life, by me

Sunday, October 14, 2012 | Posted by Hazel

Another week at La Plissonnais for me, and a quick trip back to the UK for Alex...that is what the last week has meant to us.

Last Saturday we had a nice evening at Jon's, where we met Phil (his brother) and Peter (a friend from the village).  Enjoyed a 3 course meal and some English chat.

Alex flew home for a few days to go and see Radiohead in London, whilst I guarded the fort over here.  Sadly the weather has been rather soggy this week, but that hasn't stopped us from getting out and about a bit and doing some more of the decorating. 

This week I have noticed an abundance of ugly looking cows, anyone know what variety this is?  I feel a bit sorry for it.

Whilst waiting for Alex's plane to land, I took a trip to St. Malo, a coastal town which lies just beneath Jersey.  I had a great time exploring.  I even got to practise my French when a French couple asked me for directions to their hotel, which I was able to give them.  I gave myself a pat on the back for my attempts (until I later saw them again wandering round with a map still looking decidedly lost...).

Decorating has stepped up a gear this week...we have completed two rooms now, and almost finished the third.

The finished 'pink' room (1)

The finished 'white' room

We have also been out and collected some logs to keep the Beverley's warm for the winter.

Alex was proud with our efforts...

Yesterday the rain held off for the afternoon so we headed out to Saint James to visit the Brittany American cemetery and memorial.  There are 4410 American soldiers buried here, each marked with a white grave stone.  The stars symbolise that the soldier was a Jew, and the crosses symbolise all other religions.  The site became a temporary military cemetery in August 1944 when it was liberated by the Americans and evolved in to a permanent military cemetery after World War 2, when France granted the use of the site for free.  It was really quiet and peaceful with no-one else about, and quite moving as you read about the battles, and what had led the soldiers to this point during the war.

Last night Jon came round to watch X Factor with us...turns out he is a closet fan, and he even said he enjoyed our food.  Bonus.

During the last week we have lined up our next assignment, which is house/cat sitting in Burgundy for a week - wine country apparently.  Looking forward to exploring another region of France, although there is still quite a lot we want to do whilst we are here! 

Read Users' Comments (0)

Saturday, October 06, 2012 | Posted by Hazel

Wow it's been a busy week...from Paris to Mont St-Michel, we have been touring the French must haves of Northern France.

We spent a weekend in Paris, where I was very excited to set my eyes upon the Eiffel Tower.  I think I had imagined it to be in a slightly more remote location/have more space around the base of it (I don't know why), but it was still pretty big, and I spent a while trying to perfect a shot...this is what I ended up with...

Saw all the other Paris highlights, such as the Arc de Triomphe, the Louvre and Notre-Dame (which, by the way, I found out is not the previous home of Quasimodo...yes, I was a little disappointed to find out this fact).

Arc de Triomphe

Musee du Louvre

Notre Dame

One of my favourite things we found in Paris was the 'Pont des Arts' - a bridge which crosses the River Seine.  It was covered in padlocks, with peoples names marker penned on to them, some people had gone the extra mile and had their padlocks engraved.  Apparently this has become a recent tradition by romantic tourists, who attach a padlock and throw the key in to the river as a romantic gesture.

The bridge of many locks...Paris

One of Alex's friends from Uni, Christian, is French and lives in Paris so we arranged to meet up with him and his wife Marie in the evening.  We went to their real life French flat in Paris and hung out with them and their 2 year old Manech.  A good time was had by all...luckily for us they both speak excellent English, so we didn't have to test our sketchy French out on them.

Marie, Christian and Alex

Other highlights of Paris include rollerblading policemen and a French reggae music festival.  Oh, and of course the cuisine.  We ate copious amounts of crepes and tried out some French macarons...I'd never had one before and so we went to 'Pierre Herme', one of the most prestigious macaron makers in France for my first trial.  I don't regret it all.  They were amazing.

Now back in Normandy, we have spent this week doing some more decorating...the two bedrooms we have been working on are almost complete and have all had a few coats of paint, we have a white room and a pink room.

Our gardening skills have also been tested as we continue to dig out a herb patch.  It's pretty back breaking, so we have been doing it little by little, and this is our progress so far...it's looking good...

Yesterday we visited Mont St-Michel - one of the top sights to see in France, apparently (according to my new France guide book).  It's not far from here.  I thought it was just a church on an island that you looked at from afar, so imagine my surprise when I discovered you could go on to the island and there were shops and all sorts on there, mental.  We even made a trip in to a post office to buy some stamps (timbre) to overhear a French conversation with someone whose bank card had been swallowed by the ATM...whatever next.  21st Century.

