The Golden State, slightly tarnished....

Home to go to bed and sleep til odd hours and wake wondering where the hell I am. God, Jet lag is a bitch! Overall it was 22 hrs from getting up at 7am last Wednesday morning at the ETAP in the 19th Arr. in Paris, calling a cab with the inherent wait that drew on to 45 minutes because of awful traffic. Nice cabbie, a Morrocan young man, nice chat about the Arab Spring. Mostly the focus was on the difference between the rich and the poor ansd the powerful and the power-less that led to the revolutions. CDG was it's normal self, they were more than ijnterested in the cat and her papers and shots, more so than we usually face. Eventually it was all approved and American accepted us to climb abourd a bus to drive out on the tarmac to reach our American Airlines 767-300, one long puppy of an airplane. Seated in row 31 just behind the wing made for a rather smooth ride. 9 hours to Chicago, 2 hrs on the ground and then another 5 to San Francisco. God I was tired, then my dear daughter Audrey had parked the car in the garage in front of the International Terminal...we were gated at the Domestic terminal 150 yards south of her car and across the bloody streets that circle the Arrival and Departure doors. Kelly stayed behind with the luggage while Audrey and I made our way back to the car and spewnt the better part of an hour trying to find a way to get to the appropriate garage. Bunches of false starts before we finally got it located and drove to retrieve my Duck and Furry. Then off to Suisun some 50 miles as the crow flies from the airport through heavy SF traffic. Landed at 6:30, arrived in Suisun at 9:15. Where am I?! Oh shit I was now pooped! Off to bed shortly and up at 1 and 5 and 7...ohhhh. After a few days it got down to one wake up a night.

Dongles, Bangles, Bright Shiny Beads

So today was to be the day when we were going to see Liz get her Internet up and running. We planned it since last week to go to the SFR store in St. Amand, purchase a SFR/Vodaphone Dongle and sign her up for a 2 year stint with 3G iNet service (aka 2G internet slow service) and that would be that.
Not so easy there poopsie, first they wanted her passport...? huh? Why a passport, who knows but it was a no go without one so we took a round trip BACK to Lignieres to get it. Once signed up, the dongle was inserted by the wonderful SFR stewardess to no effect! That's right, it inserted the software alright but it did not wish to connect! What? Right, SFR itself couldn't make the dongle dangle , jangle and ring bells. Nonetheless, we accepted the proposition that it WOULD work once we got to Liz's and fired it up. So off we went to the Le Massilia just down the street when we discovered that La Pizz was closed. Lunch was nice, service was surley but effective and the bill was relatively low and Liz paid which was dear thanks for the help getting me online. Sure. Maybe. We drove back to her house outside of Lignieres where last week the little machine with my very own SFR dongle had found and connected to a 2G SFR network signal. We sat down with the fine Dell laptop with Windows XP installed and inserted the dongle and double clicked on the SFR icon. Up pops the SFR Banner quickly followed by a connection window. Down near the bottom in tiny print it says Periferique 3g Non Connected...and that's the way it remained when I moved outdoors in the dripping drizzle to check the signal. Blink, blink but no solid connection lite was forth coming. I fiddled and frustrated myself for another half hour to no good effect. Sooo, we wrapped it all up and the last we saw her at 4pm she was off to the nice SFR person to fix the problem with her dangling Dongle. Further she was to return to our abode to report on the results of the return visit. It is now 5:50 since we left her.

The Health Care Debate, A Personal Matter

I watched the Senate debate last night concerning the health care bill now making its slower-than-molasses way thru the US Congress. I'm not going to go into the technicalities or the awful politicizing of each American's health care that BOTH Republicans and Democrats have done since September on this bill. There's no point in that, save to say that I have relatives, a daughter stuck with no health care at all due to her workplace not having any and my beloved wife Kelly who also has none as she is not yet 65 and thus not covered by Medicare. The rest of my immediate family does (I HOPE!) have coverage of one kind or another. My own is thru Medicare Advantage at Kaiser Permanente. My verdict so far is that it works for me and at a fraction of the cost that I had as a teacher to be enrolled at Kaiser, which had grown to over 1100 USD when we pulled the plug on it last year as unaffordable. We went to the Fingers-Crossed coverage plan for Kelly as I was then enrolled in Medicare.

A long time fan of Kaiser, I have had terrific, nay I say, life-saving, treatment by them several times in my recent past ie. two heart attacks among them. I am fortunate enough that I have first hand observation of another country's healthcare system, that of France. I have gotten prescriptions filled there, have gone to the doctor and the dentist there and have observed and spoken with French citizens about the health system's parts I haven't used (yet), such as the emergency room. I have a couple of examples of extraordinary health situations that were resolved on non-member persons (ex-pats) in the French system too. The World Health Organization thinks highly of the French system, rating it as the one of best in the world.
I hope in my heart of hearts that we in the US can have such coverage one day but I have my doubts. Too much money is involved, doctors with their own clinics, predatory insurance companies, astronomical drug costs, poor diets, alcoholism, rampant diabetes et al. It's a sick "system" that definetly needs some fixing, the current bill will help but will still need much further modification before it becomes anything worthy of praise. Still...this bill IS a start, it will be passed this week and passed by the same boring and unimaginative 60 Yeses and 40 Nos that we have come to expect from our so-called representatives in the Senate. How wonderful.

