Stormy weekend

We prepared ourselves by closing all shutters and removing 'dangerous' obstacles present in our garden and we even extra secured the gates. The forecast was a violent wind who could reach 150km/hour, together with rain.

Luckily it hasn't been that dramatic as it was in March 2007, just when we moved to Sigogne, but it gives you a very good idea.

You see the famous Cognac house, Courvoisier in Jarnac, which is only about 3 kilometers from us.

What's been happening

Barack Obama is now the President of the USA, more British banks are in trouble, and people are loosing thier jobs at an alarming rate, so it has been a tough start to the year so far. I count my self lucky that I have managed to avoid most of the economic fall out that is occurring around me at the moment.

What have I been up to since the snow fell in the Charente, well nothing out of the ordinary really. The bathroom for the family suite has finally been boarded out, which means the plumbing has progressed far enough that it is finally in a state where I can cover it up. We have finished the annex room to the family suite, it just needs carpet and furniture now, so it is on to getting the family room itself finished and the en-suite bathroom which is proving a bit of a challenge. I have to plumb everything taking into account the bathroom which will be installed directly below it downstairs, and a new cloakroom, OK its another toilet really, but this all has to be done in one go so that I do not keep undoing things. Project planning they call it…which is what I get paid for during week at the moment. Oh well back to the grind stone, I am really looking forward to those lazy summer days now, it has been cold and rain in UK since 2009 began, and in France too, it time for the days to start getting longer and warmer. Sadly I think we have another 6 weeks before we really start to see and feel spring time...

For all the mums, but dads can watch too!

Snow in the Charente

As you can see from below pictures, Sigogne has been hit by snowfall. The views are from Au Bellefleur towards the fence and from the fence to the house. The street with the trees is where our house is and the vineyard opposite us.
Fleur on her way to school and later on playing with a friend in the garden.

On our way to school this morning, for once we were early, only to find out that there wasn't school today. There was only one teacher and it has been decided that it was too dangerous to keep the school open to all pupils, at least that was thier take on the situation...., but believe it or not the whole of normal life here has come to a compete stand still. The lorry for the rubbish didn't come and nor did the postman...

Well, we're having a great time in the snow...

More snow in the Charente

Once upon a time...

...in the South-West of France....in a village surrounded by vine-yards, called Sigogne, there was snow......and last night was the night! It snows so little in the Charente due to its micro climate kept warm by the gulf stream, that when it happens it is a big event. It also snowed in London at the same time though it looks like more snow fell in Sigogne than London. Temparatures in the Charente are also lower than London at the moment, though it is getting colder in London now, its been a strange winter this year so far, hopefully the vines and other crops will survive this spell as January and February are planting out times normally in this area.

The promised Christmas & New Year Update

The first blog of a new year, and a look back at my 10 day holiday which seems have gone by in the blink of an eye, there are a number of posts to read, so scroll down a bit... and as if by magic a bit later some photos will appear... thanks Liefje..

It all started at 4:30am on Christmas Eve when I set off for Dover to charge down to Sigogne, it was a dull day, but then that’s the best sort for driving. It was surprisingly quiet on the 06:40 crossing to Calais, unlike today which it is absolutely heaving, and so I guess the boat will be full, even the first class lounge, usually a quiet haven is full today.

Back to Christmas, I arrived in Sigogne in brilliant sunshine, which as usual came out just as I got to Poitiers, strange how that almost always happens, driving through France under dull skies only for the clouds to part at Poitiers. I passed our guests, Franca’s brother and his family, twice on the run down to Sigogne, Franca’s brother was coming down to stay with us for Christmas.

So by 6:00pm we were all around the fire with a glass of Champagne starting to get into the Christmas spirit. Enrico, Franca’s brother and Marlies, Enrico’s wife and 2 year old son Mauro came down from the Netherlands, so their drive was even longer than mine which meant an early night for one and all before the big day. Fleur was excited about Christmas for the first time, where as Mauro did not quite understand what was going on. Fleur managed to get to sleep and slept until 9:00am, so none of the getting up at 4:00am to see if Santa has been yet...

Franca and I said that we would not have so many presents this year but when you looked under the tree there still seemed to be an aweful lot of presents for such a small family, and it took and hour and a half to open all the pressies, everyone was very pleased with their low tech pressies, the only person who got high tech stuff was Franca, and I still have to set up her new radio for the kitchen which has an iPod connection, and the idea is to buy Franca an iPod so she can listen to all the songs she wants to when she gets fed up with the radio.

