23.11.2009

                                                                                                            Tom the baker

As I stroll through the grapevines of my life occasionally I come across hidden diamonds, and in this edition of Pot Pourri I will tell you about 5 that I found recently, and the first one of these and certainly the brightest is Tom the baker…

…but more about the diamonds later.

When clients visit my office to discuss houses a question that is sometimes asked is ‘is there any crime here?’, a not unreasonable question from a culture where ‘The Bill’ has been a very popular programme for the last 25 years!  Until recently I have always been able to say with confidence that there is no crime in this area.  Firstly I suppose there is not a lot to steal but also ‘socio-economically’ there is little potential for crime as we have no ‘drug culture’, ‘neighbours’ do take an interest (“Percy Sugden et 'Le Neighbourhood Watch’"?), and even if someone did steal something there is no easy avenue to dispose of it…and so there is no crime, and that is why the Gendarmerie has such a low profile.  That was true until recently when we had a bank robbery in Gémozac!...well, ‘sort of’! 

Our local branch of the Crédit Mutuel has a night deposit box and someone tried to ‘blow’ it open! 

My first reaction was ‘quelle horreur’ at such a ‘big city’ type of crime but balance was restored when the bank manager told me that the whole thing was farcical as they chose to ‘blow’ the deposit box shortly after the security van had collected the deposits, and although they did actually blow the door open the explosion was so strong that they incinerated the only piece of paper in the box, the receipt from the security collection company!  It’s nice to know that the Lavender Hill Mob is still together!

                                                                                    "Three IC1 males were seen leaving the scene..." 

And now to diamond 2.  One particularly nice thing about living here is the number of very good restaurants…(the entries under “Restaurants” on the PostScript section of my web and my waistline attest to this) but, very occasionally, I discover a restaurant which is so good that words are not adequate, and I have found this with “L’Auberge du Domaine de Seudre” at St. Germain du Seudre...05.46.70.91.26

My first hint at how good it is came from a friend Pauline, and you can see her comments under the “Restaurant” section in my ‘PostScript'.  I was the guest of English friends Phil and Julie.  We had lunch in front of a large log fire and, as we had not been to the restaurant before, chose to have the “Chef’s Surprise”, thinking that this would allow the chef to really spread his wings.  Our host was Carine Pillet, the daughter of the present owner of the Domaine and grand daughter of the man who had purchased it in the 1950’s for the 300+acres of farmland. She and the chef, David Cardineau, have a young child ‘Tom’ and have been together throughout his training as a chef.  He began as a full-time student at a cookery school at La Rochelle when he was 14 and then worked in Ireland (which explains why Carine speaks ‘English’ with a delightful soft and charming Irish accent) before moving to Luxembourg to work in a 2* Michelin restaurant, and then returning to take over the restaurant at the Domaine from Carine’s father.

The meal was wonderful, and I am sure this was partly a result of having ‘our own’ chef as we were the only customers!  I will try to describe it, or as much as I can remember after the pineau, two bottles of Merlot and the champagne!

We began with the pineau and ‘mise en bouche’ of oysters in cream with pasta.  Then came scallops with salmon and a pumpkin sauce and then the main course of ox tail with a hollowed pumpkin case stuffed with ceps.  (My only experience of ox tail before this was that of my grandma, and ‘believe me’ David’s was nothing like grans!)

Then came goats’ cheese wrapped in filo pastry.  Desert was a trio of strawberries, one third in balsamic vinegar, the second in red wine and the third in what I can only describe as a batter/pastry shell. 

Between each course of the meal delightful ‘mise en bouches’ appeared as if by magic, floating down onto the table and quickly vanishing, and one I particularly remember was a plate of small éclairs with ‘mousse angelica’

All of the vegetables are produced at the Domaine, the meat is local, and the fish landed at the port of Mortagne on the Estuary.

After lunch David the chef, Carine, her sister and Tom came to sit at our table for the champagne.

It is not an exaggeration to say it was a magical moment that could have lasted forever…or at least until dinner time…and I look forward to my next visit. 

The Christmas Eve and New Year's Day menus are:

                                
                                       MENU DE NOËL 52.50€

Anyways, back to the real world... 

When people decide to come to France, the initial question they face is ‘where’.  France is a very big country with diverse regions, climatic conditions, price and ease of access.  When advising people I always say that the first decision they should make is which part of France to choose as there is no point looking at property if the area is not the right one. 

If you would like to get a feel for this area in one day go to the “Golden Triangle” icon on page 1 of my website and there you will find a ‘do-the-south-Charente-Maritime-in-one-day’ guide (subtitled, ‘if-its-11.46am-this-must-be-Mortagne-sur-Gironde’).   Once you have taken this drive you will probably know if it’s right for you. 

The area is the second sunniest area in France (but not the second hottest) and, because if it rains it is usually at night with the sun shining each morning, we get a lot of rainbows and below you can see one that particularly interested me because you can actually see where the rainbow comes to ground on each side.  (I returned home for my spade to dig for the gold but when I returned the rainbow had vanished!)

I live at the top of a valley which drops down to the Estuary with the Médoc across the water

...and at each of the 4 corners of the valley is a church and the graveyards are particularly beautiful at this time of year.

A third diamond that I stumbled over recently is a relocation company, ‘Hand-in-Glove’ operated by Sarah Gillespie, and I was so impressed that I have given ‘Hand-in-Glove’ its own icon on page 1 of my web. 

When you move to any new place there are always questions you need answering and this is all the more so when you move to a new country with a different language, different customs, law, administration etc…and this is where Sarah comes in.  She is English, was educated in England, speaks French fluently, is married with 2 children, has lived and worked in France for 20 years, and is currently restoring a farmhouse.  It is very likely that all of the questions you come across she will have dealt with at one time or another and she is so versatile and competent that it is difficult to imagine an area where she could not offer assistance including business with the Mairie (town hall), applications for planning permission, meetings with professionals including architects, doctors, bankers, insurance agents, vets and schoolteachers, dealing with utilities...electricity, water, telephone, internet etc., working with your children to prepare them for entry into school, French lessons...and anything else you may have difficulty after you arrive. 

You can contact Sarah at 0033.(0)5.46.48.43.29 or lloydgsarah@aol.co.uk

If you look on the first page of my web you will see my Deux Chevaux car for sale

And I recently sold my E-Type

I mention this because one interesting aspect of advertising these cars is that the ads drew ‘con men’ who tried to cheat me, and so I thought I should share these experiences with you in case you encounter similar rogues.

The first one wrote with reasonable questions about the car and there was an interchange of e-mail.  He was from Zimbabwe (Rhodesia!) and, after the series of e-mails he wrote to tell me that he would pay the full price for the car and based on our e-mail interchange he thought he could ‘trust’ me and sought my help to move 24 million dollars from Zimbabwe and I would receive a large percentage…I think the con here was to obtain my bank details...and that was the end of this interchange. (This con has been around a long time as I can remember receiving a similar one 15 years ago when I lived in Canada.)

The second one appeared to be a car dealer with an impressive sounding address in central London and who was very interested in my car ‘for a client’.  The language was very stilted, correct but very dated, and this aroused my suspicions, so much so that I entered the address on Google and found it was a hotel in London which I phoned to learn that the hotel had no knowledge of this person and clearly he was simply using their address to impress and/or lend credibility.  The next thing was that the ‘buyer’ offered to buy the car for the full price and was prepared to send me a cheque for 15,000€ more than the price of the car, the additional sum I was to send on to a ‘shipping company’ to ship the car to…‘you’ve guessed it…Zimbabwe!’  The con in this case was that the ‘buyer’ would send the cheque drawn on a Zimbabwe bank, I would deposit it to my own bank and then forward my own cheque for the balance to the shipping company.  The problem would arise however when the cheque was returned from Zimbabwe to my bank as ‘REFUSED/NSF/NO SUCH ACCOUNT’ etc. but by this time I would have paid out the 15,000€ in good faith to the shipping company which was in cahoots with the ‘buyer’!

[Here is an e-mail I received this morning from 'Pauline' on the above fraud:

"With regard to car sales I had a similar experience with my daughter's car when we were in Southampton  They sent us a cheque for an amount including shipping for her car.  I had told her to have the cheque made out to me, and as en ex-Bank Manager with friends still in the business had the cheque processed that day only to find the cheque had been stopped.

A fourth diamond I have recently stumbled across is the bi-monthly magazine “Living Poitou Charentes”.  It is free (paid for by advertising) and covers the 4 départements of the Poitou-Charentes.  The magazine is currently in its fourth edition and each edition has maintained the highest standards.  It is edited by Nicki Wade who runs the magazine with her husband David.  If you are in this area you can always pick a copy up from my office or phone Nicki on 05.45.32.16.42/0033.5.45.32.16.42 or 05.45.35.82.14/0033.5.45.35.82.14 and she will tell you where you can find a copy closer to you.  It is available by post to the UK for £20 per year to cover the postage.  The e-mail is info@livingpoitoucharentes.com  

To see the magazine ‘electronically’ go to http://www.livingpoitoucharentes.com/en/zmag

I also learned about Rachel Greenslade from an article in the magazine.  She rears pigs she brought from the UK and sells pork from them.  Her pigs are ‘free range’ ("pigs in space") and treated properly and you can find out more details of Rachel’s business on the “Pork From Happy Pigs” section of the 'PostScript' on page 1 of my web.  She currently has piglets for sale and these are Gloucester Old Spot Cross and Saddleback Cross…these are quite rare breeds and between 5 and 12 weeks old. 
Rachel can be reached on 05.46.74.96.12 or at her farm at
4 Hameau l’Epinard, route de l’Epinard, 17250 Beurlay,
and her website is http://RachelsPigsInSpace.googlepages.com/homepage, 
and her e-mail RachelsPigsInSpace@gmail.com

It was also through the magazine that I discovered my 5th diamond, the chef and hotelier Nikki Legon, who writes the recipe section in the magazine, « Nikki Legon’s Kitchen », with her own recipes.  Nikki runs the Hotel/Restaurant Karina with her husband Austin at Les Metairies in the Charente, a couple of miles north of Jarnac (www.hotelkarina.net  05.45.36.26.26   info@hotelkarina.net )

As my loyal readers will know I love cooking and make most of the meals at my home…it never ceases to please and amaze me how there are such a wealth of recipes and you can take a group of disparate contents, mix them together, put them in an oven and out comes a delicious meal 'just like that!'….well, most of the time.