For example...my doctor's best friend vactioned in France last September. After hoisting lugage about for a few days he noticed a bump on his abdomen above his belly button. As a few days went by it grew larger and painful as well. He went to a doctor in Paris and was examined. "A rupture" was the diagnosis and he was sent forthwith to a local hospital. Given a name tag, there was no discussion of insurance, he was asked if he had any but that was all. This was before noontime. He was in bed, settled with his wife at his side at 1pm. He was operated on at 3pm and back in his bed at 4pm repaired. He spent the next 5 days healing further before he was released. Upon release he resumed his vacation and returned to San Francisco. A bill arrived from the hospital, the ONLY bill by the way, for $600 Euros (about 900 USD at the time). Try THAT in the US.

France Telecom Suicides! Yea Gads Get'em Back to Work!

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/10/06/work.death/index.html
is a link to the news story regarding the number of France Telecom suicides since the start of 2008...I think the number is 24 currently. Bar the windows, disarm the employees and the bosses (too many of those!), only bike to work and ban all pills and poisons. That ought to do it, at least it'll reduce the skipping out/malingering/striking dead for s while til they find another way to end it all.
Inside a France Telecom Office:
Ringggg! goes a phone...Rinnnnggg! Rinnngnnngg!
Employee: Alo!
the other end: Anyone alive there? Been calling for 2 days!
Employee: Call 0678100100 to complain.
the other end: I WORK for France Telecom!
Employee: Too Bad...next sound "BANG"
the other end: Alo? Anyone there?

Thats NORMAL these days! Who in their right mind would want to work for such a failed
company? My God, why? So many employees and noone capable of doing anything useful...who is hiring these folks anyway...shoot him or them (likely a committee!) as soon as you can find him/her/them. I have watched oh so many times the looks of fear, frustration, disbelief on the faces of both a paying customer AND the employee that I'm used to the comedy by now. So many arguments about bills, service, contracts, missed calls, bad equipment, Orange(!), DSL, Dial-up (yes..these days the still sell it at $20 Euros a month no less!), missed appointments et al. It's a company without a head, the buck...no...Euro stops nowhere! Even the billing doesn't stop after THEY turn you off! Amazing! While at the same time employees AND their management walk the streets in protest to "working conditions". I guess so. So no one is inside doing anything for the poor wo-be-gone customer who needs help. Tough life.

Come and Gone and Going

A and J called this afternoon just after I had finished the Great Putting Away of 2009. They were bombing along the A71 in a northerly direction about 30 minutes away from us. They had faithfully taken in most of what I had told them were some of the major sights with varying degrees of success. They did enjoy the Pot Du Gard roman bridge and the Millieu Causeway across the Tarn Gorge. AND...they enjoyed the quality of French Rest Areas...called Aires that have service stations attached to restaurants and shops selling local products. I think they had a great time and did it in an restful and yet very active way. They used the ETAP Hotel chain to save hotel expense and ate in local cafes and bars which always keeps the food expense low as well. I was/am impressed. So they arrived at Maison Blanche about 3pm and charged their batteries for the cell phones and computers, had a beer and laid out the tales of their discoveries. Kelly went to Dave and Sue's place shortly after they arrived and returned about 5 minutes after they had left bound to the ETAP outside of CDG in Paris. Here's our picture together a couple of days ago.


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A Bread Making Disaster of Sorts

You know I like...no...LOVE making bread. I have been at it for a while now...last year actually, and have had many, many successes. I make it so that we have our daily bread everyday as fresh as humanly and machinely possible. I bake every other day on an average and sometimes more often than that. Most of my loaves are hand formed and not confined to a bread pan, just shaped after the kneading and final rise and put in the oven at 400 degrees for about 25 minutes. That's it...no proofing of yeast, no exact measuring of flour, salt, oils and butter or water. I use a Bluesky 40 Euro bread machine to do the mixing then I remove the loaf and proceed toi use the folding method for 4 turns of 45 minutes each. l'viola! Bread. Using my current supply of ingredients it has been just about impossible to fail, good loaves with each baking cycle have been the result...until yesterday. What happened yesterday? A giant break with traditional success is what. The bread as made in the usual way...lets do it for you here:
1.25 cups H2O
2 cups Bread Flour
1 cup Semolina flour
2 teaspoons dry yeast
2 Tablespoons sugar or molasses
2 Tablespoons butter or Margarine or Olive Oil
3/4 Tablespoon fine salt
That's it. Nothing more, no seeds, no nuts, no wholewheat...
results...a brick, doorstop or bookend or wallhanging...but nothing to eat and enjoy.
Oh yes I am one to not throw stuff away...so I tried to pretend it was "alright" this morning when Kelly ask me for some to have her smoked salmon with...but the telltale density running throught the loaf told the tale...this is shit!
So today, an hour ago, I proofed the yeast to check if it was still with the living,
weighed the flour and much more carefully assembled the ingredients as I have never done in the last few months. We will see soon what hath my hard work wrought.
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Later...All ok, she is arisen! The proofing at 104 degrees F caused quite a foam after about 10 minutes. I added the other ingredients and turned on the trusty dough cycle of the Bluesky breadmaker. 1hr and 30 minutes later...I have a loaf of quite risen bread! Cool...now I just need to sneak it ever so carefully into the 400 degree F Champion oven (My Baker's Pride-like gem of 200lbs of cast iron and enamel coated with Nansulate) and wait 25 minutes for a result. Careful now...don't drop it! It's jelly like slack condition makes it quite a case for collapse if one isn't careful. A beauty! It's portrait is the image above...so my arrogance had gotten me away from the basics a bit too far, now I know better once again. Patience!
Bye for now!

