Busy Days

Teazle Heads

It's always a strange, mixed set of feelings as we get set to go back to the UK. We've friends over there who we are really looking forward to seeing and spending time with. Bradford on Avon has a very special feel about it at Christmas and New Year. If the weather is good, preferably a bright, crisp day, with a splattering of snow, BOA transports you into the traditional Christmas card scene of another century, with the narrow streets and old bridge and buildings. Bath is absolutely glorious as well, leading into the festive season, with the Christmas market and concerts. But somehow or other France has captured our hearts and minds and it's a wrench to return, even though this time we know we must, to sort things out for our move. There are some friends who over the next few months in the UK we must say 'bye' to, as we won't see them again unless at some stage they come to visit in France. Technology of course makes keeping in touch so easy. For the first few years after we've moved, we are allowed to spend fifteen days each year in the UK. We have an annual commitment in London which is important to get to. But apart from that we don't in the first year, what to use our allocation in one hit, in case something urgent crops up that we have to return for. It affects your residency status. In all likelihood we'll travel over to London next June, by train.

Cravant vines in autumn

The way things have worked out, we're going back earlier than we usually do. In fact this time last year, we were taking the ferry out to France, rather than back to the UK as we are this year.  Autumn has yet to fully develop as far as all the colours are concerned. We know what it can look like here, so have a clear picture in our heads of the Cravant panorama in all its glory. It's a stunning view. 

Getting ready to go back is always quite a performance. The week before, you're packing things up, tidying things away, getting wine orders together and this time Christmas presents as well, all of which is mixed up with a hectic social life. There's been something happening with local friends every day since last Thursday - great fun, and today we're meeting some more friends for lunch at L'Auberge. One way or another it's a whirl of activity. And it's the same when we get back to the UK. One piece of news that we weren't wanting to get concerns a wine producer here Fabrice Gasnier. We met him for the first time on the rando round Cravant at the beginning of September and have bought wine from him a couple of times since. Lovely guy and family. We'd been trying to make contact with him, as friends in BOA who had stayed with us and tasted his wines, had specifically asked if we could bring some of his wine back for them, for Christmas and New Year. So since last Thursday we've been attempting to make contact by phone and going round on the off chance we might catch up with him. But not a sign and calls weren't returned which is most unusual. Anyway last night, we heard he'd had a very bad accident, which involved him falling from a high enough point directly on to a concrete floor on his back. Various injuries as you can imagine, including a punctured lung. Wine producing is a delicious business from our point of view as customers. But it's a tough business and at times it is also a dangerous business.

Our first night back in BOA, we've had a lovely invitation to dinner from friends who live about five minutes away. Other friends are going as well, who are also moving away. They leave for Skye on November 13. Just before dinner I'm going to my first weekly French conversation group. Really didn't want be back in the UK and not chat in French. Fortunately there is a weekly group led by Frenchman Gérard, which restarts the day we get back. So the timing is perfect. Mike is joining one of his other groups.  During the day we will have attacked a four month pile of mail. We have a wonderful friend John who looks after the house for us. He is meticulous in his organising of our post. Firstly into his and her piles and then in date order of arrival. Also he gets rid of all the junk mail! He's so good about doing it.  Sunday night we're out to a jazz gig that a friend of ours is involved with.
Monday we're round to dinner with our friends Sue and Dave, although the Origami Chef will have been at work over the weekend with a few apéro dishes to take along. Then we're all going to a big firework party. Or maybe it's the other way round.

The following week we're into a run of appointments. Dentist, hairdresser - that means me going to Jim. Will be lovely to see him and the rest of the gang. There's a whole tranche of birthdays on the 9th and 10th of November and joint 60th birthday party. After all that, we're getting on with getting sorted.

So for the next few days, I'm blogging of. Then over to Tales from BOA.

Go well!!

The rebranding of Chick Lit

Well it was only a matter of time. I will freely admit I've never read any Chick Lit. I do know what it is!  Anything that deals with the issues of modern womanhood, which I regard myself as still being part of, in a frequently humorous and lighthearted fashion, I should perhaps have made time for. After all I thoroughly enjoyed the film version of Bridget Jones's diary. It was hilarious. What's more the author Helen Fielding is an English graduate from Oxford. So that must surely mean decent writing!

However it's all quite irrelevant. Been overtaken by events. Because what we now have is Bic Lit, which I'm assuming is more or less the same as Chick Lit only more girly, more relevant to the modern woman, more humorous and more lighthearted, because it's written with those pretty pastel coloured pens. And of course Bic Lit is much better value. Made for the female hand, Bic Lit authors can hold their pens for a greater length of time.  Not as exhausting as having to write with those nasty, heavy male pens.  Which means that with the added bonus of the smoother writing action of the Bic lit pen, there'll be more words committed to paper, so the books will be longer. Isn't that a lovely!

Bic Lit looks different as well. Gone are the days of boring old black on white. The secret yearning of the 'gentler sex' to use materials that compliment their ultra-femininity has been realised. For the first time ever, Bic Lit authors will be writing on that lovely pink, scented paper. There's a clear strategy at work here. The pens have been specially designed for this application. Just think of it. An aromatic waft with every page turned. Finding Bic Lit in bookshops will be a doddle. All you need do is follow your nose.  It is going to revolutionise the reading experience.  I wonder how the Kindle will respond to the nasal challenge? After all, these days book and kindle version are part of the regular marketing mix.

