a real team effort and a big project on our list of things to accomplish with Cindy & Rich. Yahoo!!!!!

la Felibrée

 Felibrée
“Every year, on the first Sunday in July, this festival celebrates the traditional heritage of the troubadours who once sang in Occitan in courts right across Europe. Dedicated to the Occitan language and region, the festival features costumes and traditions from the Périgord and is renowned for the paper flowers used to decorate the streets of the village. The programme includes a typical meal from the Périgord, known as the “taulade”.” (gotofrancenow.com)

Peter & I went to and really enjoyed the Felibrée in Piégut-Pluviers last week. The decorations, costumes, energy, market stalls, demonstrations- it was all good. And there was nary an English speaker in sight (except us, of course!!!)

 

 

Mother Nature

Close encounter with mother nature; we had three owls in the upper reaches of ‘the barn’ the other day. Very cool looking. They have been successfully liberated!