It's a big deal. When you buy a new home and you are using the ones that the house came with, it is quite nice to change them out and get new ones of your own, dont you think? We sure do!
Anyway, it was GREAT to get a seat that fits the upstairs loo properly and one that doesn't slide from side to side when you move your butt cheeks. Ok...personal, but it happened. Now it doesn't because we took the time to find one that FITS the toilet, unlike the previous owners.
Waz re-fits a new loo seat in the littlest room under the stairs.
This came at the end of the shopping trip to Angouleme, Leroy Merlin (hardware), lunch, shopping for copper oxide for the tomatoes and vines, timbers for the backing of the old and yucky bookshelf thingy in the living room....
Nothing much wrong with the book shelf itself, but when we moved it out from the wall, I discovered the cause of my sneezles….mold! on the wall behind the shelves AND on the back of the unit.
Heaven only knows how long it has been like this. Waz will take it all off tomorrow (today) and treat the back where necessary, for dry rot etc, before installing the new back.
Yes, that is what it looks to be. I cant stop painting. I have the de-pinking bug.
Getting ready to paint out the pink!
I alternated between here and the pantry ceiling. Waz finished the mud on the ceiling and did the necessary sanding and a slight second coat somewhere, and after it dried, I went to work in there.
Before....
Today, we also bought some hooks to hang such things as the mops and brooms on the wall in the laundry room opposite here. It gets them out of a corner where my step-stool will go and makes it all the more functional. I'm big on function, as you can tell. Especially when the spaces are small.
Our first stop today was at Electro Depot where we went to buy another 3 drawer freezer. We briefly contemplated a small chest freezer, but I dont like diving to the bottom of those and drawers really are much more friendly. Ask Waz what we are putting in there, and he will tell you "Ice-cream'! In his dreams, I think.
After that we went for lunch at our favorite café in the Carrefour mall in Soyaux. This is an area we really like for the variety of good light industrial and supermarkets, Bio markets, and Grand Frais. This last store has a fabulous variety of products, but they are more expensive by far, than our normal supermarket. Pays to go there looking for items on promotion THAT YOU NEED! she says in bold. Easy to be swayed into buying things you MIGHT like rather than the needs.
Then on to the supermarket where we found something to spray on the tomatoes and grape vine to stop any mold/rust...we hope. It took a while to find someone to serve us, but you cant rush these things, here.
Oh, we found a kg of Blueberries at Grand Frais for 9,90euros, and they were 14,50 pkg loose. It looks like we will be eating blueberries for the next few days:) We are enjoying the apricots and other stone fruits. Flatto peaches in particular are super sweet and gorgeous.
When we returned to the car with our Leroy Merlin purchases, it was 36C. During the drive home it went down to 33C, and as we turned into our driveway, it was 27C. Phew! Hot out there, but lovely at home. I think cities are hotter because of all the tarmac everywhere.
Always glad to be driving home. Less trucks on the road today, going to Angouleme, and way less coming home. I think all the trucks go north on Monday, and return on Thursday of each week. Today we saw trucks from Spain and Portugal, of course, Russia/Poland to Spain. Who knows where it was originally from.
At the end of the day I had two coats of white on the wall. It looks very patchy, but I am intending to do at least 5 coats to get it looking more even. We will see! Pink is hard to cover.
Weeding out brooms, mops etc was necessary too. Hard to get rid of some things, but if they really dont work, ditch and or repurpose. I'm sure we can do both.
At 10.30pm I took this photo out of our bedroom window before I shut it. Full moon tonight, but it was lovely looking out there last night. Cool, and swallows swooping all over the place, chirping and going about their feeding. Lovely:) See the moon just left of center, and above the beginning of the trees?
Wednesday evening.
Of course I didnt have my camera with me tonight...
Knowing that our local bar now has a functioning restaurant, we kind of wondered if they were open for dinner, thinking it might just be lunch at this stage, but lets give it a go anyway.
We bought some pretty flowers at Carrefour supermarket in Soyaux in the appropriate colors to go with the décor there....and hoping that flowers were ok to celebrate a restaurant opening here in France....
We did some 'stuff' around the house until 7pm, when dressed and with flowers in hand we drove down to the bar, kind of expecting to be disappointed. Indeed we were, as Ben explained that lunch was the only meal available...and did we want to reserve for Thursday lunch?? Oui! Of course. So today we are doing laundry and odd jobs and filling in our time before changing and going down for lunch. We will let you know!
