Friday, February 7, 2014

Janvier 2014





Well, it has been a very pleasant few days down here in Le Sud du France. Pleasant as in sun, sea, Syrah and serenity. We wish you were here to share this beautiful situation with us.

The trip back was smooth and easy except for a miscalculation to the sat nav. It had us heading southwest to Bordeaux instead of south to Languedoc.  Human intervention was required to straighten

 that not so kind voice out. We reached our overnight destination of Beaune and found the Carrefour for a late snack and then straight to sleep after a long day. Jake was glad to take a couple of walks and start the recalibration process. His clock gets terribly confused. Breakfast (l’petit de juener) was a delight with fresh (proper) croissants and all the trimmings. You know you are having a proper croissant when butter flakes the size of quarters fill your plate. Not wasted though as a bit of buerre or fromage will pick it right up.

Buxy Cave
About 30km down the road, we stopped at Buxy to stock up on Burgundy/Bourgogne wine for us and our friends here.
Burgundy wine is very different from Languedoc wine due to the raisin and the terrior. In Burgundy, Pinot Noir is predominant while in our region, it is predominantly Syrah but complemented by about 20 other raisins. We bought two cases mixed of Mercurey, Givry, Aligote, and Chardonnay. Feeling good about our choices, (of course we had degusted all) we beat a beeline to Alignan.

Arriving about sundown, we had to restart the vieux maison. Electricity was a pushbutton on the meter and water and gaz is just a twist of the poignee. Having been closed for three months, the old house had reached its coldest point. We started the clim (climatisation or heat pump) and waited. Seemed like a long time went by and it was still blowing cold air. I panicked and call Regis who installed the clim. In true French fashion, he simply said “demain matin”. I should have expected that! In about twenty more minutes, the clim started blowing warm air so I called Regis back and told him not to come. He told me it takes a long time for the gases in the clim to get going.

La Hacienda
After a couple days rest, it was time to get in the swing of things with a “Burns Supper”. It is a celebration of the Scottish poet Robert Burns. It is traditionally held on his birthday, the 25th of January. Our group usually has it at someone’s home, but this year we had it at La Hacienda on the rd. as John MacKenzie opined, “It is only in Southern France  that you can have a Burns night supper at a Spanish restuarant called the L'hacienda, and they make their own Haggis, to a recipe handed down through the centuries, as, of course, El Syd, aka, Charlton Heston, hired Scottish mercenaries  to fight against the moors or whoever,  and it was they who introduce the Spanish to Haggis  or the other way around. So the Haggis will have a Spanish  flavour, a bit of bulls blood , and perhaps a bit of the bulls testies! You know the old joke! We are also having Scottish dancing, no doubt with a Spanish flavour, so there will be the Gay Manuel's , strip the olive, and the dashing white seƱor. I am certainly looking forward to what should be a great evening.” After that description, who could resist?


Of course full Scottish regalia is suggested. Peter, Robert and I donned our kilts and otherwise
La Madame
muttered in Gaelic occasionally. Of about 50-60 in attendance, I think two smaller tables were probably Scottish, but our table was totally British (except us) and the center table was French. Diane and Jose, our hosts, put on a splendid show commencing with music from bagpipes, elbow pipe, fiddles, drums and guitar. I am sure the music was authentic but it sounded very Irish to me. Ancient Scottish dances followed with volunteers from the audience. Most were reels or “square dance” in nature but it was curious to see the French try to make sense of it.


Before the meal, we had the usual addresses or toasts. First the guests are piped in with the bagpipe, quite informally as everyone arrives. A welcome address is given by the host or other dignitary. Before the first course , the Selkirk Grace is offered, then the supper starts with Cockaleekie soup. Then the haggis is piped in with its processional and the address to the haggis read. 
Menu

Finally we can eat. Our meal started with Finnan Haddie (fishcake) followed by haggis, filet de bouef, tatties (potatos) and neeps (turnips). We had “gravy” for the haggis which is a wee dram of highland whisky poured directly over the warm haggis. Then a creamy fruit dessert finished off the meal but not the evening.
Who let him in?
Robert and Warrick
Fine Fettle

More traditional dancing ensued to the delight of the French. Then a local Scot dignitary read the address to the lassies which required another wee dram. When the cheering quieted down, a fine Scots lass then read the address to the ladies. You guessed it, another wee dram. More piping and fiddles led into the sword dance which was ably performed by the last still upright Scot. Jose tried his luck but the swords kept moving on him til he left the stage. A great evening in the South of France came to a close as finally the host calls on one of the guests to give the vote of thanks, after which everyone is asked to stand, join hands, and sing Auld Lang Syne (a Robbie Burns original)bringing the evening to an end. We paid a modest bill of 40€ each and said we couldn't wait til next year.

Meanwhile back at the ruin, it takes about a week to get the chill off the house, even there are cold spots and each opening of an outside door loses a couple of hours progress. Not that it is that cold here. Lows have been generally in low-mid forties and highs in low to mid fifties. Wind and rain can make it feel colder and soleil can make it feel great. 

It is super pleasant to be back as each villager will smile, speak first, ask about our vacance and just welcome us back. All in French! But we love it. It is a life filled with such simple pleasures. No pretension or faux facades. Jake has his people friends and they come to him to greet him when they see him. They may not know our name but they all know “Jacque”. 

Even the old ruin is filled with surprises that we enjoy here but not in USA. I had forgotten how nice a hot towel is when getting out of the shower. Towel dryers (serviette sechoir) are standard here while I have seen few if any in USA. Fresh markets 100 meters from your door and fresh daily bakery is extraordinary and so great. Our plants did reasonably well under our new skylights in the conservatory however we have discovered the skylights are leaking quite badly. 

Walks in the vines take you completely away from most everything. The vines look pitiful this time of year. The cutting seems to be ahead of schedule even though there was a late harvest. The vines that have been cut look absolutely naked while those not yet cut look a straggly tangle of dormant twigs. My neighbor brought me a bottle of the first wines from last fall and told me to drink it now because it won’t be good very long. Typical of the first wines of a season.

Before
Before
On Tuesday, the artisans who specialize in restoring old floors started grinding and cleaning the floors in the salle manger and cuisine (dining room and kitchen). It was much slower than they thought as they worked an extra day on hands and knees grinding 
away.
They cleaned it 4 times to remove all the dust and locked it  up with the clim set to dry. A day and a half later they tested it with a meter and deemed it ready for resine. They add two coats of resine followed by three coats of “cire acrylique” (acrylic wax).


It is somewhat difficult to appreciate the difference unless you had seen and felt the floors beforehand. The results are outstanding and while I personally may not have chosen that pattern, they look great and original to the 170 year old house.
Renewed floor in Dining room





Friday night, we headed off to Ken and Alison’s Thai night. They are an American couple from Seattle that run a catering and theme dinner business in Pouzolle. As usual, the food was great and our group had a dining room to ourselves. There were 14 of the usual plus some folks whom we had met before. Ken had polished up his hot chile expertise and two of the dishes caught us off guard with whole chiles to keep you awake. We are scheduled back there on the 15th for fish and chips.

No comments:

Post a Comment