La Bloggerie

After several nights when the temperature has stayed well below zero, and reached -10 on a couple, we woke this morning to some proper snow.
But no need to go anywhere, so chuck another log on the fire!

In less than a day and a half the willow has been stripped back to a stump. But we now have light flooding into the sitting room and some great new views of the chateau.

And then the tree surgeon calls back this evening to say he will be here at 8.30 in the morning – a day earlier than planned.
Thank goodness I didn’t sweep up those leaves today.

The huge willow tree that greets visitors to La Tannerie is about to have a severe trim. A job that should be done every five years has waited twice that long.
But just as I start to write this our tree surgeon rings to say that he will have to put the job back by a couple of weeks. So the tree survives for a little longer, and I get to sweep up the leaves after all.

We get our share of famous faces holidaying in this area, and sometimes you can’t move in Intermarché for Eastenders actors, but last night a famous voice was to be heard.

Dean Friedman, he of the distinctive tone and quirky lyrics, and who enjoyed a smattering of hits in the 70s, was performing in the intimate surroundings of Les Colonnes in Bonnes.

He had been invited by Radio 2 producer Andy Davies to perform at what amounted to a garden party with some 150 guests, a concept that seemed to surprise Friedman at first, but by the end he was clearly enjoying himself as much as his audience was.

Friedman’s songs contain a lot of words and concentration is required to follow his intricate every-day stories and often surprisingly humourous comments on life.

Memorable songs from his two generous sets included an ode to world peace entitled Death to the Neighbours, a not-so-gentle love song claiming “I didn’t really like you that much,” and a song written to explain to his wife just what he does all day long.

But when it came to the final, audience-participation number there was only one choice.  We were invited to help out with the words on Lucky Stars, the song that has presumably kept the artist in Johnny Pineapple shirts for the past thirty-five years.

Now when an artist asks you to join in you feel kind of obliged to give it a go, and whilst few of us went wrong on the chorus, it was actually the lovey-dovey exchange between the singer and his lady that we were supposed to be helping out with.

Of course there were die-hard Friedman fans there who were word-perfect, but the rest of us wracked our brains, trying to come to terms with the fact that each time the refrain came around the lyrics were different.

But it hardly seemed to matter, and as the star signed autographs and CDs, we headed for the car, feeling our way through the dark garden and wishing we had bought one of the Dean Friedman baseball caps -  fitted with headlights. Classy.

And you can’t buy them from an Eastenders actor.

Saturday is Changeover Day, and as we approach the main summer holiday period Saturdays start to get a bit manic.
So, looking to get ahead of ourselves, we spent Friday moving us and our possessions out of the main house and into a gite.
Saturday morning, at 7.50 we receive a phone call from a neighbouring gite owner to say that he had double-booked a property and did we have one free?
The only free one was of course the one we had spent all of Friday moving into, but the lure of the lucre was too strong to resist.
So now, far from being ahead of the game we additionally had our own gite to clean and prepare, our belongings to move out to the house we use during the summer, as well as the normal changeovers.
By 4 o’clock we were only just starting on our own removals and guests were beginning to arrive.
By 7 o’clock the gite was ready, but still no sign of the ‘new’ guests.
About 10 o’ clock, we decided we had to go and start sorting out our belongings and make up our beds at the house 10 miles away, accepting that we would have to drive back into Chalais as soon as the guests arrived.
By midnight still no news of the arrivals.
And we never did hear from them. But at least that’s one less gite to clean next Saturday.

To Fernando’s for a meal this evening.  He has frequently told us to stop sending people from La Tannerie to Fernando’s, because, as he points out, nowhere on the restaurant does it mention his name. 

So La Bonne Humeur it is.

A very warm and sunny evening so we sat out on the square to eat, and to discuss our tea room.  When we first started up 5 years ago, we were providing a service that did not exist anywhere in the town; only one bar was open at that time, and tea and cakes were not on the menu there.

We have had five good years, but now it seems that every establishment in town is trying to be a tea room.  What once was a novelty is something that even the interior decorator does at the rear of her shop.

We have mixed feelings, but an overall sense that our tea room has run its course.  It has to be a positive sign that Chalais now has six thriving bars, four restaurants and the chateau to offer to our guests, and ultimately that is far more important.  And we have an interior decorator’s!

We will probably make next Monday the last one.  All we shall then need to do is to work out what to do with the 8 carrot cakes that have just been put in the freezer in readiness for the summer.

I expect I’ll think of something.

Finally they have been and gone and done us – Chalais is now on Street View!
It looks like they must have been round one sunny day in May or early June, and a bit too early in the morning for there to be many people in the bars.
So now you can cruise up the road from ours, and glance across the fountain square at Fernando’s bar. Then turn along the main street, over the river, passing the ramp leading down to the Intermarché supermarket, and check out the new cafe furniture outside the PMU bar.
And for a lot of people that is as far as they stray whilst staying on holiday with us! Though if you have been before, take a look – it might just whet your appetite for another visit!
(Go to http://maps.google.com/ and enter La Tannerie, 16210 Chalais, France in the search box)