What I am looking forward to are the Bic Lit awards or the Bic-er awards. Not sure when the first one will take place or where. Will it be in London? Of course! At The Gherkin.With its uncanny resemblance to the cap shape of the Bic pen, the awards have found their natural home. There'll have to be a bit of rebranding of course. But all The Her-bic would need is a special lighting effect with a sequenced colour change across the entire Bic for Her range, and London will have added an orgasbic visual experience to the city's skyline. Life's a bic really. There's poor old Sir Norman Baron Foster of Bic Bank - sorry Thames Bank - thinking he's designed an iconic architectural form for Londoners, when all the time he's been working for the Bic marketing department.

Presumably the Bic-er awards will get similar tv coverage to the Booker?  Who'll be hosting it? Mariella Frostrup perhaps. Don't think it would be up Germaine Greer's street. But you never know. What about Miranda Sawyer? Patsy and Edwina?
As much as I love him, I don't think it could be or should be Stephen Fry.
Hm.
Got it!
What about Ellen Degeneres?

The Origami Chef

The Origami Chef

Food in France is very important. It's not just something you eat. The essentialness of eating and cooking is deeply embedded in the national psyche. So every culinary experience, wherever and whenever it takes place, has to be good. And the expectation here is that it will be. Therefore every time we 'entertain', it's always carefully planned. Sounds like a lot of work, but it isn't. We keep things simple and use quality produce from our local market. I do the regular catering, as tomorrow when we have a French friend for lunch. Although Marie-Michèle is bringing the ingredients for the dessert - Pain Perdu, which Mike adores and I don't know how to make. So she's making it here with me helping. Whenever we go to Cravant's L'Auberge for lunch, they no longer ask what Mike wants for dessert. He is known as 'Monsieur Pain Perdu'. 

Mike is a reluctant cook, although he's actually very good at it. The few times I have been really unwell he has come up with something simple but delicious. But he very clearly sees himself as the 'emergency' chef. He doesn't enjoy doing it. So I look after the daily stuff. 
However Mike has found his niche within the culinary world.

Most of our friends and children either side of the channel know that the taller Shearing is into origami. Fascinated by it in fact. Quite a few homes have a Shearing fold or two, perched on a book case. Fortunately this fascination with things small, which clearly includes me, has been extended to include food, in particular small more fiddly savouries, which are the format for un apéro or un apéro dinatoire - as we had here last night with some neighbours. 

We began with baby tomatoes, which he stuffed with egg, anchovy and olives with pimento. There were little tartelettes with various rillette fillings - fish and meat. Blinis with smoked salmon, crème fraîche and 'mock' caviar. Miniature courgette tartelettes - no pastry just courgette baked in a particular way - so it's a very light mixture. Quails eggs with celery salt. Manchego cheese with membrillo, which is a quince paste and finally my sole contribution, which were individual miniature pavlovas with fresh orange. Started off with fizzy, red wines during and a dessert wine, which as you'd expect were sourced locally. I have to say it was all quite delicious. He'd prepared everything, made all the tartelette cases etc. I was really proud of him.

So as The Origami Chef's newly appointed manager we have unexpectedly and half-seriously, hit on a brand name for our particular range of savoury bouchée. Perhaps we should do something with the idea.Would be rather exciting.

I lost my phone inside a cow!

Every time I get an idea together for a blog at the moment, something distracts me and sends me off on a completely different track. I think it's all part of my generally distracted demeanor, as I finish getting ready for a visit to the UK next week. One half of me is in France and the other half in England. It's always like this just before we go back. I'll be pleased when it stops. I end up putting things in the wrong place.

So what caused the distraction this time? Well there a several things .To begin with a posting on Facebook from The Daily Mail by Michael Shearing entitled,  I lost my phone inside a cow! It's an article  about mobile phone insurance claims. The title comes from a claim by a farmer who was trying to help a cow give birth and was using the light on his phone, to do what he needed to do. Without being too graphic, the farmer managed during the process, apparently, to drop the phone inside the cow. I just hope there weren't any calls or text messages!  This reminded of a list of hilarious car insurance claims I've got somewhere in the BOA house. They make wonderful reading. . . 'I was parking my car and a tree suddenly jumped out at me and made me swerve into the other vehicle'.  I've had the list for ages and never used it. Now's my chance. Watch this space. Then there was the late night news round-up on Southern TV when I was down in Sussex with Mike one time, which included a report about  a man who had been arrested one evening, after knocking down a cow while on his pedal bike. And then running over it! How? The cow survived but had an interesting kink!  This story remains a complete mystery.

Then I remembered my own mobile phone moments, all of which happened while I was still working in the theatre. I'd phoned one of my technicians from my mobile on his mobile, not knowing that he'd given his phone to an actor to rehearse with. So I managed to phone up in the middle of a rehearsal at the most perfect moment by all accounts, which had the cast in hysterics and they had to stop. Another time I was on tour in Scotland, in a restaurant with the company on what was now our night off. I'd gone to the loo - a modernised block of six metallic cubicles which after I'd arrived, were all occupied. My mobile phone went off. It was so loud, that all the little metal boxes resounded with laughter, as I tried to discuss in a whisper, details of a company call my boss wanted the following day, over breakfast. I could only imagine what it must have sounded like, me whispering 'I'm on the loo and everyone's listening'. The incident at the Barbican was the worst. Me of all people! After a hefty day of rehearsals I had gone to see a show and had forgotten to switch my mobile off. No phonecalls, but the battery was low, and so of course in the middle of the action, it started bleeping. I couldn't get at it either until the interval as my bag had got wedged right under the seat with my coat in front of it. Never did it again mind you!

