Jazz on a Friday night! Oh and with a little bit of a wine tasting as well!

We went with a group of friends Friday evening, to Domaine Noiré, which is en route from Cravant to Chinon. We've met Jean-Max the owner/producer a few times now either at the domaine, in Chinon and when Cravant still had them, the annual village wine fair. Lovely guy and family. Make some rather nice wines as well.

This year for the first time, Domaine Noiré are hosting a series of apéro concerts. We weren't able to go the launch in June as we were in the UK. But we went to the second (Friday) and are going to the third in August.

Photo courtesy of Domaine Noiré

Really well organised, they'd set up a marquee on a raised section and put in lighting, sound and tables and chairs for the punters. Everyone had to reserve,so they knew how many people were coming. Worked so well. Lovely atmosphere. Really sultry, humid weather at the moment, so the sides of the marquee were rolled up. What air there was could circulate, but it also gave us great views across the valley and la forteresse at Chinon.

Entrance was €10 per person for the evening, which included three wine tastings of their rosé and reds, along with a lovely plate of rillette, fromage, beurre de saffran et some little sweet gateaux. Les Barons du Bayou provided the music - Louisiana Jazz, all of which was sung in English. They do another ticket price for 5-12s (fruit juice+something to eat) and the under 5s have free admission. A really good deal. 

Terrific evening. Had no idea what it was going to be like. We'd seen the leaflet about it and thought it was worth a shot. Better still to go with French friends who join us for the bi-monthly music evenings we put on in Chinon.  Nine of us went in all, and everyone said how much they'd enjoyed it.  The August concert has a different music - a mix of soul and folk. We'll be going and hopefully the others will as well. Although there may be extra friends coming along. 

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Back to Chris and Linda for a moment. We had an email from them just after the got back. Taking off from Loudun they flew over Cravant and Chinon and sent us some photos.  

Cravant

In this first shot - on the left 9o'clock position, there is a group of houses, one with a red roof and the two end houses facing into the road. This is our road. Big forest area over on the right. Vines all over the place and wheat fields.

Cravant

The second shot is more of a close-up. Our road is now in the left-hand corner. There's a better idea of the size of the forest.

Chinon

The third shot is over Chinon: the one bridge which connects the two sides of the town. Over on the left - 8 o'clock position - is the forteresse. Vines and forest. On the right side of the photo down from the bridge is the swimming pool and the camp site, lurking amongst the trees. During the summer, where the sandy section is, there'll be live music, barbecues and open air film shows, which the cinema in Chinon put on. They've organised a series of Jacques Tati films in August. Some are open air, others are at the cinema.   Being Jacques Tati fans, we're going.Don't want to miss anything. We have most of the films on DVD. But haven't been to an open air film show here before or for a very long time. Can't wait. 

A view of France from amongst the clouds. Thanks Chris and Linda. Terrific.  À très bientôt.

Up and Away

Wednesday. A beautiful morning. What else, but breakfast outside. Needed the shade up even then, at 8am, although it wasn't of enormous help. The sun was pretty low. Sunglasses were the better option. 

wide-angle shot of propeller

 Set off back to Loudun aérodrome at 9am, which left Chris and Linda at least an hour to do all the safety checks, fill up with fuel and be away by 11am at the latest. Seemed deserted at Loudun when we arrived. Contact numbers had been left on the club-house front door. So a quick phone call sorted that out...with someone turning up just a few minutes later. 

Final checks

Being a club and holiday time, various members turned up and were of course curious to know what was happening and who we all were. There was real interest in what was going on. Eventually with checks completed, the plane filled up, bits of luggage loaded-on, Chris and Linda were set to go. . .and went. It was great watching the take-off, which seemed absolutely perfect. 

Linda Chris and Mike

Great adventure for them and for us. Here's to the next.

Making the most of the day

Tuesday was our one full day with Chris and Linda. We made the most of it. Scenic drive over to Candes St Martin first of all.The name Candes is thought to come from the Gallic meaning confluence, which makes sense given that the town is positioned precisely where the Loire and the Vienne meet. Just lovely wandering along the river's edge. On a day like this when the light is good, and there's just a hint of a ripple on the river, it's quite idyllic. Candes has a narrow road running through the centre, with houses, small businesses, a café, a restaurant, galleries and some lovely older French houses, off on each side. It is very pretty and popular particularly with walkers and cyclists.

