Category Archives: Loire Valley

Cycling, Loire Valley, Uncategorized

Cycling Through the Forest in Blois

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Yesterday, we finally managed to go cycling despite the weather forecast. We took our capes but didn’t need to use them. I love being able to cycle straight out the gate and onto a country road. To go to the forest, you have to go up a little hill, but that’s OK now that I have a bike with lots of gears and suspension. Training helps too! I can still remember pedalling as far as I could beforehand to get up enough speed to save my knees.  But it’s worth it when you get up the top.

And you can take a break on this lovely bench surrounded with wild flowers – daisies, buttercups and clover.

There are briar roses out everywhere. Don’t you just love this bush that forms a natural arch.

Then back through the village past delightful little houses with roses over the front door. Can’t wait for our yellow roses to bloom too!

France, French customs, Loire Valley, Uncategorized

Small Town Fame

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I’ve finally cleaned up the honeysuckle that’s been nagging me since we got to Closerie Falaiseau in Blois. It’s just beginning to flower and is a wonderful complement to the climbing roses on the stair rail. We’ve had our barbecue and eaten outside in the garden comfortably for the first time since we bought the house. Well, comfortably except for the mosquitos who adore me. We’re going for an after-dinner walk so that I can show Relationnel how I want our front courtyard/garden to look in the future.

It’s still light, despite the fact that it’s after nine thirty. We’re walking briskly along the road, not a car in sight. We go round the bend and a large dog rushes out behind a fence, barking madly. I dutifully say “T’es beau, t’es beau” as Relationnel has taught me.  It seems that telling dogs they are beautiful is two syllables is what you do in France to calm them down. I’m not sure it works but I have no comparison.

Suddenly, we hear frantic yapping and a tiny ball of fur comes hurtling down the open sloping garden opposite and onto the road. A man about our age appears  lumbering after the dog, telling it to come back, to no avail. He explains that it’s a pup, only 6 months old.

“Oh, so that’s its problem”, I say. Relationnel introduces us as his new neighbours.

“Then you’re the people who’ve bought the big house around the bend.”

“Yes, do you know Mr and Mrs Previous Owner?”

“No, I only moved here two years ago myself. I only know the neighbours on each side of the house and across the road.”

“We’re not living here permanently yet. Relationnel isn’t retiring for another two years”, I explain.

“Yes, you’re going to turn it into a gîte or a chambre d’hôte or something”, he says to Relationnel.

“That’s right.”

And turning to me, “And you’re Australian”.

My fame has gone before me.

Lifestyle, Loire Valley

Planting Potatoes in the Rain

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The weather was so beautiful on Monday that we decided that it was time to do some planting. We dashed out to Truffaut before it closed and filled our trolley. We started with gardening gloves (3 pairs for me – rubber, roses and everything else), a large pronged fork, an edge cutter, some perennial fuschias, more gladioli bulbs (not mouldy) and lilies for the front bed, some evergreen bushes with little yellow flowers to frame the front door, another evergreen to fill a large empty pot, thyme, rosemary and sage, 4 different raspberry bushes (so that we’ll have fruit from June to October) and organically-grown potatoes.

Thoughtful had already prepared the potato bed when he came at Easter which was very fortunate because when we woke up next morning, you guessed it – it was raining. I suggested we wait until it cleared during the afternoon but Relationnel said we should plant the potatoes before the earth was completely sodden. He was right , of course, because it rained steadily for the next 4 hours, showing no signs of letting up. We downed our gardening clothes (not that I really have any) and set to work.

Being a city girl, I had no idea how to plant potatoes (though I drove a tractor once to harvest them!). Fortunately, Relationnel’s parents had a market garden so he is very cluey about that sort of thing. You hoe a furrow and then plant the potatoes about a half an arm’s length apart. The potatoes are pre-germinated with several long sprouts. Then you cover them up to form a mound so you know where to find the potatoes when they’re ready to pick about three or four months later.

The next thing we planted were the raspberries. This caused a slight disagreement as Relationnel wanted to put them on top of a mound that has all sorts of vegetation on it already.  I couldn’t really see myself climbing up a mound every day to pick raspberries particularly when I get old and decrepit!

