Ok, finally an entry to return to the oh-so exciting narrative of events at Port 80. Since the last entry, a lot has happened to get us ready for the winter, thanks entirely to the help of friends and family. We are currently playing host to my parents, who got here on Wednesday and leave on Saturday. Despite the brevity of the visit, it has been a highly productive one and they have been put to good work. In fact, as I write this, I can hear the banging sounds of a saw bench being created out in our log-shed. They may think twice about coming back out here again any time soon…
Before I come to that though, I will start with a few social events. First, Richard joined us for dinner on Thursday last week. Lee was back in the UK to catch up with friends and collect his grandparents who are now over here in France for a mammoth 2 week visit. Neither of the boys are too thrilled at the idea of entertaining them for that long, so we may get a visit from them at some point if they need a break. Richard has all the necessary kit to sweep chimneys, so in return for a cooked dinner, he came to sort ours out. He got here much later than expected, having broken down en route, but fortunately a kind passer-by stopped and helped him sort the problem. Apparently our chimney has some sort of lining in it already, making it very easy to clean, so that job was soon sorted. Afterwards, we served a dinner (one of our fig recipes of course) and then set about demolishing a bottle of vodka. We were up till around 2 or so, not so clever for a work night really. It was a bit of a shaky start for all the next morning.
The next social event was a visit from our friends Richard and Bridgit (Ridgit), who came over for a meal on Saturday. We also invited Carol along as Bryan was still in the UK. The meal was yet again fig-based – a repeat of the fig tart and courgette gratin, and it went down very well indeed. We also did some serious damage to a bottle of vodka and a few bottles of red wine over the course of the evening, and everyone had a good time as far as I can recall. I am not too sure what time everyone left us, but Matt and I had our drinking hats on and stayed up for at least another drink, ultimately crashing at somewhere around 3am. Those who read the previous entry will now know where my 3.0 hangover came from. I think I am going to name it the DT Scale by the way.
Accordingly, Sunday was a lost day and I think there’s little to note about the rest of the week before Wednesday, so I will fast forward to Mum & Dad’s arrival. They got in to Limoges at 12:30 and I left Matt working at home to come and collect them. We got back and tucked into a lunch of Port 80 sarnies. Afterwards, they were put to work helping out with the stacking of our wood delivery. We didnt actually ask them to do this but Dad volunteered, so Mum and I pitched in too. He has done a great job with all the wood neatly stacked at the edge of the back garden and covered over to protect it from the rain. The other development that day was that we scored 4 new wooden chairs for our bedrooms. They replace a set of 4 that were lent to us by Lucien & Mauricette when we first moved in “just until you find some of your own”. We realise that this probably shouldn’t have meant 2 years, but it took us this long to make a score on the DVN (our online expat network). An English family just down the road in St Saud is moving back to the UK so are offloading a load of stuff. They were a bargain at just €30 for the set and look a lot better than the ones we had before (no offence, Lucien & Mauriette!). That evening we served up a dinner of salmon on a bed of lentils and tucked into a couple nice bottles of red before retiring.
The next day was set aside for the installation of our log-burner. Leaving Matt at work, I took the folks into Nontron in the morning after our brekkie of croissants and jam (yes, it was fig jam) to get supplies. We picked up everything we needed from the Brico store, then hit Super U for a food and wine stock up. Dad made a start on his big project as soon as we got back, and it was just as well really as there was quite a bit to do. First off, a row of bricks directly underneath the beam that makes up the mantle of our fireplace had to go. With the help of various tools lent to us by Lucien, these were knocked out, and the metal braces supporting them cut out. We broke for lunch and then Dad was back to it, fashioning a seal out of a sheet of steel. This was made complicated by the shape of the chimney flue but he has done an admirable job. Once that was in place and the pipes cut to size, three of us hoisted the burner into place (it weighs over 110kg) and connected it to the pipes. All this took most of the afternoon and left dad coated in a film of soot and dust, but the result is extremely pleasing – it looks the part, and we even gave it a quick test-drive too.
That evening, we’d decided to take the folks out for a meal to say thanks for all their help. Our first choice was the Hotel de France in St Pardoux, but it was closed. Moving on, we opted for the St Jean in St Jean de Cole. However, this too was closed. We ended up contacting around 5 or so places, and all with the same result. Some of them were scheduled closures, but some were “fermetures exceptionelles”, which left us wondering if there wasnt some major sporting event on or something. We couldnt believe our bad luck. In the end, and somewhat ironically, we eventually secured a table at the Vieux Four pizzeria in Brantôme – a restaurant that confounded us time and again with its erratic opening hours when we first moved out here. We all plumped for pizzas and for the most part, had a good meal. Mum ordered a pizza that normally contains bacon, so asked the waitress to leave it off hers and was told this was no problem. When it arrived however, it was still laced with meat – but ham instead of bacon. Quite how anyone could think that someone who didnt want bacon would be ok with ham instead is a mystery. Clearly the chef just couldnt cope with the idea of a meatless pizza! That aside, the meal and the desserts were all good.
Back home, we had a nightcap and sat chatting for a while before hitting the hay. Both pusses joined us for our digestifs – and both opted to curl up with mum and dad rather than us too! This is par for the course with the sociable Smoo, but that Louis should voluntarily seek someone else’s lap and allow himself to be stroked is quite amazing. It seems that they are finally on his extremely select “safe humans” list. Only took 2 and a half years…
Right, this entry’s too long, so I am going to stop here. Next update to follow from Matt shortly.