Pretty morning, new crop

Beautiful morning. The fields by the Moulin de Brie mill pond are planted with sunflowers this year. Two days ago there were very few flowers out. Amazing what some rain & hot weather will do. Here are a few pix from a morning run.

Progress

We are continuing to make progress. We took a good trip to Firbeix to visit two nurseries. We bought a buddlea (little one, see big one on previous post) and a second kiwi plant (a female, to keep the auto-fertilising one company and pollenated). It takes ages to plant stuff, I don't know why. The buddlea is at a 45° angle from the line of mock orange and hydrangeas, starting to create a visual barrier between the 'barn' yard area and the 'shop' area. The kiwis are meant to be good climbers and are planted at the base of the barn wall.
We also decided on what to put between us the neighbors- not a fence (you'll be happy to know C&R) but a laurel hedge. They evidently grow well and fast and are very hardy (hard for us to kill!) Start that tomorrow.

Peter completed & installed the headboard he made for the twin room upstairs in the gite.  It looks super.

We had a delivery of building supplies delivered to start working on the barn patio, and I cut in a couple temporary steps.

Local lunch out

We decided we should try some local restaurants to be able to share recommendations with gîte renters (likely story!). We went to le Relais de la Tour, a small place about 3 miles away. We had the 13€ lunch prix fixe- starter of local fresh melon, followed by tourtière (potato, roast pork, veg in a pastry) with salad, followed by the cheese course, then dessert (éclair au café for me!) and coffee. Oh and 25cl wine. Not bad for about $16 each. Fun.

buddlea, just planted one in our yard.

Concert formidable!

 

There is so much going on here this time of year, it's hard to decide which activities to do. Last year we saw many ads for the Labyrinthe de la Voix (labyrinth of the voice, what a weird title!!!) a series of vocal events held over two weeks, held in Rochechouart. This year we decided to attend the opening event, a free concert held in the courtyard of the chateau; a concert by a group called 'Les Amants de Simone'. It was one of the very hot days, with the temps still around 90° when we took our seats at 9pm. Luckily the sun had dipped below the walls of the courtyard and it eventually cooled off. It was fabulous! It was a group of 5 men and 12 instruments. They wove a slight storyline in with traditional and new French songs. They were wonderful. They did 3 encores, the last two were like jazz jam sessions between 2 accordions, a violin, guitar/trumpet and piano. Incredible. The accordion and violin are wildly wonderful together and oh so FRENCH! A super evening that so exceeded our expectations.

Amazing night skies

Two nights in the last week have been absolutely amazing!
For some reason the contrails and the sunset colors that night were incredible.

Last night, the full moon, misty and gorgeous through the trees.

Les ruines

There are so many ruins in France, old chateaux, churches, abbeys, so many that they often don't appear on any maps. These ruins in Marthon had a little sign on one of our maps and we decided to check it out- we're glad we did; it was a charming village and deserted ruins of a castle.
In one of the local papers for expats, there was a notice for "Abandoned France", a site I would like to check out to find even more noteworthy sites to explore.

à la Ferme Auberge de Bredoux

We had a very fun meal experience out with some friends this week. It was at an auberge, not a proper restaurant. They only do lunch, by reservation. Our friend, who had suggested it, made it sound much more rustic than it was. It was in a farmhouse, way out in the willywags. The food was lovely, traditional, simple. Six courses, with apéro, evidently their own wine, finished with coffee and a tiny bit of homemade eau de vie aux pruneaux. Yum.

 Next was homemade pâté, rillettes, jambon et beurre (et cornichons, bien sûr).  Main course of beef roast au jus with carmelized onions, yummy potatoes and green beans.

Followed by salade and then fromage, accompanied naturally by piles of fresh crusty bread and good red wine.

Ending with one of my faves, clafouti. We were there under three hours! (closer to 2.5) Good fun.

ps: that evening: long walk, tea & muesli for dinner!

La cuisine- ongoing shop renovation.

The kitchen is now nearly done, hurray! Washing dishes in the tub was fine, but not for a long-term solution. The pictures here show the very rapid evolution of the room. From Kaitlyn painting in May to its current status.

Kitchen cupboard install: Peter pulling his hair out.

                             Success- What a guy!!!!!!

Day out

On Wednesday, we went off to a fabulous market in Piégut-Pluviers (site of last years Felibrée celebration). It was a gorgeous, HOT day, very colorful. No pictures of actual market, for some strange reason! We bought a few jugs & pitchers to put in various nooks & niches, some English pork pies & cornish pasties for supper (Peter!) and a lovely hibiscus and a small kiwi tree for the garden. Roasting, we stopped off at the lake at St. Mathieu for a bit of lunch at the lakeside cabane and a lovely walk around the lake.

Donjon at Piégut (=tower, not dungeon!)

Shop renovation, aka home sweet home, part I.

Remember, this is what our current living quarters ('the shop') looked like.

Peter (with many other helping hands!) has been working hard and we have made remarkable progress. He is master tiler, sheetrocker, floor layer, among other things!

to be reminded of what it all looked like, and how far it's come, go back to my July 2012 posts.
Coming next: chapter of shop renovation: the kitchen!