Now raspberries are the one thing I do know how to grow, because I had a long row in the garden of my house in the suburbs of Paris when the children were little. I couldn’t see why Relationnel wouldn’t let me plant them along the fence of the vegetable garden which is just perfect. It has a neat little path just in front to pick them. If you’ve ever had raspberry bushes, you’ll know that you have to get down on your hands and knees to pick the ones at the back so you really do need a path in front.

It seems Relationnel didn’t want to “waste” good ground on my raspberries. I asked him what else he wanted to plant, pointing out that he was using up most of the garden on his potatoes.  That seemed to solve the problem. So we agreed that I could put them along the fence up as far as a daisy bush that he wanted to keep. I was perfectly happy with that.

By then, we were very muddy and wet, particularly my hair which I had stupidly put in a ponytail sticking out the back of my cap. My inappropriate jeans were also falling down by then and I couldn’t pull them up again because of my excessively muddy gloves (thank god we bought those rubber ones!) I think I’ll buy some of those chic gardener’s overalls they sell at Le Prince Jardinier. My socks were soaked because my rubber clogs kept getting sucked into the mud and coming off. Rubber boots – that’s another thing we’ll have to bring down from the cellar in Paris.

We finished off planting the herbs halfway up the mound which is fine by me because I’ll still be able to snip off bits in my old age. At the end of the day, the sun came out and we were able to plant all the other things we had bought. I was also able to try out my nifty stool cum kneeler that we bought last time and that I had completely forgotten about! Good think Relationnel was there to remind me. What I hadn’t bargained for were the little beasties that headed for the gap between my socks and jeans when we were pulling out the  long weeds. I’ve been suffering ever since!

France, French customs, Loire Valley, Paris, Travelling

Chateau de Chambord – Metro Maze in Paris – The Presidential Debate

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Already Wednesday again! All those public holidays in May make the time just disappear! This week, we have a description of Chambord castle (just next to me in Blois) by Mary Kay from Out and About in Paris, a great new phone App for the metro along with some lovely photos by Petite Paris of B&B fame and a very pertinent description of the French pre-election debate between the two final candidates, Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande by Finding Noon still worth reading even though we now know that François Hollande is the winner.

Château de Chambord – the largest castle in the Loire Valley

By Mary Kay from Out and About in Paris

While visiting the Loire Valley, I was reminded of how justifiably proud the French are of their rich cultural heritage and how this sentiment is passed down from one generation to the next. After overhearing some parents explain to their children that Francois I built Château de Chambord as a royal hunting lodge in which he only spent a mere 72 days during his 32 year reign, I teased Stéphane about his country’s lack of opulent castles. His immediate response was that while the Swiss may not have any extravagant châteaux, they also didn’t incur staggering debts. Sensible, but not quite so romantic… Read more

Metro Maze in Paris

by Petite Paris

Bonjour or bonsoir friends; depending on where you are in the world 🙂

We have just been sent a link to a new iphone app on the Metros in Paris and just wanted to share it with you as a bit of a helpful resource for your pending, upcoming, (one day soon hopefully) trip to Paris 😀

Its from Kemtro and its the only one that gives the exact location of all the entrances and exits of all the metro stations and it works offline – no roaming needed! (and we all know how expensive roaming can be). Read more

The Debate

by Finding Noon 

It is still the Presidential elections in France and last night was the great debate, which I didn’t find so great, but I did find rather fun to watch. French political debates are very different from my memories of US Presidential debates. Instead of standing officially at lecterns, each candidate is comfortably seated, with their notes. They face each other, not the voters, which helps tensions rise and makes for some great tv moments. As does the fact that the candidates do not have a set time limit for each answer. From an anglo-saxon perspective, this is not a debate, but a moderated argument, that turns into an intellectual free for all. Read more

France, Lifestyle, Loire Valley

Gardening Again!

