Royon Concert on the Beach July 22

Wow Wow WOW!

Extraordinary!

Fabulous!

Incredible!

I had no idea what I was getting into last night. We were invited to a concert on the beach. I was not that excited about going because it was going to be so late and it was a 45 minute drive in each direction. The concert was scheduled to start at 10pm. I thought there would be a few boards thrown on the beach for a small group of musicians and there would be a bunch of people sitting on blankets or in chairs eating their picnic.

Boy was I surprised when we arrived at the beach. There was a huge stage with 2 huge screens with a mountain of speakers on each side of the stage. The stage was all lit up and had chairs for a full orchestra which would arrive later. We got there about 8pm, found an open spot on the beach, that was already fast becoming full and set up our picnic. The weather was perfect with a little sun, no wind and we had a great time talking and eating.

After eating, Anne and I walked around a bit and then we were ready for the start of the concert. 



 Oh my gosh we were absolutely blown away with the music. The orchestra was fantastic and the venue couldn't have been better. Below is the link to the website describing our event. If you scroll to July 22^nd that will be the concert we saw. Be sure and look at the stage to get an idea of what we were experiencing.

http://www.violonsurlesable.com/

You can get a translation on the website to English if you don't speak french!!!

In addition to the orchestra, they had special musicians to play and dance as well. There was a violin player, named Nemanja Radulovic who absolutely charmed the crowd. He began his career at age 10. played a 15 minute solo demonstrating high and low pitches and all sorts of different sounds. You could tell he and his instrument were one and he had a real passion for the violin. All the performers did. You could feel the vibration of excitement and love of their art. The magnificence of his expression on his instrument was amazing.

Mieko Miyazaki, a Japanese lady, played an instrument I've never seen called a Koto. It was very long and had strings and some frets. It had a very oriental sound and she made it come to life also demonstrating many different uses of the instrument. She was spell binding. She also sang with it too. Check out her website: http://www.miekomiyazaki.com/home.html

 

Tchaikowski's Swan Lake was performed with a ballet entourage of three performers. The ballerina Alice Renavand performed with 2 other men. Totally awesome. Julie Fuchs did some amazing solo work and there was also a medley of American musicals or movies that was wonderful as well. Near the end of the concert they played a piece that had a surprise at the end. They choreographed fireworks to finish the song. It was so cool. It was midnight by now and Anne and I thought the fireworks was the finale. However, they kept on playing bringing back the violin player to entice us to stay. The natives knowing the terrible traffic jam that would soon ensue, started ushering us out of the crowd and we walked on the backside of the grand stand where there were also speakers and a screen. So we got to enjoy a little more as we walked to the car. This concert really did entertain a lot of people.

We had such a wonderful time with music from Brahams, Rachmaninoff, a Cuban composer and many others in the company of good friends. My head is still swimming from the experience. I hope you take the time to listen to a little of the music by the violin player and Japanese lady. They were my favorite!

http://www.violonsurlesable.com/les-artistes-present-violon-sur-le-sable-royan.html

Ile de Re July 18^th

Again we forged thru the countryside in France and found our way to the Island of Ile de Re.  Did I tell you we have the use of their car here? They are so generous. Between the two of us, one as the driver and one as the navigator we seem to get to where we are going. This island is bigger than Ile d'Aix the first island we visited. We had quite an itinerary planned but of course it changed as the day moved forward. We did find a lovely market and bought some great cheese and bread. It's always fun for us to talk to the locals in french. Anne's french Canadian accent is recognized immediately and me they can't quite figure out. We try to find a vendor not too busy whom we can amuse. They are great interchanges. 

We were delighted to find an antique carousel at the the market. It was for children and powered by a man peddling on a bicycle seat in the middle. There was a little toy dog that was attached to the carousel and it ran around as he peddled. It was fun to see and the kids were having a great time. We walked around a bit and then had our picnic on a bench looking out at the ocean.

We finally decided to get on our way and drive to the light house where the beach was located. It was a beautiful drive and we happened upon an old abbey that we stopped to admire.

As we arrived the sky turned dark and within 10 minutes drops of rain began to fall. However, we continued our drive and found our way to the light house. We tried to find the beach from there but had trouble. So we stopped in the little town of La Riviere.

