Eureka

Ste Carine
Yesterday's weather: bright and cool

We have been on a shopping mission for a couple of months now. Every time we went to a village or town we hadn't been to before we searched out a housewares shop.

We've been looking for a tea tray. We wanted one similar to a friends which is a lovely big deep tray made of wood. Whenever I asked in a shop I was shown a vast array of what they had available. Usually made of anything other than wood, not deep and not big.

I don't think it was my bad French. I would always agree that what they were showing me was very nice but it wasn't what I had asked for now, was it? The shop assistant would look slightly miffed but agree with me.

Sarlat is a town that we have avoided all summer, simply because we know it is such a huge tourist attraction and from March to October it is almost impossible to locate a parking space. And, of course it is in the frozen north in Dordogneshire. We thought that we would pay a visit today, the smaller of their two market days each week.

The poor stall holders were definitely feeling the pinch. We and about another 4 couples wandered amongst the two or three dozen stalls. 'Bonjour Monsieur, Madame!' called a rather good looking young man waving a slice of Cantal cheese at us 'Would you like to try my cheese?'. We refused apologetically and passed on. The next cheese stall was run by a Dutch lady, she ran down the list of all the cheeses on her stall to everyone passing by but we didn't see any takers.

Instead, we headed for the 'spice lady' and found one of the few spices we'd not been able to locate - lucky us, was this an omen for the day? Black mustard seeds will make a good addition to the next curry Jon cooks us. She also had raw cashews, stem ginger and Bombay mix. We added some spicy looking olives for good measure. Madame over measured the cashews.

'Oh, that's OK' I said, 'I'll take those'

'Mais, non, Madame' she replied. 'You asked for 200 grams and I won't give you too many. It's just that it is so cold today that my fingers won't work'.

I sympathised and said that it was the coldest year I'd known. She thought I had said the wrong thing and corrected me.

'Yes it is the coldest day'.

'No, I said the coldest year, the summer was awful' We parted company sympathising over the weather and the bad tourist season.

It seems that every other shop in Sarlat sells either foie gras and other duck products or locally produced liqueurs and wines, we spotted some that we'd not seen before and made a mental note to go back another day.

Finally we spotted a kitchenware shop and, lo and behold, there was just the tea tray we had been searching for. Then we had to go through the usual questions:

'Do you want anything else?'. 'No'

'Is it a gift, shall I gift wrap it?' 'No'

'How would you like to pay? Credit card? No, we don't take those but a cheque will be fine'

I love that you can buy almost anything and have it gift wrapped in a shop here for no extra charge. That could save me hours at Christmas.

Time for a cuppa now, I'll carry it on my new tray. Do you know what this tray could do with? One of those nice old fashioned tray runners like my grandmother used to have. I might just look out for one next time I'm out.

Kept in the dark

Ste Bertille
Yesterday's weather: Foggy, few sunny breakthroughs

I woke up yesterday morning to the sound of the phone trilling at me. It wasn't an incoming call, just the phone connecting and letting me know that we had had a power cut.

There is absolutely nothing unusual about that. Although since the EDF upgraded the electricity supply to the village last April we haven't suffered from the number of cuts that we used to have. Anyway, we reset everything in the house once more and got on with our day.

At lunch time I went to cook a couple of little part baked baguettes. I find these a good option to getting in the car and going out to buy fresh bread every day and since Lidl sell packs of two for 39 cents they are a real bargain! Just as the new electric oven was heating up the electricity went off again.

'Bugger' we thought and put the gas oven on to cook the bread.

Jon checked that it wasn't the fuse box and everything seemed OK so we decided to sit and wait.

After a couple of hours we began complaining that we had missed out on the low tariff electricity over lunch time.

After another couple of hours we began to get a bit chilly and lit a gas ring to keep warm.

After the sixth hour with candles burning it was looking very cosy but we were getting fed up.

Jon went to check the fuse box for the second time and noticed a switch at the side that we'd never seen before. He flicked it and the lights came on.

Ooops.

Later, when I put some pring rolls in the little electric oven, the lights went out again.

There's a moral here somewhere but I can't think of one.

Sunday Afternoon in Front of the Telly

Ste Sylvie
Yesterday's weather: Sunny and bright

We aren't great sports TV fans to be honest, but yesterday we fancied one of those lazy Sunday afternoons in front of the box. As there wasn't a comforting Fred and Ginger black and white film on, we elected to watch the New York Marathon, purely for the scenery, you understand.

We didn't see much scenery. Where were those lovely overhead helicopter shots that you get during the London Marathon? However what we did see was pure magic.

Paula Radcliffe on top form striding out ahead of the field to win in great style. What a wonderful race she ran. Well done to Paula, inspired by baby Isla just 10 months old, and husband Gary on hand as ever. Inspirational telly watching.

Which is more than can be said of the ITVs adaptation of E M Forster's A Room with a View last night. I am so glad we only caught the last 40 minutes. Merchant Ivory's 1986 production was so true to the book that it has to be a standard. ITV's butchery and mad additions to the story were such a disappointment, despite the wonderful cast. I will have to go and read the book again, and maybe watch Merchant Ivory to eradicate its memory.

The Reading Group

St Charles
Yesterday's weather: dull, miserable but not wet

Last night we had our quarterly book club meeting. This took place at the home of one of the members, it's a beautiful 13th century house - or at least part of it is, and he has made the rest of it look just as old. A beautiful conversion.