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Yesterday, after I don’t know how long, the sun suddenly decided to come out, so we hit the garden. The trouble about grass is that it grows and if you don’t cut it often enough, it gets too long for the mower. It’s been so long since we’ve had a garden that we’d forgotten that little detail of course. The catcher was filling up so quickly that Relationnel eventually took it off altogether.

My job was therefore to rake up the piles of moist cut grass and put them into large rubbish bags as well as trim the edges of the garden beds. The ivy is doing its best to take over as many beds as it can as well as any spare walls (and we have a few of those!) so we had to attack that as well as I’d like to plant something more interesting, particularly in front of the house. Also, you can’t let the ivy get onto the roof tiles as it stops the rain from running into the gutters properly.

We now have a a garden bed ready for planting. I’d bought some gladioli bulbs one day at the supermarket but they all looked pretty mouldy yesterday so I don’t know how many will actually produce anything. When I first told Relationnel about them, he wasn’t very encouraging, telling me that people usually plant gladiolis next to corn stalks! I don’t have any corn stalks … We have a lot of hollyhocks though and they don’t seem to need corn stalks to keep them up, despite their height.

We did find a beautiful flower up on the sloping wood behind the house though. It’s an orchid it seems. Mr Previous Owner had told us about them, but this was the first one we’d seen. Unfortunately, my photo is a little blurry and when I went back this morning to take another one, it was already beginning to fade.

We’ve also moved the bird bath so that it’s near the tree with all the feeders in it. We have this incredibly cheeky little mésange (tit or chickadee) that taps insistently on the window with its beak if the feeder is empty or doesn’t contain its favourite bread crumbs (those from my home-made bread of course). You can hear lots of cuckoos in the grounds of our local Vicomté castle across the road as well.

This morning, I am sad to say, I can feel every muscle in my arms and legs. Falling UP the stairs in my haste to put my gardening clothes on didn’t help either. I can see I’ll have to garden more regularly!

French customs, Loire Valley

The Weather Vane and the Nightingale

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Mr and Mrs Previous Owner came to visit this morning on their way back from voting and I learnt some interesting facts about the weather vane on the top of the garage. We were talking about the aspect of the house, which Relationnel was convinced was south-facing. It seems it actually faces south-east. Mrs Previous Owner pointed out that you can tell from the weather vane. Relationnel was not convinced because he thought it only indicated the direction of the wind as it doesn’t have an N on it.

We then learnt that Mr P.O., a locksmith by trade, made the weather vane himself. It bears two symbols – a key for Mr P.O. and a feather for Mrs P.O., who was a secretary. And there is a cross indicating the cardinal points. According to Mr P.O., in mediaeval times, the landowners didn’t want the peasants to learn how to read and write, so didn’t use letters on signs and weather vanes. Instead of saying “east wind” and “‘north wind”they talked about “low wind” and “high wind”. Not too sure how much of this is just hearsay though …

They also indicated the best market to go to. We went to the main market in Blois yesterday. It was very attractive and the people were friendly but we were horrified at the prices which are even higher than those on Rue Montorgueil in Paris and we thought they were bad! It seems there are two markets on the outskirts of Blois in the high-rise areas where there are a lot of North Africans, that are much more reasonably priced. We’ve already noticed in the past that the “hallal” butchers sell very tasty lamb for half the price you pay at a regular butcher’s. So next time,  we’ll  be going there.

I also asked them about the delinquent birds. At 2 o’clock in the morning, you can hear birds outside our bedroom window chirping away like nothing on earth. They don’t bother me, but I think it’s very strange. When we got back from The Shaker in Amboise on Friday night (our very first social outing since we got the keys to the house) where we met up with a group of Anglophones and Anglophiles who meet there regularly (first Friday of the month), you would have thought it was broad daylight. It turns out they’re rossignols (nightingales). If you click here, you can here what they sound like – it’s definitely them! I’d recognise them anywhere.

The other thing that Mr and Mrs Previous Owner helped us with is the safe. When it was explained to me initially, I thought I understood but when I tried to use it when I was locking up the house for the first time on my own, all I did was make it freeze up completely. I couldn’t even get it open. When Relationnel came, he was afraid I’d somehow put another combination on it but you’ll be pleased to hear that it’s working again and I can now leave all my rubies and diamonds safely behind and things might stop disappearing and reappearing!