New Guests, New Challenges...Nothing New

One day off from our last visitors whom we know well and love equally so with only one stranger, a boyfriend in the midst of the rest. Now we have a known somewhat and an unknown and us...and we are running out of time and the patience it takes to be decent hosts to decent guests. So much to do in this our last week in France until when? I dunno this time as we have decided to "go for it", rent the Swamphouse after all and try for a long term visa so we can stay a full year, or two or ??? Three. The little house had to be cleared of all remaining "stuff", a couple of beds, matresses, a pot hanging rack firmly afixed to a wall, a coat rack similarly adjoined and a few more odds and ends. It's all out now thanks to our new young muscle-bound male guests and D and S who lent us the trailer with their car attached with them inside to do the final clearing of Dix. Out, across town then into the rear of 35 and emptying took but a few minutes with all working to get it down. Up and down the two flights of stairs we went carrying all manner of stuff to place it in the appropriate spots in the attic under the roof which we will (hopefully) get repaired this winter. That has to be arranged this week too.
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All of the above with Furry's rabies shot and inspection by her Vet in preparation for the trip to California once again. She's so good with the vet as he is with her. She, at first, is very resistant to coming out of her carrier...as she is in being put INTO it...but once coaxed out by hand and elbow grease she is calm and cool and very, very collected. We aren't but she is. He feels for problems, cysts, tumors, lumps and bumps, reads her ID chip and checks her eyes and ears as well...all the while she sits and ignores each insult. Very queen-like. Then she got a brand new shiny Pet Passport...a blue document that looks just like a passport from the EU but meant for Kats and dogs and other pets and thier vets. Cool as can be I think.

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The Guests went off with S of S&D fame this morning to Bourges for a tour of the Geant supermarket, Leroy Merlin and downtown ancient Bourges. I joked with them that she had to be back home by MIDNIGHT! I asked Kelly if S was going to wear high-heels for the occassion! LOL! (She's about 55 and The Guys, each ver handsome are in thier early 30's! Ooo La La!)

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Tonight a classic Lute dish...Spaghetti and Meatballs w/Puttanesca (Whore) Sauce. Sugo alla Puttanesca. The meatballs are Lamb and Veal ground coarsely with anise, bread crumbs and red pepper in my own version of this classy Sicilian meal. Look it up online and give it a try! I suggest you use Bucatini as the spaghetti if you can get it or some other larger noodle, even a fetucinni or rigatoni would be good.

Between Guests and The Fog...

Yes, today was the first fog that we have seen since spring. Thick enough to slow the little traffic of Lignieres around our corner and make for a spooky and ethereal backdrop to our medieval village. We were up early as Aud was on her way to Paris and her flight home. We packed her up and left Maison Blanche at 9:20am for the 10 minute jaunt to the RR station at Chateauneuf Sur Cher. Aud was scheduled this morning on the 9:53 to Paris...oops...Bourges, a stop and change of trains for who knows why. We missed her immediately, coming home we were both silent in contemplation of new challenges upcoming...soon...like tomorrow when my student from my Hogan High teaching days, Andy and his friend Mr. X make thier appearance at the Maison Blanch. New people, new conversations, new subjects. We are already tired and one day is probably not enough time to recharge our batteries for them, at least...not very much. Being young men and adventuresome I think they will put up with us only a little while before wanting to wander off to new sights and places. I know they wanted to go to Marseilles or Nice so I have dreamed up a sightseeing route to the south that will give them much to contemplate about this most amazing country. I plan on printing a sheet with some instructions and a list of our favorite places to tour in France. Here's the list...

Argenton-sur-Creuse, http://www.ot-argenton-sur-creuse.fr/index2.php

Lascaux, http://www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/arcnat/lascaux/en/

Sarlat, http://www.sarlat.com/eindex.html

Pont Du Gard, http://www.pontdugard.fr/index.php?langue=GB

Tarn Gorge and Bridge, http://www.ot-gorgesdutarn.com/index-gb.html

Carcassonne. http://www.carcassonne.org/

Orange, http://www.horizon-provence.com/orange-provence/orange-roman-city.htm

This is far from a comprehensive list but it's all good and food for the intellect.
All are grist for the camera eye that's for sure and each due it's own good time and a sit to contemplate. I will print out the list and discuss each one with our new guests and see what interest there might be in such a discovery tour.

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We spent the day cooking tomorrows dinner, a Mexican one with a complex recipe for Chicken Mole, Black Beans and Rice. It took us hours to create and I think it'll be worth the effort. Here's the lin to the recipe we used:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/09/06/FD1S19F7J1.DTL&type=food

Howard and Kelly Lute
He: Good Cook, Bad Mechanic, Terrible Plumber She: Patient
Orange Cell in France: (from USA) 011 33 64 359 9713 IN France? 064 359 9713
Blog: http://lignieres.blogspot.com
WebCam: http://www.sonic.net/~kell12/webcam.jpg
Photos: http://www.shutterpoint.com/Photos-BrowseUser.cfm?user_id=HNLUTE
More Photos at FLICKR: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hnlute/
Photos for Sale: http://unephono.etsy.com

My Leading Ladies

Oh, I slipped! Damn...I hit the L instead of the R! Oh well...you get the picture, they are all readers and they are incessantly reading...only Furry and I are left to contemplate our navels. They read all day and into the night taking little time out for smoking (Aud), going potty, and eating. Mostly...they sit or lay about reading. A life of pure leisure. I'm NOT complaining! Far from it! I get left to my own devices largely, don't even have to drive the car some days as Kelly has bravely taken on that chore to guide our guests about the countryside. Leaves me time to cook, read cookbooks, fiddle around on the computer and fight with Furry.
Not bad. The most "time off" I've had in a while.

