When the English Tried to Make Cassoulet

This is hysterical!

Monday Mumblings

I've been at the machine for what seems like weeks, sewing away, and I think I've created a monster.

I am seriously addicted.

I've uploaded a large version so this photo should be click able.

I've still got at least another 2 rows to do. Then its infilling so the rows are equal in length. I think I'll add, rather than cut.

There are so many different fabrics in this. Lots of, to me, uglies, lots of fun ones and bits and pieces from all over the world. Notice the distinct lack of red, well not a lot!

I deliberating over doing a border for this. I'm loathe to, but I'm also think a narrow black one would make the colours pop.  I'll see how I feel when I reach that point.

I gave myself a break on Thursday to make a miniature quilt for the Liberated Quilts Online Retreat. I decided we'd have a bit of fun and quilt along with the quilters at Gwen Marston's Beaver Island Quilters Retreat, using the same theme - Gwen's current book 37 sketches.

I asked the group to take a quilt from either Gwen, Gee's Bend or the Brown's Amish Collection, reduced it in size if it was full size, and make it theirs.  I had a mental block and couldn't decide what to do. To help the thought process I rummaged through what is left in the string box. Right at the bottom was a bit of pink plaid lying next to a piece of black.

This is what I came up with.

I love how the plaid changes colour, depending on how you cut it.

Onto family stuff.  Someone asked me (can't remember who) what The Young One is up to these days.

She started her second year at lycée last month. She is now in Premiére and studying hard for her Baccalaureate Série Littérature (scroll down the page). There has been a reform in the French education system and the upshot is she has dropped Maths, which is her weak subject. She is overjoyed! We were a bit worried about this to start with (well, The Old One was - I'm not bothered), until she said that because the last two teachers weren't prepared to help her, she's basically missed out 2 years and to sit the Bac in Maths would mean losing those precious marks.

Instead she has gone for the English and Art option. I'm really pleased with the English part as she is studying English Literature and the book list is probably what she would have read if she was doing A-Level English Literature. She's starting with A Picture of Dorian Gray and Wuthering Heights is on the list too.

The art side I'm not too sure about and even she admits she's not brilliant at it, but she's got to better at art than Maths!

Spanish is also on the curriculum and it looks as if we've got a tri-langue daughter!

She's sitting her French Bac next June and, if she passes, will do Philosophy in Terminale, her last year at lycée.

I can't believe the little 3 year old who started in the Petite Section of Maternelle (kindergarten) is now 16 1/2 and nearing the end of her school life.

If all goes to plan, in 2 year's time she'll be at Limoges University reading languages.

To round off this post. The Old One has been busy busy busy.

Those of you who have been to this pile of stones know what the big barn normally looks like. Piled high with junk. The Old One collects junk!  Even he has decided there is enough to start our own brocante and been clearing it out.

Et voila!

Yes - it really is that big!

I've got a list of Autumnal chores as long as my arm so I'm going to give the machines a bit of a rest and see if I can reduce the list by at least half by the end of the week.

More soon.

News Flash! Canicule!

Copyright

It was 30°C in the porch (which faces East) at 7.00 pm yesterday evening.

Thank goodness for the pool!

Normal service will be resumed when the temperature drops about 15°C.

Happy Quatorze Juillet

Copyright here

To celebrate Bastille Day, we're starting off with a BANG

.

A HUGE firework display, which will be a riot of every shade of BLUE you can think of.

Ready?

(Massive drum roll)

POP BANG

(photos are clickable)

Blueberry Fool is finished and I'm loving it!

Phew - I'm exhausted.

Sssssssh let's quieten down a bit.

Have you heard of Google +?  It's the new social networking site.  A lot more secure than FB.  If you are interested in seeing what it looks like, leave a comment and I'll send you an invitation to join.

Whilst we're on the subject of wasting the day away, have you found Pinterest yet? Great fun!  You'll find the link to my page by scrolling down and clicking on the Pinterest logo somewhere down there on the right hand side.

More soon.

Wordless Wednesday

The calm before

the storm

Des Racines et des Ailes

Des Racines et des Ailes is a programme on France 3 and is about the only one I ever watch.  (Did you know that French television is fine if you like game shows, reruns of German detective stories, old films and documentaries about Claude François or Johnny Halliday?)

Click on this Wikipedia link to read more about Racines et Ailes in English.

Last night The Old One  was "flicking channels" as men do (don't you just hate it when they do that!) and up came R et A.  It was about hidden Paris from the roof tops.

The camera was on the table in front of me (never move without it!) and I just had to try and capture some of the shots.  I don't know if taking photos from the t.v and publishing them is legal, but I have copyrighted the photo to France 3.

Did you know there are bee hives on the roof of the Opéra Garnier and that somewhere in Paris there is a huge potager on a roof?  It was just at that point the battery died!

