Nature Never Ceases to Surprise Us

We have not seen much of our Barn Owl who lives in the pigonnier this year. It may be because we go to bed before he gets up!! However as it is now dark by nine o'clock I saw him a couple of nights ago rest on the electricity pole and then fly into his home and straight out again. Although this is not his normal pattern I did not think much about it.

However last evening Nadine and her sister were excited to tell us that they had heard crying from the pigonnier. Of course we waited to hear confirmation for ourselves and indeed it was owlets calling. They seem to know it is dark enough for the adults to go hunting so "they try to give them a shove".

We had heard the resident male calling for a mate in the Spring but assumed he had not found a partner again this year as we never saw two flying.  Although we had noticed a lot more poo on our and our neighbour's rooves.

It was a delight to discover that "our" owl had bred again after four years. I fear photos are going to be difficult to take but watch this space.

The End of Summer

No, not the weather, but the Summer season.  The Fête at St Germain du Bel Air, which was this weekend, comes as the school holidays end and the tourists go back home.  So, 4 days of eating, drinking, music and dancing.  From Thursday evening until tonight, Sunday, all manner of bands, playing till about 3 am ... and they can be heard throughout the valley!

Over the course of the weekend there are Petanque competitions, the funfair, a Mass on Sunday morning and the Fête meal.
This was last night and was held in the market place.  The meal nominally started at 8.30 and people started to arrive from about 7.30 to meet up with friends, family, neighbours ... in fact most of the town! 

Everyone had to take their own plates, cutlery and glasses and gradually people found places in a sheltering marquee or just nearby.

Eventually the meal was ready and we all had to go to collect each course; salad starter, grilled lamb and a type of baked beans, goats cheese and finally apple tart.

The noise levels rose as wine was drunk, the band came inside the tent to continue playing, and slightly inebriated locals tried to compete drumming on oil drums!

Needless to say all of this took a long time and so the music and meal in the tent overlapped with the main band of the evening who started to play at 10.30 in the adjacent car park next to the Hôtel de Ville.

(Sorry about the quality of the photo but it was getting past my bedtime!)

We can't understand how all of this gets paid for.  The 'warm-up' band had 10 musicians, and the main band for the evening, who played from 10.30 till at least 2.30 in the morning, had 7 musicians, 2 singers and 4 dancers who kept changing costumes!  And there are 3 nights like this, as well as other musicians during the afternoons. 
And all in an insignificant small town in deepest rural France!!!

How to make Bread

One of our friends has built himself a Bread Oven, although the reality is something else!

The building isn't finished but it is operational and we were invited to 'help' bake a batch of loaves.
Bernard had been up at 7am to presumably start the fire to warm the oven and to start the dough.  We assume the dough was left to rise (we missed this early session), was then portioned into loaves and left to rise for a second time.

The fire had to be watched and stoked until the fire-brick roof of the oven was the correct colour (white and not black). At this point the embers were raked out and then the floor of the oven 'cleaned' with a wet piece of sacking to avoid lumps of charcoal and ash sticking to the bottom of the loaves.

The temperature of the oven was checked by putting a piece of newspaper in to see if it went brown.  So then the loaves could be put into the oven, spraying them first with water to give a darker brown colour to the crust.

After about 8 minutes, when the colour looked right, out they came ...

... a baker's dozen of large loaves.

At this point some people would say, "Isn't it easier to go the local Baker's to buy a loaf?"  But the answer is NO!  The flavour is better and also, it is what you do with the residual heat in the oven ... bake pizzas!  It is all an excuse for a meal with friends.

I never thought baking bread could be so complicated!

Miracles do Happen

I can't believe it is just three weeks since I wrote about the "inferno". Since then we have had a day of rain and the occasional showers. Although it's still August the mornings have felt very like September with lovely heavy dews, so this week I have managed to do some proper gardening, i.e. weeding and tidying up and at long last the grass/weeds need cutting.

This morning John took some photos, whilst I must say they do flatter the garden, it did cheer me up when he showed them to me.

I took the following photos yesterday to accompany an article about the garden which is to be published in Living France...….sometime in the future! I think they must be rather short of       material!!

John had no intention of taking photographs of the garden this morning however he stumbled across a shed snake skin in the courtyard wall so therefore with camera in hand he wandered further.

We have not seen any live snakes this year.

Is this getting Boring?

Guess what happened last night?  Yes … another concert.  The Festival which is running the art exhibition also held a concert of operatic airs.  The concert was held in the grounds of the Château de Vaillac.  It was well supported but it was touch and go whether we would escape the showers.  Fortunately the last one finished about 15 minutes before the concert started.