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Andy, my ex-student from Hogan oh so long ago...mid 90's has just landed at CDG and is enroute to the hotel with his friend. They are near Port Orleans but are traveloling to London tomorrow via the chunnel, stay a couple of days then back to Paris til the end of the week, then they are coming here to join us for a few days before venturing south. I have some places I think they'd like to observe in person. The Pont Du Gard, Lascoux, The Tarn Gorge and the Bridge over it, there's so much to see and appreciate it's a challenge to do a proper job of being tour director really...all this on the way to Marsaille and Nice which they want to visit.

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Tonight we are having S and D over to meet Katie and have a go at more experimental (not quite) food. I've made Canneloni and Eggplant Parmigiana as the entrees, Kelly has made her beet and blue cheese salad with nut oil and vinegar dressing (delicious!), I also made French Vanilla ice cream from the ancient recipe that everyone seems to like. It should be a pretty filling meal and a lot of fun.
Katie's daughter G is coming via velo from Belin with her boyfriend N and may be calling us any minute now to give us a possible arrival date and time. Biking fron Berlin across both Germany and France! Amazing! It's quite a feat that's for sure!
She's the one going to Circus school too, so she's very athletic to say the least!

On The Road In Burgundy

Burgundy, the famous wine region is but an hour north of us close to the Loire where it bends south to it's origin. A 2.5 hr journey was planned to take us to the medieval hill town of Vezelay, the home of a highly carved and ancient church. Audrey is a church nut, loves to photograph them and study and examine their "bones" as she calls them. I like them too, they are endlessly different and interesting in all the decoration, stained glass and uni9que features such as the fingers hands and other PARTS of long gone saints. This one held the finger (a finger) of Mary Magdalene, the only female disciple of Jesus. Sure you say...but hey! Whose to argue with Pope Innocent II who pronounced them actual and true. Oh take it on Faith as the religion demands of you anyway and yes deep down in the crypt below the alter is a golden box with glass sides and indeed...there's a finger there within in remarkable shape. Cool! Nice subject for a few pics, beats the splinters of the "True Cross" that seem to be everywhere here. This though her entire body...intact...is found somewhere in Provence. Oh well...Faith...remember?
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The 2.5 hr trip was made somewhat longer...4 hrs actually as the existing GPS map of the region present in our Tom-Tom had was rendered obsolete by a new freeway and seemingly endless detours. Jane, our trusty Tom-Tom's voice was totally confused by our route and thus took us in a large circle adding 1.5hrs driving time through the beautiful Burgandian countryside.
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Reaching Vezelay we parked at the bottom of the hill below the main street leading up to the steps of the church. There is better parking on up the hill nearer the church, it's all Pay-And_Display anyway as it is throughout France so bring some Euro coins with you to plug in the meter, put the ticket on the dash and walk on up.
The church is at the end of a long approach past numerous shops (all closed for lunch) and restaurants. We had brought a pique-nique with us and soft drinks just in case our planned lunch stop somehow didn't work out. The church was huge and one covered with carved capitols amid rows of two-toned wall and column construction. Very striking and very beautiful with the light pouring in from the high windows above the nave. Spectacular! Down we went into the crypt to see The Finger, then observing the pilgrims praying we left them as silently as we could.
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Out into the sunshine again we concluded our Vezelay visit with a return thru the gauntlet of shops still not open (lunch, remember) to our trusty Toyota and away across the countryside towards the distant stacks of a nuclear power station along the Loire near our Pizza place in Beaulieu-sur-Loire. Alas it was after 3pm, the restaurant was closed! Ohhhhh...off to eat our picnic somewhere soon. Driving back towards Bourge we stopped to gawk at the vineyards from the stunning view from the streets leading out of Sancere. We took up places on a park bench set opposite the landscape below us and ate our ham sandwiches and my potato salad and swilled down a large bottle of 7-Up shared between us. Then back in the car with Kelly at the wheel, I had timed out and was too drowsy to drive any longer. Thru Bourges and home at 5:30. What a fine day trip thru the vineyards of Burgundy we had. Lunched so late that dinner was unnecessary. Off to bed at 9 we were, 3 very tired and happy ducks.
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"Wearing The Inside Out" Pink Floyd

From morning to night I stayed out of sight
Didn't recognize I'd become
No more than alive I'd barely survive
In a word...overrun

Won't hear a sound
From my mouth
I've spent too long
On the inside out
My skin is cold
To the human touch
This bleeding heart's
Not beating much

I murmured a vow of silence and now
I don't even hear when I think aloud
Extinguished by light I turn on the night
Wear its darkness with an empty smile

I'm creeping back to life
My nervous system all awry
I'm wearing the inside out

Look at him now
He's paler somehow
But he's coming round
He's starting to choke
It's been so long since he spoke
Well he can have the words right from my mouth

And with these words I can see
Clear through the clouds that covered me
Just give it time then speak my name
Now we can hear ourselves again

I'm holding out
For the day
When all the clouds
Have blown away
I'm with you now
Can speak your name
Now we can hear
Ourselves again