Amboise from The Shaker on L'Ile d'Or, just before a storm

 

France, Loire Valley

May Day in Blois

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Yesterday was the first time I spent May Day in Blois. It was a good day. I woke up alive for the 3rd day running since I smashed my head into a very low authentic Renaissance beam at Closerie Falaiseau that you are supposed to duck under to go into one of the rooms. The people were on the short side back in those days! It felt as though I had a huge weight on my head and I did wonder for a few days whether it hadn’t been damaged forever. But it seems that I have survived!

While we were having breakfast, Relationnel suddenly got up, put his cap on and left. I was a bit put out until he came back a few minutes later with three little sprigs of muguet from the garden of our “little house”. It’s the tradition in France to give lily-of-the-valley on 1st May for good luck, especially to your loved ones. You can find it on practically every street corner, mainly sold by charities and similar associations. And because it’s Labour Day, it’s also the one day of the year when anyone can sell on the street without a permit in France.

Then we set out for the annual Chambord “brocante” or “vide-grenier” as they call it (attic emptier), the largest in the region, whom Madame Previous Owner  had told me about a long time ago, warning me that we should be there by 7 am! Since we didn’t even wake up until 10.30 am, it was considerably later by the time we left. On the way, we saw a sign for another “vide-grenier” at Maslives so I insisted we stop.

It was very much a local edition, where most of the people obviously knew each other. We wandered around in the wet grass, delighted that we had had the foresight to change into our walking boots. I saw the most amazing child’s tricycle with long handlebars to turn to make it go. Relationnel spied out a  lampshade made of pig’s bladder on top of the most hideous lamp stand imagineable so we paid the full price and left the lamp explaining to the vendor that we wouldn’t be able to use it.  He commisserated saying that he had inherited it from his mother and didn’t have room either – but didn’t bring the price down!

We continued on to Chambord. You could tell from the gendarmes everywhere that it was not on the same scale. We parked, as directed, in a large field and were thankful, once again, that we were wearing our boots. By then, the sun had come out for the first time in 4 days, and we had a lovely time exploring the endless rows of stalls with the majestic Château de Chambord as a backdrop. The prices, however, were much higher, and we didn’t find anything to our liking.

At about 2.30, we decided to have lunch at one of the two restaurants in the castle grounds – Le Saint-Louis – which had both reasonable prices (about 12 euros for a salad) and friendly service. We’d done enough brocanting by then and went home to change into our cycling gear. It was great to be able to ride out the gate and down our country road. Not exactly possible in Paris!

After cycling along a dirt road and through a few puddles, we reached bitumen again, to my relief. We then rode up a very manageable slope to the highest point of Blois which means we’ll be able to cycle into the city centre in the future without too much effort. On the way, my chain came off  and I thought I should learn how to put it back on by myself for when I go cycling without Relationnel. Newfound independence!

When we got home, we attacked the expresso machine again and finally made our first cappuccino!  It was excellent (the coffee came from Verlet, I might add, and was accompanied by chocolates from Anglina’s). And despite the fast-descending temperature, we decided to dine al fresco for the very first time in Blois!

France, Loire Valley

Coup de coeur – my French house

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This month, my guest post on MyFrenchLife, the Australian-based online magazine & global community of French & francophiles, tells how I fell in love with my beautiful Renaissance house in the Loire Valley and takes you on a tour.

Coup de coeur they say in French. Literally a blow of the heart. And it can be used in so many different contexts and translated in so many different ways: “love at first sight”, “a favourite”, “a crush”, “an impulse purchase”, even “kudos” and sometimes there’s no translation at all! Read more

 

France, Loire Valley

The Bird Bath

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The previous owners of Closerie Falaiseau were very keen on birds. When they handed over the keys to the house, they explained how to feed them and left us enough feed to go on with for a week or so, including couscous (these are French birds after all). There are lots of different bird feeders scattered about in the trees with a cute little one on a stand in our little wood behind the house. There are also a couple of recipients on the living room window sill. Oh, yes, and we’re also supposed to put bits of fat in little string bags especially in winter. I asked the butcher to give me some fat off the côte de boeuf for the birds and he seemed to know what I was talking about.

