Hunny, It's Raining Inside!

I dont know if you have ever experienced Sheet Lightning for hours on end, but we 'suffered' a second night of torrential rain and sheet lightning with accompanying thunder like a continuous drum roll, last night. What a show!
Midnight, then 1am, and the rain was pounding the windows on the south side of the house. Our bedroom and the living room directly underneath us both have windows in a rather tenuous state. They are the original windows in the house which is 80+ yrs old. The wood has shrunk at the corners where the opening window closes against it's frame, and that is where the 'rain' was spirting and washing down the walls under the windows. Many towels later (which I have just hung on the line over the terrace, in a slightly vain hope that they will dry, in the damp air) and we returned to a now very hot bedroom, because the electricity had died. No fan to keep air flowing over us, just 29C of heat. Bah!

We went downstairs to turn the computers off and unplug their mains power, and briefly considered the implications of having no power when we have house guests. We would figure that one out in the morning!
Unable to offer our guests beds in the house (we just dont have any...yet!) they provided their own. They stayed the night in their 'van', parked in our yard. At least we can honestly that we provided 'entertainment' (a well lit sky!) along with dinner, laundry and bathroom facilities!
Who were these guests?

I had been messaging Marc, one of the young men aboard this kiwi-crewed old camper during the weekend, and when they were  in Brittany on their way south to pick up 2 more crew in Bayonne, and passing our neck of the woods. We invited them to stop over for the night if they could make it this far. After a few 'interesting' events on the way here, they finally drew up outside our gates around 7.15pm.
Black Betty is a camper van that has seen better days, but is fully kitted out for camping with a young crew onboard.  She lacks bathroom facilities and some of her other features are a bit  um...iffy?? but for the most part, she gets them where they want/need to go, and some.

I celebrate their adventurous spirit, and continuing the Kiwi OE, or Overseas Experience that was so much a part of my young adulthood, and for so many of my generation of Kiwis and Aussies too. They aren't exactly doing their OE, which involves working while travelling, or staying in London and travelling for fun on weekends, to far off plane-ridden places. These young men have a University education and several years of work experience/savings behind them, and are spending this time enriching their lives with travel. The University of Life, in other words.

 Marc is the middle child (2nd son) of kiwi friends who used to live on Maui at the same time I did. He and his younger sister were born there, and I have known Marc since he was newborn, basically. At 25, he is a credit to his parents, as are the other two young men. What quality people they are, and what a joy to entertain as guests.
They left Black Betty (yes, all kiwi-owned vans have names!! This one is a rather long story....) on the roadside while they came inside, grabbed water (they had run out, somewhere along the way, and were parched!) and we sat down to dinner. Somewhere around 10pm, we were still sitting outside, having finished off most of the Saucisse Toulouse (Toulous-style sausages), cole slaw, vine tomatoes and hard boiled eggs, finished off with Tarte citron meringue (Lemon meringue tarte), and decided that they should really make the most of the remaining daylight and move BB onto the property. The bottom of the hill was almost flat, so that's where they spent the night.
After a night of light shows, thunder drum rolls and torrential rain, this was the scene that greeted me when I opened the windows at 7/30am. Damp, and foggy.

 I was given a quite look inside BB, which was all I really wanted, lol. Typically male environment! Say no more:)
I took this photo this morning before they left. David on the left, Marc in the middle and Sam on the right.

 BB and her crew cleared our gates, and Marc is saying Au Revoir. I think David was driving, so that must be Sam's hand waving goodbye!

 She gathered some small measure of speed as she went back down the way she had come, back to the N10 to Bordeaux.
Love that kiwi Flag on the back. Reminds us of our large kiwi flag on the back of our boat, while we travelled. Proud of our kiwi heritage, for sure.

Following their departure and  having eaten a breakfast of baked beans with left over sausages and poached eggs with strong coffee besides, we hopped in the car to visit the bar at the bottom of the road. Do they have power? Big question answered in triplicate as we cruised through town to find all 3 commerces shuttered and barred. No power! bah!
Onwards to Barbezieux (Bar bez yer)  for some lunch, then some ceiling paint...mat, this time...some black-out drapes for the bedroom....now installed, and very effective too, I might add...those wrinkles will hang out in due course. They are a natural looking linen-type of fabric with an insulating backing. Good for hot and cold weather. We will put the white net curtains back up for filtered light. No real privacy needed in this room.

...but we were a little early for lunch which meant that we had to wait 2 hrs for every store we needed to visit, to open at 2pm. So, we went for a walk, as you do, climbing the hill towards the Chateau but not actually reaching it.
The Eglise Saint Mathieu in the middle of the old town is an imposing building that has been well preserved in some aspects, and not in others. Fairly typical of the age, being 12th century, much of her façade is very degraded and discolored due to air pollution, but her inside has had some restoration work. We stopped inside as we heard organ music. Suckers for such things, we went inside and sat down, listening for quite a while, trying to figure out if it was canned music or had a person behind the pipe pedals. As it turned out, a real person was practicing and there was much stopping and restarting. Sombre music. I wondered aloud why so much liturgical music is so sad and gloomy.

