28 April 2021
WELL EELED
26 April 2021
WELL HEELED
Fancy shoes for sale at the monthly market in Lencloître, 2nd September 2013.
Made more for sitting than for walking I think!
I'll be walking into the vaccination centre today for my second dose of the AZ vaccine. Most of our friends in France have now had at least one dose so things are inching forwards over there. Fingers and toes crossed that we might make the September market in Lencloître this year. The July or August one might be a little too much to hope for.
24 April 2021
THE OLD BARN DOOR
This old door in the village had a makeover a couple of years ago.
I liked it as it was on 13th April 2013.
Bon weekend !!
22 April 2021
A GOOD LUNCH
You know that lunch is likely to be good when the table looks like this.
Relais de la Mothe, Yzeures-sur-Creuse, 12th April 2013.
21 April 2021
ON THIS DAY
They rushed over to see who we were.
I wonder if they knew how lucky they were to have such a beautiful view from their field!
18 April 2021
BROCANTE
One of the many things we enjoy about life in France is going to the brocantes or vide greniers and we've really missed that during the pandemic. I'm not sure what the precise difference is but "vide grenier" means empty the attic and "brocante" would be what we call in the UK bric-a-brac. There is the equivalent event in the UK in the form of the car boot sale or antique fair but for some reason we rarely go to those.
I read recently that another unexpected non-bonus of Brexit is the effect on the UK's antique fairs. It seems that because of the considerable red tape involved in bringing goods across from France it's now much more difficult for brocanters - the people who travel to France to forage for old French stuff to sell at UK flea markets - to fill their stalls and they are having a very hard time of it. French brocante is going to be in short supply. I would imagine that UK fans of old French antiques will find them harder to find and more expensive as a result.
However, the one thing we do have aplenty in the UK and not in France is charity shops. Just like last year, a lot of people have spent the lockdown having a good clear out but the difference this time is that our local charity shops had obviously sifted out the rubbish and there was some really nice stuff for sale. Apart from the two books in my previous post these are some of the things I bought.
15 April 2021
COLOUR CODING
With the easing of the lockdown at the beginning of this week the charity shops re-opened. I did a brief tour of our local ones yesterday and checked that they were accepting donations, which most of them were. (There are five different ones in our nearest town.)
I took a small box of unwanted items to my favourite shop along with a large bag of plastic carrier bags, acquired during our early days of click and collect grocery shopping when the supermarkets were supplying goods ready packed in bags, presumably to limit the amount of time people spent picking up their groceries. Charity shops are always very pleased to get carrier bags in my experience.
Me being me, as usual, the net flow of charity shop items was into the house not out of it, (more of that in the next post), two of the things I swooped on being these two cook books. I have a large collection of cook books already but when they are only £1 or so each it's hard to resist a new one. Both of these seemed to be completely brand new and unused. Michelin starred chef Marcus Wareing is a judge on the professionals version of MasterChef and I had hung my nose over his book when it was first published a couple of years ago. I managed to resist when it cost about £13 but when it was only £1.50 it seemed like a bargain too good to leave on the shelf.
12 April 2021
ON THIS DAY
On 12th April 2015 we went to a wine fair.
We bought some Chablis (and a few others).
The shop at the winery sells interesting foods. We bought some of them.
They also sell soap made from donkey milk. It was rather pricey so we managed to resist.
On this day today....I'm getting my hair cut. After eighteen weeks and trimming my own hair, it's going to be a big day!!
10 April 2021
ON THIS DAY
A sunny stroll through the château courtyard at Le Grand-Pressigny.
You can park by the château entrance and explore the grounds for free, then admire the view.