I just didn't want to get out of bed this morning. It isn't like the bed is comfy or anything. In fact, it is anything but. The mattress AND base are both coming apart at the seams, and I have had to stuff old pillows (the first ones we were given, in fact) under my side of the mattress to stop me falling out of bed when I roll over. At least it makes this double bed somewhat flat.:)
So, the tea has been made and it is rapidly getting cold. Waz is sitting at the dining table in his Jammies without a sweater. The weather has suddenly turned much colder in the mornings, and the wind has a real bite to it. We put more wood on the fire before going to bed, last night, in the vain hope that it would still be going in the morning. Such luck didn't come our way!
At 7.15 I rose and sat on the sofa which is actually a double sofa bed in disguise, and we all know how comfortable THOSE are to sit on, don't we? Like sitting on a board! So, with a cushion on my lap for some semblance of warmth, a sweater on and a cup of cooling tea in hand, I contemplated the day. The sun was shining, which was a good start. Getting dressed after the last drops of tea had been absorbed....I am always dehydrates first thing....meant taking clothes off, in order to put others on...so do it quickly! We welcome the cold...well, the cool, perhaps...knowing we are returning to heat in Brunswick in the not too distant future.
Today was supposed to be a work day, and Waz is out there doing his thang....I refuse to be in the work space with so many machines going, today. Ray is up there installing the new radiators, so he has concrete drills and other things going on. The wall he is doing the installation on has not had a final coat of paint...bah! but too bad!
I came into the Medieval Dining Room (aka the Computer room to us) to contact my youngest who is currently unemployed...has been for a while...and a source of some anxiety for me, being on the other side of the world. After chatting to him. and getting him to phone my Mom, as it is her birthday today..87!!! Happy Birthday Mum!, I had a chat with my sister on IM on FB because she is asleep right now, so it was a bit one sided....but I answered her mail, in which she told me she is ill....and being a Teacher, this is the beginning of the school year and it is hardly surprising she brought the lurgy home with her. Her Hubby has had it too! Bah!
Oh, somewhere in there I put a load of laundry on, which is in the next room or corridor. The instructions are all in French, of course, so I know which button to press on the washer, but Waz usually turns the dryer on for some strange reason, and I needed to go and find him and admit that I had pressed ALL the buttons on the drier and nothing happened, and which button SHOULD I press....ok..all sorted. Done and dusted. Dryer is whirring away as I write.
It has just occurred to me, while sitting here , that my feet have actually frozen solid. I am wrapped up in a fleece blanket, but I have sandals on..duh! I hear you say! :) Yes, exactly! I didn't wrap the feet also! Perhaps I will pause here, to do so.
Of the two cats that reside at the Chateau, whitey or Darius, as he is normally known, comes around for love...well, I think that is what he comes around for. It might be for the possibility of food...he IS a cat, after all, but I like to think it is because he gets affections.
His little collar bell tinkles away at the door and we know we have our feline visitor.
Now, I want to tell you about the food we ate yesterday....it is not, however accompanied by a photograph. This is a major oversight on my part, you would rightly think. I will do my best to describe it for you.
We had gone into Guer (ger, not grrrr) to find our Architect friend Pierre Le Blanc, who is a friend of Ernie, our host, who also knows his Mom and Dad and all the aunts and uncles too, it appears...I digress....
We knocked on the door of Monsieur Le Blanc, who graciously let us enter. His English is moderately good, even though he begged poor...and we managed to have a conversation that ended with him speaking English and me speaking French..hahahaha! what a joke!
Anyway...after that encounter, where we made an appointment to visit with him next week, Monday at 2pm...I will remember it if I write it down!!!....French like to make appointments! Not so much this casual 'drop in and see you ' kind of appointment!
Yes, after that encounter, we ambled back to the car and I spied the Patisserie where we had enjoyed a morning café crème...well, I tell a lie...we didn't enjoy the café, so much as the pastry.
We ordered a Café crème, which was fine, but the crème was not hot milk because they didn't have a presse. Just a domestic coffee thang. The pastry I ordered that day was a Millefeuille for Waz, who had not had a proper one. In English it is called a Napolean, which is rubbish, because Napolean had nothing to do with it. He was deeply satisfied with my choice for him, while I chose an Opera. The latter has a café crème ganash between thin layers of spongecake that looks like it has been put under a rolling pin...it may well have been! but...it had chocolate on top, which was most important, you understand!
Now, I get to the REAL story of he pastry. Yesterday, we returned for another pastry to take home to have with the beverage of our choice.
I chose a Rocher. You know those chocolates you can get in the supermarket call Rocher>?? the ones that look like little bombs, covered in chocolate with nuts?? Well, this was a LARGE one. Yes, about the size of a small tennis ball (bomb), with a flat bottom to hold it steady. It was a delightful and delicious and very mooooorish hazelnut ganash filled bomb covered in dark chocolate with nuts enclosed. I love the way the French say this...Enrobed en Chocolat noir! Makes it even more sexy. I'm not sure that eating it is sexy at all, as we got a lot of it all over our faces and had to eat it with a fork, and made distinct animal feeding noises while savoring every mouthful....got the picture??
Oh! and I also bought a passionfruit slice of goodness but it had nothing of the same delight in the mouth that the Rocher had. Too bad! But C'est la Vie, as they say here. That is life!
I also purchased at the same patisserie, because it was right there under my nose as I parted with the very few euros for the pastries....a pain viennoise. This is like a baguette, only made with brioche dough and with dark chocolate incorporated into the dough. It is very yummy! I can tell you that much. I did need to be able to enclose it in the bag, so we had to sample it first:) yeah riiiight!
You might think we would be putting on copious weight, through all this sampling of the local wares, but we have both, in fact lost about 5lbs a piece! It is all the hard work, and the fact that the pastries do not have as much sugar...well, ALL the food doesn't have all the sugar that American food has in it. That is our excuse and we are sticking to it.
Now, you might have been wondering why we need to go and see an Architecte (yes, the French has an e at the end) ???? Well, when we were walking around the lake at Carentoir the other day...remember I posted a photo of this house??? Well, it appears that it is the house that our Architect friend designed and built for his parents! woohoo! Of course Ernie, our host, knows these folks...didn't I already say that??
So, we were anxious to find out what building such a lovely thing would cost, in these parts. Apparently the parents paid about 80k euros for the land...1 1/2 acres on the lake (well, there is public land in front, but not much) and the house, 230 sm of it, cost around 380k euros to build, without the landscaping.
We were delighted to find these photos of the house in his window! The back side of which we couldn't see from the lakeside. We were also delighted to know that the house is Geothermally heated. They drilled a large hole and the rest is heat! whoohoo! This is very exciting to us, as we would like to be able to do the same thing.
I don't know that there is any more land on that particular lake, but we sure would love that outlook.
Do we want to come and live here??? Perhaps. We talk about living in all kinds of places, and being spoiled for choice, in our lives, we will just have to wait and see. Ernie suggested we pray over it, but we are action people and I think we will just write some lists of pros and cons and go with our guts and the economics of the whole thing, which usually informs our decisions. It should, shouldn't it?
Well, my feet have fallen off, and my fingers are threatening to do the same. It is also lunch time and I can hear the birds singing, so it must be warm enough outside to encourage such a thing.
Ciao for now. I might go and do some painting if the noise makers have gone.
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