The town had all kinds of signs to the beach. We kept following signs and asking people but we never did find the beach. The little village was very pretty though and we loved absorbing the flavor of it. Many doors had a grape arbor over them. The vine was planted next to the door where there really isn't much ground or dirt showing. They must have been planted a long time ago and the street was then paved over. I wonder how they can keep growing. They were beautiful and I remember that grape vines have a root system that can go as deep as 6 feet. So I guess they know what to do!

Since we couldn't find the beach we stopped at a patisserie. We were advised to buy a “religieuse” which is basically a cream puff with chocolate or caramel filling double decker style. It was really good. I think we need to start having more french pastry!

www.theguardian.com  for a look at religieuses pastry.... drool...

We decided to drive back feeling a little frustrated not finding the beach. However, after about 5 minutes on the road I spotted a beach entrance. So I quickly pulled in and away we went for a stroll. We had thought about swimming but since it was late and there were no beach showers, we decided to walk the beach and see the war bunkers. Man those things are big. They don't look big from a distance but once you are near you are impressed by the size. We thoroughly enjoyed our beach walk on a near empty beach and then headed to Saint Martin de Re.

We took a short walk around the town and found a restaurant less frequented for dinner. Since there weren't many people at the restaurant we were wondering if the food was any good. We must have ordered the right
thing as it was fabulous. We both ordered the smoked salmon salad. It was beautifully presented having 2 spots of black caviar on a two lemon slices and a third splash of red caviar on a spoon of creme fraiche. It was so good. I'm glad the other tourists hadn't found this place.

Rain pelted down as we left and headed for home. What a glorious day.

Ile Madame Power Walk

July 21^st

We were up for a good hike so when asked if we would like to join the local walking club for an outing we said yes. It turned out to be quite an eye opener. We thought we would be hiking with a bunch of slow older hikers. Turns out we were the slow old hikers! Although both Anne and I are in good shape and walk/run on a regular basis, this group had us beat. When they whipped out their hiking poles, we thought it might be for balance. Turns out these 'batons' actually propel them forward and make their stride much more effective. We could hardly keep up. I finally had to do some jogging to keep up.

That was easier for me anyway. We both tried the batons for part of our journey. We felt quite inept with the strange poles in our hand. But we kept at it and felt a little better after about an hour of training. However, we ended up returning the poles and continued our fast walk/jog.

The place we went hiking was called Ile Madame. To access the island you have to wait till low tide when a path appears and you can walk across, bike across or drive across. The island is small and there is only one inhabitant. They do have a small industry on the island called Agricole. They make use of the sea to grow seafood like oysters and clams in some small ponds. There is also a small fort built in the 1700's to explore.
But the most interesting thing to see are all the fishing shanties on the shore that are mounted on stilts. Be sure to note the time of high tide or you will be stuck on the island for much longer than you intended! Not fun unless you want to walk around the island several more times. There's not much else to do.

We returned before high tide and walked a little longer on the shore line of the mainland. There was a neat little tidal swimming pool with a sandy beach. It even had a life guard!

Public toitlettes are few and far between. It's usually with good reason because most of them you wouldn't want to visit. So if you need to go, be sure and pack TP or do what I did. We passed a camp ground on the way back to the car. I just marched right in the front gate like I was a camper returning from my hike and used their facilities! It was a rather nice facility I must say – and very welcome after 3 hours on the trail!

Happy trails!

Here is a link to see the island. I'm not sure you can translate the page or not.

http://www.ilemadame.com/index.htm

Fireworks at Aigrefeuille July 14

Bastille Day Evening Fireworks in Aigrefeuille

It was time to celebrate Independence Day that evening. We joined up with some neighbors to go to a nearby town where the rugby team had organized a community dinner before the fireworks. We arrived about 8:30 and bought our tickets for dinner. They didn't have a lot of choice but the french fries were very appealing! You had your choice of sausage, ham or fresh oysters! Sides were local melon or a salad and dessert was ice cream bars. We sure had a good time with our group though. There was a stage with performers too who sang and danced.

With all the good music and some food in my stomach, the music called to me. So since we were on the edge of the crowd, guess who got up and started dancing! They all laughed hysterically. I thought I put on a pretty good show!  I even got Cloe (age 11) to dance with me. 

