What We Take for Granted.

We have just returned home. It is 11.15pm. We didnt start eating until almost 9.30pm. The locals were still on their feet dancing, others sitting and still eating and we felt the need to leave if we weren't going to join in the dancing. Over-full and under-exercised, we couldn't talk to our neighbors and very patient patron (who adopted us the moment we sought a seat near the bar, when we arrived at 7.30pm) over the top of the loud music.

Not knowing what to expect from the Fete de la Musique, which we booked and paid for two weeks ago, we turned up at the allotted time...well, that's not quite correct...you see, we did a 'dry run' last night. Actually, THATS not correct either, lol.
The REAL Story goes like this:
We had been anticipating this Fete de la Musique since we returned to France a month ago. It was advertised on the town notice board and our friend Bar owners were happy to sign us up and take our money for the festivities.
All over France people were gathering to enjoy music tonight, and through the weekend.

I digress...Waz had reset my watch date for New Zealand, and because the Fete de la Musique is on the 21st, my watch yesterday said...21st June!. We couldn't believe how fast the week had gone. Really? It was Thursday already? No? Yes! Merde!
So, 7pm we changed our clothes, sunscreen applied because at 7.30pm the sun is still out and very hot. We packed a bag with our sweaters (gets cooler around 10pm), a sun screen tube, and assorted other things and put them and us in the car. Not seeing many other cars on the road, we started questioning the date again. All dressed and nowhere to go? Yep! We pulled into the bar parking lot and nobody was there. So, reverse, and drive home. Big larf! It was Wednesday still! Ok, just checking and we know we can do this tomorrow, right?

So, tonight we did the same things at 7pm, and arrived to find no other cars, but we did see people standing on the road. Kick off time was supposed to be 7.30. We were some of the first to arrive.
An elderly woman came out of her centre-ville home to look at her lovely flowers. I said Bonsoir and how lovely her flowers were. She indicated that it was all the rain recently that made them flower so beautifully. We went towards her and engaged her further in conversation. I'm determined to speak to anyone who will be patient enough to converse with me:)
We introduced ourselves by name and said we were NZ'ers and speak English. She said her daughter lives in London, is married to a British man who speaks NO French. She complimented me on my French, which was very generous, and we talked about the lovely Siamese that was rolling on the ground at her feet. I turned and got a photo of this black moggy on top of the car, nearby.

 Bidding our new neighbor a good evening, we walked up to the main street and towards the Church square which is on a slight slope.

 My Goodness! So many chairs! We really didnt know what to expect but obviously this is an evening for the whole town to come out. Out they came...in droves! All of these chairs were booked, by the way. The white tent on the left is the bar!

 What a juxtaposition...at 50 something foot container trailer in front of a 12th century church in a 15th century town. I dont think anyone else at the Fete would have even thought about this. It looks rather incongruous.

They would have had fun positioning that large trailer in this town square!
The woman who lives in this house on the left of the town square has a lovely garden with HUGE tomatoes on the west side (from where I am taking the photo). She was out putting laundry on a dryer rack, so I didnt take photos.
There are hollyhocks blooming out of the cracks in the pavement in so many villages in these parts, and Im sure, all over France, right now.

 The large tent with windows is where the women were preparing the Paella for dinner. They were literally making it right there in the tent! This is a professional Paella making company who cater for Fetes, anniversaries and parties of any kind.

 He was instructed to smile!:) Waz is sitting next to our patron for the evening, Patrick. We didnt know him before being invited to sit alongside him at the bar. He rather adopted us:)

 I think Waz had finished his Sangria....nasty stuff if you drink more than 2 cups...as I said to Patrick, the head rather ends up with the birds, non? Oui! C'est Vrai! This is true, he replied, making circles over his head and whistling like a bird in agreement. We all laughed. He was patient with my French, gesticulated a lot to help my comprehension and we managed to converse for a considerable time. We learned a thing or two...or maybe four, about the area and people, so it was very instructional.
All these people live within perhaps a 6km radius of Lignieres. They are literally our neighbors. It was a comforting feeling to be welcomed thus.
People were open, friendly, kind and thoughtful. Delightful in fact. we felt quite relaxed and 'At Home'!

 As always, I find something out of the ordinary. The neighboring house has a wonderful downspout!

 The young liquidambar tree is glorious in the evening sun.

 Standing in line for our Paella, I looked up  as the last of the sun hit the top of the old church. Pigeons and Swallows flew overhead. The swallows zoomed past our heads, screeching as they went. They do this when we are eating on our terrace at home, too.

 Dinner! Paella with one leg of chicken, one shrimp and one Langoustine on top. Delish, and plenty of food. It contained Mussels, squid, sausage and peas as well.

