Saturday, May 26, 2007

Last Night's Debauchery in Paradise

Not exactly debauchery but enough food, wine and booze, to respectfully SUPPORT such an occurance.
We had invited the newest members of our ex-pat community to dinner, Friday at 6. They were Jonny-on-the-spot and showed up exactly at 6. Kelly and I talked with them a short while when BRRRING! Brrrring! went the doorbell, I knew IMMEDIATELY that I had screwed the goose when Bob and Chuck's smiling faces entered the foyer. Aw Jezus...I had told Bob that he and Chuck were invited to dinner NEXT Friday...this Thursday afternoon. Talk about embarrassing moments, I felt like a complete idiot. Bob and I talked and I explained that with a 2 burner hob and facing a 6 course dinner (YES!) that it was just damned difficult to fit in 2 more TONIGHT, then in a fit of pique I said, "no problem, we'll make it work". With that I grabbed the requisite 2 chairs, moved the silverware to accommodate 2 more at the table and set out to slice another tomato and shred more basil from the garden and then plate now 6 appetizers with balsamic vinegar and olive oil. We all shared a delicious Chateaumillant Red in the parlor, the first time that room had b.een used by anyone but us. Talk, talk, talk and we became thoroughly warmed up for t and he dinner to follow. We moved an hour later to the dining room and shortly thereafter the appetiser was gone. More wine, a delicious Reuilly white, then a small pesto plate followed. I excused myself many times to check the progress of this and that and Kelly and I were like a tag team keeping track of the kitchen. With Bob and Chuck there it made for much more lively chat and covered our absences well, it turned out to be a blessing. Then the Chicken Piccata on red pepper/lemon rice and asperagus with roasted peppers were served. Plates exchanged and hauled to the middle room between the new kitchen and the dining room.
A cheese course followed, a sharp Tillamook Cheddar, a spicy English Stilton and a lovely mild goat cheese with thin slices of a white baguette. More white wine, a Quincy white, everybody commented on how absolutely delicious it was with notes of apricot, green berries and grapefruit. I wished I had bought more bottles of it. It is rare and pricy even here a few miles from it's place of origin. MORE to come...

Friday, May 25, 2007

A Day with Friends

Up with the dawn, read CNN, drink a few cups of espresso to get a charge on...then the doorbell, Brrrring...brrrring it goes. Kelly answers it as I'm vacuuming the upstairs now. I hear a "bonjour" as the front door was openned, a short exchange in French, not Bob yet, then the door closing. "Howard...(she NEVER calls me Howard), come down here...(Jesus, a command too!) sure enough, one of our wayward parcels has just arrived via France Post. Huh? Must be the one that was last to leave the US...mailed on the 22 of March (YES!) full of cast iron objects for the cooktop we brought from the US. Thank the gods! If that hadn't made it to us the new kitchens fine old relic of a cooktop with a built in grill would have been so much scrap iron. Amazing. Is there HOPE we'll see those other two again someday when our travels meet? Time will tell.
Brrrring, brrrring! It's Bob muttering outside the front door, come to help me with the old perenial leak in the bathroom about the shower plumbing. Down for coffee again and the inevitable story or six and opinion pages from the Bob Journal of French Life. We always enjoy these sessions, he is a genuine man's man and has worked his whole life doing an array of jobs too long to list and now has this farm outside Lignieres with all manner of animals. His are, without a doubt, the best eggs on earth and he always a warm smile.
An hour passes then UP and at the dripper in the wall. Solder, torch, flame shield in place and wet matches makes this a less than auspicious beginning of a dramatic repair. MORE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2lN7juT838

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Warm Day in Para dice!

