Yes, well I am late with my blogging this week, but in my defence its not my fault. My laptop’s jack that its charger plugs into broke over the weekend so I had to order a replacement. This was due to arrive on Tuesday but didn’t get here until this afternoon because France, basically. Anyway, all is well and my machine is functional once again.
So, on to the recap. Dad spent Monday afternoon at the house unloading his van and doing a reccy. Unfortunately he discovered that the roof still leaks, and in multiple places too. To make things worse, it’s done little but rain recently, so the leaking has been quite extensive. The good news is that he’s made a lot of progress, most notably in the kitchen where he’s painted the walls and the ceiling and has laid tiling for the fireplace. The transformation is just amazing – I’ll share some photos when I get some. He also met the chimney people and is now awaiting their quote.
Our week was largely uneventful and followed the usual pattern: Dad left for work before we got up and didn’t return until around 6.30. We meanwhile stayed in the warm and worked. Mat has far more on than me at the moment, with some deadlines to meet too. I have two sites on the go, one of which is pretty much done – or at least I hope so. The client has some changes, but I don’t know if they’re major or minor and he’s utterly unresponsive. His current site is being taken down at the end of the year so I fear there’ll be a bit of a rush at the end.
On to our first bit of socialising, which was on Thursday evening. We invited Françoise over for a meal, as well as Paul who is currently on his lonesome while Nat is in La Rochelle. We got things going with a round of Espressotinis over nibbles. The meal was our go-to vegetarian lasagne served with garlic bread. We had a duo of desserts : Matt made his famous brownies and Paul bought a walnut cake. Dad left us soon after the meal but the rest of us got the cards out. Françoise taught us a new game whose name escapes me. It’s simple to pick up, but long to play and I got utterly trounced, while Françoise emerged the victor.
The socialising continued the following evening but this time we ate out. We’d arranged to eat at la Paillotte with Fred, Marie, Benoit and Virginie. The reason for the occasion was that Eva was helping out in the kitchen so we thought we’d put her through her paces. B&V drove the three of us there and we started off with a round of their excellent mohitos, which quickly led to a second round. I wasn’t in top shape as I’d been having jaw/ear issues all week and by Friday was feeling quite grotty. Still, I didn’t let it stop me from enjoying the evening.
The place was virtually deserted barring us, but we were a rowdy bunch so it was perhaps just as well. They were doing a speciality meal that night: sweetmeats to start, followed by frogs legs! This was the first time we’d actually seen it on a menu out here, and all the frenchies went for it. The brits on the other hand all demurred. Matt and Dad had steaks and I had duck breast. The meal was excellent, frog legs and all apparently, but my duck breast was sadly overcooked. We stayed for desserts and cafés afterwards and then B&V came back here for a nightcap or three.
Dad works weekends when he came out and this trip was no exception. Our saturday however was more civilised. At noon, we drove to Villars for lunch at a restaurant called le Pas de Chat. We’d eaten there once before, with Dad too, and were all disappointed with the food. This time around however, it was exquisite. We were there to meet up with Françoise and a friend of hers from Australia called Kate. Kate was her landlady in Australia and worked with her at the university. She was over in London for work so arranged a detour to the Dordogne. Françoise was due to be working that day, so the plan was for us to entertain Kate in the meantime, seeing as she is not a french speaker.
The meal was all veggie : home made cepe ravioli to start, followed by falafel. Dessert was a homemade banana cake. As it turned out, there was a powercut at the château that day, so Françoise got the day off. As we had a free afternoon and the weather was awful, we returned to Port 80 and found room for a cheeky Espressotini over a rematch of the new card game. I fared better but Françoise still won.
At 7.30 we all went down to Milhac for the annual Soirée Britannique. Dad decided to bail out and stayed in with a pizza. He was tired and would have hated the music so it was probably a good call.
We got around 55 people in the end, which isn’t too bad, and meant there was enough food for everyone. There were most of the usual suspects, including Paul and Nathalie (back for the weekend), Ridget, and the odious Peter & Maggy, an english couple from down the road that we can’t abide. Luckily, we were behind the bar, so didn’t have to socialise.
The entertainment was an english chap from St Pardoux who did a one-man show, singing a range of hits from the 50s and 60s to backing tracks. He had a great voice and also played the acoustic guitar on a lot of the songs. Notably, he also did a blinding version of Johnny B Goode on the electric guitar, and Duelling Banjos on the banjo. Where it fell down was his selection of songs, which hit a nadir with a run of 4 Neil Diamond songs in a row.
Unusually for the Soirée FB, things wrapped up quite early. The guests left as soon as the food ran out, the signer was quick to pack away and it was before midnight when we got home. So of course, we had a nightcap and watched some TV.
Luckily that was it for the socialising and Sunday was quiet, barring band practise. And I am going to stop here, because this is a tome and a half.