The second week of Mom’s visit was just as busy as the first. We took it easy on Monday night when we returned. On Tuesday, we were up and out of the house by 9:30 to meet up with Milhac Loisirs for a walk. Josienne organised a few events to coincide with Mom’s visit, and this was the first one. Around 10 of us walked around the lake at St Saud twice since it’s not very big. Then we were joined by a few others for a picnic. Will and I had work to do, so we headed home to get started on that. Mom and I went to the store that afternoon, then I mowed the lawn while she did some weeding, and we had dinner at home that night. I had choir practice, so we didn’t do much else.
On Wednesday, Will and I worked most of the day, leaving Mom to prepare dinner for that evening. We had invited Lucien and Mauricette plus our other neighbours Daniel and Odielle since we were overdue to see them. We started with a new recipe for an Italian style antipasto of roasted, marinated vegetables. The main was roasted chicken legs in a rosemary mustard sauce served with cheesy polenta. Dessert was an assortment of cookies and brownies, some made by Mom that day. In fact, she did nearly all the cooking, and everything turned out great. The conversation flowed and was more or less pleasant. Daniel, and to some extent, Lucien are both right wing, especially when it comes to fear of immigrants, so the discussion was a bit heated at one point. They left us around 11 and we chilled out after that.
Thursday was also a work day for us, and Mom occupied herself in the garden. She accompanied me to conversation group that afternoon, and apart from us, everyone else was French. We mostly just chatted in French the whole time, which was great for us. Everyone was most impressed with Mom’s French, not only there, but everywhere we went. Bryan and Carol joined us that evening for an apero dinatoire. We had some leftovers from previous nights, and Carol made a tarte, so there was plenty to eat, as usual. They’ve been without internet/phone for the better part of six weeks, and Will’s been calling the ISP on their behalf. It was finally sorted today, after many calls, so everyone is relieved.
The weather was very hot for the first part of the visit, but turned cool and stormy for the second week. We had a few storms, and most of them missed us, but not by far. The good part is needed to water the garden less, but conversely, means it needs more weeding. Mom did a fair bit of it, and I finished up the rest during her visit. I’m sure it already needs it again, but at least the plants have started growing now.
Friday was curry night, and our guest was Philippe. We had invited Manu and Mathilde, but they had already invited over another family, so it would have been too many people to eat together. We had a nice night with him, probably because he was on call for fireman duty, so he only drank wine. Having said that, he put away a bottle or two on his own, but a man’s gotta to have his principles. He’s a hard one to get to leave, so it turned into a bit of later evening than we could have used, but a pleasant one nonetheless.
Saturday was mostly spent outdoors around the house. The weather was fine most of the day, but turned stormy later on, just in time for dinner. It was the second Milhac Loisirs activity: dinner at Sophie and Dom’s. They run a chambre de hote where they also serve meals, although usually not for 25 people. They had some friends visiting who helped serve the meal, and it all ran very smoothly. This was the second year we’ve done this, and like the last time, the English sat at a separate table. We dined with Josienne and the two friends of the hosts, both interesting guys. One used to be a goat farmer who made cheese, and now owns a mill not far from us. The other is an old friend who lives in Paris. He has a great sense of humour and we enjoyed talking with him.
Sophie loves garlic and uses it liberally in all her dishes. I warned her of Mom’s allergy, and she was able to do the entire meal without it. The entree was a mixed plate of cold items, all nicely presented. The main was chicken and pork kebabs with a special pasta from Savoie, her home department. There was cheese, and two kinds of cake for dessert, followed by eau de vie for the digestive. The rain started towards the end of the meal, lightly at first but got heavier as we went on. By the time we left, it had turned into a torrential downpour, and everyone scampered as quickly as they could. Gilles and Myriam drove us, and we practically crawled back home.
Mom and I went to the shop in the morning for more provisions. I had band practice at Gilles that afternoon, and we’ve settled on five songs for our concert on Sunday. We have one more rehearsal tomorrow night to try to polish them up. On a related note, Will and I snuck in a few practice sessions amidst our other activities, and we’re sounding mostly good. It’s a bit awkward with him being away for most the week before, but we’ve got a few days after he returns to iron out the rough spots.
There was a jazz concert at Villars that evening, but it rained most of the day and wasn’t very warm so we skipped it. We had planned to go with Myriam and Gilles, who went on their own and then came to ours for dinner afterwards. They didn’t arrive until 9:30 and then we had an apero before a late dinatoire. Mom was busy that day making a chicken pasta salad, devilled eggs, and more cookies. Although I see them regularly, this was the first time we’d had them over, and they were pleasant company.
Monday was Mom’s last full day, and we decided to find something to do. Will found out there’s a private garden not far from Brantome so we went to check it out. The owners live on site in a lovely house with floor to ceiling windows overlooking the grounds. The garden itself is laid out along the Dronne river, with various areas and styles. It’s not huge, and not as pristinely manicured as the larger gardens down south, but all in a very pleasant way. We noticed that their web site is years out of date, and they seemed interested in a new site when the season ends in the autumn.
We went around to Josienne and Cami’s for aperos that evening. Mom loves raspberries, and they have tons of them, so we started off picking a bunch to take home, along with a lovely lettuce. Their potager puts ours to shame in so many ways, I can’t recount them all. In brief, it’s pristine and all the plants are healthy with teaming with produce. We had a number of drinks plus food including my onion tarte, and stayed there for a few hours before returning home for some leftovers. We played cards to finish off the evening, like on many of the previous nights, before calling it a relatively early night.
Today Will and I worked while Mom did her last round of weeding and packed. We had traditional lunch (Port 80’s for us, salad for Mom) before I took her to Angouleme this afternoon. They’re redoing the parking around the station so it’s currently a traffic nightmare. I parked illegally before taking her to the platform with 5 minutes to spare. It was a busy but very pleasant visit, all things told. Tomorrow, I take Will to Angouleme in the morning for his train to London. So there may be a slight delay before the next entry, when he returns.