TTFN

Out and About in Dordognefordshire

So called because of the huge English contingent, which does seem to be getting smaller as more people up sticks and return to their native soil.

I'm going to take you out and about today - reviewing some of the photos I've taken over the last month.

Perhaps this will be become a regular feature.  Who can tell.  Makes a change instead waffling on about The Boring Quilt.

Right - lets see what photos  Blogger will let me upload today.  They were playing silly B's yesterday and although I uploaded all 3 at once, when I went back to insert the other 2 they weren't there!  Not funny if you are on limited broadband.

First off.

The sun breaking through the clouds on what started out as a pretty gruesome day.

Breaking Through

Are You Sitting Comfortably?

Seen in Thiviers a few weeks ago.  It wasn't until I looked at the photo again for the 365 Project that I realised the vertical lines in the photo.  Look at the drain pipes on the left, then the chair legs and then the window display.  Kinda cool!

My 3 girls.

 Not really Dordognefordshire - more Charente.

We had a lovely day last week mucking about in Angouleme.  

Do you know who is who?  They grow up so fast!

Mr Marco the Walnut Picker

Our lovely neighbour collecting our walnuts by hand.

The big plantations pick mechanically, but us poor people have to wait for the wind and rain to bring them down and then get aching backs and black hands!

Autumn Morning

We come round full circle.

This is the opposite of the first photo.

The sun broke through the mist and the day looked as if it was going to be glorious.

4 hours later it was dark, grey and miserable;

Heigh ho!

Hope you enjoyed yourself.  

Let me know if you think this should become a sort of regular feature.

TTFN

Colour!

Nifty Quilts (love love love her blog and quilts) has shown her Matisse quilt which she has been making.

I don't know what it is about that artist that makes me think colour!  Lots of  C O L O U R .

Colour is everywhere.

Even if it is black and white

  or gorgeous batiks log cabins

or tiny little scraps being made into blocks

or (and this is really the point of this post)

hats made out of cardboard

Now go back to Nifty Quilt's post about her Matisse quilt and look at the shapes.  Then come back here and look at those minute shapes.

I personally would have drawn them on, but oh no. The Young One painstakingly drew them, coloured them, then cut them out and stuck them on.

And the point of this post?

Ooops - sorry - The Young One had to do an art project last school year "Make a Hat Inspired by an Artist".

She originally chose Coco Chanel as she adores fashion.  The hat wouldn't click.  We tried everything, including having great fun with papier maché.

In the end she sought "inspiration" from her art teacher.  Together they sat down at the computer and typed various artist's names into Google Images.

The Young One fell for Matisse;

There - that's the point of this post.  Taken a long time to get there, but hope you had fun along the way.

A Fleeting Moment

Got back from holiday yesterday. We had a fantastic time and for once France gave us its all and the weather was superb.

I'm catching up on blogs, emails et al, whilst mowing the lawn, trying to catch up on the weeding and "Facebooking", not to mention the washing!

I'm afraid I won't be able to post much again for the next fortnight as I'm off to the UK this time next week for 2 weeks.

In the meantime how do you fancy seeing one of the sculptures on the promenade at Canet-Plage?

Although I love my camera, it only seems to come into its own when taking photos in bright sunlight with clear blue skies!

The rest of the time I could seriously throw it off the top a mountain!

More as and when.

Clare x

Why why why?

I am constantly being asked "Why did you move to France?",  "Why did you leave the UK?", "What made you leave the UK?".

So I thought it was about time I revealed all, but first of all a word of warning.  This post will be long!

Many years ago The Old One, The Middle One and I went on a long awaited for holiday to Cannes on the Cote d'Azur.  Friends had a very small apartment there which they rented out to friends.  It was my first holiday in this wonderful country and I fell in love with the lifestyle and relaxed way of living.  Yes, even in Cannes, which is not expensive if you know where to shop and avoid the expensive restaus and shops on La Croissette.

The Old One and I had another holiday at the apartment 2 years later and I fell head over heels again.  As we were on our own we explored a bit more of the country, driving up into the hills behind Grasse and exploring the Luberon, which had just become "Peter Mayle Country".

House prices, even then, were well beyond our reach.  We were told that bargains could still be picked up in the Var, but somehow Provence and all that it brings with it - harsh winters, hot summers and the dreaded Mistral - didn't really appeal to me from a "living here permanently" point of view.  Great for holidays and seeing how the other half lives, but not for living.

Nope!  Definitely not!  Let's try further north.  Where?  Burgundy!  Yes lets!   We did and,  yet again, it didn't really appeal.  Lovely villages.  Beautiful rolling hills covered in vines.  It's bound to have great weather as it's one of the most famous wine regions in the world.

What?  Cold winters?  The wind whistles down through the valleys to help create the Mistral?  Oh gawd!  OK let's try further west, but NOT the Dordogne. That's Little Britain.