Paris, Versailles and More Chairs

Oh god...more chairs! How many do we have? Where are they? Everywhere! Not just some for this function and this room but more than enough for everything TWICE! OCD on chair possession. No matter, eBay has struck again. Six, count 'em, 6 French style chairs with bright red cushions and backs. Dining room additions to displace the wicker bottom and black leather bottomed ones already in that service. At the same time we took Aud to Versailles for her Bee-Day to gawk at the over-the-top furnishings and decorative designs. Up at 7 for coffee, tell Fur-Rr-Ee what is happening today and that she will remain home (maa!) to watch the house in our absence. 4.5 hrs to the Big V, then about 1/2 hr to the Paris spot to pick up the chairs, stuff them in the trusty Avensis-needing-wheel-bearing(s), then home...all using back roads, no toll roads desired. Shit! At LEAST 9 hrs of driving total and maybe 2 or 3 in the bloody castle gawking...we'll be suitable for framing when this "day trip" is over, that's for sure! Oh and a picnique for lunch somewhere.
http://en.chateauversailles.fr/index.php?option=com_cdvhomepage
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And so it was, as we left Maison Blanche we stopped at the Boulangerie downtown for pastries which we gobbled down as I sped towards Bourges and beyond. The trip north thru the Loire Valley, across the Loire was uneventful, then we crossed the Seine and soon into the back up of cars entering the parking lot at Versailles, the castle of the Sun King. One car out, one car let in as the lot was full to the brim. The day was a lovely one, not hot but sunny with puffy clouds all about. Nice. We stretched and took off for the castle cameras in hand ready to see how Life WAS for the Sun King and his court a couple of hundred years ago or so...the origins of the Great French Republic (and Revolution!) laid out before us.
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Inside easily as Kelly had already bought the tickets at the on-line site
and though she (and apparently MOST others) cannot PRINT the damned result of their payment to the system and are thus stuck with only the receipt (don't forget to print it!!!!) and the EMAIL (print it too!) which confirms the purchase but doesn't actually print the tickets from the enclosed link! It was no trouble as they have a window at the Sun King's golden gates at the entrance (far right from the outside) which redeems the resulting papers for actual tickets easily and with a friendly, helpful face as well. Typical French sweet hospitality there!

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I'm NOT going to describe Versailles except to say that ostentation has thus been explored, possibly at the limits of human consumption at the cost of an entire population and those even at the farthest periphery. Perhaps you won't be so struck, perhaps this all appears understandable, perhaps you are unsurprised by man's insatiable greed by now...Wall Street does not inpress? This then will open your eyes to the next level.
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After we set the trusty Tom-Tom to the address given by the seller of the chairs and drove off towards Paris on the horizon. Now I have told you before that MY driving in Paris is NOT A GOOD THING. I am so very careful to look everywhere before I do anything, green lights, red lights, arrows, pointers, signage or the lack of it and then there's the Tom-Tom voice barking out in her ever so calm voice specific directions on top of the other more visceral signals. It is ENOUGH, just ENOUGH...
So as we drive further along, right turns, left turns, merging, off-ramps into the most amazing set of skyscrapers I've ever seen in any city clustered so very close together! Amazing doesn't do it justice! OMG! It's La Défense! It was like the set of Blade Runner, The Director's Cut sans flying taxis and police cars! Amidst this wonderland of glass and steel were our chairs somewhere, oh somewhere. On we drove with my trusty navigator Audrey clarifying our Tom-Toms indications and instructions. I still screwed it up as is my charge as the driver of the Good Ship Teresa-the-Toyota. So around we go with the Tom-Tom resetting us in the proper place, what a technology! A BRAIN when I (just ME!) really needed one! So within a block of the last position we had been before I screwed-the-goose (figuratively not actually) we found the street where our chairs live(d)! Whoopee! So we park in the middle of the street and Audrey and I stand outside and wait for the owner's appearance after she had made the call ("The Voice" makes ALL the calls these days!). He's there, instructs us to park nearer the building, and we go with him to retrieve the 6 chairs.
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Soon we are back at the car, we tie them firmly to the car top rack I built to hold the gates last year and we find ourway out of Paris via Tom-Tom and the famous Periferique (Paris's ring road). Soon into the country I turn over the reins of Teresa to Kelly while I doze in the passenger seat. Audrey soon disappears into the same void as the kilometers melt away towars nightfall. Kelly began to yawn after I woke so soon I watched her drift right in the lane so decided it was time to ask to drive once again until I started departing for the Land of Nod myself. We drove on into the night, the sun disappeared at 8:45 or so, twilight thru little villages, distant blinking lights reminded me of travelling thru the western deserts of the US, forests with the ever present danger of running wildlife, deer, wild pigs, cattle. Verizon, then Issoudun passed, I wasn't dozing yet as I am known to do...but soon we were in Lignieres and the lights of Rue Marechal Joffre were upon us. We unloaded the chairs, untied the rack and put Teresa to sleep for the night.
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The chairs look great in the dining room...she was right...again! Oh, how many do we possess at this time? I think 60 but I might be...low!

The Voice Cometh

As I said before my dearest, no, OUR dearest Audrey "The Voice" is coming to a bedroom down the hall in The Maison Blanche. I followed her progress across the skies of the United Sates and the Atlantic Ocean until the site could no longer post the airplane's position south of Greenland on a map. It gave instead the GPS Coordinates in real time which was helpful when used with Google Earth. A good site it was as much detail was provided, landing times, takeoff schedules etc. Easy to use too.
Here's the link: http://www.flightstats.com/go/FlightTracker/flightTracker.do
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Besides that she was able when on the ground in Atlanta and again in Pittsburgh to email me using her new iPod Touch. Cool as heck! I've never coveted such a piece of technology though I like my little Shuttle iPod a great deal, mostly because it holds enough for me to listen to and the battery life is excellent. Apple did a good thing when they made it.
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We depart for Bourges shortly to pick up The Voice and bring her to the Maison Blanche where she will undoubtedly coo at the decor that has been created in the 2 years since she has been here and tehn take a shower and go to sleep as soon as she can. She has been on the path here since yesterday morning CA time at 3:00am, so well over 24 hours by the time she gets here. 2 stops on Delta plus crossing the pond. Gads.

Canicule...It's @#$#@#! HOT!

