Gilbert and Sullivan - flowers that bloom in the spring!

Yes we are now leaving the spring weather behind and hopefully summer has arrived?  This spring has not been the best on record here in central France however the 400 plus tiny plug plants bought in April are now well established in the cottage garden and they do look magnificent. Many are still to come out or develop further. We have once again entered the regional competition for the best holiday home garden and hopefully we stand some chance.....we live in hope. The many gardens that enter the competition are judged by visiting 'secret' persons unknown however we did spot a couple who arrived last week and they took notes and a photo.....was this one of the secret visits?

The garden has two terraces for guests to use, this one with a canopy

The wall outside the cottage complete with flowers and 'model cottage'

 Our photographer friend Peter was here recently so we have taken the opportunity to take a range of new higher quality photos of the cottage that will eventually go onto this website and also onto the other websites we use for publicity. I have included a small number of the new photos below.

Note the strategically placed bottle of wine!

The fireplace in the cottage, not required as the temperature today is 27c

Repainted gates now compete with small painted cottage

The cottage 'Rose Room' . House slippers and dressing gowns are provided!

The 'Blue Room' with French style bedding

A new addition for 2016 is a wine barrel and two vines

Maureen as you may have spotted also offers meals as required. This year many guests have requested a meal from the menu (download from this website and available in the cottage as hard copy) . Last weeks guests requested a dinner on arrival and selected: 

Amuse Bouche – Maureen’s surprise !

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Avocado & prawn salad with walnut oil dressing

Fresh salad leaves from our garden, avocado tossed in lemon juice and large prawns all with Maureen’s special walnut oil** vinaigrette.

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Magret de Canard with Berrichon lentils

Classic French dish consisting of a generous planche fried

French duck breast thinly sliced and served on a bed of locally

produced green Berrichon lentils** gently cooked with garlic,

lardons and fine onions

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Fruit tartelette

A traditional French glazed tartlet served with cream or crème fraiche or ice cream. accompanied by a small glass of Coteaux du Layon**

Avocado and prawn salad

Plants arrive!

Our first guests for 2016 have been and gone and although the weather was far from perfect they enjoyed the stay and maybe just as well as the lady had a recently broken foot and was ordered to rest it. 

However everything is now gearing up for garden 2016 preparations and the plug plants arrived last week - all 470 of them so Maureen has been busy replanting them into larger pots so they can grow larger and stronger in our small greenhouse.

This lot should look magnificent in the cottage garden, will it be enough to win the regional gite garden competition? 

Its still rather cold and these plants are small so they will need a few weeks TLC in the greenhouse before planting out into tubs, baskets and flower beds. 

Our vegetable garden is currently having a major renovation, and I stress the word major!  Everything has gone and we are starting with a blank canvas. We will be installing raised beds, paths and other areas for fruit bushes etc in an effort to make the entire area much more manageable. In October 2015, after we removed all existing structures and plants one of our local French neighbors came and turned the area over with a plough in preparation for the winter weather. This week my French friend came with his small tractor and rotavator and turned it over again.

This certainly saves time compared to a spade although we did spend time hand digging to remove stones and other debris. 

Now that's loads better!

Of course only in France do you find neighbors with tractors large and small, excavators and all manner of heavy duty equipment and all happy to help out when called.The guy driving the tractor is Michel, we first met at Leeds Carnegie in 1972 and have been friends ever since. 

 

Looking forward 2016

With a new year comes a requirement for new BLOG postings, unfortunately this time of year there is very little so say but never the less we can still look forward and do some planning or maybe stargazing for the 2016 season.

Some of you will be aware that unlike the UK, summer 2015 in France, especially south of the Loire was magnificent. As you can spot from some of the guest comments on this website 30c was a common temperature with the warmest temperatures pushing the high 30's. This contrast between the UK and France was I believe down to the jet stream which was hovering or should I say 'stuck' over the bottom end of the UK. Will 2016 be similar to 2015, its impossible to tell but it's certainly possible so we will plan for another glorious summer.

Wallace and Gromit  had a hot summer in the cottage garden

Maureen tells me that she has already started to draw up the mammoth list of plug plants to order for the gardens. We have them delivered to France from a nursery in Staffordshire, Maureen then brings them on in her small greenhouse before eventually planting them out in the garden. In 2014 Maureen was a finalist in the best regional 'gite' garden competition, unfortunately in 2015 we missed the closing date for entering the competition but we will enter in 2016 and you never know, we may have a chance of winning.

The French look for any excuse to hold a dinner or celebration that involves eating and enjoying the good wine from the region. We have also fallen into this mode, and why not as its great fun, great for the community and an excuse to bring all the neighbors and friends together. We are currently searching for excuses, the Queens 90th is on the list for starters!

Le Breuil aux Gittons is a small hamlet of 32 houses or small farms spread out over an area of countryside. During the last few years we have seen a number of younger couples come to the hamlet, great news as they bring new vitality and ideas.


Ok, thats it for post number 1 2016. 

Wine tasting

Throughout the summer and autumn many different opportunities are offered to improve your wine tasting skills (well that's one way of describing it!) Towns hold large wine events such as those held in Chinon or Saumur. Individual vignerons hold events, offering their wines and a range of accompanying food. Last week we attended the Domaine de Navas which is unusual as this event offers the opportunity to taste and buy not only local wines but also Champagne and wines from Bordeaux as well as wines from across the Loire region.  They also offer a very good lunch for 12 euro, which includes an entree, main course, cheese and dessert plus of course it would not be complete without a bottle from one of the vignerons. We asked our cottage guests if they would like to join us for the day and  they were happy to come along to such a good and FREE event.