We did hand over the flowers last night, and were told that flowers were acceptable along with the Felicitations for the opening of the restaurant that they had waited so long to open.
A demain, (until tomorrow) we said, and exited.
Waz suggested that we return home for left over curry....Hell NO! I had my French jewelry on and was lipsticked and dressed to dine out, so dine out we would! He suggested the Indian restaurant we had found, but um...more curry??
Cognac came to mind, and we set off in that direction. Now going on 7.30pm. You cant get a dinner in France until 7pm, so we were early in the scheme of things, but late in OUR day to be eating much.
Entering Chateaubernard, there was a roadblock up ahead, and a cyclist on the side of the road taking a pee in clear view of everyone. C'est France!
It turned out that the Police were sending us down a road we actually needed to go, and had been before, so no problem, we knew where we were. Phew! There was a cycle race on in Chateaubernard, hence the Deviation.
Not getting very far towards Cognac, where I had momentary visions of us sitting river-side Charente, we ended up at a Buffalo Grill, an American styled restaurant with funny English/French menu.
He chose the steak Saignant (medium) and Frites, and I chose the Alaskan Cod and chips. My fish was excellent considering it was obviously par-deep fried/frozen previously. The meal came out hot and crisp, just how we like it! Waz's meat was still on the hoof, but he said he would have eaten it raw, anyway, lol. I guess that means it was good??
We enjoyed a dessert of three boules of ice-cream SMOTHERED in canned whipped Chantilly cream, sprinkled with candied pecans (never seen them in the USA, but...) between us, and followed by an espresso! ZINGO! I forgot to ask that the espresso be served WITH the dessert...I like the bitter to cut the sweet...and the woman indicated that I was being impatient, in the nicest possible way:)
They insisted on speaking English to us, and I insisted on answering in French, which I could mostly do. We were asked if we were on vacation/holiday, to which we said Non! No further comment came from the nice young man:)
The restaurant was nice and I noticed the kitchen person thoroughly cleaning the microwave, so that was good sign. We know its there, but prob. wont go there as a default, despite the good food. Preferring to eat French.
It was suggested that we have a walk after all that food, and headed down to the Charente River in Vieux Cognac (old town). Not having my camera is always a bummer, and I regret not taking it with me, of course. Not intending to go this far, I had left it on my desk.
The still waters of the river perfectly reflected the large and imposing Cognac Distillery buildings fronting the Charente. Hennessey is just one of them. The old town gates are fabulous reminders of times gone by, as are the cobbles of old on the streets leading away from the water.
We walked along the opposite bank for a way before Waz started getting attacked by critters of the flying kind. We will remember to put some anti-critter stuff in the car, I think...along with the sunscreen, paper towels, loo paper, snacks, extra water...you get the picture, lol. not to forget the hand wipes!!!
Good thing we remembered where the 'kind of nice' public loos are on that bank of the river. We made a quick visit there before our walk. We had looked on google earth not so long ago, and discovered a large park not far from the old city. We decided to go for a drive down there and look-see. What a wonderful discovery, including the lovely waterside restaurant there. We might have to go and check it out some time. Such a pretty walk along the river, and wonderful to discover so many activity grounds there also.
Time to get going home. We returned along the path back to the car at around 10pm. A full moon night!!! Glorious driving home slowly with the full moon rising on the fields of wheat about to be harvested...that fabulous gold glow around the moon, and the patchwork of green vines, golden wheat and barley field, and green/gold of newly cut hay. We love leaving the river plains behind and climbing into the hills that we call home. I will go out with my camera some time soon, and document it all for you. So hard to know how to convey the richness of the patchwork, countryside, the living history that we all so much take for granted.
Time to take in the now dry laundry and think about getting down to the bar for lunch. The sun is hot! good thing it dries everything out.
Waz has been opening all the windows in the basement, and the place has dried out considerably. That fact that this house was unoccupied for so long has a legacy we can well do without...mold!
Im hoping that by painting our own colors on the walls, cleaning like mad (well, that will never stop!) and replacing and renewing, will make this our own and we wont feel like we live in someone elses house.
Those new toilet seats are wonderful, by the way:) Nice to start out with our own new ones. :)
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