This morning feels like last night at 9pm when it was still 90 degrees with humidity to match, a three shower day with the last one being a cold one. Not nice. It bhasn't rained in 11 days...pretty unusual here in the summer when the cululous clouds build to thunderheads in the warm afternoons and it pours like the tropics for a couple of hours tehn subsides to more sunshine the next day and a repeat of the cycle. Not now...it's been like this since August 9th. Yesterday my weather station reported at 2pm 106 degrees and at 5 it was 108! Two different thermometers in two SHADY locations outside and aways from the house. Damn. Devil has opened the gates I guess.

So our anxious-as-hell buyer came to our door on Monday at 6pm all in a French tizzie that she had gotten the estimate back from Olivier for the installation of the electrical in the attic of Dix and it was TRES CHER! No money figure mentioned but expensive in her mind whatever it was. No shit...expensive as hell, nothing odd about THAT. You bet, builders here pay a ton of taxes and medical expenses drive the costs up, up, up...just like everywhere else in the world these days. He of course is a ROOFER...so he would have to sub-contract to a certified Electrical contractor, proper permits etc. It's the shits for anyone that's a builder to have a small job like that and so maybe he doesn't even want to do the damned work, there are much bigger fish to fry, even in tiny Lignieres. Did she get a competitive bid from someone else? Nooooo...so what?...why is that of my concern anyway when we GAVE up 4000 bux off the @!#$@##! price in the first place JUST FOR HER! Go to hell I think. Then she is gone and Kelly and I console each other for a bit and finally decide if that's what she wants to do...f___ her we will go to the Notaire tomorrow with the news and see what he says. Tomorrow comes...that's Tuesday morning...we tell him of the Frenglish conversation we had with Madam Buyer and that NO...WE won't lower the price AGAIN...and NO more concessions are coming her way on the sale of Dix to her, end of story. So he says he will email us when he gets to chat with her. AND...get this...she had 7 days after receipt of a certified letter from him that commited her to the sale to refuse...we did not even know that bit of the sales story existed...new law he says...shit! When is the time up then...tomorrow at midnight. Good. We leave to sweat, watch the clock and be miserable together. At least my Dix blog is still intact and we have the sign and the price at 59,000. So Wednesday came, we left to do a bit of grocery shopping and l'Viola! The Notaire fellow is walking out the door of his office, I ask Kelly to roll down the window as we creep by him cars backing up behind us, he leans in and says...it's ok, she wants the house...Merci! we say and off to the grocery store we go before anyone honks. Such is a house sale in Lignieres...now when do we see actual $$$? October 15th. About 2 months from now. Our half to be deposited in our French account here...and Ted's half to go to buying Jaguar transmissions and shipping them to the US for his @!#$#@#! car. We have FUN in France.
Have you read Furry's blog yet? She asked nicely and I set her up a page nextdoor to mine. Here's the link, (She's a smart kat you know...)
http://thefurkat.blogspot.com/

S&D are Baaaack!

Cool...folks to chat with again! Watering their garden was interesting, fun and rewarding vegetable wise...lots of lettuce, tomatoes, beets (oh the beets!). We had a good time with it as our own is a mess and all because we have spent all this trip in the house "doing things". I used to tend the garden at Dix and loved doing it, once in and growing it was not hard to maintain at all. Now though...the courtyard here is just overgrown with weeds and unpicked flowers and has a generally sad look about it though there ARE flowers amidst the gloom and the herbs are fine as they are. The weeds? Roundup anyone?
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We are redoing the infamous Blue Room...the WC with the motto "It's Not A Turkish Toilet!". Not that I have anything much negative to say about any "facilities" when you really need them but a hole in the floor is just a bit much. At least we had a fine white ceramic toilet to use. First the ceiling, white to reflect the little light that enters naturally. Then a little bureau that will be the stand upon which the new sink will reside. A new faucet is ready to be installed...at $7.90 Euros it was the cheapest one there and it looks fine, nice crome, the valve is all bronze and while there is no fine ceramic seals...it will do. Kelly picked out a wild green, fushia (purple) and cream white wallpaper and bought a color matching fushia for the lower wainscotting area. No more Blue Room indeed! It will be just this side of shocking!

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We (I) have used up the last dregs of Nansulate on the front walls of the parlor. 5 gallons are on the house's outside walls (mostly) and we will be ordering more sometime in the winter so we can have some handy after the new roof is installed.
How much? The roof is huge...another 5 gallons might be enough...maybe. The most interesting experimental use of Nansulate for me has been on my little gas oven. I've coated the sides of the thing with 3 coats as Industrial Nanotech has instructed and wow...what a difference in performance after about 3 weeks of curing.
I can get temperatures above 650 degrees...the limit of my temp measuring equipment was 650F so if it was higher I'll not know...yet! But the upside is that the leakage from the sides has been cut dramatically...enough that it reaches 450 degrees in 20 minutes where it used to take 50! The sides aren't cool..but they won't burn you either...which is another dramatic improvement. The refrigerators are equally happy about having their outsides coated in Nansumate Home Coat...they now are turned to their lowest setting and still are very, very cold inside, below 40 degrees...and the freezer is now at -45 degrees F! it was -25. All in all things have changed for nthe better, howmuch money it will wind up saving us is hard to say now as billing for electricity is a not so often occurance. I'll report though when I get some numbers.
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Take care everybody!
Good health to you and yours!

An Update...Aren't They All?