 Dessert was 3 Churros coated in sugar.
Fuzzy pic...Low light and he moved! You get the idea.

The music had started before dinner was announced and we were all rubbing our tummies and looking famished. We were some of the first to get up and get our food. Perhaps that's why we were so ready to depart so early in the scheme of things?
We cant hear the music from our house...I dont think! We live 1.5kms from town, so we are grateful for that.

When we arrived there were a handful of folks standing around the bar chatting. We stood at the bar for a while waiting to be served. It looked like they were having some 'issues' with the beer machine, and it was warm when delivered to Waz (the beer, that is!) and I received a warm Lipton's Peach Iced tea. 3 euros thanks.
Looking at the few tables near the bar, we were beckoned by a single occupant of the closest one, to join him there. Conversation ensued, and I finally realized that we hadn't introduced ourselves. Our 'patron' has a slight hearing disorder because he mispronounced our names a half dozen times before getting it right, lol. He introduced himself as Patrick. Not Patrice, Patrick. He said that Patrick is such a common name in France, that when he was a child and someone called out "Patrick", a dozen kids would swivel at the neck in reply.
It appears that Patrick has been a resident of our village for the past 20 years, having come from Angouleme before that. We started talking about the weather in our little part of the world, and he said that we live in a 'sweet spot' in the Charente where the sun is out more and we get the breeze which is tolerable and it is less than where his mother lives in La Rochelle, on the Atlantic coast, north west of here. It is also dryer than Cognac to our west and Angouleme to the east.
A retired fellow, he spends the three months from January through March in Morocco. He can fly from Bordeaux to Agadir on the coast there for next to nothing, get around by inexpensive public transport, going great distances for less than 20 euros, and catch a cab anywhere in the city for around 2 euros...see...I was paying close attention!!!:) He said the weather was cooler on the coast there, of course, but also the mountain regions are warm enough in winter and very beautiful. He highly recommended escaping to that country for the winter. Him and a gazillion other English and French!
I asked if the South of Spain wasnt warm enough for him, and he replied that it can get very cold on the southern Spanish coast in Winter, so Morocco was the ideal place to be.
Patrick had an excellent sense of humour and we managed to get a lot of laughs in. His wild gesticulations at times meant we understood more than the words.

During the evening our conversation came around to his motorcycling from LA about 2 thousand km, and we didnt catch the name (American with a French accent? it could have been Houston, TX?) of his destination. He had rented a Harley Davidson...armchair model! you know the kind!! He was impressed that Waz used to ride a Honda 500/4, and I used to ride a Honda 250XL for transport. We also discussed our boating exploits with him. It appears he has also sailed. One trip from Bordeaux around the bottom of Spain to the Med. We had quite a lot in common:)

No point in talking when the music gets loud, so we enjoyed the spectacle of the easy and relaxed crowd dancing to English and French popular songs. It was a totally different experience for us, this rather 'canned' music. When they sang Country Roads by John Denver, we cringed! lol...Up-tempo and the singers were 'flat' most of the song. Not to worry, we sang along in English along with the rest of the crowd. The singer had told us she knows English...she sings it every day, lol, but she doesnt speak it much...you know how that would go!

We came away with a wonderful warm feeling of inclusion. We didnt stick out as foreigners. People were warm and friendly, and we recognized and greeted our Rugby viewing friend from last Saturday, and agreed that we would all meet again this Saturday, same place, last test match. I will have to give careful consideration to the snacks I take this Saturday...Scones for the first one, and muffins for the last...???

Yesterday was a work day per usual.

What this time? Well, we are trying to finish the laundry room so we can do the next load of laundry.
We had been into Chateaubernard, just this side of Cognac and our new favorite place to visit the Brico (hardware store). We learned that processes are pretty much the same here as in the US when you come to purchase things like lumber/timber/hardboard etc. Being large products, they are in the outside/undercover place across the parking lot, where you drive in and around and back up here and open the trunk there and in goes the half sheets of gib board for the ceiling. Our little car is pretty useful and those three independent seats in the back are perfect for tilting forward and putting the 2.5m sheets of Gib in. A little cement dust is easily vacuumed , Waz sat behind me in the one remaining seat because the front passenger seat was otherwise occupied, of course, and we drove home with the Mud and fixings, all of which were purchased at the 'other side' brico.

Whoever added these little rooms opposite each other, didnt do a very good job. Waz is inspecting the ceiling of the laundry room to see where we are going to position the lights. The ceiling creates a mezzanine in the 'pink room' which has a high pitch to the ceiling. We are using that space as outdoor cushion storage right now, and probably for winter storage later for the umbrella and terrace chairs.

 Holes drilled in the beams and now the threading of the wire.