And so it was on November 5 that I journeyed to the village to find the restaurant.  You would never guess from the sleepy village that it is the home of the hotel but drive into the village and you will see the signs. 

I had not made a reservation for lunch and turned up to find Austin working in the garden and Nikki in the kitchen.  There was no other guest that day but they said they could provide lunch and showed me their varied menu of French and British food.  Feeling a little guilty that I had arrived unannounced I said that I would have whatever was easiest for Nikki, and in fact ate at the family table with Nikki, Austin and their French gardener.  The meal was pea and pumpkin soup, boeuf bourguignon with pasta, and crème brûlée, with pineau and a local red wine.  For a casual ‘family meal’ it was superb and I cannot wait to return and try something ‘posh’ from the menu.

After Austin and the gardener had returned to work I told Nikki about my culinary efforts and she was a wealth of knowledge and hints…imagine having lunch with Delia Smith…well this was better!

Nikki showed me the restaurant kitchen and then her own kitchen where she experiments with new recipes, and keeps her astonishingly large collection of cook books.  The Hotel Karina is a part of the Logis de France group and each year the Logis has a competition for the best original recipe and Nikki has won it 3 times.

The hotel is a renovated Cognac distillery with 8 ‘units’ with different size accommodation allowing for singles, doubles, suites and family groups; all open onto the central courtyard and pool and all have en-suite bathrooms. 

On Friday evening they serve ‘fish and chips’ and at Sunday lunchtime traditional roast beef with all the trimmings.  The restaurant is open Tuesday to Saturday (and Sunday lunchtime 'pour le roast beef')  serving ‘fixed’ menus and ‘à la carte’.  I have decided that when I next go there though I will book a room so that I can enjoy the meal and the wine without worrying about driving afterwards, and then have breakfast to look forward to the next morning…now where’s that tape measure?

                                           Until December 23 there is a Festive Menu for 25.00€:

                                                                          Prawn cocktail

                                                                                      or

                                                  Garlic mushroom served in a large vol au vent

      Supreme of chicken farcis wrapped in pastry served with a creamy pineau and mushroom sauce

                                                                                      or

                     Slow roast belly pork with scallops, caramelised onions and balsamic sauce

                                                                                      or

                                                                         Vegetarian choice of

                            Sweet potato and asparagus gratin served with lemon vegetable rice

                                                                    A slice of hot brie and salad

                                                          Vanilla ice-cream with hot raspberries

                                                                                       or

                                                                       Mince pie and custard

                        Both main dishes are served with roast potatoes and carrot and celeriac mash

There is also a special dinner on Christmas Eve and lunch on Christmas day.

The Christmas Eve menus for 40€ is:

Selection of canapés

Prawn Cocktail

Green peas soup with curry cream foam

Salmon en croute, sauce hollandaise, creamed mashed potatoes and broccoli

or

Slow roasted belly pork with pan fried scallops and caramelised balsamic onions

Selection of cheese

Lemon soufflé or chocolate gateaux

Coffee or tea with chocolate cognac truffles and mini mince pies with cream

And the Christmas day lunch menu for 50€ is:

Selection of canapés

Seared scallops with ginger, lemon and soy sauce

Cream of asparagus soup

Luxury fish and seafood pie

or

Roast duck with a grande marnier and orange sauce, roast potatoes, honeyed parsnips and celeriac and carrot mash

Selection of cheeses and desserts

Christmas pudding flambéed with cognac served with brandy butter and cream

Raspberry trifle

Pavlova with cream and kiwi fruits

Coffee or tea with chocolate cognac truffles and mini mince pies with cream

And the New Year's Eve menu for 65€ is:

                                                                                   Canapés

                                        Homemade foie gras served with spiced green tomato chutney

                                                                           Symphony of the sea

               Home reared pork from Rachel's farm served with roast potatoes and celeriac and carrotmash

                                                                      Buffet of cheese and dessert

                  A glass of champagne and chocolate truffles will be served at midnight to welcome 2009

 
                                   Music and entertainment provided by the dynamic Caroline Cousins

Here are a couple of Nikki’s recipes taken from the magazine:

Lemon Meringue Pie

Pastry

110g plain flour

25g softened butter, diced

25g lard diced

1 tablespoon of water

pinch of salt

preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F/gas mark 5

Sift the flour with a pinch of salt into a large bowl

Add the butter and lard and using only your fingertips lightly rub the fat into the flour

When everything is crumbly sprinkle in the water.  Mix the pastry with a flat-blade knife and then finish off with your hands, adding a few drops of water until you have a smooth dough.  Place in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Transfer the pastry to a flat, lightly floured surface and roll it out to a circle to fit a 24cm tin.  Cut a 1cm strip the size of the tin and dampen.  Dampen the rim of the tin and place the strip around it and press.  Generously butter the bottom and side of the tin and then line the tin with the pastry circle taking care not to trap any air below and prick the base and sides with a fork and place in the freezer for 30 minutes.  Remove and place on the top shelf of the oven for 25 to 30 minutes, checking occasionally.  (When I do this I buy prepared pastry from the supermarket, liberally butter the bottom and sides of the tin, cover the pastry with greaseproof cooking paper and tuck the paper underneath the tin and fill with ceramic beans or dry rice to maintain the shape, and then half-way through remove the beans and ‘paint’ the pastry with beaten egg before returning to finish without the beans.  I keep an eye on the pastry at the edges so that it doesn’t shrink, and if I see this happening I paint the edges with water to keep them a little damp) 

Remove from the oven and reduce the temperature to 150°C/300°F/gas mark 2.

Filling

300ml of water

4 tablespoons of corn flour

60g of golden caster sugar

5 large egg yolks

50g of butter

grated zest of juice of 3 lemons

Measure the water into a jug.  Spoon the corn flour and sugar into a bowl.  Add enough of the water to mix to a smooth paste.  Pour the rest of the water and the grated lemon zest into a small saucepan.  Bring this up to the boil and pour onto the corn flour, mixing all the time to a smooth paste.

Return the mixture to the saucepan and bring it back to the boil.  Simmer gently for about a minute, stirring all the time to prevent it from sticking.  Remove the pan from the heat and beat in the egg yolks, lemon juice and the butter.

Now pour it into the cooked pastry case.

For the meringue

5 large egg whites

Weigh the egg whites and then double their weight in sugar

Beat the egg whites (with no sugar) until they form stiff peaks then beat in a quarter of the sugar at a time until all is incorporated.  Spoon the meringue on top of the tart, taking it to the very edge of the pastry rim with a palette knife so that it seals the edge completely.  Make a few swirls in the meringue and then place in the middle of the oven for 45 minutes until the meringue is pale beige.

Serve with chilled pouring cream.

Luxury Fish Pie (In the interests of cost I use deep-frozen-fish for this pie and if you do the same be sure to thoroughly wash the fish in cold water as otherwise it will be too salty)

Serves 6-8

300g haddock fillet cut into chunks

300g skinless salmon fillet, cut into chunks

200g skinless cod fillet

250g peeled black tiger pawns

250g scallops, white part only

6 hard-boiled  eggs, halved

1 bay leaf

parsley stalks

450ml fish stock made with the skin and bones of the fish and the shells of the prawns (or a commercially produced fish stock/Court Bouillon)

100ml dry white wine

25g butter

25 g plain flour

300ml milk

145ml cream

freshly grated nutmeg

2 tablespoons freshly chopped parsley

For the topping

1kg potatoes, 
2 leeks, white part only

25g grated parmesan

50g butter

200ml milk

1.     Place the haddock and salmon into a large pan with the bay leaf, parsley stalks, onion and stock.  Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and cook very gently for 5 minutes.

2.     Remove the fish with a slotted spoon and reserve.  Add the wine and reduce by fast boiling until about 300ml remains.

3.     Melt the butter in a medium saucepan and gradually stir in the flour.  Cook gently for 2 minutes, then gradually stir in the warm stock and wine followed by the milk.  Cook gently, stirring frequently for about 10 minutes until thick and smooth.  Gradually stir in the cream and then season with nutmeg, salt and pepper.

4.     Pan fry the scallops and prawns for 1 minute each side and season.  Arrange the cooked fish, scallop and prawns in a wide ovenproof dish and add the halved eggs

5.     Stir the chopped parsley and half the dill into the sauce and pour over the fish

6.     Cook the potatoes in boiling salted water for 20 minutes and then mash (I mash with cream and butter)

7.     While the potatoes are cooking, fry the leeks gently in 25g of butter until soft but not brown.  Beat into the potatoes with the rest of the butter and dill.  Season to taste.

