Ok, here’s the 2nd fortnightly round-up from Mazeroux. I should start by mentioning my new guitar, which is a source of constant joy to me. I was surprised and very touched that when Chuck wrote his will, explicitly left every member of the family something, spouses of his children included. So I found myself with a surprise bit of money and no clear idea what to do with it.
I told Matt I wanted to get something to remember Chuck by, that he would have approved of – but I wasn’t sure what. Matt pointed out that Chuck was a musician and that a guitar would fit the bill. And that was all the encouragement I needed. Several days of intense research followed, leading me to find the guitar of my dreams. This arrived a couple weeks ago and has been played daily since. So, thanks very much, Chuck!
Work’s fairly quiet for both of us at present but we’ve both enough going on to keep ticking over. I had a gite website design to produce which I did on Tuesday. That site has now joined the half-dozen or so others for which I am now waiting on content.
On Wednesday, we had Bryan and Carol over dinner along with Françoise and the parents. We wanted to squeeze in another meal before B&C returned to the UK, which they have now done. It was a sunny day but also very windy, so after outdoor cocktails (espressotinis, of course) we came inside to eat. Matt excelled himself, putting together a meal of salsa and guacamole to start, followed by a chicken taco salad with a side of grilled courgettes. A cherry chocolate cake capped it all off, washed down with some Prosecco courtesy of Françoise.
Nothing noteworthy happened the following day, but it was Dad’s birthday, so it gets a mention anyway. The next evening, we were invited to Mum & Dad’s for dinner, along with Manu & Mathilde and Françoise. We got there for 7.30pm, had aperos in the lounge and gave M&M the tour. Dad put on a delicious meal of mackerel to start (or fishcake for me), served on a bed of grated coconut, peanuts and parsley. The main was chicken in a mole sauce on a bed of rice. Françoise’s tiramisu followed the cheese, served with oven-roasted strawberries with ginger & Cointreau.
The weather throughout September has been mostly amazing but on Saturday, it finally all came tumbling down with wind, rain and grey skies. That evening, we were invited to Marie & Christian’s for dinner. As we pulled up, we saw a “Vendu” (sold) sign outside their gate, so we guessed that they had some news to share. And indeed, they have sold up, and in record time too : it’d not even been on the market a month. We had aperos out on their terrasse and then moved in to eat a meal of quail (from the neighbour down the road) with a side of glazed carrots. Cheese and then apple tart concluded the meal. When we have an evening with M&C (well, it’s M especially), there tends to come a point after a few glasses where the conversation descends from lively debate into borderline argument. This time however, we avoided any subjects likely to cause a polemic, and as a result, had a wonderful time. We made plans to have them over to ours once more before they go. The rest of the weekend was grey rainy and miserable, and we spent it at home.
So, onto week #2! This began with an afternoon visit to the docs to discuss my ongoing hip issue and explore my theory that it has a gastric cause. He examined me and confirmed I’ve some sort of gastric problem but he thinks its unlikely to be Crohn’s disease. I have an appointment to see a gastrologist in a few weeks and in the interim, he gave me a prescription for some anti-inflammatory pills. As the issue I have is one that flares up and goes away on it’s own, it’s hard to be sure if the meds are doing something but I am definitely feeling a bit better. However, the hip/sciatic nerve problem persists.
Fast-forwarding through a grey and rainy tuesday, the next activity was a final, final meal with Bryan and Carol. We also invited Lee over as he knows them well and wanted to say goodbye too. Matt made houmous for the aperos, followed by turkey escalopes in a creamy fig sauce. Dessert was peach cobbler – Bryan’s favourite. It wasn’t a very late night as B&C were knackered from packing, Lee was working the next day and Matt had a client meeting.
The rain stopped on Thursday, but in its place a strong wind picked up. Matt had a lunch meeting with Maxwell Baynes, our big real estate clients down in Bordeaux. Luckily for me, my presence wasn’t requested so I stayed behind. He left around 10am and found the place just fine. It was a short way from St Emilion in the house of one of the clients. We’re going to be redoing their 2nd website imminently, so it was to discuss that. And as he was down in that area, he called in to Castillon on the way home to replenish our wine supplies.
The next morning, we were up bright and early so we could collect Matt’s print from the frame shop. First we went to Super U to hire a van, and from there drove on to Périgueux. We got there at 10am, loaded the frame into the van and returned to Port 80. After lunch we took advantage of the van to do a mini clear-out and took some crap to the dump. We then returned the van to Super U, did a shop and came home.
Mum & Dad called over to help hang the print. Unfortunately as we were in the process, we discovered a small shard of plexi-glass lodged inside the frame, pressed up against the print. We thought we were going to have to take it all to bits to get the shard out, but in the end, we managed to shake it loose so it fell to the bottom and Dad managed to prise it out from there. Luckily, the shard didn’t damage the print at all. We ran out of time to finish hanging the print that evening as we all had a meeting to attend.
This was Milhac Loisirs’ annual AGM, followed by a meal at the Hotel de France. The AGM was uneventful, although Josiane, the founder and ex-president, complained about the idea of a meal at the restaurant for attendees and announced she wouldn’t be joining us. Her loss! We reached the restaurant a little before 8 and sat down to a copious meal of prosciutto and prawn salad with sun-dried tomatoes, followed by an exquisitely-cooked filet mignon de porc. After the meal, we invited Françoise, Paul and Nathalie to ours for a game of cards or two before bed.
The folks came back over the following morning and finished getting the print hung on the wall. They also helped us move the one that had originally been in that spot to our bedroom. We’re really pleased with the print and would like to thank Bud for having it shipped here. That evening, we had another goodbye meal with Marie and Christian, at ours this time. Also in attendance were Manu, Mathilde and Françoise. After the aperos, we sat down to a meal of Matt’s famous oven-fried chicken with a side of brussels sprouts and corn bread, followed by peach cobbler for dessert. We’ll see Marie & Christian once more before they leave for good. And that’s about all there is to say really. See you in a fortnight.