 Et Voila!
Only one small piece of gib to put in.

I was roped in to hold that heavy Gib up while he screwed it to the floor joists above.

All this going on while it is HOT outside. To illustrate how hot it was, and how little wind there was on the terrace today, we had to install a fan to keep the air circulating out there. Normally we are blessed with a wind or breeze...not being the same thing, you understand!

Back to work!

My task has been to clean up the 'stuff' in the bedrooms upstairs. I also keep picking up the dead flies. I guess we will just have to accept that without screens on the windows and doors, this is a new reality. You just dont leave anything uncovered, and with all doors and windows wide open, you accept that they are part of the scenery, as it were.

Getting back to that heat...
We learn as we go. I guess it would be nice, some days, to be told what to do and when, but where is the fun in that? Takes some of the guess-work out of living, but experience is a wonderful teacher.
There is a good reason we have shutters on our windows! yep! those things aren't there just to make the house look pretty (well, that is debatable, and we wont have that one right now). The heat in the sun was such that I knew I had to close those babies to keep the heat out. First, our bedroom directly above the terrace, which, because it is currently dark because of the mold on the concrete, reflects a LOT of heat. We half closed the shutters on the doors to the terrace from the pink room, and that cut down SOME of the heat, but our bedroom was like an oven. Open the door at the far end of the 2nd story and the fresh air and breeze only go so far. Setting up fans to distribute the air into our bedroom, I was very aware of the electricity being expended (think euros!) and knew I would have to do something much smarter next time.  Studying airflow might take a while...another day.

Enlisting Waz's help, we moved the huge Chinese carpet from what is now our work room (was the master and largest bedroom) downstairs to the 2nd half of the large living room. Our big black sofas will go in here, so it will serve to lighten that area. I cant wait to get rid of the ghastly pink, which haunts my dreams now. Replacement color yet to be determined. Right now, I just want everything neutral, so white sounds wonderful, lol.

The carpet that was down here is now in the guest bedroom upstairs. My oh my! So many change arounds. At least that bedroom is now ready for a bed and other furniture when it arrives. The same cant be said for the other one which is still populated by suitcases half emptied....today's job for me.

The first coat of mud was applied to the ceiling and we went out for Music.
This morning, after such a hot day yesterday, there is a cold (arctic?) wind from the Nth west blowing through the house. Well, there WAS before I closed all the windows again. Having aired the place out in a hurry we secured the windows, having first found a way to keep them open...big smile!!!! Remember all those pool noodles we used to protect the glass table tops? Well, Waz got his pocket knife out and cut a few window stoppers . We jamb them into the bottom of the window at the hinge side and it stops them closing and most importantly for their delicate state, banging constantly. Phew!

So, Im just about to put my thinking cap on about where to store all these now empty suitcases. It will necessitate putting them in sealed plastic bags I think, as we have creepy crawlies in the house.
These creepy crawlies have double ends. They look like millipedes, and I know mother nature gave them two heads (not really...they just look like that to fool predators) but they are extremely fast movers and see me coming from a mile away. I have mastered the art of vacuuming them up, though they might run like the wind to escape. You will laugh at us stuffing a paper towel down the end of the vacuum tube to stop them escaping overnight. We felt a bit like scared kids to be honest. I have perhaps, a natural fear of crawlies, after living in Hawaii for 20 years and doing battle with huge cockroaches and centipedes 10 inches long that bite and cause maladies to young children. I even cut one in pieces and the pieces crawled away. Creeeepy! It had just bitten my 10 month old baby, and he came down with a fever soon after, and was quite sick for about three days as a result.

Ok, time for me to get going for the day. Waz is attempting to find something he has put away neatly somewhere. Dont we all know that one? This happens to be a pair of paper overalls we brought from Florida because they are less expensive there than here in France. He is about the sand the first mud layer on the ceiling before adding a second, and then the 1/4 round crown molding to make it all look beautiful and to cover the gaps between concrete walls and Gib. I will go in after the second coat of mud is dry and sanded, and do the finish painting. THEN we can do some laundry, once all the machines are back in place and the cupboards are installed. It is going to be so much more functional and easy to keep clean after this. Yay!

I will first go and empty the vase that is currently a dried arrangement, sitting on the dining table. It has been on my radar for a while now, but you know how these things drop down the list of priorities:)
Enjoy the lovely day. Winds gusting 30kph right now, so our doors are closed. Temps in the mid 20'sC. A good day to do things inside, methinx.

Au Revoir.

oh...and that taking things for granted title??
Well, imagine that you live in historic surrounds each day, and you dont notice them because they ARE YOUR NORM. THAT is what I'm talking about. We live in our surroundings often without noticing them. Notice what is around you and appreciate it for what it is!