We headed on over to Fontevraud. Good choice. An amazing building and a superb cultural centre, which I've written up a few times. Three stories - monastic city, prison city and contemporary city. It's also a wonderful place to be when it's hot, as it was mid-morning, when we arrived. Had a couple of hours there at least and covered pretty much everything. Fontevraud is one of our favourite places, which we visit at least four times a year and more when there's a concert or special exhibition on. Given the size of the site and age, there's always a section being restored. There's a hotel on site which was completely restored and re-fitted over a two year period and re-opened earlier this year. We went for a walk round last year, when work was in its final phase. It was part of a special evening for supporters. Very very interesting. This time we looked at cleared site and the building from the outside - a testament to the craftsmanship and professionalism of the resident team. Superb. 

Someone had the bright idea of stopping for an ice-cream lunch on the way back to the car. Oh ho! Delicious. The shop was formerly a luttier's showroom and workshop. He very sadly died two years ago. Eventually the shop was sold and became a trendy biscutier and mini-café. We'd not visited it before. Today we did, for caramel beurre au salé, yaourt, chocolat and vanille, served with a little glass of water and a macaron biscuit. Heavenly. Have since found a recipe for caramel beurre au salé, so will try to make some.  

The drive back took us by the Candes panorama which over looks the confluence of the Vienne and the Loire. It's a great place to visit. The turn off takes you through wheatfields and sunflowers, so it's lovely just getting there. The view is superb of the river and the landscape. Being so clear we could see for miles. 

Took the back route through Chinon as we needed to go to Leclerc, but also because directly opposite is the excellent wine producer, Bertrand Couly. He rebuilt his chai and it has now acquired iconic status, being round and wine pink in colour. Very distinctive on the horizon. A good space - light and airy, which also houses an art exhibition area. It's managed by Nathalie Bereau, who was recently received a prestigious award for services to art. Her main gallery is in Paris. She was there as well when we visited, so we had a private tour of the current exhibition, as well as a good wine tasting. Bought some of their delicious rosé and then drove off home, which from there just fifteen minutes away, stopping off at the Cravant panorama en route. Superb view today. We can see our house from there.

The idea had been to go for a walk round the village, but even at 5pm it was still too hot.  Mike was giving a ukulele lesson at 6pm as well, so the rest of us relaxed in the garden with tea. Chris and Linda were plotted their flight back for the next day. It would be hot for them, but pretty much ideal conditions. Dinner was at home, a bit later on, then about 9pm  we went for a walk. Perfect. Cooled down enough by then. Cravant is lovely to walk around. Next time I'll take my camera and get some evening shots.

Big Weekend - Part 2

Aérodrome - Loudun

Got back from the Cravant party and found a message from our friends Chris and Linda (C&L) who were due to fly today. All was still ok, but they'd changed the refuelling stop to Le Touquet rather than Abbeville. ETA was still around 5pm and they were still landing at Loudun. There are different levels of aérodrome from small-scale such as Abbeville, (in the Somme département) and Loudun (Vienne), to the full-throttle (sorry) such as Le Touquet with air control and strict regulations.

Had various things remarkably uninteresting to do during the day other than we needed to do them, while we waited for a call from C&L at Le Touquet with their updated ETA to Loudun. Call came - about  a 3 hour flight, meaning around 4pm rather than 5pm.Great.

Loudun is about 30 k from us which by car is only about 35 minutes. It's not a place we know at all really, other than we visited a deconsecrated church a couple of times for a friend's exhibition. What history we've found on the internet, suggests that a significant number of Arcadians, one of the early founding peoples of New France in Canada, came from the region. That's it apparently for historical importance, until the arrival of Chris and Linda at the Loudun aérodrome, yesterday afternoon.

