Exploring our neighborhood in the cccoooold!

Again, I had left my hat and gloves upstairs and totally forgot about them until we had been walking around the village for about 10 minutes, and then my head began to hurt, and my ears, and hands, finally.
The reason for going into the village was to take a look at a house we had seen for sale. It is an 'attached' 7 room (yes, here in France, they count the rooms, but their measuring system is something we have yet to figure out...more on that later). We know the house is about 220 s metres inside (2,200 sq ft approx.) and the grounds are about 1/4 acre, or 1100 sq. metres.
We needed to find out if we could access the back yard via a back entrance of some kind, and after walking around the corner and down the next street a way, we saw that there was NO back entry and that the back yard was in fact about 5 feet higher than the driveway for the neighbors yard. Bummer!

Back to the drawing board.
We like this little village that we are living near...Saint Yrieix La Perche. Let me pronounce that for you, because I have great difficulty doing so...phonetically, the Yrieix goes like this...ee ree ez . I know this because the sign just down the road has it written just so:)  The rest of the name is easy ..Pairshe.

It was very foggy this morning, and you could feel the damp, vs the dry we had up until this week began.

The cats were let upstairs, and they almost trip me up on the way, with them all wanting hugs and attention. You would think they would shoot out of there like rats out of the proverbial aqueduct...but no, they need hugs first!  Alfie is VERY demanding, and Scruffles just wants me to wear her around my collar. She is light as a feather, but first thing in the morning I don't have time for fur collars.
Maybe later!

Fed, watered and whatever else they all do outside first thing in the morning, and then they come back in afterwards. I guess the hearth was still warm, because Holly decided to camp there for a while.

 At once stage we had all 6 back in the house, this morning. I had moved the cat rugs away from the hearth, last night, and these three decided  they liked it all piled up, lol. Jolly back right, Elsa in the middle and finally Holly joined them

The subject of our visit to town, this morning. It has a double garage, which in itself is very attractive, and though the house is in the middle of town, it is convenient for everything we might need. We could walk everywhere!:)

 Looking down the road a way, this house got my attention. The corner marks the entry to the Medieval town down the hill.

 This is on the opposite corner, and again, you can see the sign bottom right that says Cite Medieval, just above the green car!

 As usual, walking past some of these historic homes, it is the details that catch the eye. I had to take my hands out of my pockets to take photos, so I was quick.

We stopped down the road a bit for a Grand Crème, which was hot, but a bit pricey at 5.40euros. NO extra hot milk, either.

Though the Grape vine has been pruned almost to extinction, it manages to come back.

This is a Boot Scaper! It is outside a building built in the late 1700s.

 This one!

 Back at the car, and looking down the avenue of Plane Trees.

 Isnt this trunk stunning? A Plane Tree.

 So, after getting cold enough to be blowing into our hands, we set of for the Lidl. We were looking specifically for cardboard boxes for the cats. Lucky us, I didn't even have to ask for them in French, we just took them as the workers were putting new product out on the shelves. No problem.

After Lidl, at one end of the town, we went to the bigger supermarche, Intermarche, which is kind of on the way home. I took a wrong turn and ended up going through a small hamlet and some back roads to get there. Always interesting, these jaunts, lol.
I promised I would take a photo of the seafood section, didn't I? Well, here it is, and yes, I ended up explaining to the lady behind the counter that I am a New Zealander and some of the fish is VERY different to what we are used to. She concurred, and the conversation ended there.

 These Sole...if they are Sole, look lovely.  They were caught in the North East Atlantic, as the sign says. Fresh food apparently has to have the origin advertised.

Boxes and food home, and guess who tried the box out for size first? Jolly! Old boy liked it so much, he stayed there the rest of the day. I had put those floor rugs inside the boxes, and they were a hit. They are not downstairs, and I hope they are providing warmth for at least two of the moggies. I will find more boxes tomorrow, perhaps.

 We tend to go out late morning, when the sun has risen somewhat. This also means we have a late lunch. We finished the last of the delicious vegetable soup off, the lettuce, (see the round garden to the left in this photo below?) and tomato, and enjoyed some freshly purchased blue cheese and another Limousin cheese we hadn't tried before.Excellent, both of them.
The sun eventually came out, after lunch, and it was decided that we needed some exercise This involved feeding the birds by refilling the seed tubes and putting out a cake of suet. All the kitties joined us, and some ...ahem...helped!

 The bedding begonias did not survive the two nights of frost we had, unfortunately.

 We could have done with a larger wheel barrow, today. Lots of piles of leaves to remove.

