We are very overdue an update on the blog, sorry about that. So, we left off with the news that our offer on the new place was accepted*. After that, we took a day to chill, drink and smoke and enjoy the moment. The next day, I called up the Notaire to give them our details and was delighted and surprised to receive some extremely efficient service. The very nice lady I spoke to even estimated we could complete on the sale by as early as mid-December, which was very welcome news. We were told to expect an update in a few days, as soon as a few checks had been carried out on the home, then we would be signing the “Compromis” (a document confirming the terms of the sale, and which locks the vendor into it). We cant truly relax until it is out of the way.
We lasted a week before calling up in need of news, which I will come to in a bit. Fortunately for us, we had a good few days of distraction in that time: on Friday last week, my friend of long-standing, Mark Curry, came by to see us. I have known him ever since I moved to London, and although he left a few years back to return to his hometown of Hastings (of the recent ‘pier brulé’ incident), we still saw a lot of each other until Matt & I decamped to France, so it was really good to catch up again, after over a year.
After a brief chill out and introduction to the Sausage and the Smoo, both of whom took to Mark very quickly, it was out to Cute Waiter restaurant. We had a quick stroll around town but it was raining fairly constantly, as it had been for several days – and is as I type this now for that matter – so we hurried on to the restaurant. Mark, like us, was at least as pleased with the quality of the meal as with the quality of the serving staff. After a typical meal, it was back home for a chill out and a decadently early cocktail hour. From there, we descended quickly into a happy, boozy mess. Sharon joined us for dinner, which was luckily very easy to prepare (heat up a tin of confit de canard and reheat a new tasty spinach and squash recipe) and then it was on to cheese and poker until who knows when, followed by unconsciousness.
Saturday was, fortunately for us, an island of glorious weather. Temperatures shot up to around 17 degrees, the rain stopped and the sun shone. We returned to Brantome for a more pleasant walk, took some pics, then moved on to Bourdeilles up the road for more of the same. We lunched at home on “lunch sandwich”, then settled in for another evening of wine, vodka and weed. Over the course of the weekend, we put away around 7 litres of wine and over 2 litres of vodka, so I am impressed that we managed to actually cook that evening – one of my favourite recipes, Tamale Pie (cheese, polenta, beans, peppers, sweetcorn, curry spices and did I mention cheese).
Sunday was a day of sore heads and a return to interminable rain, so we took off to Monsec, or “the big city” as we sometimes call it, for lunch. The solitary restaurant there is the rural French equivalent of a road-side service station: their clients are all truckers stopping off for lunch. The French twist is that we are talking about 4 courses + wine, not a plastic-wrapped atrocity of a sandwich and a cup of instant coffee. It was typically lovely. Back home, we were all too stuffed to achieve very much beyond a board game, and later some more poker (and yes, cheese, vodka and wine).
We have done very little since we dropped Mark back at Limoges on Monday morning, really. Matt’s fledgling company, eLeaf, has a few potential clients, which is great news. He has been working on applying his prototype template to an actual book (a cook-book called “the Joy of Pickling”, of all things) which I think proved a bit easier than feared. I have been planning the move: working out what furniture we need and where we can get it from, and also starting to think about Christmas shopping and all that b*llocks. We are very pleased to be hosting this year: Mum, Dad, Dave & Rosie are all coming out to us on Christmas eve, which is just fantastic.
So, back to the house news, I called the Notaire for an update this morning and was told that they are still waiting on a few last bits of info before they can complete the Compromis, but expect to be emailing it over to me tomorrow. As well as making the sale all official, this will also provide Matt & I with a full list of exactly what is coming with the place in the way of appliances and furnishings. I hope we have more news to post by the end of the week. Au revoir for now.
*My Dad has recently launched a new wood-carving service and we definitely want to get a plaque made up for the place – which means choosing a name. If anyone has any good suggestions, let us know. Some of my favourites so far include: The Asylum, Beau Geste, Bedlam, Le Coup de Grace, Double Entendre, L’Entente Cordiale, Le Fait Accompli, Le Mot Juste, Wits’ End, and possibly the finest of all: La Maison d’Etre.