WHAT DID WE DO IN JANUARY?

We were invited to spend New Year's Eve with friends who hosted a fondue party.

I took the dessert, a pumpkin and mincemeat cake.

Considering that January is one of the longer months and usually fairly dull, we had a very busy time!

We had some pretty cold weather and even some snow.

We stayed home during the coldest weather and did a jigsaw puzzle.

It turned out to be one of the hardest we have ever done, but Yvonne helped.

There was the invitation to the Mairie for the annual New Year greeting in the salle des fêtes in our letterbox.

It was well attended.

The speeches were short this year, the wine and servings of "galette des rois" generous.

Afterwards we went to a friend's house for a convivial evening of food and more wine.

She refers to the Maire's annual greeting as "the state of the nation address".

There was an exhibition of paintings by two local artists in Descartes.

Both artists were born in Descartes and the paintings are in the private collection of a local person.

The paintings were mostly of scenes around the area and lovely to see.

We felt very privileged to be able to view them.

There was a "Soirée Montagne" at the hotel bar in Abilly.

It was well attended and the food delicious.

Each person had their own pot of melted cheese and bits to dip into it.

I doubt that many people realised that January 13th was National Rubber Ducky Day.

Guests were invited to dress up in rubber duck/bath time costumes.

Some were more inventive than others.

A "parmentier de confit de canard" was served which is a kind of duck shepherd's pie.

It was delicious.

More dressing up was required for a Burns Night supper at the home of more friends.

Thanks to Jim Craig for the photo.

It was an evening of music, songs, poetry and a quiz centred on the life of Robbie Burns.

For dinner we had cullen skink, a delicious haggis shepherd's pie, tatties and neeps followed by Scottish tart.  I haven't had genuine haggis for a while and had forgotten how good it is.

Much of January has been cold, grey and damp but there has been some sunshine.

 

I was in charge of dog walking on the day that we had a new window fitted.

(More about that later.)

It was a beautiful morning to enjoy a walk around the park at Paulmy.

We sit out in the late afternoons whenever the weather is half decent.

Wrapped up in hats, gloves and blankets we have been treated to some fabulous sunsets.

And now we are into February, one week almost gone.

Although it is the shortest month it often feels like the longest.

Not much happens in February but the winter is nearly over.

1st March is spring in my book and we look forward to more sunshine and some warmth, at last.

IN RECOVERY

 

I am recovering from a very recent attack of something I haven’t had for many years - gastroenteritis.  The drama of it was quite alarming.

I have no idea where I picked up the bug.  All I can say is I wish I hadn’t!  I'm on the mend but, as my old dad used to say, still feel "rough as a badger’s backside".  Although how he would know about that is a mystery.

With my renewed success in uploading pictures from my iPad I have added one from a walk at Paulmy last week.  It being 1st February spring is only one month away in my book and the thought cheers me up immensely.  Not that January has been quiet…….new post to follow.

SWEEPING THE CHIMNEY

 

Getting the chimney swept chez nous has been a challenge in the past. 

The theory is that you should have it swept professionally once a year and a certificate is given to say it has been done.  Theoretically this should stand us in good stead with our insurance company if we have a chimney fire and things go horribly wrong.

We have found that actually getting someone to come and do the job can be a challenge, not to mention expensive as we have two fireplaces, two wood burning fires and two flues so double the cost.

Two years ago we managed to extinguish a fire in our chimney before it became too serious.  The chimney had been swept professionally only four months earlier but the wood burner had more or less been in daily use afterwards.  Just to be sure of our position I phoned the insurance company to find out what the rules were and was somewhat alarmed to be told that if there was a house fire leading to a significant claim, an assessor would look at our chimney and decide if that was the cause of the fire.  If it was, we would be deemed to be negligent and the claim would not be met.  This makes sense as if the chimney was clean a chimney fire would be unlikely to happen anyway.  In other words, the certificate of annual sweeping of the chimney (called ramonage) was no guarantee that an insurance claim would be met.