 There is thyme planted between the stepping stones, and it smelled lovely, as I raked the leaves through it.

 Scruffles is daring, and a bit of a nuisance, to be frank. She has to be exactly where you are, and will even chase the rake, lol.

 Alfie kept his distance, but liked to be where he could see us.

 Holly, on the other hand, wanted to get inside.

 Pretty colors still in the leaves.

 Waz came outside to work the swimming pool pole to drag some leaves out.

 Scruffy eventually repaired to the same window sill as Holly. She didn't stay long though.

 We always bring our gardening gloves with us.  This is a simple pleasure to us, not owning a home or having a garden to potter about in.

 Tipping the leaves in the trees up top.

 I got a little creative with my raking:) I like curves!

 Back at it, and no show without scruffles. Sheesh!

We called it a day, after a solid hour of raking and clearing the leaves out of the drains on the summer house. Time for a cuppa, and perhaps we might enjoy one of those little ice-cream pottles we bought at Intermarche?  Indeed, they were very nice. I had the chocolate Salted Caramel, and Waz had the Strawberry Cheesecake. We put the other two back in the freezer for another day. These four were 2.67euros.

 Strawberry Cheesecake Ice cream

 Chocolate Salted Caramel Ice cream.

 We declared them a success. Flavors you cannot get in the USA, and these are made in France.
As you can see, if I sit down and Scruffy is inside, she is inevitably on my collar. Silly cat!

 Holly on the left, and Jolly on the right.

 Dinner was a simple affair...Chipolatas. We are delighted to eat these in France. They are one of our favorite types of pork sausage (saucisson). These came from the butchery at the supermarket. Not prepackaged.

 The last of the carrots, some new crisp Chou de Bruxelles (Brussels sprouts) the last of the Scalloped Potatoes, and I caramelized one of the apples in the fridge that was dying. Pretty yummy.

All six moggies are inside and downstairs. It has taken the 7 days to get used to us and our routine. Often it will take two weeks, and sometimes never, with other cat sits.

We are heading up to bed now. We would like to visit the caves at Lascaux in the next couple of days, but will reserve judgement on that due to expected poor weather. They are only about 60 kms away.
So, it's good night from him, and goodnight from me. I wonder if any of you remember who said that?:)

Every day cant be exciting...or can it?

I always say that "Any day that you wake up, is a good day". Exciting? Well, maybe, but we will stick with the 'good' as an adjective for now.

Unlike the day we went tiki-touring to Jumelhac La Grand, today did not let up on the drizzle. Reminded me of my winter in London...dare I say it...way back in '80/81. It was cold, as it should be at this time of year, and moist, where we have been enjoying dry cold, in the past week.

This was a great excuse to frump about indoors, until we decided that we should really DO something, and set about raking, sweeping, cleaning and what have you, for a short period of time, before repairing back indoors with ALL the cats on various seats and bodies. Blimey...why cant they all come inside when you want them to?
Waz plonked in front of the TV watching various documentaries, and Cocoa and Alfie took advantage of his lap. Of course I don't have the camera on me when I sit down, and as soon as I sat, Jolly helped himself to the arm of the sofa, perhaps knowing that I might move at some time in the near future, therefore not trusting my lap.

 When we decided (post soup and scones for lunch) to get some activity in, Waz crossed the lawn with wheelbarrow and brought a few loads of firewood back from behind the hedge. I went inside for our gardening gloves, but they didn't keep our hands warm AT ALL!

 Last night Waz filled up the bird seed holder, and look at it this morning! We watched as a variety of Finches and other smaller birds helped themselves to the sunflower seeds.

 Scruffy thinks that Waz's leaf raking is kind of fun. I was surprised she didn't go into the water and attack the head of the rake. It is obviously a losing battle, this leaf raking. He has his gloves on, but the pole is aluminum, and therefore cold! He hurried inside again to get warm.

 I needed to empty the food scrap bucket at the back door (to keep it cold), and made the trek to the top of the property where these compost bins are. The middle one is a 'new stew', so they all went in there. The brown one is ready to use. Lovely rich wormy soil!

 Turned around, and this is the lovely view.

 My turn to sweep leaves off the lanai. I stacked the white chairs and plastic tables and it made access much easier. The Geraniums by the wall are all fine, out of the cold and particularly the frost. Those bedding begonias on the other side of the pool are all looking a bit desperate, after two nights of frost. They will come back just fine when it warms in the spring...I hope.

We enjoyed an Apero late afternoon...rose wine and a small bag of Ancienne brand potato chips. We like these little bags, as they are a perfect portion, and we aren't temped to eat more...after all who can just eat ONE chip?

