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Renovation is a wonderful thing, but as you already know...I get attached to things like views and trees. I love the shot on the left for its photographic quality, but the after renovation shot on the right does give you a wider view of the Château and the valley. I prefer the shot and the feel of the view through the window on the left, but then, it is not mine to choose.
Even though I live in France now, New Orleans food memories pop up from time to time. I frequently make finger sandwiches for apero parties at the Chatette, and discovered these sweet canapés in the grocery stores for close to a euro. They are perfect for finger sandwiches. I knew I'd seen them somewhere before in a different form...et voila-La Péniche Restaurant in the New Orleans Marigny neighborhood serves a couple of these same little breads in a basket of French Bread with your meal. They are dipped in butter and baked so that they are crunchy when you bite down, but then melt in your mouth. Having given up butter, I tried my own version here with olive oil and seasoning. This batch above was dipped in olive oil with Herbs de Provence and Garlic Salt, put on a cookie sheet, and then baked in the oven until golden. They take a little bit of time, but are worth the effort. These days, when I ask what I can bring to someone elses apero party, or what friends who've been here might want to take home; everyone says: "Oh, those little toasts please!"
One of the things I love most about living in France is the flowers. You don't have to break the bank each week to keep beautiful floral bouquets in your home. I used to buy flowers for myself from time to time in New Orleans. I considered it a gift to myself for all that constant, stressful, hard work I was doing. They always cheered me up, even if a bouquet like the one in these photos would have cost me close to $30 back in the states. Evelyn returned the rental car in Cahors on Saturday, and then we made a run to the Poste, my favorite coffee shop, the market, and lunch with my friend. This time we were heading home on the bus at one, so I knew these beauties would survive till we reached the Chatette. They are so beautiful and so colorful that it is hard to choose which of the 10 stems you want. Any ideas how much I paid for these 10 stems?
I'm mourning the loss of my favorite tree. It is gone. There is a huge hole-an empty space-that now looms in my view out my window each morning, noon and night. I fell in love with this tree the moment I saw it. It conducted the water symphonies and choreographed the dancing diamonds on the Lot. It grabbed every ray of sunshine to make a coat of rainbows. During the fall it became burgundy and gold. Winter's sweet snowfalls gently dusted my tree with a soft, white cuddliness. I wanted to hug it that Christmas. I've counted over sixteen photos I'd taken of my tree over our years here together, though we never quite got that moon river shot that I've tried for a million times. And so today, I say good by to an old friend who lies in the Lot...a victim of our eroding river bank. I will miss my tree. It was special. I am still getting over the shock of it dropping out of sight, and then finding it in the river yesterday when I went to see what had happened. When you see the photos below through the seasons, I think you'll have to agree that it was a fine old tree.
With all my very busy weeks during the last month, I have found myself saying outloud to others..."Tomorrow is Sunday and it's going to be a day of rest." For some reason, I've needed to take a stand for myself with others, while reminding myself that I need to stop and it's okay. So, I leave you on this day of rest with a morning's beautiful sunshine streaming in from the back of the lavoir. It is rushing with water at the moment! Happy Sunday!
The first Paris neighborhood that I fell in love with, straddled the first and second arrondissements. My romantic ex-pat who kept me coming back lived on Rue Tiquetonne. I do the Paris Pilgrimage there from time to time. Fond memories of him, his children, his friends, and a romance I wouldn't trade for a million bucks can be found on every doorstep, in every alley and around every bend. I've tried to find him, but haven't had any success. He gave me Paris. I would love for him to be able to see my life in France these days. Who knows? Maybe, he'll spy this post and find me...stranger things have happened!
Today has been a day of feet...walking and buying shoes. How much fun! I found these very romantic feet during my last "adventure in travel" while I was taking a trip down memory lane on Rue Tiquetonne in Paris. Happy Friday!