We did the Champagne region (hmm - good idea but we don't think so), we did the Loire (too far north and way way too expensive - commuter land).  We did Annecy in the Alps where it rained solidly for what seemed like weeks, we were camping and I was 3 months pregnant.  That ruled that out!

2 years later we took off for a month in a van with The Young One strapped into her car seat and an even bigger tent in the back.  It rained and it rained and we drove further and further south to escape it.  We started in the Loire again and actually started viewing houses, but the prices were even more horrendous than last time and the rain put us off.

We chased the sun down to Montpellier and La Grand Motte, the Camargue, sun, sea, sand, white horses and sea salt.  Yes, there is a certain something, but I really do not like the spartanness which is similar to Provence.

10 days later we started north because it had started to rain (again).  We stumbled upon a camp site on the banks of the Ardeche near the Gorge.  This is more like it!  Rolling hills, trees,  far enough south to get the good summers, but not as hot as further south.  Oh Gawd!  Look at those prices!

House prices were beginning to rise.  We were buying all those English "French lifestyle" magazines and knew it was going to be now or never.  The Young One was 2 years old.  We had another year of kindergarten before we had to make up our minds to get her into the local primary school, or spend a fortune and register her for the Reception class at the expensive, but very good, prep school where she was already in the kindergarten.  This would mean us working flat out for the rest of our lives.  Definitely not what we envisaged.

Decisions, decisions, decisions.

Oh well, let's go to the French Property Exhibition at Hammersmith again, start making serious enquiries and see what happens.

Which we did.

And this is what we found.

The self same picture.

That's it.  That's the one!  And look at the price.  We can afford that. And it's huge.

Lets book an RDV and drive out and see it.  We're going ski-ing with friends at Easter, we could see it then, after the ski trip.

Where is it?  Aarrghhhh.  The Dordogne!  Oh pffff.  Let's chance it.

We did.  April 1998 saw us driving in a snow storm from Bourg St Maurice in the Savoie , across the Massif Centrale, towards Périgueux and a part of France as yet unchartered.

We saw the house in a hail storm, with hail stones the size of golf balls.  We fell in love.

Main house habitable?  Check.  Lots of storage space?  Check.  Big enough to run the dreamed of B&B?  Check (look at those bathrooms).  Land?  Check.  Swimming Pool?  CHECK!  And it's got a cottage to restore.  Definitely check!

We signed the Compromis de Vente (the contract between us and the sellers saying we wouldn't pull out) and drove back to the UK whooping like school kids.

We put our house on the market, told the school TYO would not be returning in September, The Old One was already semi-retired so he didn't have to do much and I forewarned my boss that I would be going on holiday in August and not coming back!

We sold our 2 up 2 down with a postage stamp garden in West Sussex for a good price, the removal van appeared, we packed up, and the rest, as they say, is history.

11 years on life is still good, The Young One is more French than English and we have never ever regretted the decision.

I did do B&B for about 4 years, but juggling summer with guests and friends was exhausting and we stopped doing it.  I now look after a gite across the lane for friends and that suits me just fine.

We've had our run in's with the French health system, the tax system and various other bureaucrats, but who hasn't.  The French have their way of doing things, as do the English.  When in Rome do as the Roman's do (and don't whinge in public if you don't like it.   There are ferries back to the UK every day).

We have built up a great circle of friends - some have crossed our path, some via the internet.  We mix with the French and the English, go to the soirées at the salle de fêtes and have helped with the vendange.

I taught English for 3 years at the local primaire when The Young One was there, but gave it up when she moved up to collége.

I've somehow managed to get myself on to a sort of Committee for the collége, set up to welcome English parents and their children to the area and to provide a helping hand.  Goodness only knows why, but I felt that everyone was so supportive to us, especially the French, that it is a way of putting back into the community.

And in between all of that, I quilt, The Old One does his DIY (the cottage is still not restored) and we spend our summers mowing the lawn, entertaining friends and swimming.  Who could ask for more!


Oh.  Just one more thing.  Why did we move?  Well - wouldn't you if you were worried about the education system in the UK, were sick to death of working just to keep the child minder in chocolate biscuits and wanted a better life for your daughter?

Just think - if we hadn't moved I wouldn't have started quilting (no time), would probably be whinging blogging about life and the education system in the UK and wouldn't have "met" any of you lot.

So that's why we moved to France.  Hope it's answered some of your questions.

Now if you'll excuse me I've got a garden to tend to.

By the way - if you have a spare 5 minutes, can you cross your fingers. TYO has got her Brevet Blanc (Mock GSCE's) today and tomorrow. As I type this she has just finished her French Dictée.  It's also her 15th birthday.  15!  I can't believe it.

I love it!

I really love it!