Tasting some very nice Sauvignon

Our cottage guests Mike and Carol with Maureen

The meal was excellent with tables arranged under the trees as it was a rather hot day.

Lunch in the shade of the trees

We were joined by a local French couple who provided some great additional 'chatter'

 At the end of lunch two vignerons were inaugurated into the Confrerie des Vignerons des Coteaux du Cher

The officials

 Maureen managed to sneak a photo with the officials

So a great day was enjoyed by all and we even managed to buy some excellent wine for the cellar.

STOP PRESS - mother and baby doing well!

The first of the autumn lambs have arrived in our neighbours small holding

My lamb is beautiful mother bleets

Make the most of it!

One of the joys of rural France is the bounty of fresh produce on display in the local markets. Beautiful vegetables grown with TLC by local families, an amazing variety of fresh fish and of course cheese of every description with an emphasis on locally produced cheese. Le Blanc market is no exception and when we can we visit on a Saturday morning and invariably buy some oysters. Apparently £28 a dozen is considered good value in London so I suppose 6 euro (£4.30) a dozen from le Blanc market must be considered almost free? So lets push the boat out, how about a DOZEN oysters and a BOTTLE of pink champagne? I see a London restaurant offers half a dozen oysters plus a glass of champagne for £64, no doubt in luxury surroundings.

Well here in central France the super fresh oysters are just over 6 euro a DOZEN and a BOTTLE  of pink Champagne is  around 18 euro (£13.50) so that's a grand total of £17.80........and some people say France is expensive! 

Nothing better than oysters with some of Maureen's Bloody Mary relish (made with a dash of Vodka)

Down the hatch!

As you will have noted this BLOG post is entitled 'Make the most of it' so its wise to eat your oysters, or whatever makes you happy, when you can as life moves on as we discovered yesterday.

Mid afternoon and we were enjoying an afternoon cuppa when we heard the unmistakable beat of helicopter blades -  a very low helicopter.  We dashed out onto the rear terrace and a yellow SAMU (Emergency services) helicopter was heading this way and we quickly realised he was looking for a landing spot! He descended towards the field adjoining the bottom of our rear garden but this contains three horses which became spooked so up he went again. I dashed into our small field and waved to indicate that maybe he could land here? Down he came and within seconds tthree nurses jumped out carrying bags. We then realised that there was a SAMU ambulance at the neighbours house so Maureen guided the medical people through our garden to the spot.

Fortunately our rear lawn is a good size.

Its not every day you have a helicopter in the garden

The sad news is that the neighbour, who was not in the best of health, did not recover despite the best efforts of all the medical specialists at the scene.

So maybe the title of this post needs to be remembered whilst we all have our feet on this good earth. 

Summer life in rural France

It takes time to learn how to slow down and enjoy the pace of life in rural France, a complete contrast to the hustle and bustle of urban life in the UK. If a meal with the neighbours takes 4 or 5 hours, so be it, enjoy! 

That patient and paced mental attitude needs to be remembered, especially when it is the weekend of the hamlets' annual Mechoui. The neighbours' barn, usually full of ancient but regularly used farming equipment, has been cleared when we arrive to help set up the previous afternoon. However everything is not well as the 60 year old combine harvester has a collapsed bearing so half a dozen people are working hard to remove and replace the bearing so Alan the farmer can complete the harvesting and of course clear the remaining area of the barn for the mechoui. As is usual with any event there is always a hard core of helpers who volunteer to carry, wash and unpack all that is required to feed 60 plus hungry souls and here in France we, as relatively young senior citizens, make sure we do our best to help out.

Tables set and organised.

The following morning we are there again helping out although the two sheep have been turning on the spit over the oak logs since 7.30am. All the ladies in the hamlet have been preparing all manner of items for the days feasting, and the children have spent house preparing the canapes.

Serving as well!

The format is typical of a rural French event, planned to commence at 12.00noon but actually its 12.45 before we get under way, bottomless supplies of food and drink all afternoon with the roast sheep as the highlight then at about 5.30 we start a petanque (boules to you and me) competition.This continues until 9.00pm, with those not participating or those eliminated playing cards, UNO or other strange games only understood if you have lived here for 100 years or more!

People mill around talking before things get underway

And we are off!

Young and old all enjoying chat, simple good food and wine

The roasted sheep arrive

After the 'lunch' some play cards

or petanque

or read

After all the card playing, petanque, reading or for some an afternoon nap - we need sustenance, so by 9.30 the tables have been relaid and everyone sits down for the evening meal - more of the same and this continues until the early hours.

Lights on and the chat continues

So the evening goes on, slow and steady. Maureen and I serve wine, clear plates and wash dishes and feel privileged to be part of a lovely country community.

The next morning we return to clear up and guess what - yes there is enough left to provide lunch for 20 clearers and helpers.

You may well ask who pays for all this? Over the winter months three traditional 'tea dances' are held in the local town and the money raised pays for the mechoui.

It's a bit of a marathon, but we enjoy it all the same! The secret is to pace yourself!