Thursday, May 24, 2007

Another nightmare journey back to Southend

Here is one of the reasons why leaving this country is so appealling….

I tend to drive to South East London and leave my car where I used to live and catch the train into London Bridge, it is the cheapest and easiest option especially if I need the car for work as I do sometimes. So at the end of the day I just jump on a train at London Bridge station and I reach my car 20 minutes later.

London Bridge Station was closed for the second line side fire in a month, and they were running London Bridge services out of Victoria station, but as I got near Victoria station they closed it due to congestion, so the next option was to get a Dockland Light Railway train to Lewisham and a bus to the car, but when I got to Bank station to get on the DLR train, I discovered that station was closed due to congestion.

So I thought I'll forget the car altogether and just get a train to Southend from Liverpool Street station, wrong again trains were being severely delayed due to a broken down train at Romford and once again almost impossible to get into the station, so it was off to Fenchurch Street station and finally at 7:00pm got on a train to Southend, after having set off from my office at 5:30pm, and having probably walked about 3 or 4 miles.

And people still ask me why I am moving to France!!!

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

A Trip to the Wine Market

It was a rainy Sunday morning and I started to put Franca’s beloved red paint onto the wall in the guest lounge only to discover it was gloss paint not emulsion!!, so what is emulsion in French? I quickly abandoned that job, and changed walls, only one wall will be red, and started with the Naples Yellow, which is due to go onto the other three walls. I only managed to get one coat of paint on one wall before Franca and Fleur dragged me off to Beauvais, a village 20 minutes or so from Sigogne, to a wine market, no more DIY today!!

The rain had stopped and the plan was to go and check out some local wine growers with the aim of getting some good house wines for the B&B. We managed one rekkie circuit of the outside of the market, before we came across Peter, our convivial builder, beer in hand standing outside the bar of the local hotel, and of course we had to stop and sit with him and have a drink or two or three or four…. well I lost count. We started off with a table for four and by the time we left there were somewhere between 15 and 20 people sitting with us and goodness knows how many people passing by saying bonjour, stopping for one drink then going off and tasting more wine. Peter and his family have been here for just over a year but he certainly knows a lot of people. The wine market seemed to be teaming with Brits, though where we live in Sigogne there are very few English people, come to that there are not too many non French people which is great. By the way we never did get to taste any of the wines so the research will have to wait for another day, preferably when Peter is not in the vicinity! Fleur had fun too as Peter's son Rick took her to all the games stalls and the merry-go-round.

Well its Monday morning now so it must be the Bordeaux Airport departure lounge, back to London and back to the office, well someone has to pay for Peter's beers.

Sunday, May 20, 2007

Treasure

A few days ago when the electricians were working in our house putting in the cabling for our first en-suite bathroom, they found a book hidden amongst the stones in one of the walls. It's a prayer book, more than 100 years old and in good condition considering until the late1970s the wall was an outside wall. In it was a pray card for St Pierre Aumaitre, one of the 103 marters of Korea. He was born 08.04.1837 in Aizecq (Charente) and died 30.03.1866 in Korea. The prayer card was issued by St Peter's in Rome on Sunday 6th October 1968 (maybe the date when he was made a saint. We shall make sure we look after the prayer book, and treat it with the respect the previous owner(s) have given it. We have heard that people plant things such as this prayer book in and around a house to help protect it, so we shall make sure the St Pierre prayer book goes on protecting Au Bellefleur.

Mistral


Even here in the South West of France we have noticed a little of the well-known Mistral.
We have been getting warm winds coming up from the South of France recently, I have no idea if it is the Mistral or not but it is nice to think it might be. The temps are on the rise again with 30 degrees not ruled out for later in the month.

Sale



If you can't eat them all, then sell them! We have a few cherry trees in the garden and they have produced a bumper crop, loads more than we can eat, so we have turned some into jam, this is our first attempt so we have no idea if it tastes any good or yet, watch this space... but the cherries seem to be selling, so Fleur's savings fund is growing as well as the cherries!

Thursday, May 17, 2007

B&B/Chambres d'hotes in the Charente

Please visit our website: www.aubellefleur.com

Men at Work


Amazingly we have found a builder who was able to start in early May, and so we are now into the first phase of the project, this is to convert an unused attic into a bedroom with ensuite bathroom. This includes installing flooring, walls, a ceiling, and a new luxury bathroom. A second attic room is also being converted into a bedroom, this time for us, and is getting the same treatment of new walls ceiling en-suite bathroom and a pair of velux's for light

Our new house in the Charente





This beauty is our new home in South West France, which we are in the process of turning into a luxury Bed and Breakfast called Au Bellefleur.

Au Bellefleur is a Chambres d'Hôtes in the Departement of the Charente (16) and it is run by Franca and Darren with a little help from Fleur. We are just 15 minutes from Cognac and only 5 minutes from Jarnac in the heart of the Cognac countryside, famous for its vineyards and sunflowers. We are not too far from the Atlantic coast either, it is about a 1 hour drive.