Well, with THE letter in hand...what letter? The one we got Saturday from EuroPost saying they have a parcel to deliver to us at 10 Rt. St. Amand. Long letter in French that we both understood well enough to figure out that they had something for us and that we we're not there to receive it whenever that was. Some days ago we figured anyway. So we took the letter to the Tourist Board and had our friend there Anna call EuroPost to find out IF they still had them and if they would send them to our new address instead. The result of that call was a statement that they had already returned them to the US! The letter said we had 14 days to retrieve them or notify Europost of where to send them...now they are gone?! Oh boy, stress mounting up. So, not to be held back, we took off for the Europost in Bourges to find our damned shipments(3). The countryside was breathtaking, as always, with whole fields of bright red poppies here and there. Once to the location, no address given, just drove around the Zone Industrial until we saw their signage, we found all windows shaded and all doors closed except one. Walking into the place there was no one at any desk, no sounds except equipment fans and as far as we could see no employees at hand to talk to at all! The place was empty except for us and piles of boxes and a computer system. After a few minutes of shifting our weight from one foot to the other we exited that area and went around front of the building which looked equally closed and deserted, we say Alloooo into the empty spaces with no answer forthcoming. Hmmmmm, what gives here? Should we call the police? Pictures of the purported employees lined the wall but none were to be seen. Sooo we wandered into the room filled with crates and boxes to no ones chagrin at all...a thief could have emptied the place with no notice at all and there we were. Kelly heard some voices, from where? There! In the back room, on a break, the whole crew. Then the papers were out and the lady kindly called the English speaking help line which was no help at all, yes there was a parcel, yes it was sent back at the insistence of the shipper to....to....GERMANY! What?! Why the hell Germany? Maybe it was the tapis (carpets) Kelly bought on eBay and NOT the three long gone parcels we sent from the US back in March. Shit! Who knows, when I talked to the EuroPost person she said that there was 1 parcel, weight unknown, sender unknown. This is nuts! Did the US Postal Service REALLY use these guys for our poor parcels, 1000 pounds of which are now long gone?
Kelly called at 6pm local time, 9am Suisun Time and got to a US Postal Service person...YES, they use Europost, yes, they tried delivery on the 5th and 16th (the letter received Saturday was the first we knew of any delivery attempt), that's all they knew either. Shit! Well Kelly was predictably pissed, as was I, we don't need this news at all. We had so very carefully picked what needed to be shipped and what would come with us on this trip because we knew we were gpoing to move into the big house this time around. We packed it so carefully, evrything just so...in foam, in bubbles, in plastic wrap, inside blankets and comforters and now...where the hell is it? Somewhere between France and the US via Germany for some reason. POE (Port of Entry) perhaps to the EU? How am I to know?
Then off to Brico Depot to buy the ladder of our dreams with a budget of 100 Euros allocated. We found it in the form of a folding ladder that would extend to some 3.5 meters, enough to doi the gutters outside too.
It and 2 smaller companion step stools for Kelly upstairs and downstairs...some plastic angles and covers for the moulier (over the surface channel stuff) for the overhead lamps. The to Mondail Tissues (World Fabric) to check out whatever Kelly needs for the wall covering, curtains etc. project. We went to Carefour to get bread, beer and whatever else. Then home to work on The Mansion!
Oh well, another beautiful, if frustrating, day in Paradise.

Sunday, May 20, 2007

Paradise Revisited

Yesterday I skipped a blog, left for the Horse and Donkey Center outside of Lignieres at 7pm, we possessed tickets to see two acts as part of the L'air du Temps music festival presented by Les Bain-Douche theater of Lignieres. The Horse and Donkey center has many large buildings, some that have been converted to venues for stage and music productions. A huge ancient barn all duded up with stage lighting, lasers and music equipment galore stood before us. My estimate of the crowd was a few under a thousand who had paid the sum of 21 Euros for the privilege of watching Vallerie Leulliot and Florent Marchet last night. What a show! Vallerie was first up and she and her band were wonderful, She sang and played played keyboard and also a bit of guitar with which she is a fine talent. Her music has the rhythm of a reggae beat with soft melancholy lyrics, lovely to look at and easy to listen to she was an instant hit with the audience and with us. Here's a bit from youtube for you to sample of her work.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r98MwMVHnIs

She was followed by the terrific band of Florent Marchet, wonderful complex melodies and a rhythmic rock/jazz melange. He had the audience in his hands. What a show...his went on with 4 encores no less, for 3 solid hours! We got out at 12:30am! What a night of entertainment it was, the audience was so very appreciative and the bands of such high quality, my hat's off to Les Bain-Douche and the city of Lignieres for this fabulous night, one we won't soon forget. Here's the link for Florent's group on youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfRhmxMjCGs
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Home today after a morning at a brocante full of rusted junk and folk art made from clothespins. I bought two containers of french fries for 3 Euros...delicious! Back we each took up our respective work stations, Kelly on the floor of the middle bedroom, soon to be TV/computer room, and applied the 5th coat of some white paint over the deep green color that was there. I cleaned up the guest room of a few tools and began the lighting project in the potty. This invoved hanging a brass chandlier with 3 lamps by a hook in mid ceiling and running the needed wiring via above wall channeling, that's what you must do here if you want electricity anywhere in one of these old houses with 2 foot thick walls made of mud and stone. It took me about an hour to pull out the old porcelin fixture from the side of the wall and do the channel installation badly (without neat turns and covers) and wire the lamp to the switch. It all works and Kelly is pleased with the result, so am I. Tomorrow is grout the showerroom floor day.
See you later!
Howard