Fireworks were not far away on the edge of the small lake. So we had the reflection on the lake when the fireworks were shot in the sky. We all sat together and sang songs until it was time to see the exposition. Then it was time for the wave of people to disassemble to their cars. We were parked side by side with our friends so we were sitting in line on the road to exit for quite awhile. To amuse ourselves Robert put his ipad on the roof of his car with videos of us to watch. Then Anne and I played fire engine and jumped out of our car and jumped into their car. Anne sat on top of me and we had great fun with our frolic. Such a fun group a people made it all possible.

Bedtime was 12:30am.

Bastille Day July 14^th

Bastille Day is France's independence day. In 1789 the people of France stormed the Bastille prison where locals who had voiced any dissent of the higher classes were held. Being tired of the privileges of the church hierarchy and government, the people rebelled. They celebrate with fireworks as we do.

We celebrated by visiting the town of Sainte. They had a “vide Grenier” which is their flea market. It was held at a horse center. It was a lovely spot with large trees to wander around and visit all the vendors. And in the center there was a large wooden floor where where people were dancing. Imagine our surprise when we looked in the area and found people wearing cowboy hats and boots! They were all line dancing! They must have been a club because they were dancing pretty complicated steps. I only know the grapevine step! It was fun to watch them all dressed in western wear dancing to our western songs.

In addition to the flea market and the line dancers, they had an antique car show. They were pretty amazing cars. So after a small purchase at the flea market we went into the town center where there was another celebration going on.

Near the Charante River there was a celebration near a huge park. They had dancers from several countries giving demonstrations and music in different parts of the park. Fireworks would be shot off from there. However, since we had plans for different fireworks with some other people, we left and promised ourselves to return some day for further investigation. It was a beautiful town with neat buildings, the river and ancient ruins.

St Augustine

The World is a book and those who do not travel only read a page.

St Augustine

Biking on Ile D'Aix July 8th

Ile D'Aix July 8

We braved the France road system and arrived in La Rochelle, a port city on the Atlantic coast. We found the parking place and figured out the system for paying and took the little shuttle into town. I don't think I could have braved the traffic downtown to find a parking place and then be able to squeeze into it!

We had about an hour and a half to stroll around the city absorbing all the architecture and a church called Saint Soeur. On the street there were live “statues” that did their performance without moving a muscle. Somehow they were able to create the illusion they were suspended in air. I am still trying to figure it out. It was quite mystical. There costumes were pretty cool too but I can't think of anything more boring!

 Here is the portal for La Rochelle.  There is another similar building on the other side of the bay. 

We took a ferry to the island and had a wonderful boat ride that went around the Fortress of Broyard.  It was only one building sitting totally alone in the sea.

We grabbed a bite to eat to take with us and headed for the boat. We were taking a ferry to an island called Ile D'Aix. It took an hour on the boat and we saw a fortress on the way. The island is very small with one store and only a few cars are permitted. The main mode of transportation is bicycle.

You can just walk as well. They have a nice system of trails and we rented bikes to see the 7 kilometer island. There were several beaches for swimming if you were brave enough to go in the cold water. They also had places on the beach to taste the fresh oysters that are famous in this area. We didn't bother as we have them every week here at the house with our door to door delivery. Also on the island are old bunkers.

We passed a pleasant afternoon and then headed back to La Rochelle. We walked around again and decided it was happy hour. So we sat on the street like the french and had a glass of wine.

Quelle Bonne Journee!

Walking in the Fields July 12

Bertrand & Beatrice

For breakfast this morning, I prepare my angel biscuits. Sometimes it's difficult to find ingredients for my recipes. Buttermilk is one of those ingredients. But I do know a few tricks and made it work. Everyone loved them. For breakfast we serve fresh bread, fresh butter, homemade jams and jellies and a local creamy honey. In addition to the french bread that is bought every morning, we also serve some kind of American breakfast item. So today we served the angle biscuits with the homemade jams. Veronique loved them. Guess my biscuits are going viral! Ha.

After breakfast we went on a 2 hour walk with the neighbors- Bernard, Beatrice, Jules & Anotin. They showed us all the back roads to walk on and use for running. It's hard to find roads that are wide enough for 2 cars passing each other and a runner. So we try to find roads that are less frequented. You won't find many runners around here so people are always curious about us.

