We had one more day with our visitors on Tuesday. They had seen St Jean de Cole on the way here, so we suggested the Grotte de Villars and Brantome. They were all very excited about the cave but when they arrived, it was closed to the public. So they spent some time in Brantome before picking up supplies for that evening. Will and I worked during their absence, and then I started on dinner when they arrived. This time it was Moroccan chicken pot pie plus courgette gratin followed by a cheese course. The lads entertained themselves playing Wii before and after dinner. It was another fairly boozy, late night since we did our best to keep up with the younger set.
Overall, I really enjoyed their visit. All four of them were polite and very considerate house guests. True to their band’s name, they are all animal lovers. They were fascinated by our cats and liked visiting / feeding the horses. They all appreciated having home-cooked meals for a change. Also, they’d been surviving on a diet of bad beer and wine during the tour so having vodka was nice treat . They are all smokers too, so we had that in common. It was a nice to spend time with some younger friends, although it was a tiring few days. Most of them slept past noon while we were up before 10 every day, despite staying up till 1 or 2 am. Will and I even managed to get a bit of work done during the visit.
Our guests left on Wed afternoon and Will immediately set to cleaning the house and doing many loads of laundry. I started preparing for Thanksgiving by digging out my spreadsheet and deciding on the menu. The next day, we were expecting the installation of our new water filtration system, which meant emptying out the hot water heater which took a number of hours. They didn’t arrive on Thurs am as expected, so I rang the office and was told they’d be out that afternoon. That didn’t happen either so I refilled the tank and sent an angry email to the sales guy. He claimed they thought it was scheduled for Friday, an obvious lie. They rang the next day and rescheduled for tomorrow, so hopefully, that will be sorted.
While we waited for the plumber not to arrive, I ran to Nontron to do the shopping for Thanksgiving. They had just about everything, except a turkey breast roast and I was told they’d get more in the next day. I got stuff for dinner that night but we were so full from our big meals earlier in the week, we just finished off a small bit of leftovers that remained. I decided to go back to Nontron the next day to get the turkey breast and few other items that I’d forgotten on Friday morning. I made the sweet potato pie when I got back, then the cranberry sauce. Will helped out with the chopping during the afternoon, as well as tidied the house.
Our guests that night were Emmanuel and Olivier, our newish friends who live in Montbron (Charante), plus Manu and Mathilde. It was the first Thanksgiving for the former, and the second for the latter who joined us last year too. We started with espresso-tinis and light nibbles for the apreo. The menu, in addition to the dishes above was roasted veg, stuffing, roasted sprouts, glazed butternut squash, mashed potatoes and gravy. I soaked the diced raw potato in water for a few hours to remove the starch and they came out really nice. The only new recipe was the squash which turned out well, but meant there was too much stuff in the over at the end. The meal was on the table at 9:30, about 1/2 later than expected but no one minded.
Everyone seemed to enjoy the meal, and the boys were especially complimentary. Being a meal with French people, we bought the obligatory baguette but not even a slice was touched. The two couples hadn’t met before but really hit it off. We all share similar views and had a lively discussion about the (rotten) state of the world. It’s about a 50 min drive to Montbron, so the boys left just before midnight. M & M stayed another hour or so before heading home. They were a bit disappointed to have missed the Soirée Britannique. It wasn’t that they didn’t want to come, they just weren’t aware of the date.
It was a very lazy and restful weekend. We mainly watched films and ate leftovers, including Bubble and Squeak for dinner last night. I’m making turkey broth now and will use that in a recipe tomorrow. The weather has been lovely the past few days, with temps as high as 15 with lots of sun. I never got to mow the back lawn and I may still do so this week. Work is fairly busy for both of us. My big project was scheduled to go live in early Jan but I got it pushed back to mid-Feb so I’m not quite as hurried. Will has a few sites on the go and the may go live before the end of the year. I didn’t make it to the pool last week, but went today and hope to go once more this week.