Then came a Ellen Generes clip, again on Facebook, which a uni pal of mine Debbie posted. I'm not saying any more. Just have a look at it if you've got a minute.
What I wanted to blog about is a French magazine I'm reading which has a whole series of features about French cinema. As I mentioned in an earlier blog we go to the cinema regularly in Chinon and thoroughly enjoy the mix of mainstream and art house movies. So reading a bit more about the history of French cinema has been really interesting.

So finally I am at the point where I was going to start. Although after all the earlier stuff, I'm not sure this really fits in. Anyway I found a really interesting article about the brothers Auguste et Louis Lumière who are credited with the development of film as a mass medium, using the camera-projector called a 'cinématograph 1' They were born 150 years ago on the 19th of October 1862. Their first public film showing was on the 28th December in Paris,1895. Entitled 'Workers leaving the factory' the film started at 7pm and ran for 50 seconds, in front of 33 people. The you tube link is a bit sticky. One of their other famous pieces is called L'Arroseur arrosé which runs for about 44 seconds. The affect on audiences to see moving images must have been quite astounding. The same when sound in movies arrived. For me such a moment was watching a man land on the moon - live broadcast. Quite amazing and something I'll never forget. Back to the Lumière brothers - their house and studio in Lyon is now a cinema and museum and attracts renowned cinéastes (film directors) from all over the world for talks, lectures etc.
A couple of brilliant inventors.

The things you find

original cast

I had got a blog sorted out for today. At least in my head. But then everything changed to more important matters. First of all, Trekkies have been gathering for a Star Trek convention in London this month: 19-21 October.  Got to admit it has been an amazing year for London. First of all Mrs. Queen celebrates her sixtieth anniversary as Mrs Queen. Then came the Olympics, followed by the Paralympics and now a Star Trek convention, which this year has five Star Trek Captains all present and correct. My favourites are Kirk and Jean-Luc Picard otherwise known as William Shatner and Patrick Stewart.   
Am I getting excited or what! 
I am a Junior Trekkie, in as much as I loved the first few series, but never progressed to the costume or make-up stage. The idea of getting decked out does rather appeal though. The question is as what. I'm grappling with the fact that despite my aspirations, I would never have been cast as an Elf in Lord of the Rings - height problem. Or maybe they did they have short elves and Tolkien simply never got round to writing about them, and now obviously, never will. So Star Trek has got to make up for it. I quite fancy playing Uhuru the Communications Officer in the original series. (That would be me in the back row second from the right). Driving the Starship Enterprise instead of Sulu would be good. (That would be me in the back row first on the right). Warp factor 9 Lt. Shearing. Beam me down Shearing. Oops no that means that I'd have to be the whizz engineer, Scotty - don't think so! I'm not good with a spanner.  This is all too much. I'll just have to content myself with watching the DVDs of the original series. Devil in The Dark is one of my favourite episodes featuring The Horta. Terrifying at the time, it now looks like a speeding brown blancmange with acne and a fringe. Still good ideas in the script though. Or The Menagerie - a two-parter all to do with  mind control, illusion and other things.

Then came the news that Superman had resigned from his post with The Daily Planet. This is serious stuff. You know things must be really bad if even Superman has given up. Does this mean that the all American hero is going to disappear for ever? Who will he be replaced with? Wonder if there's any chance that the Lone Ranger and Tonto will come back with their trusty steeds Silver and Scout. Nice little clip here. Will have you on the edge of your seats! Not that I'm regressing or anything, but according to my mother, I used to watch this every week, and every week I would run round the back of the television set to see where all the cowboys and horses and disappeared to.

Having suffered a double whammy of missing a Star Trek convention and a superhero resigning, I thought I'd go outside and do some gardening. Beautiful afternoon and after all the rain we'd had, the beds had dried out enough so that I didn't get covered in mud as I walked around pruning and weeding. Started cutting back one of our rosemary bushes that had grown too big and was becoming a bit of a thug. The branches were so thick, I had to climb into the bush to be able to cut it back. I'd taken off a couple of pieces, then saw carefully balanced on a thick branch but wedged against our house wall an empty, but perfect birds nest. It was an amazing construction and completely hidden from view. Whichever bird built it had a good eye for a secure spot. I took a few photos of it, then left it intact. Had no idea it was there.  Cheered me up no end.



PS It looks like The Lone Ranger is coming back. There's a film being produced with Johnny Depp. Well who else could it possibly be!

The Arts Crowd

Autumn Bell

Having spent thirty+ years immersed in the London arts scene - career and for fun - the decision to move away wasn't an easy one. Our choices of where to move to were heavily influenced by the degree of arts stuff available. We breathe the arts, so continued access was very important. Sounds very smug I know, but with both places we've pretty much aced it. Bradford on Avon (BOA) has been a creative town for centuries and continues to attract all sorts of artistic talent, many of whom are nationally (and internationally) very well known. Bath which is about 8k from BOA is packed with arts events in all sorts of conceivable spaces and all year round, as is Bristol. Then there are annual music and literature festivals in nearby-ish Cheltenham, Salisbury and Gloucester.  And of course London isn't that far away so we usually go back at least a couple of times a year.  We're there the weekend before Christmas.