Mont St-Michel (from a distance)

On Mont St-Michel, little windy, cobbledy streets

Mont St-Michel (up close and personal)

We have made some new friends with the cows, which got moved to a nearby field this week (which is pretty much our garden) and have been practising our European photo poses (we have witnessed some crazy ones).  We have a couple more weeks in Normandy before we move south.

That's a cow, and that's our little house in the background (the small one).

Just a casual lean shot

Read Users' Comments (1)comments

Friday, September 28, 2012 | Posted by Hazel

So we've had a busy few days in the land of the French, mostly spent peeling wallpaper off the walls.  

On Sunday we went to Fougeres, a local town, and did a bit of exploring.  We saw a Chateau and 'tromp l'oeil' (an optical illusion of some buildings, painted on a building).

Chateau de Fougeres

Tromp l'oeil - Fougeres

Alex at her dream house

Public gardens (behind St. Leonards Church, Fougeres)

Whilst in Fougeres, we stumbled (not quite literally) across a dead bat on the pavement, here is a picture.

After finishing stripping one room, we have now moved on to another, stripped the wallpaper and prepped it for its first coat of colour next week.  (I am assuming you are interested in our decorating progress!)

Before we touched it...

Midway through the stripping...

The first coat of paint

The weather this week has been very random, switching from bright sunlight, to big grey clouds, heavy rain and violent hail stones.

We've also done a bit of outside work, clearing out a wood shed - where we found our friend, Mr. Toad.

Got a bonus dinner from Jon (whose house we're decorating) this week and booked to come to Paris, where we are now!  

We arrived last night and spent today in Versailles, mainly at the Palace - where we saw lots of gold things, some lovely gardens and a room with lots of mirrors.  

French teapot

Fountain in the Palace gardens

Lacey lion in the Palace (part of a contemporary exhibition)

Loving the lavender

Marie-Antoinette's pig (and Alex)

Chateau de Versailles

We now have the weekend to explore Paris!  I'm excited as I have never really been to Paris before (bar a couple of trips to Disneyland Paris) and Alex is excited to show me around as she is a big Paris fan!

Read Users' Comments (2)

Saturday, September 22, 2012 | Posted by Hazel

It is now Saturday, and our French adventure began on Monday.  Leaving Essex/Stafford behind, we headed for Dover, and for more 'French' pastures.  After a rather uneventful ferry crossing, we arrived in Calais.  

I drew the short straw of being the first driver on French soil (neither of us had driven on the wrong/right side of the road before) and started to follow our Aussie speaking sat nav west across France.

There were no major incidents during the road trip, we both successfully drove on the right side of the road with no mishaps.  At one point in the journey Alex accidentally posted her bank card through a gap in the car so it was stuck behind the radio, and I had to reverse 400 yards into a petrol station, but that is by the by, nothing major to report.

We eventually arrived at our lovely residence, La Plissonnais, about 5 hours later.  We were greeted by Jon and Henry (Henry is a dog) and shown our home for the next few weeks, Maison la Cidrerie.  It is lovely here.

La Cidrerie

Whilst we are here, we are going to be doing some DIY, gardening and decorating, in return for our accommodation.  We didn't start this until Thursday, so had a couple of days exploring our surrounding area before we got stuck in to the work.

The local market at Saint Hilaire du Harcouet was a bit of excitement on Wednesday, Alex loved the caged animals, whilst I was constantly tempted by the delicious smelling crepes.

Jellyfish at the beach, Alex enjoyed poking them with sticks

Land surfers on the beach

We bought some garlic from a lady at the side of the road.  Alex has been teaching me the health benefits of garlic and we have pretty much eaten it every day.  Neither of us know how much we stink as we are now immune to it.  Luckily we haven't seen many people yet...or maybe this is the reason why...

Work has now begun.  Our first job was digging out the weeds around the cider press in the garden...

Before we started digging (well, technically, just after we'd started)

After we'd worked our magic...

...followed by weeding around the crazy paving on the patio.

We have now moved on to the house, where we are doing some redecorating.  Our first task being wallpaper stripping.  Alex taught me a new, much more delicate approach, giving me the ability to now strip an entire piece of paper, whilst keeping it intact.  Amazing.

Before we started

The special 'Alex technique'

One wall down...

We have already experienced 'baguette mouth' (the sensation you get from eating too many baguettes/mild jaw ache) and excess consumption of cheese.  Hoping to visit Paris in the next couple of weeks, do some more exploring and crack on with the decorating!

Incase you're interested, the weather is pretty similar to the UK right now.  We've had a few sunny days and a bit of rain.

Au revoir.

Read Users' Comments (3)