At this very moment, I was supposed to be in Paris. The plan was that I would meet Evelyn and Lucie at the Europcar desk in Terminal 2A at CDG, after their flight from Chicago landed this morning at 8:45am. More than likely, I wouldn't have made it; or at the very least it would have been yet another very expensive "adventure in travel" to add to my repertoire. Do you know how to say STRIKE? We don't do it much in America anymore. In fact, we don't stand up for ourselves as a people nearly as strong or as often as the French do. Frankly, I'd like to see us do more of it! We have a tendency to just roll over and take whatever gets dished out-very little organization and very little taking to the streets. The strikes here are bittersweet for me. As happy as I am to see people stand up for themselves and what's important to them, it's difficult for me when I count on them and their services to get me where I need to go. The SNCF people were great when I went into the station in Figeac yesterday morning. I was able to take this ticket and change it to an aller retour for my trip to the states, by adding another 29€. But with a Thursday, October 7, departure looming, I'm already trying to think about what I'll do if there's another strike. We seem to have one
about every two weeks or so these days. I know I'll do whatever I have to do and roll with it at the time. But for today, Dal, Sam and I are going to be here at the Chatette waiting for Evelyn and Lucie to arrive sometime this evening. We are looking forward to it. At least this way, there will be at least one of us between the two of us who isn't stressed out and totally crazed!
After having such a difficult time getting photos of our new discovery that were complete and not blurry, I put my camera in my overalls pocket and started off to get some more shots...hopefully better. I didn't get very far. As soon as I rounded the corner of the barn, I saw a man standing on the road and heard lots of gas motored lawn tools. I decided it was best to wait till later and returned to the Chatette. There was a huge white utility truck in the middle of the road that I could see from the terrace, as it peaked out from just behind the barn. I wondered if it was the village workmen. I wondered if the owners of the Château had hired someone to come and clear the area. I just plain wondered. At lunch two men drove off, but there must have been a third because the noise was still going strong. I realized that they were village workers when one of them came over and began clearing all around the lavoir too. By the end of the day, all was quiet. I took my path up the hill between the barn and the road, and look what I found!
Imagine the bottom half of this photo totally covered in ivy starting at the top of that stone wall and trees growing up from the bottom that were higher than the stone wall-reaching way above the road.That's what we had there, till our workmen arrived. I'm still pinching myself...so much beauty, romance, magic and history hidden under all those ivies, vines, brambles, trees and just plain junk. I took a few more shots to try to capture something that is uncapturable in places like these. So much of this newly cleared place was so not what you would have imagined it to be. So much is hidden here in our magic place; whether it's under centuries of deep soil, grass, rock and gravel, or trees, vines, nettles, weeds and inconsiderate peoples junk. My sense of our "we" in this place is remarkable. I pondered our sweet barn for years, and when it came to us...it was about so much more than just the barn. I was hoping that the lavoir would be cleaned over time, et voila...not only is the lavoir being cleaned, but there was so much more there than was even possilbe to know. Wouldn't it be wonderful if...and then you get the if and MORE! What a life in this place of our hearts.
You should know this lavoir well by now. If not featured in many of my posts, it is often in the background of many of my Chatette and Barn shots. As I've been over on the land and in the barn working, I've found myself talking to many people in the village about the lavoir, it's history-romance-magic and meaning to the village. It always makes me sad to see when something so important to the past life of our village isn't being taken care of. Last week, I was showing Greg's friends around a bit and discovered a door I had never seen before. It is between the road that runs above the lavoir and the Château. Eventually, Dali and I went exploring. I was shocked at what I discovered tucked away behind that tiny door where Dal is standing.
I would describe it as a huge, high, circular, stone basin abutting the lavoir, full of trees, vines, weeds, and junk. The most interesting thing about it is that it appears that there is a whole 'nother piece to the lavoir that we never knew existed. As I tried to visualize what it might have looked like in medieval times, I remembered my across the river neighbors telling me that the archway had been stoned in. Photos were difficult to get without taking some risks. When I had Greg and his friends back down, we joked about getting the Time Team out to do some looking around.
I continued to wander around, imagining what these weed and ivy-coverd structures could have been in the past. I laughed at myself when I thought-"See Laury, all that clearing you did on the land behind and around the barn was just the beginning...practice for this." But from past experience (Eric will know what I'm talking about), I knew better than to jump to any conclusions concerning any property that didn't belong to me. I figured the next steps was going to be to find out if this was communal property or if it belonged to the Château. Was the Time Team in our future? Tomorrow, I will share the rest of the story.