Sunday, June 17, 2012

The Shakespeare Show Number Two



On Monday of this week we took an outing to the working mill at Espeyrac near Entraygues. We took 16 kilos of shelled walnuts and brought back 7 litres of walnut oil. We want to bottle it up into small (500ml) quantities for our friends. I have designed some labels for the bottles. Here is a sample:


The mill wasn't old or interesting so no photos were taken but the process is described and pictured below: 
(Click on the link and after viewing click on the back arrow on your browser to return here)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yV6s10amuHA

A friend on FB is interested in a supply of walnut ink so I may have a go making that. It seems easy enough. 

After leaving the mill we went on to Estaing, one of the 'beautiful villages of France' that we had recently passed through and thought it worth another visit. We had a very pleasant lunch there overlooking the river and then did a tour of the town.

Our lunch spot where we watched the swallows swooping back and forth

A few more pictures including an interesting sign in one of the shop windows!
The Church
View of the chateeau





The Chateau is owned by the past French President ValĂ©ry Giscard d’Estaing although he isn't 'at home' on Mondays.


As the day dawned fine and sunny we put up the tent. All seemed well with it except that the flyscreen is torn and needs replacing. Also there are a few holes that need better mending. We decided to get some cans of waterproofing   as last year I seem to remember Daniel and Amelia complained of getting a bit wet. Question is - where are the camping supply shops here in the Auvergne?

Jim swings a cat around inside to demonstrate it's roominess

Enjoyable evening in Den and Caro's with their Welsh friends from the next valley Ann and Tony.

Friday morning Axel arrived to fix the items left over from his previous visit at Easter. He left an hour later thinking he has mended the dishwasher and promising to come back next week to do the rest. No such luck - the dishwasher still doesn't work!

And - neither does the tent!


During the night it has collapsed. Jim testeds all the clamps and the nozzle on the top in which I had inadvertently trapped the string. After being re-inflated it collapsed again! Jim tested the nozzle on the top - nothing wrong with that - and muttered about Plan B. We don't have a plan B. Perhaps we can find a camping shop in Figeac having tried some places in Decazaville that might stock camping accessories.


Saturday - Figeac. We have managed to get some patching material for the holes and some net curtain material for the flyscreen. No camping shops. However we saw this poster:




What a coincidence! Another Shakespeare show and tonight! (Yes, I know I am very liberal with exclamation marks, but that is because life is so amazing!) We decided to go but after we got back home and had a siesta the long drive back into Figeac did not seem so exciting. Later on we began to discuss the venue which we thought was probably the ruined Chateau beyond Figeac that we had tried to visit last year and found all shut up. This rekindled our enthusiasm so Jim rang the number and I hastily made some sandwiches. 


We were glad we went. The performance against the back drop of the chateau was impressive. The show began in daylight on a lawn at the side of the chateau:




and then we all moved to another location for 'the balcony scene' from Romeo and Juliet. 






After that we traipsed round to the front of the building for further Shakespearian excerpts.


Bottom from A Midsummer Night's Dream
Bottom and Titania


The acting wasn't so much better than ours but they had the advantage of more and adequate rehearsals and were not encumbered by fanning themselves with scripts as we were. Our costumes were certainly better and we started on time. We haven't yet been to any kind of show here, in France that has begun at the stated time. However, we enjoyed the evening which ended with free drinks and petit fours.


Just before we went out Jim fixed the tent. He found that the air inlet valve wasn't tight and after rectifying this re-inflated the tent and it has now remained up since then. Result!


A vide-grenier tomorrow at Flagnac and EDF may come on Monday to cut off the electricity as they keep sending us bills for vastly overestimated amounts. In fact, they owe us. I shall give them a piece of my mind in English while Jim will try and placate them in French. He has already spent a considerable amount of time writing to them with explanations and photos of the meter readings but to no avail.




Note no animals were harmed during the tent demonstration - the cat was stuffed.

3 comments:

  1. Wow - would have loved to have gone to the Shakespeare show and had lunch in Estaing.

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  2. I can't even imagine a week that included walnut pressing, a visit to a medieval town and stumbling across a Shakespeare show......like a parallel universe!
    I enjoyed the video and the music that went with it.

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  3. I know - I think we are very fortunate to have these experiences which is why I want to record them - perhaps to look back on in less happier times.

    ReplyDelete

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