Friday, May 16, 2008

Another Day in a Lazy Paradise

Yawn...up at 6am, I looked out the window of the comp room where I slept last night to see a grey and cloudy sky. Oh well, off to the computer to read the emails, if any, and see what the weather sensors have detected overnight. It is a passion of mine, the weather is, I study the situation day by day trying to sort out the forecast for the next WHILE. Kelly's knees are far more accurate than any local forecast we get from the TV.
Mine , however, are more personal and I have INSIDE information, don't I? Today was not sunny, overcast and grey as could be all afternoon. We worked around the house this morning then in need of paint, nails and a few other hardware items we left at about 1:30pm bound for St. Amand's Brico Marche. I needed potting soil, some exterior wood glue and some wall fasteners, Kelly needed paint. We found our items and found each other and proceeded to the checkout cashier. As it turned out she had inadvertly bought MAT paint so after the discovery at the car returned to the store to trade in the 2.5 liter carton of MAT for the more desirable Semi-gloss. She also bought the black glossy she wanted to finish the mullions of the waiting room exterior.
The whole works is spectacular.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Lazy Day - The Water Man Cometh

Here we are in the middle of France on a rainy Thursday. I fooled around with Google Maps making a map of our exact whereabouts in the countryside of France. Here's my current result: (Use arrow keys to move right to France...where we are)


View Larger Map
Not very exciting looking or indicative of where this is relative to things that might be exciting, like Paris (200 Miles North), Limoges (60 miles South), Lake Geneva (120 miles East) and the
Atlantic Ocean beaches (90 Miles West). You can pan out with the slider gizmo to see the rest of France pretty much and place us somewhere in the middle to get an idea of our location. Use the zoom in/out tool to see Lignieres more closely. In the meantime I'll fool around with it a bit more and see what I can do.
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About 3pm the front door bell rang. I panicked when I couldn't open the door so went to the hallway and peered thru the window and there stood a young man in a all blue uniform. At first I thought "oh he's from the fire dept come to collect AGAIN the fee for the hornet removal last summer", Kelly was napping upstairs so I was left to my own devices, I signaled with hand signals I needed a minute to get the keys. I ran around like a chicken with it's head cut off and found my keys on the table next to the door. I opened the door to see a Veolia Eau man with his tablet PC standing there, he introduced himself as Jacque XXXXXX YYYYY and told me in a very quick French that he was there to examine our pipes. Well not to be undone by this I welcomed him in and he quickly stated that he had to determine where our drain system was. This was done by hand gestures and speaking French at twice the normal rate and louder as well. Nothing helped me...as I failed to understand a thing the gentleman said from this point on.
We trapsed about the front of the house and finally he found the man-hole cover and exposed the drains. What this all actually MEANT was not apparent to me at all. He chatted away to a deaf ear as far as I was concerned. Oh the language problem. Eventually he brought out three bottles each filled with red, blue or yellow dye with which he was going to test our water system for what connection it was dumping into as the sewer system here is divided into 3 parts, a black water (toilet) system and a grey (shower, kitchen) system and a rain water system. Once I got to the rear gate to let him in I discovered IT was locked as well! Damnit! So back into the house while he yelled over the gate for me to open it, to get the keys and get it open for him. That accomplished he began his inspection and documentation of our system. He poured the dyes in each rooms water drain system and quickly returned to the man-hole cover to check the water for the dye. Over and over again, in the old kitchen, the new kitchen and each bathroom (we have two toilets). Afterwords he said that he would report back via the online link and we would get a letter describing the deficiencies (the kitchen drain was tied to the fresh water system from the roof). He entered all the data, gave me a look at the schematic of the drains and the problem drain and said we would, after it was corrected, go to the mairie to have them call out Veolia to recheck the system for correction. Then it was all goodbyes and he drove off. Another great day in Paradise. We await the letter.

Monday, May 12, 2008

The Donkey Faire

Monday 12 May, 2008
Today is the BIG DAY! The donkeys are coming, the donkeys are coming! I was up early to witness the arrivals, donkeys from everywhere in France in one's, twos, tens, tied to rails in the Champ du Foire (Fair Field). Beautiful, noisy and a cause to celebrate Asses of the 4 legged variety. Our hope this year was that the weather would be nice instead of the storminess of last years version. Up early, at dawn, for no good reason (part of ageing) I looked out the comp rm window and the skies were clear. Whoopee! Even before dawn the trucks were lining up to deliver thier braying hoards onto the Champ (shaw-mp). I grabbed my trusty Nikon Coolpix S10 and set it to movie and left the house bound to see the beginnings of todays Big Event in Lignieres. The movies are in two parts, each about 5 minutes in length. Just click the links below.


The Donkey Faire Continued:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbBHfJCNu2U

Too big to upload? Who knows, I've tried three times now to no avail so just click the link and watch it on YouTube. Sorry.

After the 2nd video (about 11:30) I returned to the house to prepare for our late afternoon lunch for 10. My grand idea for this gathering was to have the group make thie own sandwiches. Well...that's how I set the table up, you know...plates of onion rings, tomato slices, pre-cut bagettes, lettuce leaves etc. and a big salad. This was to be made easier by the addition of leftovers from the meal the night before at A&R's place. Easy to do, fun outdoor-sy at our now long table with the additional length furnished by my library table which I just completed. Sure. Wine by the bottle was soon flowing among the gathered group and conversations went off like firecrackers in every direction. I thought I made to announcement re:making your own sandwiches, but the second the plate of meats (chicken and pork) were deliverred to te table the group swarmed on them like hungry wolves. What sandwiches? Oh well, best laid plans and all of that. Much wine was drunk, the Vouvray Sparkling was especially delicious and made for a festive occassion. The party moved indoors with the coming of the late afternoon rain and we raided the bar closet for samples of the many bottles. Great fun was had by all as usual, Our Little Supper Club.