Saumur market

We went to the market in Saumur on Saturday with Liz and Laure. Sensational.
It's in a lovely small square planted with tall shady trees. I know it's a cliché but boy, French markets are so good.I must admit I'm a complete foodie so to see people who care so much about their produce brings me close to tears. The gorgeous cheese man with the giant gallic nose selling 'Tomme du vache fumé', the sweet little blonde girl selling fresh milk, butter, fromage frais battu and fresh cheese all from her own cows. The handsome man selling only stawberries and what strawberries. Like Chanel number 5 in chunk form the Maras des bois are a sensation that must be experienced.Liz and Laure are best friends. As they walk through the market at Saumur, laughing and joking everyone smiles and nods; those girls have good karma. They are true to French form (even though Liz is actually an Aussie) and do that very French thing of talking about the next meal even before you've finished the last one. Here they are trying out the plums from the Very-French-Dude near the fountain. You'de never even see plums this ripe in the supermarket...too soft to transport.Here they are with their favourite bloke. Ricado the magnificent. (Just don't mention roses and thorns!)Here are a few French doggies to keep you amused too...
We sat at a wonderful café and ate lunch watching the passing parade and I had that feeling that if I died now, that would be just fine, I would have had a great life.

Bouchemaine brocante

On the weekend we made a pilgrimage to a place called Bouchemaine. It's on the river Maine very near where it joins the Loire (thus this department we are in is called the Maine et Loire). Here's me looking like a prig out swinging my French shopping basket and matching my surrounds.
There was to be a 'vide grenier' which translates into 'empty your attic'. In Australia it would be a garage sale, in England a boot sale. It's one of our favourite things to do here and is a good reason to get up early on a Sunday. We knew it was going to be big and boy was it ever. Over 700 stalls and everyone from miles around had come for a bargain.
And yes we DID. A wonderously thick and huge linen sheet, a bike rack to take Jaques Anquetil home and a fabulously tacky cork picture of a palm tree. We spread the linen sheet out under a poplar tree, ate moules (well Ricardo did, I just ate the) frites and watched the amazing passing parade. It was fascinating observing what different people had bought. From the huge green soft toy crocodile that a little girl lugged along which was as big as she was, to two men wheeling a very large birdcage. It was a perfect day and everyone was happy to be out in it. There was a great air of holiday and these guys helped with their slightly off key songs played on hunting horns.
Just in case you thought their pants were tight....here's a back view.Oh and by the way. I HAVE been working too.
I've never really uphlstered anything before but Liz's friends Mirjam and Franc asked me could I re-cover some dining chairs for them. I had no idea whether they would work and I'm always incredibly nervous about delivering these things to people but with a hot glue gun and a bit of a hand from Ricardo, the first one worked out a treat so hey..... now I'm the Queen of double piping.
So at last I can sit under the Lime tree with a glass of wine and take a big deep breath.
Now for the next five chairs....

Saumur and Aubigné

On the weekend we went to a Brocante or boot sale at Saumur, a town not far from here right on the Loire. The first year we came here we went to the same one and got great bargains . This year we didn't really need a badger umbrella standor a stuffed red squirrelWe did have a lovely lunch though and a chance to do some more market research on Ile Flottante .... this time Ricardo was the taster.
Afterwards we went to a festival of wine art and music at a nearby village called Aubigné. The area around Aubigné on the Layon river is famous for a wonderful dessert wine called Coteau du Layon. This year at their féte they had a font made specially by an Italian sculptor named Claudio Parmiggiani that dispensed the wine. Here Ricardo got to be the taster again..... In most of the photos lately you may notice that Ricardo wears a rather charming hat. It was given to him by my lovely sister for his birthday and never a more perfect present has there been. He hates taking it off to sleep and always leaves it somewhere where he can see it first thing on awakening. So you can imagine our suprise and delight when we bumped into an equally stylish stranger who happened to be wearing the same hat! It is indeed a small world.

Wedding bells at La Fosse

Well there's been quite a mood of expectation around here. Liz's friends who live across the road Patrick & Helene's daughter Constance was getting married on Saturday. Preparations were long and involved.
The local Church looked amazing, decorated completely with white flowers. There were some amazing outfits most of which I was too shy to photograph but I did get this shot of the most Parisienne woman I've ever seen. All in black with dark glasses, hair in Princess Leya ear buns, smoking a long cigarette and with two tiny matching dogsAs the wedding progressed, her partner had to look after the dogs and looked mightily hot and peeved.We hung out the window of the top house waiting for Patrick & Constance to come around the corner with the horse and carriage and finally they came. What is it about a wedding that makes you involuntarily sob? Especially at the sight of a horse and carriage. Patrick looked so proud and Constance looked like a vision of loveliness.
More sobbing as they wound their way back out of the village to Uncle Gerard's Chateau for the reception.
So.... we tried to decide whether we'd rather these two horses
or these two horses.Over a game of Yarnuff, a bottle of wine and some steamed artichokes we decided the latter.

Frenzy and calm

It's been all sytems go 'round here at La maison du bonheur. Liz has her first proper guests coming to stay here today (Saturday), as there is a trés important wedding happening in the village.
She and Ricardo (and even yours truly) have been slaving away for 10 or more hours a day all week to get at least one room up to scratch. As part of the preparations we made some gorgeous tranparent natural coloured linen curtains for the room. As an even more important step we had to make up a workshop to sew them in. Oh my....who could wish for a more romantic workshop. Painted a pale purpley colour with sea grass matting that makes the whole room smell just wonderful. Liz realised she had a spectacular machine tucked away in the cupboard especially for pressing things. Ooh la la, that added to the wonderous smells emanating from our end of the house. Here's yours truly relishing the ironing for a change.
This is it from the outside. It's the open window on the left.
And one more picture of inside all set to go.
Meanwhile in the business end of the house, the others were as busy as Santa's elves. Painting, putting in cupboards and skirting, scrubbing all the painty bits off the new bathroom.


And then finally unwrapping the bed and titivating. (The best part)
Here's Liz absolutely rooted.
And finally, finally the long awaited and well earned champagne on the terrace where we could sit and watch the swallows on the same level as us.
So here it is with great pleasure I bring to you the most tasteful, the most restful place in the whole of the Maine et Loire.

Balloons near Anger

The other night we went on an adventure to see if we could find the european ballooning championships that are happening here at the moment...we did. Balloons are called 'Montgolfiers' here after the Montgolfier brothers