 The opening piece was played by the 5 piece orchestra whilst two horsemen rode around on two very nice horses performing dressage.  Slightly curious.

The orchestra was then accompanying two singers who were dressed as if for a warm summer's night.  Unfortunately, after the showers the evening became colder and windy, so much so that at one point the cellist's sheet music blew off his music stand and tried to make an escape.

However, the musicians and the audience bravely saw out the concert.  We decided not to stay for a glass of cold wine in the gathering gloom.

Art is in the Eye ...

A convoluted story … back in March we flew to the UK and, on the plane, Sue talked to the lady in the next seat only to find that she lived in a nearby village.  One thing led to another, addresses were exchanged and we /I ended up being invited to show some paintings at her village art exhibition which she organised!  Me and my big mouth comes to mind!

The exhibition began last Wednesday for a week but the 'vernissage', which is when all of the artists are there, nibbles and wine are offered and speeches made, was on Saturday evening.

There was a very eclectic mix of work (paintings, etchings, sculpture, photography etc) with a range of abilities … but then who am I to judge?  It's just that some of the things on show, I wouldn't want to admit were by me.

There were some good pieces on show and in fact we bought something …

… a semi sculptural work to hang on the wall.

...and Another!

At the moment the Lot is alive with concerts, exhibitions and events.  Monday evening, we went with our neighbours John and Lesley to a concert given as part of the annual Cello Festival of Bélaye.

This is now in its 31st year and attracts top class musicians.  The concert was held in a small church at a small town on the river Lot but we were surprised when we arrived to find that the church was out in the country, isolated in a sea of vines! But, even though the church was seemingly in the 'back of beyond', the approach roads were lined with cars and a crowd was surrounding the church waiting for the doors to be opened.  Fortunately we had numbered seats … well, actually pews which were as hard as charity!
The church was packed and there must have been between 200 to 250 people there!  And what music!  As we have found in previous concerts, the performers are all top quality.

In the middle of all of this culture we managed to fit in an afternoon with some good friends who had organised an afternoon demonstration of the making of 'Momos'.  These are small parcels of meat or vegetables (a bit like Dim sum) that are a speciality party food of Nepal.  The niece of our friends helps an educational charity in Nepal and this was part of the fund raising efforts.

We didn't need to eat that evening …  or drink, as the Momos were washed down with old Martinique rum!

Another night, another Concert

At this time of year there are no end of events happening … we are really spoilt for choice.
Last night we went to a small town about half an hour away for a concert in their church; three musicians playing a repertoire of Romantic music, a harpist, a flautist and a violinist.

We can't tell you how good they were!  All were recognised soloists, professors and international competition winners.  And we could hear it.  A superb evening in a small church in a small town in deepest France!  

However that wasn't all.  At the end of the concert at about 10pm we went out into the town square and were invited to have a glass of wine and samples of locally-produced foie-gras.  To add to the occasion, the sky around us was lit up with lightning  and large drops of rain fell as we all ate and drank under the trees.

An evening to remember!

No dancing on the Tables!

Our neighbours kindly took us out to a dinner concert in a nearby restaurant.

Nadine was a little worried once she'd booked a table as she wasn't sure quite what the band were like. Upon arrival, some small doubts did arise as there was a notice to say that, due to the demand, the event was now to be held in the Salle de Fête (village hall) of this tiny rural village.

We were fortunate to be sat at a table, as some people were tucked against the walls on benching with cushions.  The band tuned up and the evening began … slowly.  There must have been about 100 customers but the food had been devised to cope with the numbers. All of the courses except the main were presented on a slate so we all could dive in.

So, cocktails and amuse bouche, (we had Grande Bleue … curaçao and gin) followed by the starters which were small portions of gazpacho and a brochette of tomato, cheese and ham,

a little tartlet of red mullet and onion, and a cretian salad of cucumber, pepper and feta.

The main course was pork, polenta and ratatouille ...

… till finally a selection of desserts.

Meanwhile the band were playing music which was a fusion of Eastern European tzigane and klezmer music, swing and jazz and they were extremely good musicians.

On investigating afterwards we found out that all of them had, at one time or another, studied jazz in conservatories in the Provence region.  We were amazed to see that the band is from around Marseilles, which is a long way from this tiny village in the Lot.

We really enjoyed the whole evening experience!

PS  We had a superb bottle of red wine from the Languedoc region called 'the Elegant Frog' produced by 'the Humble Winemaker'.  Today we managed to track down the wine and, to our astonishment, found we could get it delivered to a nearby supermarket.  We will pick some up on Monday!  Our next problem is that we need proper storage facilities for our wine … or we're going to have to drink more speedily!!!