We got over there a little before 4pm.  It's the home of a small flying club. They have four planes. One of which landed shortly after we arrived.Thinking it might be C&L we walked tentatively towards the barrier as the plane taxied towards the fuel pump. But then four people got out, one of whom was wearing stilettos and sporting a designer bag, and teetered about on the plane wing, at which point the welcoming hand-waves shot back into our pockets and we wandered back to the tables outside the club-house.  We'd met the duty person and explained what we were doing. Lovely lady - had a good chat with her. After which it was just a question of sitting and waiting.  My Radar tendencies (M.A.S.H.) proved disappointing having got over-excited at i) a tractor ii) a second tractor. Beautiful day, not too much wind. Then Madame came out of the club-house to say she thought our friends were due to arrive, but it could also be a French plane. So we watched and waited as it came overhead, circled and then seemed to head off. 

Then wowee. They'd landed. First time they'd flown across the channel on a solo flight. Tiring journey, but an interesting one. Weather had been good, slightly bumpy in parts. Le Touquet was a bit of a challenge with it's strict regulations, followed by all the military air space that is in operation in our region. So they had to weave their way through 'free' corridors to get to Loudun.

Loudon air-club were extremely helpful. Two night accommodation for the plane + security. No charge. When Linda asked what the landing fee was, the President of the air-club said,  "a smile". Which was so sweet!  The plane was moved to a different area on the site and secured down; our phone number was left as point of contact - then back to Cravant, via a slightly scenic route.  Quick turn-round before heading back into Chinon for a superb dinner at Les Années 30, spectacular fireworks, some dancing in the main square and a midnight walk round the town before driving back home. Sweet dreams.

Big Weekend - Part 1

It has been so wet. On and off rain all week - heavy and thundery sometimes, which didn't bode well for all the events this weekend, to celebrate Bastille day - 14 July.

Cravant had it's party last night on 13th July. Unlucky? Well the rain did it's best to dampen the spirits! Our commité de fête is really efficient, well-organised and experienced. Usually the larger village parties are just slightly away from the centre, around the football pitch. It's a good space. This year a Barnum/marquee had been set up as covering for all the picnics. You take your own picnic, while wine and bread to go with, are supplied by the mayor and village council.

By yesterday morning the Barnum was already set up. The weather forecast had said it was going to be wet. For once it was right. Chucked it down. The decision was made to take the Barnum down and relocate it in front of the  salle de fête along with all the tables and benches and wine and paraphernalia that goes with an event like this.  The fête coincided with the final of the World Cup Final. So a big screen had been brought in for live coverage of the match and had been set up inside the salle de fête.

We walked down with neighbours + picnic early evening. As I've mentioned before, the approach to picnics here is that they're a proper meal. So we between us we had entrées, plat, fromage and dessert. One neighbour loaded everything up in the car and drove it down to the salle de fête, while the rest of us walked down. About ten minutes. At that point the sky was grey but not raining.

There were probably about 300 people there. May be more. Difficult to tell. Met up with other neighbours from all over Cravant. Really good fun. We were introduced to an English couple. We didn't know they were there (since 1999) and they didn't know we were either. Apparently they were rather sad to know they were no longer the only British there! They come just for the summer, or at least the husband does. They are over in another quartier on the other side of Cravant.

The village isn't that big. Population is around 750. Even so we have neighbours nearby who up until recently we'd only seen at events in Chinon. Never in the village itself. The organisers of Voyage en Guitare live in Cravant. For the first time ever, last night, we saw them at the village party. Otherwise, it would have been next week in Chinon, where they have three or four gigs coming up. We'll be able to get to a couple of them.  The other week we went to a private view in Chinon - all the artists were local. One of them lives in Cravant, about a ten minutes from our road but heading towards the old village. We make a circuit from time to time round the village and pass that way when we do. But again it was the first time we'd come across the name or the person. So had a bit of a chat.

Not sure exactly what time everything got started. But there was an apéro + speech from the mayor to begin with. After which everyone dived into their picnics. Great atmosphere under the Barnum. Then the rain started. Unbelievable - a torrent. Meanwhile inside the salle de fête the final had begun, so of course people were in and out to see what was going on.  Eventually the rain stopped. By which time the match was half way through the second half - most people were inside watching. Freely admit to being a rugby fan and not a football fan. Even so, regardless of my prejudices, this world cup final seemed to be the dreariest of matches. Once it was over everything was cleared away so the disco could start. Much more fun. Got in around 1am.

