Les poissons en France

Sunday, July 30, 2017

An Evening at the Chateau

John regularly cuts the grass for our summer neighbours John and Leslie whilst they are not here. In exchange they take us to a concert or play during the season. Last night we went to a local chateau for this year's "treat". The village is very close but none of us knew that it had a chateau, and neither did our neighbour, Fred, who was born in the village!! As John and Leslie have some of their family staying we decided to have a picnic in the grounds before hand. However the owner didn't want any riff-raff  cluttering up his grounds so we set up camp just outside the gates.
As the bourgeoisie started to arrive we made our way to the venue. Actually the Chateau was magnificent if a bit shabby chic. The drive was bordered by a double avenue of mature trees and was lit with enormous lanterns for the occasion. As we rounded the corner of the building to find our seats we were faced with a wonderful parkland vista which "Capability Brown" would have been proud of. As the sun sank and the bats came out it was a truly magical experience.

The woodwind and piano ensemble were extremely good musicians but the programme had a mixed reception from our party. However there was no denying that you could imagine yourself in a bygone era as guests of a count and countess.


Monday, July 24, 2017

VIP 2

Another day of rural life began with a tour of a Vide-grenier (car boot sale) in our village.
Not only were there a lot of stalls, but we kept meeting people we knew and so had to have a chat.  The tour had to be cut short as we were booked into a restaurant for Sunday lunch.
Having finished lunch we took Guy and Lucy for a walk in the countryside (not just to work off the food!)  The leisurely walk took about 2 hours and, as we returned to the little village (Les Arques)  we found a choir warming up ready to give a free performance of mainly 17th century English music.
We followed the choir from place to place in the village, performing different songs before we left them at the church where they were going to finish their afternoon.

You never know what you are going to stumble upon in the summer.

Lucy has certainly had a different experience whilst she has been here with us.

Sunday, July 23, 2017

Important Viisitors

Guy and Lucy arrived on Friday evening as part of their 'European Tour'.  They had spent 3 days in Paris, came down to us by train and were welcomed to Gourdon in a typical French way ... their train was delayed for an hour because locals, protesting against planned closures at the station, were on the tracks to stop the rail trafffic!
It is Lucy's first visit to France and so we're trying to give her an exposure to French rural life in 3 days.  Yestereday started with a 'typical' French market (at Cahors) ...
a French lunch (with knife and fork and not chopsticks) ... then on to a chateaux for a tour and explanation of the winemaking process, complete with wine-tasting.
The day's instructive activities were finished with a visit to a typical French supermarket to see how the French shop and to buy some local delicacies.

Monday, July 03, 2017

Soggy But Successful

Eversince Tuesday we have had heavy rain day and night. Perfect for displaying the garden!! But as there is nothing we can do about it we just had to open regardless of the weather. Saturday it rained most of the day and we had half a dozen visitors. Sunday it stayed dry but very grey and cloudy but it brought out the fellow gardeners. Fortunately such people understand the influence of the weather and were very complimentary despite things not being at their best.

Visitors were very generous and with the garden club visits we again raised virtually 600 euros for the charity.