8.     Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F/gas mark 5.  Spoon the potato over the fish and smooth down making ridges with a fork or knife.  Dot with a little butter and sprinkle the grated parmesan over the top

9.     Cook for 45 minutes until the filling is bubbling and the topping golden brown.

10. Serve with buttered spinach.

The visit was particularly interesting because I discovered that Austin and I have a keen  interest in Jaguar cars and he showed me pics of his XK150 and I told him about my E-Type and there was something quite special about sharing a drink in a bar with lots of honey-oak, sparkling glasses, gloriously coloured bottles, the huge shining copper alembic and pictures of the Jaguar D-Type (the car that won the Le Mans 24 hour race for 5 consecutive years) on one wall, Austin’s beautiful  XK150 on another and a painting of a Lancaster bomber coming “Out of the Clouds” on the other…I could imagine Stirling Moss, Biggles, Sandy, Algy and Ginger sitting in the corner with their pints of ‘wallop’.

And for all we dog lovers, the Hotel Karina is a puppy friendly hotel.

What a particularly nice experience.

And on this note I will finish this edition of Pot Pourri with a quotation I took over the internet from the Canadian ‘Vancouver Sun’ newspaper recently and which will be appreciated by all dog lovers!

“Even with all the burping, snoring, farting and grunting, there is nothing sweeter than the unconditional love of a dog”

      Mr. Cool or what?

Till next time, A Bientôt.

                                                     ___________________________

26.02.2008

Is 1.51€/£ possible today?

In January 2007 the exchange rate for the €uro/£ was 1.510, and today it is 1.328.

The market in the south Charente-Maritime, in line with the rest of the world, has been relatively quiet throughout 2007 so that today you would expect to pay about the same price for a house as you would have in January 2007 …what has changed is the exchange rate.

The house you would have bought for 300,000€uros in January of 2007, with an exchange rate of 1.51€uro/£ would have cost £198,675…

…to buy the same house today at 1.328€/£ would cost £225,903…

…an increase of £27,228 or a little less than 14%.

This issue has been of concern to me recently but last week Deborah Lewis of UCB (formerly Abbey National) of Bordeaux which provides mortgages for English buyers in France came by my office and in conversation she mentioned an idea to offset or avoid the exchange rate changes.  Please note that what follows are my musings on Deborah’s idea, and as I am merely an " 'umble realtor " are only my thoughts, however if the ideas I discuss spark your interest you should call Deborah on 0033.(0)5.57.14.44.43 to discuss the specific mortgage options available to you.

We as individuals have no influence over the factors that have caused the change in the exchange rate but what you as an individual do have control over is the way you buy your house to reduce the impact of this change as much as possible, or even avoid it completely.

If you were able to buy your house in €uros without any exchange considerations then you would not suffer the effect of a declining £.

So, for example, let’s stay with this notional 300,000€uros, and let’s assume that you have this money available but your plans to buy your French house have been put on to the ‘back burner’ while you wait for the exchange rate to improve…

…If you were to take this £198,675 (300,000€uros) and place it in a bank in the UK you would expect to receive at least 7% in interest.

...If at the same time you were to take out a French €uro mortgage on an interest only basis of 5.5% to 6%, you would be able to buy your house in France in €uros thus avoiding the exchange rate difficulties, and make a small income from the higher rate of interest from your English deposit…

…and when the £ recovers you can transfer your money and pay-out the French mortgage…

…and in this way you will have bought your French house at the ‘real’ price that you would have paid in January 2007, in effect realising the exchange rate of the time…1.51€/£.

On an interest only mortgage of 300,000euros at 6% the annual payment would be 18,000€uros per year or 1,500€uros per month.  In January of 2007 with the 1.51 exchange rate your monthly payment in £’s would have been £993.38 and on February 26, 2008 at the 1.328 exchange rate your monthly payments would be £1,129.52, a difference of £136.14, however this would be offset by the higher interest rate you would be receiving on your funds deposited in the UK bank…

…and so in this way, dear reader, you avoid the prevailing lower exchange rate and so “can have your gateaux and eat it too!”

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

The morning walks with the pups are always good but never more than now.  Spring has arrived and the days are becoming longer and warmer and the pruning of the vines is almost complete.

Yesterday I took a picture of the vines before pruning...

...and a picture after pruning...

I usually begin my morning walk just before the sun rises, and day after day when the sun does rise it is glorious, at first peeking over the horizon as a red ball before becoming a glorious orb of deep gold and bringing the valley to life. 

The mornings still are crisp often with a little bit of mist at the bottom of the valley, and the sunlight has that gentle, ‘translucent’ quality, almost as if the sun hasn’t really woken up yet and isn’t really trying…more like an impressionist water colour than an oil painting...and as the sun rises the thousands of spiders’ webs draped across the plants in the fields sparkle as the dew catches the sunlight.

If you saw the film Dr. Zhivago you will remember when Omar Sharif and Julie Christie went into the abandoned palace where everything was covered in ice and was stunningly beautiful because of it…well we don’t have the ice here but the mornings have that special feeling.

Paradise!

I recently completed the sale of a particularly nice house; the house was a great bargain and sold to the second client to see it, in fact it was so good that my only surprise was that the first client did not buy it! 

The house was sold ‘lock-stock-and-barrel’ and when we visited the house shortly before the signing of the deed everything was left is the house just as we had seen it at the time of the initial sale, 3 months before, including the furniture, battered cd’s including Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumours” and Simon and Garfunkel’s “Sounds of Silence” (great records!), packages of Knorr soups and Heinz ketchup, Bird’s Custard, and a 6-pack of beer!...as we had not had any contact with the vendors after advising them of the appointment to sign the final deed we became a little concerned that they did not know about the appointment, and this worry was compounded when we arrived at the Notaire’s for the signing but the vendors did not…they did in fact arrive but an hour late as they had driven down from the UK because of problems with flights. 

They mentioned that they had just been to the house to ‘say goodbye’ before the signing (and after we had visited the house), and so the purchaser returned to the house after the signing with a little apprehension as to ‘what was left’, but in fact the only thing that had been removed was the 6-pack of beer…so they had got their priorities right!

Also I recently went to visit Mel and Lyall in their ‘new’ house…you can see a pic of them in the entry for 27.07.2007 below.  Their house is still a ‘work-in-progress’ and so I won’t publish any pics till later however it is so exciting to see the house developing.  The house is actually 2 houses joined (and so it has the luxury of 2 staircases!) with lots of very large, perfectly proportioned, rooms.  Mel and Lyall are improving the house day-by-day, and they are having great success with the various artisans they have chosen to do the work…for example, the plumbing for the central heating boiler is worth a pic for itself, and the fitted kitchen is exceptional…so stay tuned!

Penny and Mike recently moved into their new house.  I sold it originally about 3 or 4 years ago and the then purchasers did an excellent job of updating it until now it is one of the nicest houses I have sold.  The reason I mention this is after months of our marketing the house and the purchaser offering the full-price without any conditions the vendor decided that she did not want to sell it!  The law in France however is clear that under these circumstances the vendor cannot decide not to sell the house and so the sale went through.

I was away from France at the time of signing but am having lunch with them today so I will hear what happened at the signing…stay tuned!

I listen to Radio 4 on my computer and recently accessed a news story which made me chuckle.  The basic story was not funny at all because it involved the discovery of a headless torso in a packing crate behind a garage in London however what was funny was the accompanying police comment ‘foul play is suspected’!

My Pot Pourri is usually not ‘autobiographical’ because as a relatively shallow, superficial, ‘umble, real estate salesman whose biggest excitement and pleasure is walking our puppies, I am about as interesting as a cardboard box but a peek into my history will help with what follows.

I can trace my family tree all the way back to my grandparents.  They all lived in Wigan in houses similar to those in “Coronation Street”.

My mother’s father was a carpenter and sometimes window cleaner who had been forced to retire early because of a work-related injury and who spent his time looking after my wheelchair-bound grandmother, looking after my mother, playing the harmonium he had in the back room and being the choirmaster/organist at the local Methodist chapel and at the local Gilbert and Sullivan society.

My father’s father was a foreman in a cotton mill.

My dad left school at about 14 and went to work for one Noel Coward, a notable local businessman in the market in Wigan, training to be a butcher.  His experience with Mr. Coward gave him a taste for a better life and it became his ambition to open his own butcher’s shop.  The war came along in 1939 and he became a stoker in the navy and after he had sorted out Hitler in the Atlantic and Mediterranean (John Wayne dealt with the Pacific!) he returned to Wigan and in 1945 married my mother. 

When he came home with the wedding ring to show my grandmother she was concerned that it was very ‘thin’ and so she gave him a gold sovereign from her savings (she actually saved sovereigns rather than trusting a bank!) to take to the local goldsmiths to melt and add to the ring.

I was always close to my mum and so when she died I was pleased that my dad gave her wedding ring to me which just fits onto my ‘pinky’.  I am certainly not one to wear jewellery but this ring is special to me because, in addition to being my mother’s, it has been present at all the major stages of my life…conception, birth, nursery, primary and secondary school, my first girl friend, university, my first job, moving to Canada in 1975, their move to Canada in 1978, and my law degree and being called to the bar in 1986.

1945 and demob. was a crossroads for my dad and although he could have returned to work for Mr. Coward he decided that he wanted his own shop and with his stoking skills he secured employment with the railway as a ‘stoker’ on the steam trains and moved with my mother to Bletchley which was at this time the hub of the English railway system, and this allowed my dad to obtain ‘long distance stoking jobs’ which were very remunerative because pay was ‘by the mile’.

When the time came for my birth mum returned to Wigan to be near her family allowing dad to remain in Bletchley and earn the money to set-up his shop which he eventually did in a small village of Hindley Green, just south of Wigan.  The village was very similar to Gémozac with a church, school and various shops, but only one baker, which my parents eventually purchased, my dad continuing with the butchers and my mum the bakers.  I can remember helping my parents at both shops making deliveries from the butchers when I was younger and later making deliveries from the bakery.