Today our friends arrive from the UK. They're flying over in their two-seater. The weather has been a pain. They phoned us on Friday to say they couldn't fly as hoped, last Saturday. There were storms everywhere, including Cravant.  But it looked ok for today, Sunday. Fingers crossed it stays as it is now and they have decent flight, which should get them to Loudun around 5pm.  Think they left this morning around 8am. So a long day. 

We're into Chinon this evening for dinner at a lovely restaurant. Then we'll leg-it on to the bridge for the fireworks at 11pm. It's always spectacular in Chinon. Attracts loads of people. This time the theme for the display is WW1. Will probably finish around 11.45/midnight and then like everyone else, we'll wander into the centre of Chinon for the street parties, live music etc. Various neighbours will be there no doubt. Should be a very good night. Hoping our friends are able to stay for Tuesday, so they can relax a bit and we can may be visit somewhere together. The original plan was for them to fly back on Tuesday as a one of the part-owners had booked the plane out on Wednesday. But they were trying to do something about that. They're going to be knackered if not. It will be a really late night to night. We'll see.

Back in the swing...

Had a terrific weekend. Saturday and Sunday we pretty much caught up with stuff. But Saturday night we went to a private view/vernissage in Chinon and then had dinner with friends. Sunday night we were over for a the last concert of the main stage at the Avoine Blues Festival 2014. Zaz - extremely popular over here and with good reason. Brilliant voice and performer and treated everyone to the full works on Sunday night. Went with some neighbours and met some others there. Various exhibitions on the site and free gigs as well. Absolutely heaving. It's a small festival with a big reputation. The main tent was jammed packed. Zaz had been sold out for weeks. We got in early, more or less after the tickets went on sale. Brilliant night. 

Lovely day today. Out in the garden early. Best time for me. After that it gets hot. My goodness - we'd only been away one week, but the growth - unbelievable. Unfortunately the weeds and grass as well as the plants. So having cleared a whole load of stuff before we went away, it was all back again. Grrr.

This week has suddenly gone into overdrive. There was something happening pretty much every day. We've got various celebrations for Bastille Day coming this next weekend. Our village party is on the Sunday and Chinon's on Monday. But we've just had an email from friends to say they are flying over in their two-seater plane on Sunday. We'll collect them from Loudun late afternoon, which is about 40 mins away, and then they fly back on Tuesday. It's about 7 hours each way with a break, refuelling and time difference. They are both pilots, part-owning a plane. A combination of decent weather window, plane availability and gap in their work schedules meant that could give it a go. It's the longest they've ever flown and on their own. Usually it's with their flying group. Just amazing. So they'll be here for our village party and also for the Chinon knees-up. Absolutely brilliant.

Have committed myself to a photography exhibition next year. Hopefully Mike is coming in on it with some large scale origami pieces. But I'm also wanting to try out what's called paper engineering, but using my photos. Loads of ideas popping about in my head, so sleeping isn't easy. No matter. 

Flying Visit to the UK

Greenhouse - Stourhead

It might have been just a week long visit to the UK, but being experienced Edinburgh Fringers, we know how to fill every conceivable second, and have now returned to France in a state of exhausted exhilaration.  We weren't able to get back to our old stomping ground in London this time. Instead we were flying round Wiltshire, partying in Berkshire, with a few meetings in between as well as catching up with friends and family.

Winchester Cathedral

Our last visit to the UK was about 9 months ago. In that time our life in France  has changed/developed so much, whatever is the best description, that we really felt like tourists. Took the overnight crossing which left at 23h00. Up at 5am to irritatingly lively music coming through the speakers. Off the boat at 7am. Then we headed over to Winchester for a meeting at 9am. It's about fourteen years since I last went to Winchester, taking a show into the Theatre Royal. There was just about enough time on that occasion to get provisions, but certainly not enough to drop into the cathedral. Fortunately this time round the meeting was in a hotel about a ten minutes walk to the cathedral, so we grabbed the opportunity and spent a couple of hours there. Fascinating place.