Our French life is similarly busy with arts events.  From time to time we'd do the usual touristy things of visiting chateaux and gardens. But pretty much all of them organise special themed events and late night openings as an extra way of attracting visitors. Living half the year in France we've gradually become aware of the depth of the creative life in the region. Obviously there's a lot more happening during the season, but being around regularly, you get to know those smaller hidden places and spaces which operate all year round and which we always support when we're here.

Some of them I've already mentioned in earlier blogs and there's more to come. But as far as well known faces are concerned this side of the Channel, the Loire has certainly attracted some 'star' turns. Two of the best known are Leonard da Vinci and to give him his full name, Joseph Mallord William Turner. A quick drive over to Amboise will bring you to the Clos Lucé - Leonardo da Vinci's last destination, which is dedicated to his memory and creative genius, with fabulous working scale models in the house as well as the gardens. Turner was totally besotted with the Loire and appears to have sketched his way along the Loire via Brittany. Whether or not he came to Chinon or Cravant even, I've no idea, but he certainly went to Amboise and Saumur which is another big town to blog about at some stage. The Tate has at least one of Turner's French scenes in its collection. Turner also encouraged other British artists to experience the Loir, including Samuel Proute (architectural watercolour), William Callow (landscape, engraving, watercolour) and Clarkson Stanfield. He was a real turn up. I had heard of him as being an exceptional marine painter, but it turns out that he also worked in the theatre as a scene painter, including the Drury Theatre in London.

Calder mobile: Saché

Two more recent names are Max Ernst and Alexander Calder. Max Ernst lived in Huismes about 8 k from Chinon, with American artist Dorothea Tanning who, amazingly died in January this year aged 101. Calder lived in Saché, which is a bit further away from us at around 22k. There's all sorts of information about him (and Ernst) on the web. I'll never forget the first time we drove through Saché, which is a sweet place but not overly special and there in the centre of the village was/is an enormous Calder mobile. The Chateau at Tours which we visited recently for another exhibition, staged a massive retrospective exhibition of Calder's work a few years ago, which included some filmed pieces of his amazing miniature circus and photos - including shots with his friend Max Ernst. Wonderful collection. 

Anyway if you want to see more, there's a lot of information about all three artists - Calder, Ernst and Tanning - on the web including youtube. It's worth having a look.

What's the French for. . ?

I love the French language as much as I do English. If I didn't I don't think it would be possible to live here. I've always preferred the sound of the lyrical languages such as French, Spanish and Italian. There's something uplifting, expressive about them and they make me smile. But gutteral languages such as German just have never appealed to my ear and I never enjoyed the feel of the language on my tongue. Which is perhaps why I gave it up at school as soon as the opportunity presented itself. 

I can't imagine what the effect would be if, one morning you woke up not only disliking the sound of your own language, but not having any interest in it. Luckily I've always been fascinated by words and they've shaped my life sometimes in the most unexpected ways. Now of course, out of choice, I've two lexicons to play with.

I hadn't appreciated until relatively recently, that at least 43% of English comes from French. Our neighbours here and our co-conversationalists found this quite intriguing. Given our countries shared histories, it's not surprising that language would be part of the cultural exchange. But it's only since I started studying French again and regularly using both languages that I've become aware of the cross-over. Many 'every day' words in English are the same in French. On occasion they are even spelt the same, or there might a one letter difference. Some words are of French origine, but over time have acquired different meanings in each country.

During the summer the grand-children of our neighbours Norbert and Jacqueline came round for an English lesson, to try and ease their worries about starting to learn it at school in Septembre. So I got about 100 words together just to start them off, which were either exactly the same in either language, or had a one letter difference. Of course pronunciation is clearly différente and important to get right. And each word in French comes with gender definition. However the look on their faces as the réalisation began to sink in, that they already knew some English words was just wonderful to see. 

Here are a some which are so obvious, but I'd just stopped thinking about the connection: chef, diction, blancmange, cuisine,orange, table, impossible, ballet, jungle, patron, discipline, adorable, judo, vampire. lion, panorama.

The link below gives an A-Z of English/French cognates.

French language

If not now then when?

Top Girls - Caryl Churchill's play popped up in conversation the other morning. I've just checked up when it was written. I couldn't remember.  Thirty years ago - 1982. Can't quite believe it. I've always enjoyed the device Churchill uses of mixing historical characters - factual, fictional and mythological with those of 'today', as a means of tracking the female condition/situation. And it coincided well with our group's conversation, during which we discussed and attempted to choose another period to live in, as opposed to our own time. 