A slow walk around the soaring interior, inspecting some of the reliquaries and we left to walk up the hill further.

 It was pretty challenging to figure out what the figures used to be. Sad!

Onwards and upwards.
We stopped for a short time under the trees. Taking five was good for us after a few hectic days at home. It was also nice to enjoy cooler breezes, though the sun was HOT!

 What a fabulous meal sculpture!

 Instead of pushing ever uphill to the Chateau, we turned right and started downhill again past the Mairie (Mare ree). The new addition on the left has some interesting statues I shall have to visit next time we are in town and have a little time up our sleeves. This was good for us to just take time out.

 Old town Barbezieux, on the hill, is a warren (no pun) of skinny one way streets. There is NO WAY an opposing car could get up or down that!

 or that!
It was fun to hear conversations coming from apartments overhead. Some music, some laughter:)

 Back down the hill with it's summer foliage and flowers towards our parking spot.

 What the????

 In context!
Wow, that's impressive. The building was for rent, so I guess this guy was up there doing alterations of some kind.

It was 1.40pm by the time we got back into the car and made our way back around the town to the Brico...but first, Lidl is always open, so we went there for more water, some Gin!...yes...I have Indian tonic water in the fridge and I cant drink wine, so ...perhaps I can drink a Gimlet? Add lime and we are onto it!

Talk about wasting time in Lidl. They had orchids for sale...ON sale for 5,99 euros, so I bought two...white one and a pink one. I hate that most places stocking plants and flowers do not keep them watered, so they wilt in this heat and die! What a waste!!
I love to have real life orchids in the house. They should thrive in here.

We sat outside Bricolage in the heat with the engine and air-conditioning running, waiting for 2pm. Our next door neighbor must have seen them open the doors, coz he was in there light a shot. We closely followed.

Waz needs to replace an outside light, so that was his agenda, while I looked at ready made curtains, hoping not to spend more that 25 euros per drop. Fat chance! Because they are black-out curtains they were more like 39euros each. I didnt have to make them, so that was a bonus! AND>>we will hopefully have a really good night's sleep tonight...IN THE DARK!

I also bought two new door knobs for the book case in the living room, some mat ceiling paint...12 litres of it!!! lots of ceilings need painting! and some conduit. Phew!
At check out we discovered that our fidelity card had been rejected, which necessitated us filling out yet another form with our details, and bingo, a new card was issued.

We had been watching the storm clouds gather on the horizon, on the return trip home, and sure enough the thunder started and I was almost caught in sudden heavy rain. Having closed the house up, and taken the half dry laundry off the line, I was really peeved to find that the rain lasted all of 2 minutes. Sigh!

I was writing this blog when I heard voices...I thought. Got up to investigate, thinking Waz, who had gone for a snooze, was watching TV now. Wrong...then I heard rapping on the window in the living room. Poked my head around the corner to find a man with a bucket, on our door step.
Bonjour Monsieur! He held out the bucket which was overflowing with lettuce and a sprig of parsley on top. Very artful too, I might add:)

I was embarrassed, upon asking his name, to find it was our nearest neighbor Frank. Merde! I had only seen him once, and inside his car, when he talked to us last time, so my recognition software (Ok, I have to blame something!) was not working properly. We had a sort of conversation...he already knows how bad my French is:) but he told me he has a large garden...after first asking me if we like salad! Yerrrs, we do! I indicated that if he waited I would return the bucket...A plus tard, he said...later!  D'accord...ok! He handed me the bucket, indicated the approaching storm clouds. I told him that our windows had leaked inside, last night....like a river, actually, and he told me we needed to change our windows to double pane! I told him that a man was coming to give us a quote, on Thursday, and he was satisfied with my explanation. He said the windows on the house now, are original! This we knew!

Frank left me with the bucket of goodies, and I took them in to show Waz. I didnt anticipate what happened next....I picked up one of the lovely green things to show the Wazster, and it was almost still growing...earth, roots and all. It appeared almost as if Frank had sewn lettuce seeds in a row, and when they looked big enough, he just pulled them ALL up.

We repaired to the front terrace where I proceeded to detach the green from the dirt and roots

 All washed and draining. Too bad our compost bin isnt up and running yet....priorities, you understand...because there  was a lot of lovely stuff cut off that the worms would love.

We will be eating salad for the rest of the week.

Well, as we didnt get much sleep last night, Im off to shower and put my head down. I think someone else might feel similarly inclined.

So, it's night, night from me and him! A plus tard! Later!!