Bonjour
Hope you’ve had a good week. I missed chatting to you last weekend as I was gallivanting round the Loire Valley, chateau hopping, wine tasting, falling in love with local cheeses and discovering beautiful boulangeries and mouth-watering patisseries. Naturally I shall be sharing all my discoveries with you in The Good Life France Magazine and on the website soon!
I got back home and straight back into the swing of things, not painting shutters (no I haven’t finished, I’m just so over that job I’m taking a break from it) but putting a new roof on one of the big outbuildings. I told you we had a big hailstorm last year didn’t I? Well when I say big hail stone I really mean it, larger than cricket balls and some with jagged edges, they ripped through the roofs of houses (and cars). Most of the repair work has been done, covered by insurance, but not all, so Mark (my other half) and me are doing the rest ourselves. I dumped my suitcase, pulled on my rigger boots and we got stuck in.
Sadly, the chimney of the bread oven which is in the outbuilding, collapsed when we took the tiles off. But I’m glad we got to it before it fell down on its own. Many old buildings used to have brickwork bread ovens built in. People didn’t have gas or electric ovens like we do so they’d put coals in a sort of brick square a metre or so off the ground with a chimney taking the embers and smoke out of the room. Some people in my village still use their outdoor ovens, it makes for very tasty bread I can tell you!
Meanwhile, I’m happy to say, a neighbour will re-use the handmade tiles which weren’t broken, and which you can’t buy any more (unless you go to a salvage yard where they’re way more expensive than bulk standard tiles) so we have to put a whole new roof up. He’s going to build a wall with them.
As I type this, Jean-Claude from down the road has popped by to tell me that we’re in for a storm after a long canicule (French for heatwave) so, I’m off back up on the roof, trying to get it covered to keep the rain out.Whatever you’re doing, where ever you are, I wish you a bon weekend,
Kissous from France,
A friend uses that expression combing bisous (French for kiss) and Kisses – don’t you just love that?!
Janine
Editor
ps Photo is of the “high street” in Azay-le-Rideau which gets my vote for best patisserie in the Loire Valley (more coming up soon on that!)…
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