Nansulate Application: Nearly 5 gallons of the precious stuff has gone on walls and various objects at 35 R MJ in the last few weeks since it arrived. Up the ladder, down the ladder, paint, paint, paint. 3 coats everywhere that we could get to with quite a lot more to go (next year). Tearing apart wall coverings, stripping wall paper, preping cracks and crevises, undercoating as necessary and cleaning, cleaning, cleaning. The magical stuff has been applied with a rather thick foam roller and a smaller one (also foam). The roller does not seem affected chemically, it is still foam and largely in one piece with just a couple of small tears where hidden picture hangers grabbed hold of the foam and tore out a piece. Nansulate application with a roller is easy and quickly accomplished. The time between recoating does not seem critical in any way after the one hour recomendation has been reached. I've coated a wall and allowed it to dry overnight and recoated the next day with no problems noted. It cleans up handily with a wet paper towel but once it is stuck to a surface and has dried...you will have to scrape it off and it is amazingly tough. The odor is hardly noticeable, a slight ammonia odor that is largely gone after the 1st hour after application. My wife-mate-best-friend does not seem to suffer from it though she is a highly sensitive asthmatic. After drying and with the three coats...the surface effect is that of a slight gloss. All in all application has been by-the-book...or is it FAQ?

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I've started up my Etsy photo site, selling only the best of my French and European photos, take a look at http://unephoto.etsy.com
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The house at 10 Rt. St.Amand is SOLD! Yes! We and the prospective buyer who already owns a large house in Lignieres has bought it for her son. We got what we needed to get the roof on this place with a bit loeft over ...maybe...and Ted will get his half for the transmission(s) he needs for his Jaguar. Whoopee!

Bye for now!

Nansulate Applied!

Yesterday I gave three rolled coats of Nansulate to our attic mounted water heater of unknown capacity, perhaps 200 liters. Today I took the ambient temp of the attic adjacent to the water heater and it was 72 degrees. the temp on top of the water heater itself was 78 degrees...a difference of 6 degrees. Yesterday the temp difference was over 9 degrees so we are in the positive so far in this grand and somewhat expensive experiment ( the closer the water heater temp is to the ambient temp of the room the better the paints performance ). Kelly coated the clothes drier and the small refrigerator in her kitchen, I took no before and after temps but it couldn't hurt the performance of those devices to have additional insulation now could it? Then I tackled the back wall in Kelly's sewing room so she could put the chest of drawers back in place and we could get on with coating the rest of the room. Nansulate is tough stuff when dry, drips come up but only with difficulty. I think it would make great glue if it didn't cost so much. The surface after three coats was smooth with a matte transparent appearance. The same held true on the appliance applications...plus it developed a feel as though it were coated with rubber. I had Kelly coat her little water pitcher too to cover the rusted ridge on the bottom so it would no longer stain her drain board. We'll see how all these little projects play out. Other uses have come to mind as well, the car's firewall to keep heat from the engine out, on patio umbrella cloth to keep the UV damage to a minimum, on the outside surfaces of my countertop oven to prevent heat loss. I'm SURE there are many, many more things that we will discover uses for this nearly miraculous substance. Tomorrow we will "paint" the Nansulate on the exterior walls of the guest bedroom...three coats and wait the requisite 30 days before we apply the wall paper.


An additional note: the sewing room wall is covered with horsehair, lime and sand and had many small surface cracks thoughout though it was firmly attached to the waddle and dab underneath. The coating filled most of these crevices completely and with the strength of the bond I think that it has helped overall to maintain the quite ancient surface from degradation. We shall see. I'm very hopeful.

A Red Letter Day and 108 Euros!

Fed Ex recieved the paint on the 14th and as of last night it was in Paris getting duty assessed by French Customs before leaving for Bourges (St. Doulchard). 5 US gallons of the ever more precious nano paint are, at last, in the country of France and subject to whatever duty Customs can figure out. There is no estimate of additional charges on the Fed Ex site at this time, and there probably won't be anyway as by the time they process all the fancy and expensive paperwork the stuff will be on the truck speeding down the heart of France to our anxious little hands. We will pay by check whatever amount is necessary to get the paint into our house, rest assured. And I did, and slept like a baby.
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Up at 7am, coffee, potty and check the Fed Ex web site...it's IN Bourges! Arrived there this morning, terrific! Now to another truck (probably a local expeditier) and then to us sometime today! Whoopee! Guests gone one day and The Paint arrives the next! Great timing! Another cup of java at 8am and read the emails, start writing the blog to explain all of this. Recheck the Fed Ex site and l'viola! It's on a deliver van already! Cool! Or HOT depending on which side is one or the other (It IS insulating paint after all!) Wondering where we start the application and if we have the right roller(s). Kelly wants her sewing room finished and so that is where the action will start so that we can paint and wallpaper and get it back into useable condition ASAP. I walk downstairs and go to my kitchen to assess the days activities in that arena. Wash a couple of pots left over from last night, put away the now cooled thoroughly roasted (overdone actually) chicken and on my way back to the sitting room...the truck of our dreams (nightmare?!) arrives in front of the house.




I openned the front door and the driver handed me the small box with 1 gallon of the ever more rare and precious paint inside, he then returned to the truck for the other 4 gallon box. $108.68 duty is indicated on the shipping receipt. Wow...$657 for 5 gallons of the stuff. We must be mad or terribly convinced. Check out their website...http://www.nansulate.com/

Peace

Our friends from North Carolina left this morning bound for Paris and the ETAP we stayed in about a week ago. I abandoned all my plans for kitchen cleanup and fell fast asleep a few minutes after saying goodbye. Having guests is heady business,
we had plans, they had plans but we were put in charge from the get go so Get Go we did. They inspected Dix, the house we have for sale ( http://hnlute.blogspot.com ) and loved it. We went to the local horse races and numerous brocantes including the giant one right in our front yard in the Champ du Foire. They bought out half of France having fallen in love with the place. The car was a beast to pack even as well organized as it was. So much wine, food, cheeses, pictures and the spacious Saab was chock full to the very brim.
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We visited Ainay-le-Vieil ( http://chateau.ainaylevieil.free.fr/ ) yesterday and went on the tour of this little gem of the Loire Valley. It always gets high marks from us as it is really a family home and quite intimate. I always feel priveleged to be allowed to see the beautiful interior rooms and especially the chapel with the endearing frescoes. It is a place not to miss in the Loire.

