This title is a homage to the late, great Douglas Adams, author of (among other things) the Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy. In it, he describes how the most powerful computer ever built, Deepthought, was asked what was the meaning of life, the universe and everything. After about 5 million years, Deepthought unhelpfully came up with the ambiguous answer of “42”. Well, Matt just turned 42, so here’s to some momentous revelations from him this coming year.
Before I get to his birthday though, I ought to go over what we’ve been up to since getting home. The first day back we called on our 2 sets of neighbours who cat-sat for us, starting with Lucien and Mauricette at around 11.30. We realise we must stop calling on them at this time of day as Lucien always ends up producing a bottle of vodka when we do, which tends to have an impact on the rest of the day… Anyway, we had a nice catch up, during which we learned that Louis, in our absence, had decided that the two of them were worthy to give him hugs and cuddles. I am not sure if they realise just how privileged they are to be granted this preference from the Sausage. Later that afternoon, we called in to see the other set of cat-sitters, Brian and Carol. They fared worse with Louis – one reported sighting only the whole time we were away, and that was of his back legs as he escaped at high speed. While we were round there, they gave us a glowing report on a local restaurant they had just been to which totally blew them away. We made note of this and took advantage of the tip – as I will come to shortly. We had a necessarily early night that evening, accompanied by 2 very clingy cats. Sadly, the jetlag denied us a lie-in.
Our friend David, now a repeat visitor, was due in to Limoges train station at 4:30 the following afternoon, so we spent the day getting ready for his arrival with me giving the house a good clean while Matt caught up on some work stuff before driving out to pick him up. The weather was perfect throughout David’s visit: in the low 20s, cloudless and glorious every day. We took advantage of this by spending much of his visit outside in the front garden, supping beer and cocktails (it’s a hard life out here in rural France) and over-eating.
Most notably on that front was a lunch at the place I alluded to before. It is in the town of St Saud-Lacoussiere, about 10 minutes from our place. We’d heard lots of good things about the restaurant, but had also heard that it was quite expensive, so had so far given it a miss. However, Brian and Carol told us they now offer a lunch menu for €25, for which you get an aperitif of kir, a 3-course meal (each course prefaced by a stunning amuse-bouche), 2 glasses of wine, and a coffee. Not bad at all! David commented that a meal of similar quality in London would probably cost about £70 and I am sure he is right in that.
I am glad that we had a 40 minute walk around the picturesque lake in town before we sat down to eat as it was a LOT of food, even for these parts. If Matt were doing this entry, he would list every single thing that every person ate, but I can’t be doing with that, so the summary is:
– amuses bouches of incredible mousses (red pepper, parmesan + pesto, seafood etc)
– toffee tomatoes (they were made with cherry tomatoes, but the same caramel glaze as you get with toffee apples – just amazing)
– lots of foie gras
– duck, beef, and rabbit, all cooked to perfection and immaculately presented
– out of this world desserts
– and much, much more
Needless to say, most of the rest of Friday was spent digesting and not moving too much. I think we headed up for TV at around 9.30 – a bad move really, seeing as it just meant that Matt and I passed out within minutes -the combination of jetlag and over-eating being too much for us. I am ashamed to say that this wasn’t the only evening the jetlag got the better of us – sorry David!
Saturday was Matt’s birthday and we had invited Lee, Richard and Sharon to join us that evening to help us celebrate. The three of us were up fairly early, so we piled in the car and made our way to Thiviers to see the market and stock up on food for the evening’s BBQ. We scored fish, wine and cheese at the market (the latter being surprisingly expensive – although excellent of course) and supplemented this with chicken, sausages and champagne at the nearby supermarket. As well as the champagne, David also bought a birthday cake from our local bakery to help mark the occasion. Back home, we took it easy to enjoy the sun and start preparations. Sharon didn’t join us in the end and, due to engaging in a long fight with an overgrown tree in their garden, Lee & Richard were later than planned, but they eventually reached us at around 6:30. This at least gave us loads of time to get the prep done so we soon sat down to eat a yummy BBQ.
Earlier that afternoon, Lucien & Mauricette dropped by to give Matt his birthday present – a bottle of home-distilled alcohol that Lucien had made. It was theoretically made from plums, but essentially, the main ingredient was ethanol. He warned us at the time to drink it in very small amounts (“and just before bed”, added Mauricette), and later told us that it is about 62% proof. Ouch. Well, of course we were compelled to give it a go that night. In fact, we unwisely gave it 2 goes. In fairness, it was accompanied by vodka, beer and wine, so it’s no surprise we all got a bit tipsy – but man was it lethal! We all stayed up playing poker and boozing till about 5am before all crashing out.
Lee & Richard left us the next morning at about 10 with chores to attend to, while the three of us took it extremely easy, not leaving Port 80 all day. It won’t surprise you to learn that we weren’t late to bed that night either. We had a couple drinks, some more birthday cake and watched/slept through a film before calling it a night. Matt took David back to the station early Monday morning and we then both had a quiet day of doing very little. It was lovely to see David again and we hope he calls back to see us in Mazeroux again soon.
Today however was a far more productive day. Our car was due its MOT (or contrôle technique as they call it out here) so we had booked a slot at a place in Nontron for 4pm. As we had a few other chores, we decided to make a day of it and left at about 12:30, making our first stop the pizzeria for lunch. Next, it was on to the job centre to see if they had any useful advice to impart. This turned out to be “go away, register your details on our website and when you have done that, we’ll see if we can help you”, so I suppose that is what we will do now.
Next was a visit to a shop on the main square called La Maison de Fleurance, which sells locally-made specialities like foie gras, rillettes, wine etc. Matt called in there before our Asia trip to purchase a wedding gift for Paul & Karmen and got to chatting to the owner. As a result, he found they were in the market for a website to sell their produce online to wider audience. As we were on the eve of our trip, he promised to call by soon to discuss further, so we did. They are a really lovely couple and (considering where they live and what they sell), somewhat visionary in that they get how the internet can help to grow their business. We have hopefully just got them on board as new clients, which is great, and could also open a few doors as far as getting into the local market too. We shall see…
Our other big chore was the car. Before her MOT, she was taken for a wash as Richard had told us this helps to give a good impression. Well, it wasn’t quite enough in Lola’s case, sadly. She is mainly fine, but has a knackered shock-absorber which must be replaced in 2 months to keep her roadworthy. This isn’t a big surprise given her age (or come to that, the state of the roads out here) but is slightly unfortunate all the same as it is a few euros we would rather spend on food, but there you go.
The other thing I need to mention is that we had some time to kill before Lola’s appoointment, so went to a brocante (flea market) up the road, scoring ourselves a fairly decent coffee table for a mere €16 in the process. While we were there, we bumped into one of our 4 French ex-nieghbours from Badaillac, Patrick. Long term readers with good memories may remember a previous entry from August last year in which the 4 frenchies had a bit of a bust up, resulting in Patrick moving out. We hadn’t seen him since then, so spent a while chatting. He now lives in St Pierre de Cole, about 10 mins from us, and is seeking to buy a place – ideally in Milhac, of all places – so we may be getting another neighbour next year…
Ok, I’ve just realised that is entry is overly long and, particularly given the grandiose title, largely banal, so I am stopping right now. Bye.