However, because of the weather and all the things we’ve been doing inside the house, we haven’t been able to observe them very much. Another thing Mr Previous Owner left us is an endless collection of pottery so I’ve been putting it to good use to store thyme and rosemary and coarse salt, for example.  I chose an appropriate dish and put it on the window sill at the front end of the kitchen since that is where we usually eat. I filled it with the crumbs from the multi-grain bread we bought from the organic bakery.

And lo and behold! It attracted a little bird. We’re not sure what it is because every time we approach, it flies away, but I’ve ordered a French garden bird poster from the bird association and am hoping that  this little guy will soon become used to us and I’ll be able to get a closer look (and a better photo)! I’m now feeding it crumbs from my home-made multi-grain bread. I’m sure they’re superior and will be much appreciated.

Yesterday, while on yet another excursion to Bricorama (more on why in the next post), we went past a dépôt-vente and I thought I’d have another look for bedside lamps as I haven’t found anything, either old or new, that I like yet. Down the back of the shop, they had an amazing collection of iron garden furniture. The prices were outrageous but I spied a bird bath that didn’t have a price on it.

It turned out to be reasonably priced (it was even on sale!) so Relationnel lugged it out to the car and now it is standing happily next to the kitchen window enticing the birds to use it. Not that they really need it at the moment. There are a lot of puddles to bathe in …

Lifestyle, Loire Valley, Paris

Adjusting to Living in Two Houses

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Well, so far, I’m not doing so well! Relationnel came back to Paris on Sunday night by car and I followed by bus and train on Monday afternoon because I had to wait for the EDF man to increase the wattage. When I caught the metro in Paris, I suddenly realised that I had left the keys to my Paris apartment in Blois. Fortunately the train was late so Relationnel was home by the time I got there. I’ve now borrowed the keys from my cleaning lady.

When I took my shower in Paris, I had trouble getting used to the taps and the shower rose being at the wrong end! Then when I woke up during the night, it took me a while to work out where I was. That has never ever happened to me before. I am always totally aware of my environment the minute I wake up. I walked into the bookcase, then the divider before I finally realised I was going in the wrong direction.

Next morning, I was about to set up my computer (I had taken my CPU to Blois to transfer everything to my laptop but never found the time) when I discovered I had left the multi-socket thing in Blois as well. Sigh. Relationnel brought home another one at lunchtime but in the meantime, I had a rather frustrating morning trying to work with the laptop which doesn’t have all the files and programs I need.

I had no problem adapting back to my Paris kitchen though. It’s so much more practical! I don’t have to kneel down to take things out of the oven for a start. I pull out a drawer to get to the saucepans instead of bending down to find them in a low cupboard. I have plenty of bench space and a high stool to sit on when my feet are tired. The sink is made for people over 1 m 70 and there’s lots of food in the pantry (though nothing in the fridge …).

However, when I walked into my office, I was greeted by two flowering orchids (birthday presents from Leonardo in the past) and some African violets that had bloomed in my absence but I had missed the tulips on the balcony altogether! I hope that the wisteria will still be in bloom in Blois when we go back at the end of the month. I adore wisteria and the Loire is just full of it at the moment.

We have always made the choice not to have a country house or a beach hut so that we are free to go where we want on holidays because we love discovering new places. As a result, I don’t think I have ever spent more than one week at a time in any place other than my home of the moment, except maybe two weeks in a house near Albi about 10 years ago! So I don’t usually have any trouble remembering where I am.  When I spent the day alone in Blois on Monday, I really felt at home which I guess is what made the transition to Paris more difficult.

All the downstairs rooms are now furnished and decorated even if there are still a few details missing. You can see the photos on the website for the gîte under Accommodation: www.closeriefalaiseau.com.

This time, to make the transition a little easier, I dug out one of the two sweat shirts I wore most days in Blois. I immediately felt better. Maybe there is something to Linus’ security blanket after all!

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