Saturday, June 09, 2007

A Daytrip Away

We decided last night that we needed to go to Evry, 330 Km north towards Paris to the IKEA there to acquire some new curtains and associated frilly things and other misc. items for the house. It was certainly a good idea as we were up til after 12 with our evening guests for a 6 course dinner featuring the same pork stuffed with garlic and fennel that we served last week with a sauce made of blood orange juice, sugar, carrots sliced to serve as a side vegie. The first was a basil/walnut pesto witrh alsacian noodles that looked like bucatini but was egg noodle based. Quite a hit but I think difficult to eat as the noodles were somewhat too thick and were springy. Thus messy and difficult to get a fork full. Italian bucatini or fettucini would be a better choice. A cheese course was stilton, tillamook white cheddar and a delicious soft goat cheese rolled in cracked pepper with toasts brushed with olive oil. I made strawberry ice cream with fresh sliced strawberries over the top, very good. Then we dove into a few of our collection of desert wines. All in all a very nice dinner that came off well as we are fast becoming expert at this art.

The trip to Evry was an easy 3 and a half hours until the last 2 kilometers which made us lost and confused, each roundabout led to another and the signage was terrible as usual. One IKEA sign at the first roundabout was reassuring but French signage is just not adequate to the task at hand. Not enough signs and not enough information either, and more often than not no distances are given. So we wandered about the area, roundabout to roundabout hoping we'd get a hint break and sure enough! A HUGE blue building appeared and it was our IKEA waiting to be assaulted by two Californians in search of bargains for the Grande Maison.
3 hours and three hotdogs later we exited the store with the following:

12 pair of 3 meter long white frilly curtains that the French use as both decoration and to shade a room from excess sun.

1 set of actual curtains of a dark grey velvet for our bedroom.

100 white plastic clothes hangers

4 Wicker Chairs for outside seating.

4 Cushions for same.

Big blackboard for the kitchen.

A lampshade.

2 packages of flourescent light bulbs. (total of 6)

4 plastic cutting boards for the new kitchen someday real-soon-now.

2 cheap knives for same. I LOVE cheap knives! They sharpen up real well with a steel and if you screw them up, like I do ocassionally you haven't wrecked a Sabatier or Trident just a serviceable cheap knife. Throw it away and buy another.

On and on to the tune dah, dah, ta, dahhhhh...545 Euros!
That plus the 45 Euros worth of tolls going and coming AND 35 Euros of diesel fuel for the Toyota...and you have one very expensive day at an IKEA. Gads. Thank goodness they don't have one nearer to us and we only go once every 4 years.

Thursday, June 07, 2007

A Roof Examination

This is a long story, hopefully I can shorten it and keep the most frustrating portions intact for your enjoyment. We bought the Grande Maison last August...2006, it took until Novemberf to close, delay after delay and the damned problem of money transfers reared their ugly head time and time again. That said...we successfully DID get the money here and thru magic and much French wringing-of-hands the money got into the right hands. The house became ours. We, however weren't destined to open the front door as the new owners until we returned to France in late March. We gathered the keys from the real estate agent and we were IN! The dust hasn't cleared since! About two weeks AFTER we arrived we received an estimate for the replacement of the roof, it's gutters and affiliated attachments, drains, roof slates etc. 19,000 Euros. For what?! A ROOF!? You have GOT to be kidding! They weren't kidding, the roof was failing and indeed was dangerous so we were told, as pieces were falling off of it and could decapitate someone on the sidewalk below! We had NEVER been told by anyone of this condition (s), not the previous owner, her son or the attorney or our real estate agent! No one said a thing! Good grief! It could have collapsed and killed hundreds during a protest parade! But no, it did not collapse and actually doesn't leak much either. Nonetheless a detailed reading of the estimate yeilded 19,000 Euros worth of repairs and replacement. Shit! So at 6pm last night in came a different roofer with his own ideas and his own inspection, he pronounced the back roof of the house "bon" (good) and the front "malvaise" (sick/bad). Now this IS progress! Much shaking of hands and a promise to return with a Euro figure Semaine Prochain...next week. We will see then what another number is. The joys of living here never cease to amaze me. I love Paradise, I think.

Tuesday, June 05, 2007

A beautiful Sunday in Paradise

A Beautiful Sunday today, puffy clouds passing over, in the 70's this afternoon and with The Queen and her Prince coming for dinner tonight at 6. We have several such pairs hereabouts, mostly Brit ex-pats but a few French ones too. We have had several of the British variety to dinner over the years and it's always an enjoyable bash. We like to make formal dinners, 5-6 courses are normal, tonight we will have the following:Cold Potato Soup with Garlic and Parsley as a first course. Pork Roast with fennel and garlic with Orange Cinnamon Carrots and Italian White Bean salad, the second,Cheeses from The US, a Tillamook White Cheddar, Great Britain is represented with a fine Stilton Blue and locally produced creamy Goat Cheese with Garlic. All this on toasts of the local bread. The Third.Raspberry Tart with Chocolate Sauce, the fourth.Dessert Wines from Sicily, Italy and France. A fifth.Espresso, the 6th.Just enoiugh to fill out the entire evening til about midnight given our level of drinking and general bullshitting.The tart is made, the white beans are made, the carrot dish is cooking, the soup is cooling it's heel in the fridge and the Roti (pork roast) is waiting to be skewered on a rod and insewrted into the rotisserie.All is well. The house is as presentable as this particular pile of rocks can be right now with many unfinished rooms. The guests appreciate such a scene as it is one threy themselves are quite familiar with, having an uncompleted 12th century castle as their abode.

Monday, June 04, 2007

Moonday in Paradise, Jour du Grande Marche

Market Day in Lignieres, the Monday 1st in any month is the BIG market, many vendors sprawled along the winding streets and under thge cover of the 14th century open air Hall. Vendors yes but people, no. Rain you see or the threat of same kept people away and vendors closed up early to avoid the rush. A sad market day when this happens but there will be many more. We went to the tourist board to collect MC, she had come in early to go with us to the Marie (City Hall) to sort out who owns the garage next door to us asa we would like to either purchase it or rent it so we could better use our backyard sans car. We learned that it was owned by the same man who runs the little Proxi Market just across the shared alley. So we will go to him and ask someday soon. Then to the bank to deposit a small refund check from an impound account associated with our purchase of the Grande Maison du Bourge. It rained and stopped, rained and stopped. Stoped at the dentists office and sat patiently while she finished up some poor soul's mouth, we got a dual appointment for this Wednesday at 11am. Then abled down the block to buy a loaf of compagne (whole wheat) bread from the corner boulangerie and walked home. Upon our return I noticed that the neighborhood cat has torn up one of the planters I just filled with planting soil and destroyed my seeding (zuchinni seeds) of it, so I stuck 6 inch pieces of wire into it and wet it thouroghly to keep the beast from pooping in it again tonight. Guess I'll have to put some wire cover over them soon. The house is still clean from our weekends labor for the Queen and Prince so we just sat around and watched the intermittant rain and slept like cats.