The characters in Top Girls offered an interesting selection of time and place to give us a kick-start. Pope Joan a legendary female Pope who apparently was in the lead spot for a few years during the Middle Ages; Isabella Bird a 19th century English explorer, writer and natural historian; Dull Gret who appeared in a Breughal painting-I think in 1562; the concubine Lady Nijo from 13th century Japan and Patient Griselda who appears in Chaucer's The Clerk's Tale (Canterbury Tales), although P.G., seems to have been adapted from an earlier text by Boccaccio. None of us girls at the conversation fancied being concubines. There was something appealing about Isabella Bird who bore some comparison to Alienor of Aquitaine in terms of travelling about, and crossing oceans and vast landscapes. A French friend Bernard who regularly comes to the conversation sessions ( phonetic pronunciation = Bearnar) fancied being a Troubadour and seemed happy if a few of us wanted to tag along.  Mike volunteered. Difficult for me though, because probably women (as in early theatre) weren't allowed to perform. Then someone reminded Bernard he couldn't take his car, so the whole trip was cancelled.  

The idea of being a Time Lord was far more interesting at least as far as I was concerned. Being able to leap backwards and forwards, preferably without changing sex has always appealed to my imagination. Gender issues apart, the main drawback with the Time Lord c.v., is that you're saving the world 24/7, which doesn't leave much time for sight-seeing. So no easy answer to the question of 'If not now, then when?'. Rather than living permanently in another time, there are people and events I would truly like to see.  Quite a few of them are musical moments such as hearing Mozart play or if you believe the film, the moment Glenn Miller discovered his sound. There are all sorts of unanswered historical questions about the pyramids I'd love to resolve. What's the real reason dinosaurs are extinct? Far Side Cards would amusingly have us believe it's because they smoked too many cigarettes. Scroll down the link here - it's about the seventh image.

One region and period that intrigues apart from the Plains Indians in the United States, is Andalucia in Medieval Spain. I came across 'The Ornament of the World' by Maria Rosa Menocal a few years ago. It's riveting stuff, although academics/specialists of the period feel her writing is a little light-weight. But as an introduction it's terrific and describes a time when Muslim, Jew and Christian communities created a culture of tolerance which lasted for at least five hundred years.

Too many options. It's as difficult as trying to pick your eight favourite records for Desert Island Discs, which we tried to do one Christmas. Or if you really want your brain to go into overdrive - the ultimate dinner party - who would you invite to your last meal?

The whole conversation was brought to a close by one of Bernard's jokes. 
 What do you call a mad man who throws himself into  the river in Paris. . .?

InSeine. 

I think I'd better bring this blog to a close.

What a great few days!

Winter flower on the hydrangea

Monday 15the October some friends of ours arrived for a couple of nights on their way down to Spain where they're in the process of restoring a house up in the Pyrenees. Two of them, Jane and Bob, live in Bradford on Avon and we see each regularly. Jane's daughter Sarah was with them, who is married and lives and works with her husband (they have their own practice) as an architect, also in Spain. So Sarah was going home. Jane and Bob had been to once us before, but that occasion, they were on their way back from Spain to Bradford on Avon. For Sarah this was her first visit. We had a really good time together. Dinner at home here Monday evening - the wine was flowing, so a late night. Tuesday 16th was our wedding anniversary (41st). Having finally managed to get up and make coherent conversation, we went for a walk round the village and then headed down to our local restaurant L'Auberge for lunch. We're so lucky to have this place - just ten minutes down the road. That is if you're not going for a wander round first. It's one of those gradually disappearing places that offer great food at a great price. Lunch at € 14.50 offers a freshly prepared menu with a choice of starter, either a buffet or a hot dish, which this time was a leek tartelette. Three choices for a main dish - steak, beef casserole or fish followed by a cheese board. Finally a dessert from five possibilities. Wine is also included - 250 cl. person or half a litre for two, unlimited bread and water. Coffee is the extra and any pre-lunch drinks. It was all just wonderful. We'd reserved a table in advance and they'd given us the round table in the window, which was ideal. We'd wanted the others to be able to see everything that was going on and from this table it's possible.  As usual we were looked after very well. After that there was a visit to Fontevraud Abbey which they all just loved. Unfortunately they also found the impossibly delicious cake shop opposite the main entrance to Abbey. So back home for tea and cakes. We were treated to lunch and cakes - so spoilt rotten. Loads of chat and discussion in the evening and singing with Mike accompanying on the ukelele. Up earlyish this morning (17th) - 7am, as they needed to have some breakfast and get underway as soon as it was light - which at the moment here is about 8.00am. Didn't envy them their drive - at least eleven hours - a long haul, including a stop for lunch. Fingers crossed they arrive safely.

 

Looks like being a great day

Monday 15 October has got off to a very good start. It's SUNNY!!!! If it can only stay like this for the week and dry things out. The second good thing is that we have some friends staying for a couple of nights from Bradford on Avon (BOA), on their way through to Spain. The third good thing is that another close friend of mine from BOA sold six pieces of work over the weekend at an annual Art Trail, which has a very good reputation. The first time I believe she's entered it. So so pleased for her.


Anyway this is a necessarily short blog. I need to dry my hair. Then we're into Chinon for French conversation. In thirty minutes so I must get a move on.

Also it's our wedding anniversary tomorrow, Tuesday 16th - so no blogs as we're out all day. Loads of news on Wednesday.

The Vendange is not underway

A friend sent some information yesterday about a wine producer in Sussex (my county), or West Sussex to be more precise. Nyetimber wines, who produce terrific sparkling wine. They have had just had to scrap their entire 2012 harvest because of the weather, which has badly affected the grapes ability to mature. They rate quality above everything else. This was the company who supplied the wine for the Queen's Royal Barge during the jubilee festivities. The impact will be felt in three to four years time apparently. I've attached an newspaper article about it and their website. 