So that’s the background and if you are still awake the story moves on…

About a year ago I had met a couple who have a particularly attractive house in the valley between my house and Floirac.  I met the owner because alongside his front door he has one of those metal advertising sign for “Craven A” cigarettes, and when we first talked he told me his name was Alan Craven and at school when the daily register was read he was always identified as “Craven A” to the amusement of everyone and so when he had the chance to buy this sign he bought it!

As my loyal readers know, I enjoy cooking and while I like to think of myself as “le chef dans ma cuisine” (Kim thinks I am more a “fast-order cook” but anyways)…I do try, and Alan and his wife came over for dinner, and during the course we must have discussed where we had come from to arrive in France (as you do!) and I would have mentioned that I was born in Wigan.

A year went by and there was no further contact with the couple.

I took a break over the Christmas/New Year period, only going into the office ‘by appointment’ and it was on January 3 that I had such an appointment. 

From the port of Mortagne there are two roads in a “V” formation, one leading east towards Mirambeau and the other north to Gémozac and Saintes and each morning I drive down a country lane through the vines past the fishing pond and the hunters’ ‘lodge’ to reach the road to Gémozac...here is the fishing pond on an unusually busy day...

 Usually there is no traffic but this morning there was a grey Citroën car in front of me and as it stopped at the junction the driver and passenger alighted and walked back to my car and it was the Cravens stopping to wish me the best for the New Year and then Alan’s wife asked me a very unusual question, which was ‘if I had been born in February of 1951’ which was correct, and ‘if my mother was ‘Brenda Kay’ which was also correct, and then she told me that she had been born in March of 1951 (the month following my birth) and when she had retuned to England recently she had mentioned our dinner and where I had come from, and her 82 year old mother asked her to confirm these facts about my date of birth and my mother’s name as when she had been pregnant she had lived in Wigan and knew a ‘Brenda Kay’ who used the same doctor and midwife and who had given birth the month before she had, however she had never seen my mother (or me!) after the birth…so here was someone I had actually met before I/we was/were born, 57 years later in the country in south-west France!!! ..."What a small world!"

The second aspect of my narrative, relevant to my ‘mini-biography’ is the new grocery shop which has been added to the butcher’s shop in Gémozac, owned by Denis and Marie Gassien at 7 rue Libération, (across rue Libération from my office), between the Post Office and the village square.   They are a particularly nice couple, and so helpful, and their meat is excellent, and here are a couple of pics of their shop...

...and Denis and Marie...

If I am making something special Denis will order-in the meat or if I take a recipe with a photo he will cut the meat to match the recipe.  Recently I have begun to buy my eggs from them too.  They are supplied to him from an elderly lady in the village and are so huge that I cannot but help feel sympathy for the hen!  The eggs are enormous with deep yellow yolks, and as one measure of the difference whereas it takes 3 minutes to boil a supermarket egg, these take 4 minutes.  

…and here’s a pic of my parents on the day they retired...

…and finally here’s a picture of your ‘umble chronicler…the chubby one on the right hand side…and the building to the left is the cotton mill where my grandad was a foreman, and my old primary school, St. John’s C. of E. is on the right.

…and continuing with this glorious self-indulgence…

The restored hotel/restaurant has now opened in the centre of Gémozac, and here is a pic:

…and I have received excellent reports about the standard of the meals…you will remember that the chef used to work at the Hôtel Georges V in Paris.  I also strolled around the outside at lunch today and the architects/builders can be proud.

I had lunch at "La Vielle Poste" last Friday because on Fridays they serve chips and fish in a beer batter which is very good, and as my readers will remember I have been working on trying to find the recipe for the perfect “poisson et pommes frites/fish and chips” meal. 

I recently purchased a special deep frier for 19€uros which is excellent and allows me to prepare the fish and chips outside on the back patio so the house does not have that terrible fish and chip ‘aroma’.

Delia’s recipe for batter is excellent (and very easy) and using beer instead of the water is also excellent but I recently came across another recipe which I think is the best.

The recipe is by the chef Gino D’Acampo and serves 2:

100G/3.5oz self-raising flower
100G/3.5oz corn flour

300-320ml of soda water…we can’t buy soda water here so I take a half-bottle of lemon Perrier water (the ‘gassy’ one), shake it up an then use this water
2 x 175/5oz cod or hoki fillets (I use ‘filet de panga ocean pacifique’ which is a very pretty and tasty white fish from off the coast of Vietnam and at 7€ a kilo, 1/3 of the price of cod!)

with lemon wedges to serve

(Gino also recommends using Chinese 5-spice powder and salt but I prefer it without and he also recommends 175-200ml of water but I find this is not enough, and use 300-320ml.)

Sift the flours together and add the water slowly and whisk so that it becomes a little like ‘wall-paper’ paste…if it is too thick then you will end up with fish with batter which is too thick and if it is too thin the batter won’t adhere to the fish.

Finally before putting the fish in the batter dredge it through seasoned plain flour so that it is completely covered, shake of the excess and then into the batter. 

Allow the excess batter to run-off before placing it in vegetable or groundnut oil at 185°C, turning occasionally, until it is golden.

When I make fish and chips I have the oven already heated and remove the fish from the frier but still allow it to retain a lot of the moisture rather than completely ‘draining’ all the oil off, and then place it in the oven to keep warm and the retained oil on the surface ensures it doesn’t dry.

For the pommes frites/chips I use the recipe of Heston Blumenthal:

Peel and chip your potatoes into similar sized chips (HB recommends ‘Maris Piper’ however we only have one sort of potato which doesn’t have a name and it is fine) and then place under running water for 5 minutes to wash off the starch.

Place the chips in boiling water for 10 minutes

Drain…(I use the sieve I use to sift the flour, and shake a little so the edges of the chips become a little roughened) and dry between kitchen paper towel and leave on a fresh paper towel on a rack in the fridge for at least half an hour.

Then deep fry in the vegetable oil or groundnut oil at 130°C for 5 to 7 minutes or until the chips begin to colour a little and then drain again and back onto the kitchen paper towel and onto a rack back into the fridge for at least 30 minutes and then either use or store in a sealed container for future use.

When you are ready for the final fry of the chips, turn the heat to the maximum of 185°C.

I fry the fish immediately before this last stage with the chips and place them into the oven to keep warm, and then I return the chips to the oil at 185°C until they assume the correct colour…it is very important that you are vigilant here because at this stage the chips cook quickly and so if you do not watch them they will become too brown.

With the frier I have there is a metal frying basket to hold the chips and remove them from the oil however while this is essential for the chips, fry the fish without using this or you will find that the batter sticks to it making it impossible to properly fry the fish.

Serve with salt, malt vinegar, ketchup and tartare sauce and lemon wedges…yum!

(Regarding the fish from Vietnam I was concerned about the global warming issue of bringing a fish all the way from Vietnam but when I raised the issue with my fish lady, ‘Madame Poisson’ (really!) she assured me that they swim in gigantic shoals from the coast of Vietnam to just off the coast of Royan where they are caught by local fishermen, so questions about global warming are not relevant!)

Another of Heston’s recipes I did recently was Bresse chicken, but alas dear reader it was a disaster.   

He had come to France in search of the ‘best’ chicken  and chosen the chicken from Bresse, and by luck when I decided to try it I was able to find the chicken at 20€uros (about 3 times the price of ‘normal’ chicken).  The recipe involves cooking the bird for 4.5 hours at 60°C which seemed very low, and in fact it is because the chicken is not done at all, so, dear reader, I cannot recommend this recipe.

A chicken recipe I can recommend however is ‘English Style Roast Chicken’ by Trish Deseine, a well-known cookery writer in France.  I found this recipe on page 46 of "Brit'mag", No. 15, January-February, 2008.

'Her recipes blend the culinary traditions of the British Isles with those of her adopted France where she has lived for 15 years, and her book “Ma petite robe noire” won the coveted Gourmand World Cookbook Award in 2007…this competition is the ‘Oscars’ of gastronomic literature , and the book also won the prestigious Lamazille Prize in 2006.  Her latest book is “Ma Cuisine”'. 

English Style Roast Chicken

Preparation time 45 minutes

Cooking time 1hour 15minutes

Ingredients for 4

1 chicken of about 1.8kgs/4lbs

For the stuffing

150 to 200g of stale or toasted bread

1 large onion

4tbsp of fresh parsley

150g of butter

zest and juice of one lemon

Preheat the oven to 250°C/480°F

Thoroughly rinse the chicken with cold water inside and outside and drain and pat dry with kitchen paper

Put all the stuffing ingredients into a blender and whiz until it is a fine mixture and use this to stuff the chicken…do not overstuff as the stuffing will expand during cooking.

Rub the inside and outside of the chicken with the remains of the lemon 'flesh' and then 'paint' melted butter over the bird and into a roasting tin.  Place in the preheated oven and immediately lower the temperature to 200°C/400°F and leave to cook for approximately 1hr 15minutes, checking after 45minutes.

To check the chicken is cooked insert a cooking thermometer into the thick part of the thigh (drumstick) and a reading of 87°C/190°F shows it is cooked…otherwise pierce the plumpest part of the bird with a fork and the juices should run clear and not pink…if they are pink, return to the oven for another 10 minutes and check again.

Serve with mashed potatoes and Brussels sprouts and ‘Le Bisto’ chicken gravy, using the juice from the chicken in the roasting tin to make the gravy.

Finally, dear and patient reader, I want to share a ‘David Attenborough’ moment with you. 

For the last six years or so I have fed the birds behind my house.  Each morning when I leave the house the trees surrounding my back yard are full of chattering birds waiting for the restaurant to open, and as I watch them day-by-day I see the ‘regulars’ …I like to think them as members of my ‘Breakfast Club’.

