Winter

Normally the marie is ablaze with colour, with fountains to cool you as you enjoy the flowers. But this is winter.

By mobile, on the hoof.
Terry

Chocolate

It is a rare day when Terry is in the kitchen, but today happens to be such a day. You can see in the picture, a hollow chocolate heart. And between us we made it at home.

Several people must be mentioned in the credits:
Clare for the bainmarie.
Bernadette for the mould kit & instruction book.
And June for the suggestion that I put it in the fridge!

You see, after a lot longer than the book said, I finally had 2 moulds with chocolate inside. I clipped them together and waited the required time. And then I opened the halves expecting to see the heart shape as the picture. But what I saw was 2 hearts stuck in the moulds! It was June who suggested putting it in the fridge, and to my amazement, when I opened the moulds one half stayed stuck to the other. With a bit of tapping, the whole appeared in my hand.

Rescued!

I hid the blemish on the underside.

Merci Bernadette, ceci est le premier result de ton cadeau! Amazement que c'est Terry qui as le produire.

Par mobile
Terry

Feed the Birds

June has been feeding the birds. This is quite usual, but today you can see evidence of the number of visitors.
Par mobile,
Terry

Renoir and Napoleon

Not contemporaries you understand. Napoleon 1769 – 1821. Renoir 1841–1919. So they probably never met. However, as a tourist you can meet them (or what is left of them) in one and the same day. Especially as Napoleon is on the way to Renoir from here.
It is winter and the forecast was not too promising. So we picked Essoyes which is 90 minutes drive away and famed for it's resident named Renoir.
The day was fine and bright but as we drove out through the villages, there was clear evidence of snow that had fallen in the night. Still, the roads were completely clear until we turned through a village where the road was mostly in shaddow. Here we drove over snow. Then, about 15km from our goal, small snow flakes began to fall. By the time we reached Essoyes, the flakes were large and fluffy, and since it was 12:15, most places were closed for lunch.
But it was mild, and we took a pleasant walk in the snow round the very picturesque village. Clearly the river was very swollen, and the village made the most of its painting heritage, as you should be able to see from these photos. You should also be able to see the snow which made the experience quite romantic.

La Belle Gabrielle - Nanny and frequent model

Free exhibition in the village

The swollen river surged through the village.

Giraffe for Clare

Since there was so much snow, we vowed to return and so avoid getting trapped. But first we bought some 'local specialities' from the boulangerie. This turned out to be a bread baked with a ham and cheese topping, a bread-cheese loaf, and the baker threw in 2 donuts. Oh, we have those in England, we said. Ah, these are made with 'brioche', he replied. And so they were, sugared, but with no jam!
The snow was still falling as we set off, but within 10 minutes it had stopped (or we drove out of it) and the sun came out. We stopped near a river and had tea. The thermometer in the car reached 6 degrees, the best all day. The way back went past Brienne-le-Chateau, Napoleon's old haunt, and since the sun was still out, we decided to stop and go for a stroll.

Journal de l'Empire 1808

The main attraction at Brienne is the Chateau, visible for miles around, and the museum dedicated to Napoleon. We have never visited the museum, and have seen the Chateau only from the closed gates a long way away. Today, however, we met an old boy who offered to tell us about the area.
Apparently this man's ancestor was one of Napoleon's generals who fought along side him in several battles.  Since there are hundreds of these persons, and many were killed, this could be almost anyone, but it was an interesting tale. The old boy claimed that 'He slept in the building to the right of the chateau'. Then he pulled out a document from a large roll in his pocket. 'The 1808 news' he said, 'with news of England too'.

Monday 3 Octobre 1808, Journal de l'Empire - in faded green, dry, and ragged paper.

He then told us we could walk in the chateau grounds, something we had not dared to do before, so that's what we did next.

Napoleon's Chateau at Brienne

The General's House

Click to enlarge the English report,
use 'mouse-over' for a translation.

We had never been this close to the building before. There are good views from here as it is on the highest point for miles around. There were other people clearly passing through, like the jogger, but others appeared to be more likely to be users of the complex.
The chateau and general's house are now the office buildings of the mental hospital built in the grounds.
We escaped the security gate at the entrance, still wondering how to look 'normal' as we passed, and wended our slow way home; with just one more stop in the sun in a village and another cup of tea.

I bet Renoir and Napoleon didn't drink as much tea as we English do.

Laces in the dining room

I moved the telly.
Unless we were prepared to have a trailing wire across the floor, it had to be done. We have TV over the internet and the interned is the other side of the room to be near the telephone socket.
But now I had loose wires at the back of the TV just where we walk into the dining room. Then I remembered a skill I was taught over 20 years ago. Looming, or wire lacing. I have to say I am rather pleased with the result.

Wires tamed

Spare in a loop

The loop is to take up the spare SCART wire where it was too long.

No trip hazard, nor falling-off connections.

Job done.

Puzzle this out

So did we ever finish the puzzle? Well 'yes' and 'no'.
We put all the pieces in. All that we had that is, and all that had a place to go.
We were left with 1 spare piece and 4 holes. The spare piece did not fit in any of them.

Puzzle plus 1 minus 4 (the arrows are my later addition...)

In fact I found where the spare piece went but we had to remove a piece to put in in, the two were identical.
Someone has 4 of our pieces and we have one of theirs!

Horse Honesty

As you can see, here in our local supermarket there is no shame in selling horse (cheval). June says it is because they treat the horses differently here, but I think it is for the same reasons the French will eat frogs and snails.
Just round the corner, you can see skinned rabbits, otherwise whole and looking very rabbit-like (photo suppressed to protect the squeamish). In short, the French are neither squeamish nor fussy.
The only question remains, is it hormone-filled English meat or not? the packet does not say!
By mobile
Terry

Earrings

Some time back, some weeks back? June lost an earring. It had to be where we had just been and we walked back and forth over our tracks but without success.
Still, she kept the other earring in her handbag 'just in case'.
Today has been 'clean the basement day' and as I put the hoover over the floor I suddenly stopped myself hoovering up a shiny object. I knew what it was immediately, although it was a little flattened - see first photo.

Before

Just a little tweaking brought it back into shape, although we don't have the back any more.

After

What is puzzling is that the basement was never an area we searched. Did the earring get caught in clothing (we did check at the time) and then dropped on the way to the washing machine. Or was it stuck to the underside of a slipper?
Budding Homes' may be able to tell from these photos. Answers on an email please.....

Puzzles

We found some puzzles and decided to do the 1500 piece one first. It took some time as you can imagine and I photographed the result to remember the effort.

1500 - completed

So we set about the 'easier' 1000 piece one. Humm. It is the first puzzle I have done where the edge pieces were harder than the other bits. Even as I write it is not finished. At least, the blue part isn't.

1000 hard

Anyone want to come and help?