A Big Welcome to Jeanette!

Sunday
Got moving early and went to this:

It was a lovely day and the crowds were out. We thought it was the largest fete/vide genier we had been to and the journey to Boisset although winding is very attractive. As usual I was on the lookout for stuffed animals, old photos and jigsaw puzzles.

Jim saw these first -

- but in that picture there is one missing - the one I have already haggled for and have tucked under my arm Jeanette - the genet (Genetta genetta). 

As I walked about Boisset people called out to me genet, genet, pronouncing it Jeanette (Auvergnat dialect) so that became her name. It is a wild cat common throughout France and we have seen one here in the domaine. She joins Martyn and Martine, the two beech martens, on the mantlepiece. Great.

I also found this old wedding photo. I have been trying to workout the relationships. There are no clues other than the picture. The elderly woman on the right of the groom is presumably his mother (perhaps recently widowed as she is wearing black.

The other elderly couple may be the bride's parents but why is he sitting down but not her. Perhaps she is not the mother but another relative. It's all guesswork but the costumes are interesting and I love looking at the faces from the past and their expressions.

We had a bagette and a crepe for lunch. Here is the crepe making tent. They had a very effective production line going with six ladies all cooking crepes at once. It must have been hot work. They were delicious.

I quite fancied this as the dog looked like a whippet or a greyhound but it was €55 which was way too much and anyway, her feet were chipped.

When we had returned home Jim took the recycling stuff up to the village and also a bucket of walnuts for Cyprien, who told him that if we took him further buckets he would take them to the moulin (which one?) and have them turned into walnut oil for us. 

We also received an invitation to go and have aperitif/meal with them and Dominic and Brigitte next week. I shall have to practise a few choice chatty phrases in French. Oh dear!

Sometimes the day turns out quite differently to the way planned. I had expected nothing much to happen on Monday this week. Both Jim and I had projects and chores to be getting on with but then Caro rang asking us if we had details of the group walk. (They have a wrinkly walk here every Monday for several months of the year similar to the U3A ones). The outcome was that we went taking Rufus. A delightful three-hour, comfortable walk in the forest mostly, chatting to Caro and Den as we went and a smattering of French phrases here and there. 

Here are some pics:

Some of the he group as we set out

Sharing refreshments at the end - I provided Welsh Cakes

We have agreed to go again next week and also we have invited Caro and Den to supper on Friday.

Tuesday - into Decazaville to get supplies. Jim was tempted by a new strimmer as the other one keeps breaking down and the shop were we have been getting it fixed has closed down. 

I started washing the walls down prior to painting.
Thursday - Usual market day and the weather still holds but slightly colder and very misty this morning. We sat outside on the terrace having lunch. Here is a picture of Rufus enjoying a bit of the new decking in place. 

A few minutes later the post lady arrived in her yellow van and we had another of those comic turns where Rufus leaps up at the van barking furiously while she turns the van around. Jim and I are running back and forth trying to catch him and get him under control using bribes and threats or whatever. The post lady watches this circus utterly bemused. This time we thought we had him cornered down by the side of the gite but suddenly he dashes in through the open stable door and rushes through the mill into the hanger and thence round the house and up the hill after the disappearing van. I should think the post lady retales this event throughout the village. Last week we gave her a bag of walnuts in an attempt to buy her silence.
We saw a snake today during walking the dog around the nature trail. A Western Whip, at the end of the Redwood field as it meets the path near the beach. No camera with us but in any case it slithered out of site very quickly.
Good progress this week on the quilt front, the terrace and also made a start on the painting.


Caro and Den came to supper on Friday. A good evening but main course nearly ruined by early consumption of wine by the cook who failed to notice that the oven was playing up and changing the temperature willy-nilly. Fortunately everything edible. I served some of my previously preserved picked walnuts with the cheese course. They were pronounced delicious.
The question of Jim learning bridge was mentioned again so that we would have a foursome. He did not look enthusiastic.
The weather has now turned quite a bit cooler and cloudy. No more sitting out side for lunch.


I worked on the kitchen walls Saturday morning. What I have done is looking much better. Axel arrived after lunch to fix a little electrical problem and at the same time Jim asked him to look at the dishwasher. He has taken it away to look at it more closely.

Oh, and in case you are wondering I lost 4lbs last week. Onwards and downwards!