This was fine until a couple of weeks ago when a neighbour’s cat caught and killed one of the two Collared Doves ("Bertie and Bess") which came each day; these are a pretty grey bird with a collar around the neck, almost like a vicar.

I was away from home when this happened but when I returned several days later I saw the feathers on the floor and the uneaten bird seed which Kim had put out each day, and Kim told me that the birds had simply stopped coming.

Each day following my return I went out with the water and bird seed and could see the birds waiting in their usual places in the trees surrounding the back yard but they simply weren’t feeding; I concluded that they had been traumatized by the attack of the cat.

The picture below shows my restaurant with tables on either side of the open gate.

In my efforts to restore their confidence I swept all of the unused grain away and started again, and I did see that over the following days some of the grain was eaten but it was always on the left side of the gate and not on the right.

This puzzled me for a few days. 

Normally the grey Renault in the pic is parked to the right of the gate where the seed remained uneaten, and then the day before yesterday I had the idea to park the Renault away from the wall to see if it made a difference…which it did immediately, and my theory for this is that the birds were simply not eating on the ‘Renault side’ because they were worried that the cat was hiding under the car, and once it was removed and the area was much more open and so the cat could not hide, everything was fine.

And, in closing this edition of Pot Pourri, I want to tell you about a very pleasant experience that happened this evening.  I have not driven "Penelope", my E-Type, for many months and so on Sunday I decided to put her back on the road.  The battery was flat and so I jump-started it from my other car, and drove about 200 yards down the road before she stalled and would not restart.  I had to return home and bring my car and try to start her again but I couldn't and so I went to the home of the local mechanic and he came out to help me without the slightest hesitation, despite it being Sunday.  He could not start her either and so returned to his garage for his tow truck and towed me to the garage.  He kept the car for 2 days, checked her out and could not find any problem.  I met him this morning and he showed me the dismantled carburettor and he told me he had ordered a small part for it, and that she would be ready this evening which she was.  I went to collect her this evening and asked for the bill, and he laughed and told me there would be no charge!...and isn't that a nice way to end this edition of Pot Pourri!

…and so, dear, gentle, loyal reader, that’s all for now from Paradise...until next time…!

29.08.2007   Settling in

Once the dust has settled and you have moved into your new French home it’s the time to meet your neighbours. 

The old saying that “you only have one chance to make a first impression” is equally true in rural France and so it is a good idea the think about this before the ‘big day’.

In most rural communities the sale of a house and the arrival of the new owners is a significant social event.  Rural communities are very stable and it is not at all unusual to find people in their 90’s who have lived in the village for all of their lives and can trace their families back through many generations so the arrival of a new family is special, and an English family all the more so!

Therefore it is important to make every effort to see that your first contacts are good ones.

One advantage is that the French by nature are gregarious and interested and so it’s up to you to meet them half way.

Speak to the vendors about the neighbours and if it seems right have them introduce you, at least to the immediate neighbours.

When the moving van is being unloaded if anyone comes by make the effort to say ‘bonjour’, take some time, and be open and friendly…if your French is not very good then you can use the free translation services in the PostScript section of my web to put together a few sentences to greet your neighbours, talk about the weather, and tell them a little about yourself and find out a little about them.  Carry a pocket dictionary with you…this will delight your neighbours because you ‘are making the effort’ and with the dictionary and your prepared greetings and the little bit of English your neighbours speak you will do fine!

The mail, bread and grocery delivery people are an important point of first contact with the village, particularly as they have daily contacts with most people in the village and so it’s a good idea to make a good impression here as no doubt they will be quizzed by your interested neighbours.  If you use the baker’s or butcher’s or grocer’s van you will find your neighbours using them too and so this is another good point of contact.

In addition to the delivery vans, try to use the local bakery and other shops, bars and restaurants because not only will it help you with your French but it will also help you become part of the community. 

Walk around the village, at different times of day, and without being ‘pushy’ greet whomever you see and be prepared to have a short conversation…a smile, a wave and a ‘bonjour’ costs nothing but can be so effective.

It is important that you remember the names of the people you meet for the next time you meet them, and so make a note after you have left their company…you can often see the names on the front of the mailboxes or find them in the white pages of the telephone directory.  It is always so impressive to be greeted by name by someone you have only met once!

Go to the Mairie and meet the mayor and staff to simply say ‘bonjour’ and let them know you have arrived.  In my village the local newspaper goes to all 125 families with information about the village, births, deaths and marriages, and you may even get a mention.  The Mairie is also a good source for the names of local artisans. 

Attend the village social gatherings, be it dinner/dances, ‘brocantes’ (antique/quality junk markets), flower shows, music in the church, in fact anything which goes on in the village, and try not to speak English or huddle with your English friends!

Try as many clubs and societies as you have time for and then pursue those that interest you.  On my PostScript section you will find the “Association Franco Anglaise” which has English and French members both eager to learn about the culture and language of the other.

Go to the state sponsored French classes where you will meet like-minded English people who can introduce you to their French friends…see “French Lessons” in the PostScript section of my web.

Once you have passed the initial meeting stages, consider inviting neighbours in for a glass of pineau and ‘cheesy bits’…nothing at all grand but a nice friendly gesture, and if you are invited to visit their houses do so.

French are pet lovers and therefore a few dog biscuits in your pocket can make you an immediate hit with the dogs and this can be a good introduction to their owners.

From time to time you will require work on your property and it is wise to use local artisans as not only are they there ‘as and when you need them’ but you are putting money into the village and the lady you meet in the bakery that morning is probably the wife/mother/daughter of the electrician you have just employed.  You can imagine how difficult it must be for a French person to see a house sold in the village and then a stream of trucks with English licence plates of the workmen working on the house.  This is not to say that English workmen are not be used…but try to strike a balance and respect the feelings of your neighbours.

If you want to become part of the community become part of the community!

________________________________________________________

15.08.2007

Someone once said that ‘we don’t own property, we hold it in trust for our children’ and this came to mind at a conveyance a couple of weeks ago. 

Andy and Suzanne bought a house in St. Léger, a particularly pretty hamlet near the mediaeval town of Pons. 

We visited the house shortly before the signing of the deed to check on the condition of the house and at the appointed time car after car arrived and they were the 4 children (in their 60's and 70's) who had inherited the house and were coming to meet (inspect?) the purchasers before the conveyance. 

We spent quite a time going through the house as each of the brothers and sisters had their own memories so we were late for the appointment with the Notaire!  They showed us where the grandfather had kept his chickens and chicken feed on the first floor(!) and where the father had made and stored his wine. 

The house had been built in about 1850 and had always been the family home, and the brothers and sisters took special pleasure that Andy and Suzanne have children and so it will continue as a ‘family home’.  One of the brothers who still lived in the village offered to trim the vines over the kitchen window at the appropriate time while another said that he would bring his goat to keep the grass down.

Here are pics of Andy, Suzanne and family, the house, the wonderful 'Le Rustica' restaurant, town hall and church, all at St. Léger.

If you look at the edition of Pot Pourri for 27.07.2007 you will see the mention of the house bought by Lyall and Melanie where another interested party, Andy, had contacted me about a house and had told me about ‘just missing his dream home’ which turned out to be the one that I had sold to Lyall and Melanie!  Well I am pleased to report, dear reader, that I was successful in finding a very special house for Andy, and you can still see it on my web, 6263 at 189,000€uros. 

The reason I mention this sale is that I am an agent for “Immobilière-Internationale” and this sale was truly ‘international’ as the vendors, Gerry and Micky, are Dutch, the purchasers, Andy and Margaret, are American and South African, I am Canadian, and Elisabeth who dealt with the Compromis (or initial sales agreement) for our office is French…and then part way through the signing of the Compromis an English couple who had bought a house 20 years ago from Elisabeth dropped by to say ‘hello’...and Elisabeth remembered them by name!...quite astonishing…it must be the female psyche!…Elisabeth is also able to type in English (using all fingers of both hands and not looking at the keyboard!) while holding a conversation in French and vice-versa… ‘très formidable’. 

Gerry and Micky, (the Dutch couple!), have quite a remarkable story as their life was fine in Holland but they decided they wanted an adventure and so came to the Charente-Maritime.  They buy ruined properties ‘which feel right’ and over two years fix them up (to avoid capital gains tax) and resell them, and in fact theirs was one of the first houses I sold with Immobilière-Internationale in 2002 and since then I have sold their next 3 houses!

I am often asked the approximate costs of restoration by clients and so a recent article with actual estimated costings provided by an architect, Roger Minost, (www.rogerminost.co.uk) in an article in “French Property News”, #187, September 2006, p.50 may be of interest.

“New roof...(tiles/complete roof) 28,000euros including stripping and re-roofing with new tiles and insulation so roof space can be used

Wiring...4,900€uros

Plumbing...3,900€uros

Heating...11,100€uros including new boiler and under floor heating to ground floor

Plastering whole house...17,500€uros including dry lining external walls plus new partitions and to roof space

New floorboards...chestnut floorboards, 11€uros per m²...allow 30€uros per m² total

Typical cost of artisan per hour...between 28 and 35€uros per hour

Septic tank...5,700€uros including soak away but not drainage connections

Underpinning foundations...anticipate at least 700€uros per linear metre (hand digging)

Connecting to electricity/water...There is no charge from EDF if the connection is less than 50m.”

While of course, dear reader, I was pleased to sell Micky and Gerry’s house the ‘down side’ was that the next day a couple was coming to view this house specifically, after 3 weeks of planning, but because I had only received the agreement to purchase at 9.00 that night I was unable to contact them but (‘phew’) they were very cool and understood that sometimes ‘things happen’ and we are now discussing other houses!