Sometimes we visit other people's homes and they are so stunning that we are concerned what they will think when it is our turn to invite them to ours, a modest four roomed (at the moment) farmhouse. But then, we realise that there are only two of us living here, we don't need more room than we have, and we love our home, simple as it is.

We had a very nice dinner and discussed our past and present books. We have recently read Felidae by Akif Pirincci. I don't recommend this book, and neither did any of the group members. It is the strangest book I think I have ever read. The next book was The Pirate Hunter by Richard Zachs. The book is supposed to be the true story of the 'infamous' pirate Captain Kidd but includes much more information about pirates, pirate hunters, and most of all injustice. I struggled with this book finding it a real trial, far too much information and a liberal sprinkling of Zachs' own imagination.

We also made our choices for the next three months which sound like more interesting reads. December's book is the first volume of the actor Alan Alda's autobiography 'Never Have Your Dog Stuffed' - now, how is that for a title? I love Alan Alda, so I hope the book doesn't let me down. Then we have On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan. I've never read any of his so we are looking forward very much to this one, and the third is 'We Need to Talk About Kevin' by Lionel Shriver, who is apparently a woman , which took me by surprise. The member who chose this book has already read it but doesn't know anyone else who has so hasn't been able to discuss it with them - she said that she wouldn't recommend it to anyone who was thinking about having children but felt that that was pretty safe with our group.

Which will obviously let you know that we are all 'of a certain age'.

We're looking forward to this selection of books. I must get on to Amazon and order them soon.

Bah, humbug

St Hubert
Yesterday's weather: beautifully sunny.

They've moved things around in the supermarkets again. They do this from time to time. Carrefour have even put up a marquee outside. We got quite excited, thinking that it might have something interesting in, but no, it looks a bit like a cross between Primark and TK Max without the designer clothes and with lots more of those articles that no-one particularly wants to buy: a few odd plates that once belonged to a set, a couple of poor quality towels and a few hedge trimmers(?).

Inside it has suddenly become ToysRUs. Piles of Disney dolls and toys, Lego and Spiderman have taken over three aisles. They are all overpriced to my mind. Do I already sound like Scrooge? and it's only 3 November. Because it is half term groups of children have been excitedly eyeing up the choice, no doubt ready to write their letters to Santa (do they do that in France?) and parents are wondering whether they a) have room for more toys b) can afford that Spiderman limousine for little Pierre and c) thinking that if little Jean next door has it then they will have to do both a and b.

In the next aisle there is an amazing array of chocolates, sweets and biscuits - I'd look very carefully at the sell-by dates before buying and if you buy them early hide them well. I've done this in the past and found packs of out of date chocolates at the back of the wardrobe at the end of January.

I really thought that this year Christmas would start much later than in the UK, and I suppose it has. In the US there is still Thanksgiving to get through before the Christmas season starts.

I'll never forget being in New York one Thanksgiving, we watched Macy's parade from beside Central Park on one of the coldest days I have ever known in my life, then the next day, Black Friday, we saw the Empire State building had changed from its Thanksgiving colours (lit up in orange) to its Christmas colours, red and green lights. Macy's put up its Christmas decorations and suddenly it all became like Miracle on 34th Street.

I don't really like to think about Christmas before 1 December so I will just blank it out until then this year.

Except....

I did buy my cards yesterday and plan to get them written this weekend.

Yellows and browns

St Tobie
Yesterday's weather: sunny.

It's as if the world has suddenly changed. The early morning frosts of the last week have turned the world from green to golden brown and yellows. I was surprised to see that walnut leaves actually turn, well, dark walnut brown which makes the trees look very sombre compared to the riot of colours in the other trees.

With the sun low over the hills this week, it has spurred Jon to cut down some of the trees closer to the house to try and allow a little more sun on to the patio. We can't do anything about moving the hill or the stand of fir trees which don't belong to us, but we are trying our best to get as much sun as we can during the morning. This will also give us lots of logs to burn in a year or so's time when we have installed the log burner - that will be after converting our sitting room and bedroom into a large lounge - which will be after converting the attic into two bedrooms - which will be after putting in a staircase to the loft and also after putting in the new shower unit which is still sitting in the garage because we can't fit it until we have stairs because the only loft access is over the bath (?).....

So, I don't know what I am doing sitting here writing a blog when there is all this work to get on with. Time for a cuppa, I think.

Of Saints and Sinners

Toussaint
Yesterday's weather: Sunny, cool.

For the last few days the shops, supermarkets and hypermarkets have been full of the most beautiful sight. Hundreds of pots of the most gorgeous chrysanthemums in every colour, their blooms perfect, small flowers to huge pompom flowers, they have been a wonder to behold.

The biggest faux pas would be to offer these wonderful displays to a friend over here as they are only associated with death and mourning. Today is All Saint's Day. Another of those strange public holidays in a secular society which I find hard to understand. People have been buying up these pots of chrysanthemums to take to the graves of their dear departed. Today, and for a few weeks now, every cemetery in every village in France will be a picture of colour in remembrance of those gone before.

In contrast, yesterday was Hallowe'en. We, stupidly, went shopping yesterday afternoon, forgetting that it is half term holiday here. The shops were full of pumpkins and scary masks. In one, parents were hurridly buying costumes and judging by the way they were flying off the shelves we expected to see the town full of ghosts, ghouls, witches and skeletons last night but on our way through Cahors at 10pm all was quiet. The brasseries and restaurants were beginning to serve the last coffees and even the fairground set out at the top of town was beginning to close down for the night.

Unless these frightening creatures were just waiting for their parents to go to bed before they came out to haunt?