It was also clear that if we could have a chimney fire just four months after it was swept, once a year was not enough.  The hassle of getting someone to come and do it, plus the mounting cost, was becoming a problem now that we were living in France all winter and the fires were in regular use.

Whilst we were in one of the local DIY stores not long after the incident, we spotted a soot hoover at a reduced price so we bought it and at the same time a set of poles and brushes so we could sweep the chimneys ourselves.  For about the same outlay as the cost of one ramonage we were set up to sweep them as often as we liked.  

It's not difficult and takes about half an hour for each woodburner from start to finish.  Nick is getting quicker at it with practise!

The kitchen fire is more tricky to do because of its design.  The flue ends behind the oven part of the stove and cannot be accessed from inside the fire.  We had a lot of trouble getting someone to come and do it professionally because it had to be swept from the top, in other words from up on the roof.

We have solved this problem by having an access hole made in the pipe.  A friend very kindly did this for us and also manufactured a removable cover for the hole.  We can now sweep both of the chimneys for ourselves.

Nick sweeps the living room chimney about once a month and the kitchen one about every two months because we light it less often.  It has saved us a small fortune and given us huge peace of mind.

YOU TOO COULD OWN A HOUSE IN FRANCE

Our friends Jim and Pauline are selling their lovely house in La Guerche, not far from us.

They have renovated the former village sweet shop, turning it into a beautiful home.

Had it been for sale the first time we were looking for a house in France it would have been the answer to all our dreams!  It is beautifully restored with original features and modern facilities.  Some of the furniture could also be included in the sale.  As a holiday home it would make a perfect gite to rent out when not in personal use.

It has three bedrooms and a fabulous low maintenance outdoor space ideal for chilling or entertaining, which could be used to leave a car in the courtyard when the house is not in use.  There is perfectly adequate car parking on the street outside the house when in residence.

The living room and kitchen are upstairs where you have a lovely view of the medieval château of La Guerche.  

The village lies a short drive from a number of small towns and villages with shops, bars, markets, restaurants, parks, cinemas and all the facilities you need.  Drive a little further and there are numerous château, tourist spots, zoos, museums and endless opportunities for days out and entertainment.  

During the summer months there are a number of pop up restaurants and music venues nearby, plus music festivals, old car rallies and, of course, a village brocante - street market - virtually every weekend between April and November and none of this is very far away.  There are excellent cycle and walking paths and peaceful spots for picnics, just pick up a baguette from the boulangerie along the way!  There is even a beach and bathing with lifeguard on the river in the next village and several places that offer very easy canoeing. 

It’s not just however a holiday home.  The accommodation would make it an excellent permanent home in France for a couple or young family, ready to move into, requiring no work and little maintenance.  

You can read more about it here.

FOUR DAYS IN WINTER

On Sunday morning we awoke to a deep frost.

It was very pretty but bitterly cold.

The frost clung to everything making beautiful patterns.

On Monday we awoke to snow and an even deeper frost.

Frost upon frost.

It's unusual to have snow that lingers for more than a few hours here.

We're glad to have plenty of food in the freezer and plenty of wood in the woodshed.

More by luck than good management.  

This is the first time we remember such a long spell of frost and snow here.

It is very cold.

We have to keep both wood burning fires going to keep the house warm.

Later in the day on Monday, the sun came out.

It was all very pretty.

The roads were dry and perfectly safe to drive on.

We went for a drive to take some pictures. 

The moat at Le Châtelier was completely frozen.

There seemed to be quite a bit of warmth in the sunshine but not enough for the frost to thaw.

On Monday evening there was a beautiful sunset.

The next day, Tuesday, we braved the cold to go to the supermarket.

We left it until the afternoon when the roads had been used.

They had clearly been salted in most places.

We have been keeping the bird feeders stocked and the bird bath clear of ice.

The birds seem to appreciate it.  There are always plenty of customers.

Today, no pictures.  It's day four and we're glad we went to the shops yesterday.

We awoke to freezing rain.  