I had lunch with Steve Bannell on Saturday…Steve is the wizard who designed the property analysis programme under WIZARD on page 1 of my web.  It gave me another chance to test drive my E-Type, “Penelope”, before her M.O.T. on Friday of this week.  We decided to go to the Moulin de La Baine at Chaniers on the eastern side of the Charente River and I want to tell you about it because it’s less a restaurant and more the set for “Fawlty Towers!”

The restaurant has a lot going for it as it is an old millhouse and has a great view of the river and we were shown to our table on the veranda however the railing between the dining area and the river is made with thick dark wood and placed in such a way that it completely obscures the view of the river which therefore can only be seen by standing!

We were given the menus to consider and then within 1 or 2 minutes 3 different waiters came to us to ‘take our order’, and we had to send each away until we had chosen.  I don’t know if you are like me, dear reader, but a lot of the pleasure of a meal in a good French restaurant is just reading the menu! ...fewer calories too! 

Steve had oysters which were fine and I had mussels in cream sauce however there was very little meat on the mussels, they were dry and stuck to the shells, they were a strange yellow colour and there was too much sauce which was too cloggy/thick …apart from that they were fine!

For the main meal I ordered  Suprême de volaille (chicken breast) and Steve steak but when the waitress brought my plate it was entrecôte steaks and so she took it back to the kitchen to find that there had been a mix-up and she returned with the chicken. 

I suspect that when she had gone to ‘Waitress Training School’ the class had been oversubscribed and so she had elected to take ‘Introduction to Bricklaying-101’ as the way she ‘placed’ the plate before me suggested considerable success at the bricklaying course…but in fairness, the chicken was excellent.

The restaurant was about half full (or half empty if you are feeling depressed) but despite this they had decided to cluster the guests into the same section of the restaurant which resulted in the tables/patrons being too close and backs of chairs colliding and the difficulty with a number of people speaking in too small an area, and we tolerated this, but when the 8 people on the next table all ‘lit-up’ at the same time we were shrouded in smoke. 

We unobtrusively indicated the problem to the waiter and suggested we would like to move to one of the many empty tables ‘upwind’ of the smokers, but the waiters weren’t keen on our changing tables and in fact offered to physically move (lift up!) our table and carry it away from the smokers…which turned what should have been a discrete manoeuvre into a public spectacle and no doubt embarrassed the table of smokers.  We therefore walked away from our table toward the empty ones and the waiter saw what was happening and quickly ‘filtered’ us to a table where the couple had just finished and the waiter began to remove the used plates and cutlery…rather than just give us a fresh table… “très tacky!”

The cheese serving came next and this was 3 of the thinnest slivers of rubbery white cheese and a piece of sad lettuce in desperate need of artificial respiration…and what happened to choosing from a cheese board? 

The desert had a fancy name but as it included the word ‘chocolate’ it had my vote but it was nothing more than a piece of sponge part of which was chocolate coloured, in an indifferent and thin ‘sauce’…

...what a disappointment, even more so because the lunch cost 85€uros, and that is why the restaurant is no longer recommended on the Post Script section of my web!

When I go to a restaurant I take a copy of the “French Menu Reader” (Stanway Publications, West Linden Lodge, Colwall, Malvern, Worcs. 1999) which is small and light enough to hold out of sight within the menu so that you can understand the items and don’t feel 'silly' however I don’t think there is any reason to be embarrassed by using a dictionary like this particularly as the authoress, Maggie Plunkett, writes in the introduction: “Since there are at least 250 ways to cook a fillet of sole, I hope you can appreciate that no work of this size could ever be considered complete.”

The cruise across the River Charente after lunch was very pleasant, and here’s a pic of Steve and Penelope on the ferry.

Steve has also suggested 3 excellent improvements to my website, these being adding the ability to go directly to a property by reference number, and changing the path to access the POT POURRI and POST SCRIPT sections so that these download much more quickly, and I am currently discussing these changes with my programmer.

However to leave you on a bright note...

...a lady came into my office last week with a rather sad and disturbing, but in the end inspiring, story. 

She and her husband owned a second home in a nearby village and he had died and suddenly there surfaced two daughters by the husband’s previous marriage claiming half of the house…despite the fact that the father had not seen the daughters for 35 years and excluded them from his English will. 

She wanted an evaluation because she had received strong letters from the solicitor acting for the daughters that they wanted their interest in the French house and it looked like she would have to sell her French dream to settle their claims.  You can see the daughters licking their lips at the very thought!

Coincidentally I had just read an article by Sean O’Connor, a lawyer, in “French Property News”, January 2007, p.62 where the circumstances were identical.

Under French law it is difficult to disinherit children including those from previous relationships however despite the interests of these children, the surviving spouse has a life interest in the half of the property of deceased spouse…that is she can keep it as long as she lives, and the interests of the children/step children only take effect when she either sells the house or dies…which in the case of this lady based on her age will probably be in about 30 years….and until either of these developments occurs they have no rights at all, even access to the house! 

To quote Sean O’Connor “They can froth at the garden gate, but they cannot come in without your consent.”

So, fair enough, the plans of the 'wicked grasping stepchildren' are thwarted and justice is restored…

…however there is more!

Because the ‘wicked grasping stepchildren’ have this half interest in the property even though it will be of no immediate benefit and could take up to 30 years before their interest can be realised they are responsible for half of the costs of maintaining the property, and half the annual land tax...year, after year, after year, after...

Isn’t this a delicious resolution?

So dear readers, until next time…!

PS: Here's a pic of Tab I took this morning soaking up the rays...isn't he fab...should I buy him some sunglasses?

 ___________________________________________________________

27.07.2007

As my loyal and devoted readers will know the best 'thinking time' for me is on the morning walk with the pups. 

It is always so quiet...quiet that is except for the birds, the cock crows from the farms, the rustle of the maize plants, the distant harvesting equipment and the church bells!

 Everything (including my mind!) is so fresh and the pups are in their own world as they follow the scents of the night and as I look across the valley to the recently cut bales of hay on the slopes and the woods beyond, the grape vines, the vine fields, the sunflowers and the ripening maize, everything seems possible, and thought after thought, idea after idea, flashes to the surface of my mind like fish momentarily coming to the surface of a stream, catching a ray of sun and vanishing, hopefully to resurface when I sit before my typewriter!

I wish I had the poetic qualities of say a Wordsworth…

“I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o’er vale and hills

And all at once I saw a crowd

A host of golden ...grape vines

………………………..bales of hay?

………………………..sunflowers?
………………………..ripening maize?

Somehow it just doesn’t scan does it?…best not to give up my day job!

…and as a result it’s sometimes difficult to know where to begin Pot Pourri however this was solved yesterday when I went to Champagnolles to take some pics of a house I had sold several years ago to ‘Andy’, a builder from the UK.  He had bought the house as a ‘restoration project’ and contacted me last week to ask me to go by and take some pictures so he would have an idea if any more of the house had ‘fallen down’ and how much work to anticipate, and here it is

It gave me an opportunity to take a test-drive in "Penelope", my E-Type.  I bought her in the US in 1986 and she was fully restored at that time but now she is 21 years older and showing the effects of passing time (“Don’t we all dearie!”).

I haven’t driven her much since I returned to Europe in 1999 and every time I did she overheated and STOPPED, and in my efforts to fix the problem she has been in my local Renault garage off and on over the past two years.   In fairness it hasn’t been all bad as occasionally I could sit behind the wheel, smell the damp leather, pip the horn, press the pedals, look over the bonnet stretching into the distance, and not burn much petrol doing it however…

The weather has finally settled down and now the days and evenings are warm however I feel a lot of empathy for the flood victims in the UK because we moved into our first French house alongside the river Charente in late 1999, two weeks before the ‘tempest’ or massive storm.  Our house was an old boatbuilding yard built about 1700 alongside the river.  Now close proximity to a river is useful if you are a boat builder…the front of our house was 6 feet from the river…but not if the river floods as it did in 1999.  Our house became a waterlogged island for 9 days but with our wellies, tiled floors, electrics high on the walls, and moving our stuff upstairs we got through it.  We were without electricity for the 9 days and in France if you are without electricity for 7 days or more you receive free electricity for the following year which we did…proof I suppose that ‘every cloud has a silver lining’.

On Monday clients who were to see me the next day came to the office to make sure they knew where I was located and to say ‘hello’.  They had used the excellent WIZARD programme designed by Steve Bannell which you will find on page 1 of my website.  From the WIZARD analysis one house was head and shoulders over the others, and so we went to see this after I closed the office that evening.  The property really pleased the clients and after seeing it it scored even more on the WIZARD!

The next day we did go to view the other houses as arranged and had a thoroughly enjoyable half day seeing great houses after driving through wonderful countryside in beautiful weather, (the only thing missing was champagne and a picnic!) but the first house was still the leader and so they have bought it!

This really is the best part of working in real estate, when clients find ‘the one’ and before anything is said you see the glow of pleasure/happiness/contentment …and here is a picture of Lyall and Melanie, and you can see what I mean!

We also visited ‘the head’ discussed in the edition of 22.07.2006 below, and a small port on the Estuary.

We could not obtain agreement from the vendors immediately because they had agreed to sell it at the same price to another purchaser but this buyer was still in a ‘chain’ and could not make a final decision until he was absolutely sure of the availability of funds, and so Lyall and Melanie were able to buy the house, and so you can imagine my surprise when 5 days later I was contacted by a new client through GOOGLE who explained that he had seen a house on my website which was of great interest and had just missed his dream house ‘because he was stuck in a “chain” and could not be absolutely sure of the availability of funds’, and ‘yes’ dear reader it was the dream house that Lyall and Melanie had just bought!