There have been some 'local' producers on FB giving up dates on how their harvest is going. Laure Dozon at Ligré has had a very good harvest. Another Chateau de l'aulée in Azay le Rideau has had a bit of a struggle with theirs, but it seems to be coming together. Both producers make excellent wine and we buy from them regularly.

It's very difficult to understand fully what's going on locally here in Cravant with the wine harvest. Since my last blog about it, there's been no activity in the village. It started Wednesday then stopped. Plenty of equipment and people waiting to get going, but we've had such heavy rain pretty much ever since that nothing and no one is moving. Today, Sunday, it's more of the same. Producers have parcelles of vines with different soils, all over the place to provide the fabulous range of flavours that all of us here are accustomed to drinking, and from just one grape. Cabernet Franc  But the balance between sun and rain is crucial as part of that process. 2012 has been up the creek in that respect.

I just hope that there are any 2012 harvest casualties amongst the Cravant wine producers.

The Clothes Peg

The Lowly Clothes Peg

I didn't reckon on clothes pegs coming into a blog, let alone provide the story behind a blog. They seem remarkably uninteresting even though they're useful. I would imagine that of all the items or gifts H.M.QE2 has received during the last sixty years, a clothes peg - gold plated or otherwise - is not amongst them. Clothes Pegs never warrant a mention at coffee mornings, are never included on Christmas present lists or birthday present lists. Who has ever seen a wedding present list with clothes pegs on it? But wonder of wonders the clothes peg, as of last night, became my heroine of the hour. I say heroine because in French, a clothes peg is a feminine noun - la pince à linge. This new found status is from my point of view very splendid indeed and totally unexpected.
 

I was born with double-jointed fingers, toes and thumbs. It's a common condition. The biggest problem for me are my fingers. They can lock like claws, and have to be massaged  back into a normal shape so they work again. I used to play saxophone and piano and didn't seem to run into any difficulties with either of those instruments. But I now play the accordion and it seems to trigger my fingers into such a locked position that I can't bend them or play anything. Last night was one of those moments. I've often thought about giving up playing, but I enjoy it too much, and being of a stubborn disposition I can't quite bring myself to do it.

In desperation I surfed the net and discovered a site, How to correct doublejointedness. It's written by a violinist Loralyn Staples, who is herself double-jointed and has had all sorts of problems during her career. There is a short video on her site which shows an exercise using a clothes peg, to help build up the muscles in those fingers which are usually the worst affected - the thumb, the little finger and the ring finger next to it. These fingers on both my hands are so weak, that even using two fingers to open and shut the clothes peg, as the video demonstrates, was impossible. So to start with I had to use the middle finger as well. Today however, I am already noticing the difference. I'm down from three fingers to two and will keep on going. This exercise really seems to be working. If there's anyone you know with a similar problem, please pass it on. Definitely worth them trying it.

Rain stopped work!

Cloud build-up yesterday evening

This morning - oh my. The rain just let rip. Torrential. Then thunder. Thick mist - couldn't see the end of the road. And so dark. It was more like 8pm than 8am. So sorry for the wine producers. The weather is part and parcel of their working lives. But even so. This was just hopeless. No way we were going for a walk in the vines etc as I mentioned yesterday.  




We drove into Chinon this morning as usual to the market. Nothing was moving. The harvesters were parked up, ready to start - whenever that might be. As for the hand-pickers in their tents. Cold, wet and depressing I would think. The market itself was very empty - of shoppers as well as vendors. Not a good start to the day.

So sorry everyone no photos and a very short blog.  

In the meantime a short entertainment provided by Mr. C. Chaplin.

At least the first version is short and the second version - full length.


Charlie Chaplin 1


Charlie Chaplin 2

Hopefully normal transmission will begin again tomorrow.

The vendange is underway!!!

Early stages

I had a coffee morning here last Monday for some neighbours - Jacqueline, Micheline, Emilie and little Antonin, who was born in the summer and is growing fast, and our immediate neighbour Isabel. Good fun. We were discussing when the vendange was going to start and it seemed pretty much everyone was beginning today, Weds 10 October. Others will start this weekend. It will be a two/three week period of intense activity. In an earlier blog I mentioned that the weather had been so bizaare that the vendange had been knocked back by nearly a month. So for it to finally get going was quite a relief.

We had another overcast day today. Fine for working on the vines I'm guessing. It's pandemonium on the roads though once forty wine producers get going. This means vans, tractors and trailers, enormous harvesters, pickers in various vehicles. There's a lot of traffic about. Add to that some local roadworks and . . . it's been an interesting time moving about. 

Mike and I had a ride on a harvester about four years ago. A wine producing family organised it for us. The vehicles in height are the nearing the size of a two-storey house. At the top is a little cabin for the driver. The frame that supports the cabin and does the work of harvesting is a huge lower case n shape. The harvester is positioned at one end of a row of vines and basically encases it, so that the vine is positioned in hollow of the frame. Then as the harvester moves along the row, it vibrates and shakes the grapes off the vine, which are caught by a container fixed to the machine. The harvester is an enormous piece of kit  and amazingly efficient, with steering control that can turn on a pin-head. It's quite something to ride on one and to see them in action. 

