The end: summer 2013.

Well, another fabulous summer has come to an end. Here we are enjoying a last meal out at the relais de Gorre, the day before my return to Maine.
It was a super summer and it went by way too fast. We got tons done, had some fun, saw some new places, spoke lots of French and worked hard. Now I'm off to see our girls and the rest of the fam, then back to school.
'Til next year!!

Peter looking relaxed, waiting for his espresso.

Contemplating my yummy fruit & meringue.

Starters. Ate the other courses too quickly to take pix.

Bountiful

There are lots of things for Peter to harvest over the next month or so. Hopefully the peaches will be ready and the apples will be ripe. Evidently there was a super crop last year. There are still tons of herbs to be eaten, rosemary, parsley, thyme, tarragon, sage. Even some tomatoes, and the odd melon, hopefully.
I hope the kiwis I planted will winter over well and they'll be kiwis to harvest in 2014. Can't wait!!

massive sage

rosemary

Failed musical outing

Peter and I had many wonderful, successful outings. We were jinxed, though, on a couple of musical outings. We tried to go to an organ concert at the cathedral in Limoges. We got there, sat in the audience with many other people, and it didn't happen. No signs. No announcement. Just cancelled.
Then we decided to go see a fully staged opera put on by the group we saw sing at the chateau in Châlus. In was being staged in the chateau in Excideuil, which is an hour + from us.
We decided to make a day of it and explore some.
We went to St Yrieix la Perche (lovely cathedral in a nice medieval section of town). Peter was pretty excited about the organ (famous requiem performed there directed by the composer), then onto see the castle in Coussac-Bonneval. The tour of the chateau was super, even learned a new word 'douariaire' (that our chorus group was fighting over- some of the French members thought it didn't exist and'or was a typo).
Then we went on to Excideuil for dinner and the opera. About 5 miles out, we started seeing houses with tarps on them, every 2nd or 3rd house. Then more & more. Even in the town. We went up to the chateau and there was tape across the entrance. Even the tourist bureau was tarped (completely wrapped in plastic!)
We had had a big storm the previous week and this area was hit by a major hail storm, the roof of the chateau was destroyed along with hundreds of buildings in a 5 mile radius. Crazy.
Maybe next year. The town was beautiful and the chateau looked glorious!

Coussac-Bonneval: in same family since year 955.

Fab looking castle in Excideuil. Hopefully visit next yr!

See that black plastic? Destroyed roof of visitor center.

NOT my idea of fun

We decided to cut down a number of small trees between our yard and the neighboring field, which is occasionally inhabited by 5 cows. NOT my idea of a good time, but glad to have done some. It really opens it up nicely. Now need to move the compost thing out of sight.

Concert at Gorre

We participated again this year in a concert at the church in Gorre (basses in kilts! not sure why!) Nice group of people, roughly 50/50 french/british. Pretty unexciting old standards, but fun. Run by a lovely, eccentric couple of a certain age, Ken & Eileen.

More progress

The retaining wall, starting with Rich's foundational work, then from start to not quite finish. I had hope to render the block before leaving, but it wasn't meant to be- ran out of time! It will either wait til spring or Peter will do it this fall. My first experience with mortar and wall building! Next we need to think about laying the patio!

le 15 août

August 15th is a big day in France and in our town. It is the town's annual 'fête' and it is the Feast of St. Mary (l'assomption de la vierge- the day Mary went to heaven). It is celebrated in the usual ways, all day festival/markets, dinner and carrying on ending with the ubiquitous fireworks! A good time was had by all, it was especially fun sitting with our friends Gerard et Christiane from down the road.

Today's lunch & project(s)

Lunch today was yummy: tomato, cuke & basil (last 2 from my & Christiane's garden), salade chevre chaud (dressed greens with toast points and warmed goat cheese, yum) pâté, a bit of ham, strong mustard and the obligatory baguette. Holy yum. Good thing I go running every other day. Oh- and followed it with sorbet (a scoop of black currant, my fave, and pear) and a square or four of dark chocolate. Coffee on the way. Man, la vie EST bonne!
Projects today, sheetrocking the ceiling in the dining room of 'shop'. Hoping to get the chainsaw going and clear a couple skinny trees between us and field/pasture to the side of us.

Then we're off to Gorre to sing in a concert! Busy, busy!

Vide grenier

Peter & I love going to vide-greniers, literally attic-emptying, yard sale type things. It can also have more organized folk who regularly attend such markets and have other stuff for sale (artisan, tools, etc.) This was in our little town of Champagnac-la-Rivière where we got lots of good stuff, including the 'fameuse cocotte minute' (the 'infamous pressure cooker', as the gîte de France rep called it) to continue outfitting the rental cottage. Now we're off to the dinner & fireworks, as it is a big 'feast day' today.

Jazz manouche

There are so many things going on here this time of year, it's hard to choose! We had heard about a concert series at a castle/garden location in Solignac, not far from Limoges. The venue is called 'les jardin sonore de la borie' and consists of a very pretty, very narrow chateau and a series of gardens with sound and water features. The apéro-concert was held in the courtyard of the chateau. The best I can do for jazz-manouche is gypsy jazz. It was really good (very reminiscent of the music from the movie 'Chocolat'). The weather threatened but stayed lovely and warm.

La randonnée

The French love to go on walks and there are very many walking trails available to explore, either solo, as we did, or on organised 'randonnées', which Peter has done.
This was our first. There are brochures with trail decriptions available at the local tourism offices or online. It was quite well signed, a lovely walk, about 8km (5mi) and took us a bit less than 2 hrs. It led us past one of my favorite private chateaux, in Cromières. Mostly it was on little trails or small rural roads with only one very short stretch on a 'real' road. We went through a gorgeous little hamlet (with the clédier, the round structure, for drying chesnuts back in the day).

Molly's au pair family from Bretagne

Molly spent 6 months as an au pair in Brittany this past fall & spring and was lucky to have found such a wonderful family. They spent several days with us on their way back north, complete with a trip to the lake and making 'compote de pommes' from miniscule, very unripe apples from our tree.