Congratulations to Anne and Andrew who now own a home in France. This is actually their second time, having previously lived here in the late 80’s. Despite all the problems and delays, the actual sale went very smoothly and took less than an hour. Will collected his Dad from Limoges on Monday afternoon. We weren’t expecting to have been out the previous two nights, so dinner that night was leftover cheese and spinach enchiladas, served with a salad composed of fresh veg from various local gardens. We were all fairly tired and had an early night.
We had a free morning the next day since the signing wasn’t until the afternoon. It was hot at the start of the week, so we did some outdoor chores in the morning before it warmed up too much. That meant mowing the lawn for me, and putting up a new clothes line for Andrew and Will. They went to see Lucien who kindly gave us some new wooden stakes to replace our broken ones. We had lunch and then Will and Andrew went to Piegut for the signing.
On Tuesday night, we went to Philippe’s where we had dinner, along with the guest of honour, Francoise. She is back from Australia for a few weeks and spent a few days here seeing friends. We expected a large crowd at dinner, but it ended up being just the five of us which meant we got a great chance to catch up with her. She has nearly completed her PhD and hopes to have it all done by early next year. She’s already been offered a job on a three year project so she’s very excited she’ll be able to stay.
We sat out on their new terrace and had drinks and nibbles and got caught up. We spoke mostly in French which was good practice for Andrew. The meal was bbq chicken legs with baked potatoes, followed by cheese, salad and a small dessert. Philippe was on his best behaviour for a change, making it a very pleasant evening. We didn’t stay terribly late since we had an early start the next morning.
Actually, it was Andrew and Will who had the early start while I had a “grasse-matinee” (lie-in). Their first stop was the bank in Nontron where Andrew was able to open an account. This means signing loads and loads of documents but in the end, it only took an hour or so. Since Anne wasn’t there, she couldn’t sign so for now, her name isn’t on the account but that can be remedied later. Next they went to the house where they were meant to meet the electrician. Despite booking the appointment a month in advance, he didn’t show. He was recommended by the inept estate agent, so this isn’t a big surprise. He did call back later to say he got the time wrong so they rescheduled for the following day.
They came back here for lunch and we had some free time before all heading over the house to meet the fosse man, Steve. He is an English guy but speaks excellent French and it turns out he did the fosse for our neighbour on the corner. Will and Andrew went down to see the neighbour who spoke very highly of Steve and his work. So we met him at the house and discussed options of where to put the fosse. It’s slightly complicated in that the barn and garden are across a very small road from the house, which means digging under the road and then burying the pipes under the floor of the barn.
There is another barn that abuts the house with a small garden, so Andrew wanted to track down the owners in case they wanted to sell. We saw an older couple across the street and went over to introduce ourselves. It turns out that the woman has lived in the hamlet her entire life and was full of info, including the fact that she is the owner of the barn. They told us about the previous owner of the house, which used to be a grocery / bar and the barn was an auto shop. We chatted with them for some time before making our excuses and heading home.
We went out to dinner that night at the Pas de Chat in Villars. It’s a small restaurant that’s been open for a couple of years, and we’ve heard nothing but great things. It turns out that it has recently changed hands, but we decided to give it a go anyway. There are roughly ten tables, and all but one were either English or Dutch, which isn’t too surprising this time of year. The cuisine is fairly typical for these parts, and they do a four course menu for a very reasonable €22 which we all ordered. I was happy with my steak, but both Will and Andrew had duck breast which was overcooked and dry. I mentioned this to the waitress later on and she agreed that they adhere more to foreign standards where medium actually means well done. Will had oeuf cocotte to start and he wasn’t that impressed with that either. So while the menu is on the cheap side, you get what you pay for. We had some really nice wine and some enjoyed their dessert, so it wasn’t a total bomb.
It was back to Nontron on Thursday morning to sign yet another bit of paper at the bank and then a visit to the insurance company. When they arrived, the woman was having a terrible time with her computer so it didn’t look like they were going to succeed. However, Will put his IT skills to good use and with some advice from their help desk, got things sorted. The next stops were the Brico and Super U where they got food for dinner that night. It’s worth mentioning that whenever Will goes to the store instead of me, he comes back with something other than what I intended, but not this time.
We had lunch and then Will and Andrew went back to the house, this time to meet the plumber. It turns out that he’s more of an electrician, so will be doing both jobs. This meant that they didn’t need to bother with the guy who didn’t show up, so cancelled their appointment for later that afternoon. When they got back, Andrew had one more small job here: replacing the caulk underneath our new kitchen window. I noticed last winter that you can feel the wind coming through it, but that won’t be the case any more.
We had Francoise and Bryan over to dinner that night. Carol was back in the UK for a week which was too bad since she would have liked to see Francoise. I made a pork roast coated in Mexican spices with courgette gratin. I forgot to say that we’d had a drive-by courgette / cucumber-ing from Lucien earlier in the week so I wanted to use up some of them. I’ve been perfecting my fruit desserts, and made my second cobbler, this time with traditional peach instead of nectarine. Bryan left around 11 but Francoise, who was jet-lagged, was wide awake and wanted to stay and play. So we had a digestif and played cards for a bit. She confessed that part of the reason she’s here is to have “the talk” with Philippe. It’s been obvious to everyone but him that she doesn’t want to stay together and being that she’s going back for at least three more years, would like to call it quits.
We had a quiet Friday morning and Will took Andrew to Limoges in the afternoon. It has been a busy and boozy week, so we were more than happy to take it easy Friday and Saturday nights. We finally sent out the email with more details of the wedding, and have made progress selecting which songs we’d like to do at the ceremony.
On Sunday, we went round to Lewis and Pary’s, our friends who now spend most of their time working in Paris. They had their landlords from Paris as houseguests, and we had nice meal with them out in the garden. The weather has turned cool, cloudy and rainy here for the past week, but it was just nice enough to sit outside. Lewis made veggie lasagne which we had with bread and not much else. They had been entertaining the previous night too and being that they’ve only just got back, were a bit tired. Their landlords were good company, although she has a lot of energy and talks non-stop. He used to work for the police as a crime scene investigator, but has taken up smoking herb with Lewis nowdays. It started raining around midnight and we took that as our cue to leave.
If all that weren’t enough, we had one more social engagement last night. We often receive invitations from Alessandro (aka The Mad Italian), at the last minute. We don’t have the most active of social lives, but are normally already busy. This time, we got the invitation the previous week, so reluctantly decided to attend. He’s a really nice guy, but he doesn’t stop talking even when eating, drinking etc. He is from Bologna, and goes there often to see family and stock up on meats and other Italian goodies. So dinner that night was a big mix of meats, spreads, melon, tomatoes, tapanade, pate and the like followed by loads of cheese and dessert.
There were around twelve of us, including a few couples that we knew. One was Sue and Steve who we met at our neighbours’ a few years ago. She is in my choir so I see her regularly, but not him. The other couple was Keith and Julia, who we know from our early days of living here. It has been so long that Keith inquired whether or not we still see Sharon. It was nice catching up with them, and meeting the other guests, who were mostly English. Two of them own shops in Brantome: one, a clothing store and the other, a used book shop. The temperature was the same as the previous night, but it was humid and windy, making it feel a lot colder. So we sat outside with a fire going, and the women wrapped up in blankets. We left before midnight and blasted the heat in the car on the way home to warm up. C’est tout pour cette semaine.