The roads were treacherous so we didn't venture out until much later when it all began to thaw, just enough.

During our confinement to indoors we have been tackling a very tricky jigsaw puzzle.

Yvonne is as always on hand to help.

It all brings back not so fond memories of winters in Derbyshire.

Time and again we would wake up to two or three feet of snow and would have to dig our way out in order to try to get to work.

The last person I worked for said that if I didn't get in before lunchtime I would have to take the day as part of my annual leave.

I replied that in that case I would stop digging and retired a few weeks later!

I absolutely do not miss the stress of having to get to work in the snow plus the worry of how on earth I would get home again.

A TABLE EXTENSION

Two tables end to end to seat ten people.

When we bought our first house in France it was a tiny place but perfect as a second home or "holiday home".  We struggled to find furniture for it in France and soon realised that we could end up spending much of our actual holidays trying to furnish it. 

Over our first winter of owning the little house we collected furniture for it in the UK, sofas from Ikea, flatpack bedroom furniture and a lovely oak dining set in the January sales including a four seat table that would extend to six.  We hired a van and transported the lot across the channel at Easter 2008, picking up extra beds for the second bedroom and cramming them into the van on the way through France.

After a few years we downsized in the UK in order to upsize in France. The new UK house was much smaller and very little of our existing furniture would physically fit into it so we brought it all to France.  This included our dining table, sideboard and four chairs, meaning that we now have two dining sets in France.  

"Casual dining" in the kitchen.

The old UK table works well in the kitchen where Nick refers to it as "casual dining" and the oak set from the little house lives in the dining end of our living room where it serves as "formal dining" and comfortably seats six.  It’s a solution that has worked well for years and we really like it.  

As our circle of friends has grown we have been entertained by people who have the ability to throw large dinner parties or lunches where they could seat eight, ten or even more people.  We're not talking posh château dining, but people who have the room to fit in a big old table, or multiple small tables, and a random collection of chairs.  

After a while I began to wonder if we could do larger gatherings ourselves.  Our dining table seats six comfortably and we found that by putting the kitchen table at the end of it we could seat ten.  The only problem was that to get the kitchen table into the dining room we had to heave it out of the house through the kitchen door and back in through the middle door as it would not physically fit through the door between the two rooms!

It was heavy work, adding a lot of time to the hosting of any dinner party and in fact we missed having the kitchen table into the kitchen for food prep so we had to come up with another solution.  

One extension to seat an extra two people.

When we bought this house the large bedroom was also being used as an office.  There was a desk made from a couple of lengths of fairly sturdy kitchen worktop which we saved when we dismantled the office.  Having a huge barn enables us to save a mountain of stuff that might come in handy later!

Two extensions to seat an extra four people.

Nick created two extensions, one for each end of our oak table, using sections of the old office worktop, each supported by three tubular legs from Ikea.  They fit onto the table using clamps which can't be seen when the extensions are not in use.  With one extension the table seats eight with ample elbow room.  With two extensions we can seat ten.  If only the room itself was bigger we could add a third and seat another two!  

The worktop is not pretty and obviously I need a long tablecloth to hide all the joins but it works really well.  Luckily we already had enough chairs!  

Sets of matching or at least reasonably similar dinnerware are often on sale at local brocantes or vide greniers and we have accumulated a fair stash of it over the years.  The original set of six plates we bought from Ikea in 2008 has been boosted by acquiring extras from brocantes and fortunately we also have plenty of room in the barn to store it all!  We rarely pay more than two or three euros for a set of plates, bowls or whatever, the bonus being that we now have enough to afford to break a few!  Luckily mismatched crockery and glassware are still very much "in vogue".

The table in the foreground (there is a step down into the "dining room") is a side table that normally lives at the far end of the room and we bring it forward when we have a big dinner party.  It's perfect for serving dishes and plates.  It was a UK charity shop purchase a few years ago (pre Brexit when it we could bring such things freely).  I remember thinking it would probably come in handy at some point and with a coat of paint and a lick of varnish it's just the job!