Fifteen centuries of history and unsurprisingly a Grade 1 listed building, with original medieval walls and flooring (some sections). It's been on a £19million fundraising campaign and successfully secured over £100million from the Heritage Lottery Fund last year. Hadn't realised Jane Austen was buried there (1817). Interestingly not a word on her tomb about being a writer. I know she wasn't well-known as now at the time of her death. But if you compare her inscription to that of the commemorative military plaques on the walls it is an interesting omission. For example, Captain something or other nearby was described as a soldier, a naturalist, a historian and writer. Clearly a multi-dimensional individual. Whereas Jane Austen - daughter. Much loved of course. But why not daughter and writer. Clearly not the style of the times. Felt to to me to be an injustice even though I'm not a huge fan of the books (prefer the Brontës). Have read them all apart from Northanger Abbey. Enjoy them more as film adaptations and occasionally as t.v. dramas. Sixty-five years after her death, a brass plaque was erected to address this omission, in the north aisle near to where she is buried. These days there's a permananent exhibition just next to her tomb.

From there we headed to Coombe Bissett just outside Salisbury to see Mike's cousin and family for an overnight. Then we headed up into Berkshire for an annual meeting, followed by a celebratory dinner, which was all rather splendid. Back down to Coombe Bissett, where the family dinner of varying take-aways got hysterical when we started singing Tiptoe through the tulips. How? Why? Absolutely no idea. But we were all speechless with laughter. Saturday we headed to Bradford on Avon (Boa) to stay with our friends Sue and Dave. Caught up on all the news and gossip. We were based there for a few days, so we were able to relax a bit. Had dinner out that night at Sebastien's in Boa, which was really very nice. Sunday we headed into the Farmer's market and picked up some very nice vegetables before having a coffee in the  Fat Fowl. Squeezed a lovely visit to Stourhead. Totally unexpected and just the ideal thing for a Sunday afternoon. We worked out that we hadn't been there for well over twenty years. 

Monday Mike was up early getting the car serviced. I went to check out the apartment we're renting for N.Year and paid the balance. We rented it for a while when we first visited Boa and were looking for a house. This time we've rented for a week, which will give us a chance to return some of the hospitality we've received from friends. It's just a five minute walk to the centre. In fact some Dutch friends of ours took up our recommendation and are staying in town for a week, some time this month. 

Monday morning had coffee with our next door neighbour in Boa at 10.45. Caught up with Mike and another friend for a light bite at midday in the Fat Fowl. Back to Sue and Dave's as there was a party at their place in the evening. Got various things sorted out for that. Went for an early evening walk which was gorgeous, down by the river, where some filming was being done for a costume drama. Bumped into some other friends while there. 
The party was brilliant. Everyone brought something. About twenty off us. Such fun. 

Tuesday we were into Bath for various things, but did manage to stick our heads into the Victoria Art Gallery to see the Radev Collection-part 2. We saw the first part a couple of years ago. Superb. Then back to Boa. Saw some friends for tea. Then met up with Sue and Dave for dinner this time at the Fat Fowl. 

Wednesday morning we headed off mid-morning for the ferry. There isn't an easy way to do the journey. Travelling back we'd decided to cover it in a day as we used to do. We'd forgotten quite how exhausting it was. Got in around 1.30am Thursday morning. Door to door it takes about seventeen hours. 

Thursday morning we were back in the market at Chinon, trying to have a coherent conversation in French with various stallholders who we shop with regularly. Mind and mouth were not cooperating particularly well. We'd arranged to meet a friend for coffee at 10.45. Must admit to battling hard not to shut my eyes and sleeping. We were going to go to the cinema that night, but fell asleep on the sofa at home instead. Yesterday, Friday, I had a committee meeting at 10am. Mike was catching up with important paperwork. Round to dinner at neighbours and their family last night which was great fun. 

So now here we are at the weekend. Four exhibitions to go over the next couple of days. Out to dinner with friends in Chinon this evening following a vernissage in Place Mirabeau at 17h. Probably sleep well again tonight. Tough life.