All,s Quiet On The Western Front...Or Is It?

Truth is...it isn,t, at leqst not on this part of the Western Front. We have been busy as beqvers and that,s pretty darned busy. The guest room is our latest target now that the sewing room is partially papered with the yellowstriped stuff Kelly wanted. Now we have attacked the walls available tobe coverred with a grey and beige trois...a set of scenic drawings of the fancified continents, all manner of animal life and winged persons interacting with them in colorful and maybe even questionable ways. We cannot compplete any of the external walls as they must first be coated with the magic paint nano_naunt or some such which will aid in heqt retention in the old place. The stuff, all 5 gallons of it was to be shipped on/about the 18th of May and though I have written the company and they have cashed our check there has been no reply and no paint either. So we wait and strike out in directions that the situation allows. Which included the following activity.,
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We had a dinner for 8 last night, our best friends A&R, S&D and nearly relaives by marriage to A&R whose daughter is in a serious relationship with. Future mother in law and father in law types. It went off quite well if I do say so myself. The main event was a coq a vin done in the style of Bay Wolf the restaurant in Berkeley, California. Not the usual cooked to deth chicken boiled in red wine, no, noth this. Every ingredient gets carmelized first then assembled into the dish with the chicken skin side left out of the liquid thus it gets/stays crisp. The cqrmelized mushrooms were sweet and eqrthy at the same time, delicious!

To The North Country! Champagne!

So yesterday we flew the coop...left to pick up our newest Godin wood stove that we bought on eBay for 42 USD! A fantastic price! These things go for hundreds and up into the thousands when new. Yet people wanting to just make a little money and with not-so-great photography skills in hand create a great bargain. This one is smaller and round but it was a Godin air-tight and hopefully in good enough condition that I could do minor repairs to and create a second warm spot in the maison blanche.

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The trip to Troyes (TROY), where we were to stay the night, went quicker than we thought. We got to the town in a bit over 6 hours and found the ETAP easily thanks to Jane the Tom-Tom. Initially it seemed the heart of the old medieval city were quite far away and would require a real over land hike to get to...but as we discovered, that was not so. The old part of town is wedge shaped and thus we were only a couple of blocks from it. We parked our car on the upper level and soon learned that the rear door to the ETAP was quite locked and not available to us to open. We needed to verify our reservation in the front lobby...actually at the front door computer kiosk that serves as the modern lobby at an ETAP. We entered our card and l'viola! We were in with a key code written out by the printer at the door. Cool! Up to room 207, enter the same code in the door lock and we were home for the day at 1:30 pm local time. Then out to lunch at a nearby Asian restaurant that looked promising. In, we were seated in minutes and provided with an extensive menu. We chose the Midi Special (Lunch Menu) and made our choices known to the speedy and efficient server. Soon lunch came and it was absolutely fresh and delicious and more food than we could ever eat! Truly generous portions! It's the one at the roundabout down the street from the ETAP on Rue 14 July. Well worth a visit!

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Afterwords we crossed the street and wandered into the old section of Troyes gawking unabashedly at the beautiful 15th century half-timber buildings that make up the largess of the downtown. Block after block of restored and ancient buildings that together make Troyes a more than worthwhile stop in a trip about France. We sat at a corner cafe where the plaza with a large merry-go-round served up a wonderful sight. The beers, hers small, mine large were almost 11 Euros, not cheap but the people watching and the sights made it worthwhile. Troyes has a multi-cultural population and it shows. People meeting people on the street, doing the kissing thing and chatting right in front of us sipping our beers. Lovely, just lovely. We spent about an hour there, then ambled in and around the old town area before making our way back to the hotel to rest and assess our day. Tomorrow...the Godin!
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In the morning I awoke before my duck at about 7 am, sat at the EeePC and read the news and emails. She woke at 8 and very quickly we got our stuff together. We headed out to see the local Gothic cathedral, have a coffee at a tabac nearby and local pastries from a boulangerie next door as is the way in France. Then off to Soilly, it being NW of Troyes in the low hills and verdant valleys that adjoin Belgium. Hilly country full of colza and the vines from which champagne are made, a regional production that produces the world's supply of the great bubbly wines. Colza's yellow flowers cover thousands and thousands of acres here as do the wonderful curvy vines. As we drive amazing vistas appear yellow upon green and light green of barley and wheat sprouting simultaneously. Beautiful. We take side roads thanks to Jane of Tom-Tom fame and witness the countryside in all it's glory from high on hilltops themselves covered with vines and colza. It is truly spectacular!

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Jane steers us towards our goal, the stove we bought from the gentleman in Soilly. Once there we found the address easily enough and amidst the turmoil of multiple guests arriving at the same time we paid our debt of 42 Euros for the unknown stove and with his help liften and laid it down in the rear of the Avensis. It looked in amazingly good shape, all the castings un=cracked and not chipped either. Beautiful indeed! Once packed we were off again to head back to Lignieres with a fine wood stove in tow from yet again a new spot for us in the French hinterlands.