There are wild fruits trees everywhere and people just stop on the road and pick. We found wild cherry trees on our walk and had a little snack. It was fun walking between the fields of wheat and sunflowers. Nice, nice people.

Bernard and Beatrice have a great garden and chickens too. Their rooster likes to get us up in the morning. Ugh. I was using a room that was way to close to him so Anne and I switched since she can't hear him! Good exchange. The neighbors gave us some wonderful carrots. Yum. In the garden here we picked currants and next week will be gooseberries.  The weather is coastal so you have to always layer. It can be cold and then the next minute hot. This can happen many different times during the day.  There is quite a bit of rain too.  Snails are prolific. Maybe that is why they decided to eat them!

Swingo Pinceau Art Show

Swingo Pinceau July 10th

We went to a really neat art event called Swingo Pinceau.  We went with some friends (Domique, Patrice, Francette & Martine).  I like hearing all these different names.  We always have to ask people to repeat or spell their names so we get a better handle on them.  There was a 5 piece band that played gypsy-jazz music. Behind the band was an artist who created a piece of art to the music.  It was INCREDIBLE.  The artist had a piece of glass that he stood behind and he would use a whitewash to cover the glass.  Then he would take different tools to remove the whitewash and end up with a portrait or scene. It was really fascinating to see, As he was creating you tried to figure out what he was going to create. It was not always clear until he got way into the creation. He did picture after picture, all different.  As each was finished it was erased for the next picture.  The glass had 3 different colored lights shining on it to add some interest to the picture. I can't remember how many pieces they played but  the band was good and the artist created for an hour. Boy if I was able to produce a picture that good, I wouldn't want to erase it.  He does paint on real canvas and sells his art at shows.  The pictures for sale are all in color. 

With daylight being so late in the evening, community meeting rooms need to be darkened for events. So all the exits are curtained off and after a while it can become very warm. And if you have had several late nights your eyes will eventually get very heavy and all of a sudden you will feel a jerk of your head! When you finally exit around 11pm you can see the sun setting!

Outdoor Pizza Party July 7

Pizza Party

We have some guests that are really a hoot! There are 2 rooms of them. There are two sisters Michelle and Evaline and their husbands, Robert and Joel. Cloe is Eva's & Joel's daughter and Clemant belongs to Michelle and Robert. They are great kids. They are very respectful and just love checking on the chickens every day. They spend a lot of time in the pool and are just as happy as can be (from our perspective anyway). We will miss this group when they leave. I'm so glad they were our first guests here at the villa.  I invited them to come visit me in Colorado.

We decided to have a pizza party using our outdoor pizza oven. You need to start a couple of hours before cooking so the stones can get good and hot. That is Peter's job. We assembled all the ingredients to make 4 different kinds and made two of each. We start by rolling out all 8 pizza shells, then Peter would precook them in the pizza oven. He would bring it back in and we would put on the toppings are return it to the pizza oven. Here is our combination list:

Pizza 1: salmon, cream fraiche, leeks, chevre and lemon slices

Pizza 2: hamburger, potatoes, blue cheese, sauted onions

Pizza 3: marguez sausage, black olives, squash and feta

Pizza 4: mozzarella, mushrooms, tomatoes, fresh basil

They were so good. That ovens gives them a nice smokey flavor. We served 11 people that night.

Not only did the pizza make it fun but all the discussion was hilarious. And believe me understanding french joking is not always easy. But we got it. Anne starting talking about her snoring and the roaring just kept going the rest of the night. One of the couples was from the Alsace region and brought some champagne (cremant) to share. One of the other couples was from the Vallais region in Switzerland. It was fun to tell them that I lived in Switzerland near Lausanne for a year. They brought a Pinot wine to share. It was a very fun evening.

Mont D'Or Bakery

Mont D'Or

Mont D'Or is a community of 3 houses. We would probably call it a burg. The house is like our villa and dates to the same age. The villa has 3 families living there all of which are related.   They have started a bakery using their own organic grain that they grow. I have an invitation to go help at the bakery some morning. Of course they start at 5am. Not sure that will work unless I just stay up a couple more hours! Our hours here are definitely different. But I plan to get there at some point and do some training on bread baking. They even have gluten free bread which is very hard to find. It is made with buckwheat. It's rather heavy and quite dark in color. I would love to trade ideas with Stephanie the baker but after some investigation have found it difficult to find any of the main ingredients that I use at Mary's Market where I work in Longmont. 