This evening we unfortunately had a massive rain burst. The last thing needed right now. Some roads were flooded. Muddy fields I imagine are not good for the machines. They might be big, beautiful and super-efficient, but they're also very heavy. Tomorrow (Thursday) will be interesting.  It so happens that we're going slightly further out in our region in the afternoon with a conversation group for a wine tasting. We're meant to be walking in the vines, but I'm not sure this will happen with the harvest going on. We'll see. Then we're having a wine tasting. I'm hoping I can get some photos. We're going into the market as per usual early tomorrow morning, so if the weather and light are good I'll try and get some photos on the way in and more in the afternoon to load on to the blog.

We were in Chinon this evening for the AGM of one of our Anglo/French groups. As we drove along, we saw a lot of the pickers just finishing. They were staying in caravans, under canvas etc, all positioned next to the vines they're working on.

Anyway we'll see what tomorrow brings. Hopefully a good day for the vignerons and the harvest and a good day for me to get some shots in.

The Photographic Egg Box

'Spot the Clanger'

We get our eggs or have been getting them, from our cheese producer over at La Roche-Clermault who also has free-range chickens and eggs available. But as of a month or so ago, some very near neighbours (the next road) began selling their free-range chickens and eggs. So ever keen to support a village enterprise, we've started buying from them. Chicken and eggs were excellent.
Over time I've collected a pile of egg boxes (cardboard), which have been sitting on the side in our kitchen, waiting to be taken round to our neighbour. Emilie, the neighbour with the eggs and chickens, in fact came round yesterday with some others for coffee, but it was pouring with rain so the egg boxes stayed put.
Quite fortuitous as it turned out.

It had been a pretty grey day today which had left us feeling slightly 'out of sorts' as grey wet days sometimes can do. Then early evening, the most amazing sunlight burst through and caught the egg boxes in a golden spotlight. Of course - out came the camera. It was a really fun exercise to try and take photos of cardboard egg boxes, starting with an obvious edge of boxes shot. The light wasn't going to last very long, so I began moving the boxes around and finding more interesting angles and textures on the insides. I'm so used to the smooth outer appearance of an egg box, while the inside I don't really take a lot of interest in. It's just a piece of practical product design to hold an easily breakable item in place.

The 'Madonna' landscape

But this afternoon with the help of some wonderful light and a macro lens, the rougher, lumpier inside of the egg boxes became a real landscape. Or several landscapes.  Sometimes they took on a slightly 'lunar' appearance. Sometimes they were 'clanger-ish' and sometimes, 'Madonna-ish'.

The whole thing lasted about ten minutes.

Tours and other things

Into Tours last weekend. We went primarily for an exhibition at the Château de Tours and for lunch with an Anglo/French group at La Maison Coté Sud. But to begin with the two of us were wandering around trying to get to know the city a little better. Our introduction to Tours was about four years ago with an annual event called L'Art au Quotidien - a big crafts fair - at the Vinci Centre   that can take about 3000 people. We can't get to it this year, but the link is to the site, advertising this year's show.  There are all sorts of different cultural events going on throughout the year, but the Vinci Centre also hosts major conferences. At present we mostly come in for exhibitions and special festivals, but Tours is also our connection to Paris via the TGV (Train à grande vitesse), which door to door, takes about two hours. 

At present Tours is in a state of upheaval. A new road system is being installed involving trams, which began three years ago and won't be finished till September 2013. Travelling in by car therefore can be a bit of a trial. We go mid-week from Chinon by train, which is quick. But this time, being a Saturday when the trains are infrequent and stop early, we drove in. At 9.30am the roads were easy, no problems parking, but an hour later, phew - the traffic was just chockerblock.

Tours is the 'capital' of the Indre et Loire region. Historical and contemporary districts with their mixtures of architecture sit comfortably alongside each other. Side streets and squares are buzzing with cafés and restaurants.  As well as a vibrant cultural life, it's a very good food produce centre. Tours like most places these days has larger stores, but it also has a great array of smaller shop fronts, which give it more character and individuality. 

There are also two markets - one indoors and one outdoors. They're more or less next to each other and both cover large areas. Milling around with the Saturday shoppers was quite an experience. A lot of people were out. The markets are very well supported and the range of foods as well as the quality is exceptional. In my travels probably the only other one I've come across that is on a similar scale, is in Málaga, Spain. Cravant is slightly too far away for us to use Tours as a regular shopping centre. But we've both said that once we're here, we want to use it more often than we do. Perhaps that means the markets as well.

The Anglo/French group I mentioned is called English Connection. We weren't sure about the name at first, but there is a really good mix of French and English people.   The group meets fairly regularly, probably once or twice a month. We share cultural events which generally are as useful as they are interesting. I'm not sure how many members there are, but they seem to be based more in Tours and its surrounding area. Occasionally events are in someone's home, or we meet for lunch, quite often somewhere new. This last Saturday we met at La Maison Coté Sud which was very good. Great atmosphere and busy! We were upstairs with a table for fourteen people. Then we headed off up to the Chateau de Tours which is well established as an exhibition venue.  We'd come to see a photographic exhibition by Pierre Bourdieu. His link is in French but there are images which were taken during 1958 - 1961 when the French/Algerian conflict was in full swing. Every now and again and major power comes face to face with an aspect of its colonial past. This exhibition focussed on such a moment. The images were all in black and white and gripping in their simplicity. There is also a film, eventually released in 1974, having been banned since it was made in the 60s. It's called The Battle for Algiers. Quite superb and is regarded as one of the foremost commentaries on guerilla warfare. It's out on DVD and very much worth seeing. 