Sitting around all day isn't our idea of fun, but we both reclined our seats on the sofa, and took a nap for a while. Otherwise I was watching A Place in the Sun, where British folks work with a British Realty organization in Europe...often Italy, Portugal, France and Spain...among others, to find their 'dream' home or holiday home there. Today was in Portugal and Spain. For 50k Pounds (UK) you can buy a lovely 2 bedroom condo in Spain with lovely outdoor living.  Too hot in summer, and most of the condo owners only live there for a maximum of 8 weeks per year. Sounds expensive.
Meantime the moggies decided, around 4.30pm that they were bored and needed food. I fed them to get them out of the kitchen and outside for some time out there.

With dinner time drawing close, I decided to go and take the Duck Breast out of the fridge in the vain hope that it might come to 'room temperature' which was probably no more than 6C. Ha! 3C outside, 6C inside.

Duck is very common here, and we do rather like a bit of it, in case you haven't figured that out yet. Those legs in particular!
This is ready cut and ready for cooking, just as it is. A little salt on both sides, and we are ready for the pan. At 3.50euros each for meat, for dinner, we consider this to be good value.
Duck fat is wonderful stuff, and I was determined to render enough to roast some potatoes some time in the near future.

 Salted and ready for the pan.

 The skin side gets salted also, and placed skin down in the med hot pan. I want to sear it, but not brown it too much, but rather rendering the thick fat under the skin. As water birds, ducks have this wonderful layer of fat on the breast, as it stays in the often cold water. Great insulation.

 I like fine salt for such things, and we had purchased this to put in our scones, the other day.

 A little orange/lemon sauce to go with the Duck, was in order.

 A knob of salted butter, melted, of course, place 1 tbspn of brown sugar (or white) into it, swirl it around...not high heat that might brown the butter....just enough to bubble the butter. Add the thinly sliced and chopped or zested orange and lemon peel, squeeze half a lemon and half an orange into the mix, and continue to swirl. Don't 'mix' it per se. Just swirl using the handle of the pan in a rotational movement, if you follow me.
The mix will thicken slowly. Turn the heat off when it is thick enough, but it will thicken further when it cools, so judge carefully.

 Meat is now in the pan and seering. Sauce is bubbling in the background.

 The fat will spit, so it pays to cover the pan. Lower the heat if it smokes too much.

 Turn the mean over when the skin is crackling, and Tip the pan to rescue the fat and keep in a container. You don't want the meat to swim in the fat. Better to have a dryer pan.

 Rescued duck fat.

 I steamed some broccoli, and heated some Scallop Potatoes to go with the meal. The sauce was drizzled over the crackling side of the duck, and we tucked into the meal. Delish!

 You don't want to overcook the duck. It also needs to rest when you take the pan off the heat.
Look at that! Perfectly pink and tender. It is worth purchasing more of this particular product. Easy to use, with most of the work having been done already...but of course it is more expensive as it has been processed more highly.

Dinner and dishes done and dusted, we are now enjoying a cup of coffee....how we miss our large American sized cups! so we tend to make 2 pots of coffee, one after the other, lol. The tea pot is fortunately large enough to provide several cups, in the morning.

This morning we enjoyed a  Pain Raisin each, and toasted some lovely brown Pain Cereal, which I cut myself...thick toast slabs. Waz puts home made marmalade on his, while I put some Nutella look-alike on mine. I had better cut it out, or I will be going up a dress size!

Funny how food becomes important on wet and cold days. I love to cook, so Im always thinking what to make next. We have some Chipolatas in the fridge, so tomorrow night will be a boring skinny sausage night with cabbage...GOT to have cabbage with port sausage.

We find plenty of Pork in these parts. If you have read my previous blogs on France, you will remember that I said the same about our part of Bretagne (Brittany), as there were Pig Farmers in our neighborhood...and huge farms they were too.

If I can get away with it ...funny looks and all that.... I will take some food photos in the supermarket. perhaps if I go early enough, there wont be too many locals there to give me 'stink eye'? Im sure you would love to see the fresh fish available, and the charcuterie/bucherie.

We were going to go walking in the town today, but not in the rain. I have cleaned and done all the chores, so tomorrow had better present with decent weather!
IM off to watch the CNN news to make sure we know what President Silly Pants is up to. Forgive my politics...I don't seek to be rude to anyone, but it is MY blog, and I'm allowed to air my own opinion.

No political comments will be tolerated by anyone who thinks to comment on MY opinion. There...you have been TOLD!:)
A Demain!