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Published: September 5th 2007
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31st August 2007
Dear Bo & Dud,
I’m writing a day early this week as tomorrow will be a full day of packing up in preparation for the move to Grignols. I’ve bought the dog biscuits, and put them in the usual place; it will be interesting to see if Aina remembers us and where to find her morning snack.
The sun arrived back last Saturday and has continued for most of the week. Having been very sedentary for the last month we decided it was time to get out and about. On Tuesday we paid a visit to Bougueil market - Oh how I love French markets, they are so atmospheric. The range of stalls is amazing, clothing, material, beds! (double & single), double glazing, DVD’s & CD’s, jewellery, fruit & veg, hot food, fresh fish and meat. The cheval wagon (horsemeat) doing a roaring trade, the snails were trying to escape from a box, chickens in cages (don’t think these were for the pet market) and the vin, and, I suspect, eau du vie bar which was surrounded by men and doing a brisk trade at 10.30 a.m.
We needed to buy something for lunch and
came across a stall selling Fougasse, we’ve never come across these before so decided to try one. You will have to use your imagination here as we forgot to take a photograph - it’s about 18 inches long and is made of a bread/savoury cake dough, the filling is potato, egg, lardons and cheese (we had goats cheese but there was a choice). It comes warm, was wrapped in foil and felt very substantial. So it was off for a picnic beside the river - it was our intention to eat just half, but we could not believe how good it was so kept picking at it until we polished off the lot. We suffered for this later - Rennies are a wonderful invention.
Talking about food - this week when we called in the supermarket, leg of pork was on special offer - a whole leg €10 (£7.00). Last Christmas I paid £25.00 for something similar. I cannot understand why the cost of living is so much cheaper over here than at home. Our food bill for the week is approximately £50.00 and believe me we are eating some wonderful food. Our wine bill is miniscule; we’ve discovered
some brilliant offers and are paying £1.15 to £2.00 per bottle on average but some as cheap as €0.95 (that’s just 68p and its very slurpable) . Rose was on offer last week - buy 2 get 1 free, how good is that.
We had decided to visit a Chateau and the choice in this area is vast. We settled upon Chateau Chenonceau which is actually built across the river Cher. Its history, like most Chateaux is complex and intriguing; all to do with mistresses, ex-wives, Kings and Queens. There is a lovely portrait of Louis XIV - he’s the one who spoke the immortal lines “a day without wine is like a day without the sun” - what a sensible man!
Howard was in David Bailey mode and I think between us we took something like 150 photographs over the day. A small selection are attached. If you get the opportunity, do have a look at the web site www.chenonceau.com, even with our photographic skills we could not represent the ariel view. I felt very at home here and asked Howard to put a bid in. Just when we thought the day was over and we were
wandering back to the car we came across the gardens which provide fruit, veg and flowers for the Chateau - and I thought Chelsea was good.
Unlike our National Trust properties the Chateaux do not think it important to pull blinds over the windows, put signs on everything saying ‘do not touch’ or have an aged steward in every room. Everyone just wanders around behaving extremely well - although there are some exceptions and we scored high points on our game of ‘spot the English. Not difficult to do - Dad in football team shirt, socks with sandles, Mum in strappy top, no bra, and shorts that may have fitted her last year; both with a fag on. Kids more suitably attired for a day at the beach, complete with flip flops. Oh dear, how embarrassing to be English.
1st September tomorrow, and that dreaded time of ‘back to school’ next week. My thoughts are with family, friends and colleagues who have to make the long walk to somewhere they would rather not be.
Love, Hugs & Kisses
H & H x
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