 

Stephanie is quite artistic and made this beautiful mosaic table made from broken windshield glass, old buttons and broken pottery.  It was beautiful.

Strangely enough Anne who has a gluten intolerance is able to eat a fair amount of the regular bread and things containing wheat without much ill effect. We think it is because they do less genetic engineering of the grain here. Interesting.

 

The villa has a standing order of bread each week. They are only open 3 days a week and if you want to be guaranteed some bread, you had best order it. We order multigrain, regular, chocolate and gluten free bread. They are really good. I love to see them standing on the shelf with their dusting of flour. 

We stopped by their enormous house to meet Stephanie's parents Marie Andre and Bernard. They are great folks who have known Veronique's family for years.  There was an huge fig tree I had to stand next to.  I hope to enjoy some fresh figs here.  The climate is very different.  I'm not sure I have it figured out other than it is definitely coastal.  It changes in a minute so you best have layers and rain gear available.

 We were planning just to say hi and be on our way but when Bernard showed up from the farm, he decided we needed to taste his Vin de Noix. This is a local aperatif. Almost everyone makes their own aperitif wine. I tried some of his as well as some Porto which I also love. Anyway, a 15 minute hello turned into an hour and a half.  What fun.

Homemade Pasta July 6th

Homemade Pasta July 6

I decided it was time to do some cooking for our hosts so I proposed homemade pasta. They were quite impressed when I whipped out a batch and then rolled it flat and hand cut it. I had picked some fresh basil and had previously made some flavored basil oil. So with the infused oil, fresh leaves of basil, parmesan and a few tomato chunks we consumed half of the noodles. There upon I said there was more to cook if we wanted seconds. The vote was yes and we ended up eating the whole batch. I have to admit it was rather good. We finished the dinner with a fresh salad from the garden.

Dinner is served anywhere between 8-10pm depending on what we have going on. But our days are all delayed in general as we serve the guests first. Breakfast for the guests is anywhere from 8-10 in the morning and can go longer. We eat around 10 or after. Then we clean the rooms or change over for newly arriving guests. There are 5 rooms to keep up with and we usually all help to make things go faster.

They mostly raise bib lettuce here. Generally a salad is usually just lettuce with a vinaigrette. I add my flair when I make salad! I like a few more things in my salad like tomatoes, cucumbers or radishes. I can't wait for tomatoes to get ripe. I am in charge of the garden here. I'm getting used to the new climate and having a

little trouble figuring out water consumption by the plants. I finally called attention to the fact they plants were getting too much water and we were getting blossom end rot. So we corrected that and things are looking better. They have four leaf clover plants that are very invasive. I didn't know they had a bulbous root so to eradicate them you have to dig out the bulbs. Of course you never get it all so there is always clover to get rid of.

There is an herb garden up on the hill in the front yard. As a special project I've decided to revive that area. It is so neat. I've never seen anything quite like it and really like the concept. It's basically the raised bed idea but of course it was built in 1870 with the villa. So the stone is really old and looks really cool. It's nice to have the permanent raised beds in amongst the ancient walls with the climbing vines and flowers. It will be a fun project.

July 4th in Surgeres

Surgeres Night Concert July 4th

Fifteen minutes away we joined in on a gospel concert Friday night. Who would have guessed there would be southern gospel singers from the US in town. Obviously Anne and I knew some of the songs. It was very interesting to see the reactions of the reserved French people who did not clap their hands, move to the music, sing along or smile. They did listen politely and once in awhile I would see a little movement! They probably didn't know what they were getting into or maybe it was the fact the concert was free! I wonder if they were enjoying themselves or waiting for it to be over!

Anyway, the venue was awesome. They try to hold community events in special historic places to encourage people to get to know them and enjoy them. We sat outside an ancient church that was already filled to capacity. It was a marvelous place to sit though as they had speakers set up outside and we could admire the old church while listening to gospel. I walked around taking pictures and then we ate our sandwiches. It was a very pleasant evening.