More from the Christmas & New Year update

Christmas continued when Jean-Luc our neighbour dropped in, to very kindly bring Fleur a present, around 12:00pm and so we broke out the Pineau, which set the tone for the day. I was Christmas day chef along with Franca, who made her infamous broccoli soup, which as usual went down a storm, followed by a little salmon amuse. The main course was venison steaks with a red wine and black berry sauce with roasted veggies and roast potatoes, which was well received and then it was British Christmas pudding with brandy butter and ice cream. A very nice Christmas dinner, I hope everyone enjoyed it as much as I did. There was of course copious amounts of bubbly wine, and a very nice bottle of red Margaux 2004. So that was Christmas day interspersed with playing a few games with Fleur, and loads of chatting of course, all in Dutch.

Boxing day, a normal working day in France, was Enrico’s turn to cook, so it was off to the supermarket for provisions and then off to Cognac for a walk around the old town and a visit to a few shops, followed by the inevitable visit to a bar for a drink, then back home again for Enrico to go into the kitchen. Enrico produced an amazing mushroom risotto, with left over roasted veggies which still tasted fine, the standard of cuisine was being set pretty high this Christmas.

The following day (27th Dec) was Roulliac market day and so despite the almost sub zero temperatures we headed off to the market for a tour round the clothing dominated market, which I find a slight disappointment as would like to see a lot more food stalls. Still Enrico had volunteered to cook again and stocked up with provisions from the fish stall and produced and Italien style ‘Fruit de Mere’ which again was fantastic. We retreated from the market after about an hour as it was really really cold. I needed to get back to chop wood, Enrico dived back into the kitchen to make his ‘Fruit de Mere’, whilst I set about chopping wood for the fire.

On Sunday the 28th we went to Au Fin Bois, a really nice local restaurant, for lunch giving everyone a rest from cooking. Since little Mauro was only two years old, he still punctuates his day with a sleep in the early afternoon, which was fine for us as it means everyone got a little rest, usually. It was a really great few days with Marlies, Mauro and Enrico. Sadly they had to go back home on the 29th as Enrico and Marlies had to return to work, as the saying goes better to quit while you are head and we had a great time and would certainly do it all again.

Christmas & New Year continued....

With Enrico and family heading back to the Netherlands it was off to work for me back into my fledgling bathroom to try and complete the plumbing so that I could start putting up walls. It was my intention not to do too much work this holiday, even though we really needed to get on. Christmas is a family time and so it would be unfair to spend it all in work clothes. So I managed to get the plumbing done despite a little disaster of plumbing the hot cold water the wrong way round for the shower. I managed to get most of the plumbing finished and a couple of wall panels up with the help of Franca. The bathroom looks small but it still takes a few full size plasterboard panels, and the waterproof ones required in a bathroom are really heavy. That was the sum total of the work I did over the holiday, which was basically 3 half days. Two of the other halves of those days were spent in DIY shops and the third half was spent with Fleur outside digging the garden an burning a tree that Enrico enthusiastically chopped down for me, yes the tree with the helicopter leaves is no more….

The final chapter of the Christmas & New Year update

On the final day of my holiday we went to the beach, I like the seaside in winter, you still get a strong sun on a clear day, which today was, and my neck is sunburnt to prove it. Fleur also loves the beach so even though it the temperature did not reach much over zero we took the bucket and spade and made sandcastles, we flew kites, well we flew Fleurs cheap Whinny the Pooh kite and crashed the stunt kite we bought for papa to play with 2 years ago. At least I can fly a kite with one string, I just need someone with patients to teach me how to fly a two stringed kite as I cannot get into the sky without it taking massive dives within a few seconds… a challenge for 2009 maybe. We had lunch at a restaurant on the beach, and to be honest the food was not great, but on the 3rd of January, it was the only restaurant open.

And so all too soon my 10 day holiday was over and I am sitting on the ferry after having driven up from Sigogne on a sunny but freezing Sunday ready to go back to work on Monday morning.

I was a great break and fantastic to spend 10 days with ‘my girls’, it’s the longest time I have spent with them in 2008. Looking at 2009 from the view point of the 4th of January it seems a daunting prospect that I have to spend another year commuting back and forth to London, but I know in December I’ll be saying where did 2009 go. I am lucky to have a job to commute back to in 2009 which despite the exchange rate problems will keep help our dream alive. The B&B already has some summer bookings and so things are looking good at the moment. We have rented out the rooms we are currently working on so there is real incentive to get these finished and the room below before we get into the summer season proper, signs of that programme ‘Chaos in the Castle’ on the horizon. One thing is for sure, there is never a dull moment at Au Belle Fleur.