The quilts are gorgeous (especially a certain one on page 123).  The Checkerboard Medallion on page 63 really caught my eye.  Actually most of the quilts in that chapter have.

I have to say that I'm not a huge basket fan.  Somehow they don't "do it" for me, but Gwen's are gorgeous to look at.

I haven't had a chance to read it through properly yet.  Why is it that when you want to sit down with a cuppa and Gwen for a couple of hours all hell breaks loose and you end up charging round the countryside doing errands.

I've done a bit more on Halloween Houses.

Try as I might, I cannot get the cobweb quilting to show.  See if you can see it by clicking on the photos.

I've got a bit more to do on the centre - words, etc - and then I can start on the outside.  I think this could just be finished in time for Halloween 2010.

On a more serious note (and quite sad actually), at French class yesterday we had to read, translate into English and then discuss in French a letter written by Guy Môquet to his family before he was shot by the Germans.  Very very sad.


You can read about Guy Môquet here and a copy of the letter here.  Don't click on the last link if your French is not good.  The English version can be found here.

 I do vaguely remember Mr le President trying to get the Lycées to read this letter out to the students at each rentrée in September, but the teachers refused.

Right- Périgueux beckons.  Yet another day gone without reading Gwen!

Small Beginnings

The production line had to be kick started again..

The Foreman took a week off, the sewing machines (yes you did read that right - machines) sulked and one sulked so much it had to be refurbished and given a new motor and foot pedal - I'd worn them out!

A bit sad really as the foot pedal was so comfy - a lovely old Singer Bakelite one has been replaced by a grotty plastic one (sigh).  The original motor was a lovely dusky pink (the same colour as the machine) and has been replaced by a yukky white one.  But the machine is happy and is Sing-ing (geddit!) again.

During the Foreman's enforced break, there was a bit of stashbuilding.

I couldn't believe my eyes!   At the fabric warehouse, which now gets my custom on a regular basis, there were some end of bolts at 5€ (yes 5!) a metre.  Now what girl could resist that!

Most of it wasn't really my sort of thing, but the one on the left and the one peeking out on the far right jumped out at me and had to come home.  The batik on the right is soooo scrummy - Mmmmmmmmmmmm!

The colours haven't come out very well - camera was getting used a lot last week and wasn't very happy either!  Anyway, those solids are yummy scrummy too.  Slurp!  The yellow is more greeny and looks fantastique with the blue.

Ok, so there was some stashbuilding last week and that kick started the production line again.

So small beginnings.

The first wonky 9 patch for Blueberry Fool

and a lot of cutting up!

Poor old rotary cutter - it's not at all happy with me.

On the family front, The Young One has got to be vaccinated against the H1N1 (oink oink) virus.  As per usual, the school issued the forms 24 hours before they had to be handed back.  It makes me So Cross when they do that! Especially when you've got to translate the damn thing and double check what you are signing, let alone sign everything in triplicate.  (OK so that is a bit of an exaggeration, but not far off seeing as this IS France, the country of the bureaucrat!).

Forms are filled in and ready to be given back to the school this afternoon when I pick The Young One up.  At least that gives me an excuse to pop in on a friend for a cuppa and a natter.

I'm heading back to the machines and the rotary cutter (note to self - buy new blades).

A bientôt :-)

Wordless Wednesday

Picking Up Speed

The internet problem (see previous post) still hasn't been resolved, but I'm missing blogging so much I thought I'd give it a go and see how long it takes for me to post (so far 30 minutes waiting for the New Post page to load!). Not a lot of quilting going on (well there is, but I can't show anything or talk about it as it's a surprise so ssshhhhh) so I thought I'd see if the photo uploader works and show you some photos I've taken over the last week or two.

First off. St Front, Cathedral, Périgueux I love the different shades of light in this one. I tried converting it to black and white, but it didn't work so well. Next up. A sort of black and white study. Two ladies chatting in the main square in Périgueux. I cropped the photo to take out most of the grillage in the background (some huge marquees were being erected for the Marché du Gras). Last, but by no means least. Taken in Périgueux the same day. I love the blue and the white. Gives the photo a sort of Cuban/South American feel.

That was the last really hot day we had. Since then its been badly needed rain with accompanying thunderstorms and Autumn has arrived overnight. Strange how that happens. One minute you're in shorts and t-shirts, the next jeans and a sweater! Actually, there is something sort of quilt related. The Liberated Quilters Yahoo! group has taken off. We are up to about 140 members and growing daily. Heigh ho - this post has taken over an hour to load (including hitting the publish button by mistake), so I suppose I had better go and get something achieved today. Will be back soon.

Wordless Wednesday

Wordy Wednesday

Found in paving stones in a street in Périgueux - please don't ask me to translate!

Wordless Wednesday - c'est la saison

Wordless Wednesday - Bordeaux

Wordless Wednesday