If you see ‘the right’ house on my website, do make every effort to come to view quickly and if necessary consider a bridging loan as I have had 2 instances recently where clients have seen the ‘perfect’ house, delayed coming, and the houses have been sold.  It is very likely that if you have found the house attractive, then other people will too!

A couple of weekends ago I went to the pony trap races at the Château  in Gémozac which is on 25 acres in the heart of the village and where four meetings are held each summer.  The village agrees to look after the Château’s grounds in return for being allowed to hold the races on the Château’s race track, and this has gone on since the early twentieth century.  My agency sponsored the first race this year, and here is a pic taken at the post.

The French wine industry is facing many difficulties at the moment with great competition from Australia, California, Africa and South America…I understand that Brazil is about to begin producing wines and they will be able to produce 2.5 harvests per year! (although I am not sure how you produce 'half a harvest'!) 

In France much of the wine produced is from small vineyards through cooperatives where the wines have no distinct ‘identity’ and so it is difficult to compete with the ‘Jacob’s Creeks’ of this world…last year 51,000,000 litres of ‘miscellaneous’ wine was produced in the Bordeaux region alone in this way, and also many millions of unsold litres were poured down the drain!  We are lucky in this area because most of the grape production in this area is for Cognac brandy and pineau which can only be produced in the Charente and Charente Maritime and this affords economic protection.   New legislation has been proposed in Brussels for farmers to be paid £10,000 per hectare (2.5acres) to remove unwanted/uneconomic vines.

Talking about wine though I have been trying to ‘raise my game’ by being selective and choosing wines from particular regions and Châteaux and paying about 12 to 15 €uros per bottle but this has become difficult as we have found an excellent red wine (with a glass bottle and a real cork and a pretty picture on the label!) for 0.93€uros a bottle.  Not only is it consistently good, but after the second bottle it doesn’t really matter anyway!  And last week I saw the owner of one of our best restaurants buying wine in a box so maybe this tells you something!

As mentioned above, the best time of my day is the morning walks with the pups but this morning an unusual event occurred.  Normally everything is quiet and we see no one but as I was walking back up to the house I heard the high pitched sound of a racing engine coming towards us.  Now when you are walking along a lane with 3 playful pups off their leads there is only one action to take and that is to stand resolutely in the centre of the lane and (hopefully!) force the driver to slow which is what I had to do this morning.  The ‘souped-up’ car screeched to a halt and the young driver of the car leapt out of the car and came towards me with his hand outstretched…and apologised for his speed, (he was late for an appointment), shook my hand, patted the pups and was gone...but more slowly!

In light that 157 years had passed since the crime Morse could only work with the documented facts…

…which were that a husband working in London had saved the fare for his wife to come to join him from Coventry, and she chose to come by barge rather than by stagecoach.  During the 36 hour trip the woman had complained to a representative of the company at its office on the canal side of the drunken behaviour of the crew, and that night she went missing from the boat and ‘her body’ was subsequently found in the canal, a trial was held and 3 of the 4 bargees were convicted while the fourth turned Queen’s evidence and testified against the other three. 

Morse looked at the facts and had suspicions that the convictions were not good!

He wondered why the woman would travel for 36 hours on a barge when the cost of a coach was not a lot more and was much more comfortable and quicker.

Why did she complain to the representative of the barge company when immediately afterwards she was seen on the boat laughing and sharing alcohol from a bottle with the barge-men?

When she had come to the boat she had had 2 bags yet after ‘her death’ only one was found, and the one pair of shoes that were found had never been worn on rough surfaces leading to the question where were her regular shoes as no shoes were on the body?…and the body that had been discovered and ‘identified’ by the husband was 3 inches too tall for the person to have fitted into the shoes left on the boat!  Furthermore the body identified by the husband had died by suffocation and not drowning!

Morse also noticed that that the name of the ‘deceased’ woman’s ‘second’ husband was an anagram of the name of her first husband, who was a professional magician. 

The funeral of the woman had been paid for by an insurance company, and on further research Morse found that there was a considerable insurance policy on the woman, and the premium paid was excessive in relation to the woman’s financial position.

Morse went to Ireland and had the grave of the ‘first’ husband opened only to find a bag of rocks in the coffin.

From all this Morse was able to show that it had all been an insurance fraud!

The woman had faked her death in the river, the husband deposited another body in the river to be 'found' and for him to later ‘identify’, and then to collect the insurance money.

So by seeing little things that didn’t ‘add up’ Morse had solved the case.

The Morse programme brought to mind one of my most interesting cases.

A client came to my office who had been involved in a head-on collision with a garbage truck.  The accident had happened early in the morning as he was on his way to work and he and his passenger suffered severe injuries and had no recollection of the accident as a result of the concussion/head injuries. 

There was no question that the garbage truck was in the correct lane going at an appropriate speed when my client had driven from his lane into it.

On the facts, the matter ‘spoke for itself’…. ‘res ipsa loquitur’, as Rumpole would say.

The client was a youngish Portuguese Canadian who only had 2 interests in life…football and driving, and in fact he was a professional truck driver with the top class of driving licence allowing him to drive any size of vehicle.  To have a conviction of dangerous driving on his record would be a major blow.

The police had made their decision that he was responsible, and the insurance company had followed their line and so ‘game over’.

The client had no memory but because of his driving skills, the time of day, the fact that it was a normal drive to work and there was no alcohol involved he could not imagine that he had driven in the way accepted by the authorities.

The similarities with the Morse case were that there was no witness of the accident and on the evidence available the conclusion of the police was not unreasonable.

I obtained the police report and then visited the scene of the accident…the ‘locus in quo’ to borrow again one of Rumpole’s Latin phrases!

The road was a 4 lane road with cars parked on the outer lanes and the centre lanes being used for traffic moving in either direction.  Immediately before (or after!) the location of the accident was a side road giving access to a 16 block housing estate on the right.

I went through the witness statements, all of which described the scene immediately after the accident, and interviewed the witnesses.  There was one I could not contact as the phone number the police had recorded was incorrect.  Other witnesses remembered this particular witness because he had been driving a recently renovated 57 Chevrolet…a light blue in colour.

I then went to the insurance yard to look at the remains of my client’s vehicle.  It was a black Toyota car where everything was black…the paint, the engine, the engine bay, the interior, and even the glass windows however on closer examination I saw the finest, almost invisible, blue line, almost like a chalk line it was so faint, and it ran along the right hand side of the front half of the car at the same level from right to left…leading to the question ‘where had this blue line come from?’ … ‘how had it got there?’

The accident had taken place at a busy time of day as everyone was travelling to work.  Combining the thin blue line on the black Toyota, the blue car of the witness with his ‘incorrect’ number, and the fact that the line of travel of my client’s car had been from the left to right into the oncoming truck, away from the entrance to this side road, and relating the location of the collision to the access road, the thought came to mind ‘What if a driver was coming from the estate and with his restricted visibility had edged out onto the main road resulting in his clipping the right side of the Toyota, causing it to travel across into the lane of the oncoming truck?’

The 16 block estate had two access/exit roads, one on the east and the other on the west at the scene of the accident.  There was not very much traffic through the estate and therefore it was very likely that any car leaving this estate would be from this estate, and because of the time of day that the driver was on his way to work. 

With the above hypothesis I started to drive around the estate very early in the morning before people had left for work looking for ‘the suspect vehicle’, and on the second morning I found it…a restored blue 57 Chevy still with slight front-end damage parked on the road outside one of the houses!

I took pic of the car with my Polaroid but when it developed the detail of the number plate was not very good and so I returned to retake the pic, and it was as I was climbing back into my car that the owner of the car came out of his house and our eyes met…and his face ‘went white’…we both knew the game was up!

I reported my suspicions to the police and they went to the house and the owner came to the door in tears and immediately admitted that he had collided with the Toyota causing the accident…and justice was done!

A second video I have seen recently was the Paul Newman film the “Verdict”, and this so accurately illustrates the relationship/feelings/emotions/pressures when a single lawyer takes on the big insurance company…David and Goliath springs to mind but where David had the sling, the lawyer has the strength of his client’s case!

The story in “The Verdict” was of a woman who was seriously injured by the consulting doctor allegedly prescribing 10x the appropriate dose of medicine which rendered the patient comatose, probably for life.

Paul Newman, the lawyer acting for the woman found the nurse who had administered the medicine as per the specialist’s instructions and he wanted her to give evidence, and equally the doctor’s lawyers/insurers did not want her to give evidence.

Eventually the nurse came to the witness stand and was being cross examined by James Mason the lawyer for the doctor and hospital.

Lawyer Mason:   “Well, Nurse A, you say that the good doctor prescribed 10 units of drug x, and he says he prescribed 1 unit of drug x.  He is an eminent doctor, a professor at the University with 35 years experience,  and he says he prescribed 1 unit, and has the copy of the hospital records to show this was the amount he prescribed, while you, a young relatively inexperienced nurse who administered the incorrect dose which led to this woman’s condition have only your word to say that he prescribed 10 times the dose he says he did…whom should the jury believe?...why should the jury accept your evidence?

(And as Rumpole always says “Never ask a question in cross examination if you don’t know the answer”)

And the nurse says the most memorable 4 word sentence…very quietly…and very slowly

“…I kept a copy”

…and she produced the original hospital records signed by the doctor from her bag…the original that is before the ‘good doctor’ changed it!

…and the defence case fell apart!

I cannot think of this interchange without feeling thrills down my spine!

Well dear reader, I had a case which was similar!

I was acting for a man from northern Canada, almost Alaska.  He was a driller for an oil company and his daily job was operating a drill to drill 10 or 11 holes a day searching for oil. 