There was also a smaller photographic exhibition by Norwegian artist Per Barclay at the chateau. Equally engrossing, the images were a series of optical illusions in industrial spaces, created through reflections using oil. If you go to the link and check under exhibitions there is some reference to the exhibition and some images. There are many similarities to the work of highly acclaimed British artist Richard Wilson, which personally I love.

The final exhibition of the day was in Chinon and yet another photographer, Arnaud Vareille.
The work on display concentrated on landscape and textures, but his portfolio is much wider. If you have a moment to look at the link you'll see just what he can do. His work is terrific. 

We had a really brilliant day. It couldn't have been better. By the time we got home, we were both totally exhausted. At least I didn't have to cook anything!

Who do you think you are?

HMS Paddington Bear

We had some friends round last Thursday evening. Not for an  apéro, which I've mentioned in a previous blog, but for what's known as an apéro dinatoire - a hybrid between an apéro and dinner. It's a 'sitting at the dinner table' arrangement, with lots of small bite sized savoury dishes, cheeses and if you want to,  a small bite sized dessert, such as a macaron. I must remember to do a blog about macarons - those little mouthfuls of heavenly gooey almond meringue.    Moving on . . .

We only met Jim and Francoise for the first time earlier this year and then again in July. We just clicked. They're such fun. He's English and Francoise is obviously French. They live in Tavant, about twenty minutes away from Cravant and - small world etc - they also have an apartment in Bath, which by train is about fifteen minutes away from us in Bradford on Avon. They'll be in the UK for Christmas and New Year, so we'll be getting together at some point. Anyway, we shared language duties, so switched between English and French and chatted about this and that. Somehow we got on to the fact that Mike and I both have a lot of Celt floating around in our family histories. His family are from north of the border. Mine are from the other side of the Irish Sea.  Now there'll be a few of you, I don't doubt, who'll be thinking ' . . . aha! That explains everything'. Well don't be so sure. According to Francoise, I also have a touch of the Peruvian about me. It was the hair and face shape that convinced her.

If my friend Lesley Hayward is reading this blog, she will hopefully remember an exceptional evening in her house - circa the late 80s. We were all involved with an amateur drama group called The Hatch End Players (H.E.P.) and for this particular social event, a few of us put on a performance of Paddington Bear - when he first arrives from Peru and goes to live with the Browns. I always wondered why I was cast as Paddington. Now I know. Thanks Francoise. That really does explain everything!

Getting organised

on board

We've reached the moment when the UK starts to gently filter back into our heads. On 31st October, Hallowe'en, we take the boat back to Portsmouth for not quite the last time. We're travelling on the Normandie which is our favourite boat in the Brittany Ferry fleet. It will probably be decorated with bats, pumpkins and other Hallowe'en paraphernalia.  Just hope it doesn't creep into the dinner menu. Fricasée of bat doesn't appeal. Or maybe they'll have that for the children.

We're not seriously getting ready to go back, it's more a 're-engaging' with what we've got to do when we get there. In any case there's still another three weeks to go here and a lot is happening during this time. 

New wine barrels

Usually 'returning to the UK' means a car full of bags and boxes. But there's nothing really to take back to the UK this time except wine in various quantities - orders for friends, presents for others and a supply to cover Christmas and New Year. It's the first time ever we've thought of Christmas this early on. We're not into the business of  '. . . it's September so let's start getting Christmas presents' or '. . . it's October let's start planning Christmas Day lunch'. Usually nothing happens with us until a couple of weeks before and the decorations never go up until a few days before. But out of necessity Christmas  is on the radar. We're going back this time for a slightly longer stay in the UK as we've things to sort out in the house, and legalities to put into place - exciting things like Landlord Insurance, touch-up painting on doors and bannisters and loft clearing.

Cravant vines

I'm starting a blog in French for friends and neighbours here while we're back in the UK. It will be good practice for me while we're away. One of the odd things about travelling backwards and forwards is the language changeover. My brain does the splits. I get so used to talking, writing and listening to French every day. And then suddenly it stops. But my brain doesn't adapt immediately so I go into a stuttering franglais mode. The number of times I catch myself answering the English phone in French. Eventually it settles down.

The funniest thing of all when we get back, and this happens in both houses, is that we simply can't remember where anything is. Or we think something is in one house when actually it's in the other. It takes another few days to find our way around. The kitchen remains the biggest challenge. I know perfectly well that all the drawers and cupboards in the French house are the automatic type, that gracefully glide shut with the gentlest of touches. I've known this for four years. The English kitchen doesn't have this system. I take out what I need, gently nudge the drawer back to close, turn round to do what I have to do, turn back and then get whacked on the shins. You'd think I'd have learnt by now!

Panorama at Cravant

Anyway in the three weeks before I acquire a new set of bruises, we've got to finish cutting back the garden, summer and winter clothes need to be re-organised. There are some exhibitions and lunches with anglo-french groups coming up. Meetings, dinner parties, drinks parties, coffee mornings. Turquant is having a book festival and concert and there are couple of things over at Fontevraud. Then we go back to the UK and start all over again. We love every minute of it.