He was involved in a head-on collision during a snow blizzard at 3.00am, the other driver was killed, my client had no recollection due to his injuries and there was no witness.  While there were a number of issues including liability for the accident, a major component of his claim was his ‘cost of future care’.  There was no issue that he no longer had the intellectual capacity to do his drilling job and of a fashion he could look after himself with the help of his sisters and so the defence/insurance company took the position that there was no future care cost, while I as the plaintiff’s counsel took the opposite position!

In the Canadian legal system, largely based on the common law from the UK, before trial there is an examination of witnesses entitled “Discovery” where the lawyer for either the plaintiff or defendant can ask questions under oath of a witness for the other side.  The whole point of this is to clarify the evidence of the witness and where possible ‘box’ him in or obtain answers that can be used at the later trial to question/destroy his evidence. 

In addition once a witness has been qualified as ‘an expert’ (with knowledge not available to the general public...‘the man on the Clapham omnibus’) the expert is allowed to give opinion in court which usually has considerable weight.

In the particular discovery in question I was examining the defence psychiatrist who could not have been more eminent.

Now however well-prepared you may be for such a hearing you are still a lawyer facing an expert of many years experience in a completely different and difficult area and while this is not easy in regular medicine it is much more difficult in the field of psychiatry.

…and here was I, a lawyer with modest experience going head-to-head, nose-to-nose, with an eminent doctor…

…but I had a plan!

The discovery was a morning discovery on  a Friday, beginning at 10 and scheduled to finish by 12.30, and by about 12.15 I had pretty much covered all the bases, examining in detail the doctor’s qualifications and medical reports and discussing his opinions but in reality taking two steps backwards for every step forward!

Anyway the discovery was coming to a close without my making one chink in the armour of the ‘eminent doctor’, and as it was Friday everyone was feeling a little tired and thinking about lunch and a quiet afternoon before the weekend…

…and in the spirit of this, and in a very much defeated attitude I began to collect up my papers…

…and then I used the ‘Loootenant Columbo’ close…

Lawyer:  “Thank you doctor for your time and I think that just about concludes my examination…Oh but just one more question doctor'...(and our eyes locked)... ‘what would become of Mr. X if his sisters were to die tomorrow?’”

Doctor:  “He’d be completely lost”

Lawyer:  “Thank you doctor, no further questions!”

…and the defence lawyer looked at me and rolled his eyes as we both recognised that this question had destroyed the defence position on the cost of future care...in 4 words! 

And in the judge’s decision after the trial he commented that the Plaintiff’s sisters cannot be expected to look after him for the rest of his life, and because his condition was the result of the negligence of the other driver, liability for damages would follow!

“…I kept a copy"…"he’d be completely lost!”…wonderful!

After the flurry of Latin above a couple of items on Radio 4 come to mind.  In “Any Questions” Jonathan Dimbleby was asking the panel about their school mottos and if they had had any influence on their later life, and I remembered my old school motto which was the Latin word ‘PRODESSE’ or ‘PROGRESS’.  The definition of “Latin” from my “Chambers 21st Century Dictionary”, includes “the language of Ancient Rome and its empire, which became a dead language well over a thousand years ago”, so it seems illogical to use a ‘dead language’ for the motto ‘Progress’…I think this is what is known as an ‘oxymoron’…however this is all Greek to me!

A second example involved asking people in the street about the surname of the Royal Family, and one man in the street questioned had an immediate answer…it was “Rex” he said as he definitely remembered seeing “Elizabeth Rex” somewhere!

The restored hôtel in Gémozac is coming along very well and will open towards the end of 2007.  The name will be “Lion d’Or” and it will have a bar, restaurant, café and 9 rooms, one wheelchair friendly.  The new chef will be David Corréa and Carine Colin will be the manageress…they are both from the George V hôtel in Paris.

...and if you compare this to the pic under 15.10.2006 below you will see quite a change!

The restoration of the Gémozac swimming pool has now been completed at a cost of 670,000€uros!!!

I recently went for lunch with Phil who bought a house from me in 2006 and he was down here working on his house.  We decided to go to a restaurant which had been recently recommended, “Le Moulin de la Baine” alongside the river at Chaniers and I asked  ‘Sybil’ (who lives somewhere inside my TomTom GPS) to plan the route but she did not realise that the ferryman who operates the chain ferry across the Charente closes from 12 to 2.00 each day…

…and so we went to the Amaryllis at Courcoury which is on this side of the river.  The restaurant was quiet and in fact there were 4 customers while we were there even though the meal and the wine were excellent.  Phil had ‘gésier’ (gizzards) and I ‘moules marinière’ (mussels cooked in their own juice with onions and white wine), we both had ‘joue de porc’ ‘cheek of pork’, and for desert Phil had crème caramel (vanilla-flavoured custard surrounded with soft caramel) and I had crème brûlée with pineau (rich cream or custard base topped with caramelized sugar…(usually finished before serving in the kitchen with a blow-torch!)…and coffee and a nice bottle of Sancerre.

Phil cooks as a hobby and so do I and we both use the 1973 Reader’s Digest cook book as our ‘bible’ and Phil suggested I try out the recipe for Rabbit in Mustard which I did and it was so good that I want to share it with you.

Mustard Rabbit

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Cooking time 1.5 to 2 hours

Ingredients for 4 to 6

2.5 to 3lb rabbit or 6 rabbit joints

4 rounded tablespoons of Dijon mustard

Seasoned flour

2ozs of unsalted butter

2ozs of streaky bacon

1 onion

1 clove of garlic

½ a pint of double cream

GARNISH

Chopped chervil or parsley

Bread croutons

Wash and dry the rabbit thoroughly and cut into 6 or 8 neat joints and place in a large bowl.  Cover with cold salted water and leave to soak for 1-2 hours.  Drain and dry thoroughly.  Coat the rabbit joints evenly with the Dijon mustard and leave overnight covered with muslin.

The following day dust the rabbit lightly with seasoned flour, shaking off any surplus. Melt the butter in a flameproof casserole and lightly brown the joints on both sides; lift them out and set aside.  Remove the rind, and roughly chop the bacon.   Peel and finely chop the onion and garlic.  Fry the bacon for 2 to 3 minutes in the butter, then add the onion and the garlic and continue cooking over a low heat until the onion is soft.

Return the rabbit joints to the casserole, cover closely with a lid or foil and simmer over a low heat for 30 minutes.  Remove the casserole from the heat and stir in the cream.  Cover again and cook over a low heat on top of the stove, or in an oven preheated to 325°F, 170°C, Gas mark 3, for about 45 minutes, or until the rabbit is tender.  Stir once or twice.

Serve the rabbit straight from the casserole, sprinkled with the fresh herbs and garnished with bread croutons.  Buttered rice or boiled potatoes can be served with the rabbit, together with a green vegetable.

Phil also had a useful tip for left over stock and that is rather than soak the kibble for the puppies with it, place it in an ice-cube container and freeze it so that you always have stock readily available.

With recipes, I want them to have easily obtainable ingredients and be straightforward and not have too many things going on at once…and also to be good!, and one such recipe is “Tartiflette” from the International Express newspaper.

Tartiflette

Ingredients for 4

4 large boiled potatoes cut into 2.5cm cubes…about an inch

1tbsp of butter

2tbsp’s of olive oil

6 bacon rashers cut into small pieces

1 small onion finely chopped

1 crushed garlic clove

2-3 tbsp’s of dry white wine

a small handful of chives, chopped

salt and fresh-ground black pepper
200ml single cream

4-5 slices of any cheese with good melting properties

Method

1.     Boil the potatoes in plenty of salted water for about 15° until they are soft but not mushy.  Lightly butter a 23cm x 30cm oven proof dish and slice the potatoes and place them evenly over the bottom of the dish.

2.     Set the oven at 200°C/180°C fan/gas 6.  Heat the oil in a frying pan over a medium heat and fry the bacon, onion and garlic together for 3-4 minutes.  Add the wine and chives and cook for 2-3 minutes more.

3.     Stir this mixture into the cooked potatoes and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

4.     Pour over the cream and place the cheese slices across the top.

5.  Transfer to the oven and bake for 10 to 15 minutes until the cheese is melted and bubbling.  Serve immediately….although it is even better served cold the next day.

One beneficiary (or should I say 3) of my efforts to cook are our 3 puppies who lounge around the kitchen while I cook waiting for titbits.  Tab in particular needs all his strength these days because of his and Molly’s Spring/Autumn romance! 

Before Molly joined the family the only female contact he had ever had in his 9 years was his sister ‘Sisco’…and then along came Molly…young, beautiful, exciting, vivacious, totally demanding, inexhaustible and who thinks Tab is the best thing since sliced bread. 

And here is the first picture I took of them when Molly had just arrived.

Tab and I are about the same age (8 years in dog terms!) and we are both at the ‘Hush Puppies, slippers by the fire, “Book at Bedtime”, Horlicks and an early night’ stage of life, and along comes non-stop Molly all ‘high heels, Babycham, disco and cubic zirconia’. Tab is such a gentleman that he puts up with her constant kissing and demands for attention.  The pic below was taken as the pups waited for breakfast and you can see a Tab who could be saying:

“Please…let me SLEEP!”

“Not now dear, I have a headache!”

"Non-stop Molly" however has other ideas!

and so, dear reader, on this gastronomic/romantic note, “A Bientôt”.

18.04.2007

The picture below shows the first buds on the grape vines, the "Darling Buds of April"...

…the year begins!

...and the swallows have returned...

....and

No wheelclamps

No tickets

No towing

No traffic wardens

Just a simple message...

"If you take my place,

  Take my handicap also."

...and it seems to work!

...and French politcs

...and the beeman at Tony and Sue's