Mombrier July 31

It was so humid we left our windows open last night. That wasn't wise as mosquitoes came in buzzing around. We won't do that again. It looks like it rained overnight as well. Right now the humidity is 90%. It is another warm day. In one of the abandoned vineyards across the road, they are pulling out posts today. A tractor with a bin behind it and 2 men pulling out posts and tossing them in the bin. Sad to see. 

We went into Bourg to get a few things at the grocery. On the way, we see much progress where thy are pulling out another abandoned vineyard. While in Bourg we decided we would attempt to find that location for the wine festival we had on AmaDolce. Just by chance, we did indeed find it. It is called Maison du Vin. Mystery solved as we could not locate it before. We came in a different entrance and didn't recognize it before and I didn't look on the daily for the cruise until later for the name. 

After that we decided to go to our favorite little cafe, Bourg'Joie for the Croque Monsieur, probably for the last time. That was a bit bittersweet. We enjoyed sharing the plate of 2 sandwiches and a small salad. It was quite filling and where would we get this any place else for 8.50€? Anyway, for the first time we ate in the square where the market is held. The outside portion of the cafe was in use and it was too hot to sit inside. The square is called Liberation Square or Place de la Liberation. I couldn't really find anything much about it but I think it signifies the liberation of France at some different points in time.  

On to the market where we bought the ingredients to make our own Croque Monsieur. We had asked about the type of cheese the last time we were at the cafe. Sara joked with us saying it was a "secret" but then told us. Both inside and on top is Raclette cheese. We found a lot of it in the local grocery store. 

Heading home to our somewhat cool residence. Scrapbooking, games, writing took up the rest of the day. Stuart fixed a nice cheese plate for us in the late afternoon. Dinner was - Of course - Croque Monsieur. Next time there will be more cheese on top. I thought it would spread more.

 

Mombrier July 30

It is very overcast today with a chance of rain! What a change from yesterday. It will get warm today but the humidity is high so it feels warmer than it really is! Quiet day, trying to stay cool. I cooked zucchini patties that were pretty good. Mid afternoon we had a little cheese plate. I think we might need one more piece of cheese before we leave! Stuart fixed ribs again for dinner. We are trying to use up all our food. 

I worked on scrapbooking and Stuart wrote a lot today. 

Mombrier July 29

It is hard to believe we have less than a week left in this lovely place. Laundry today. Maybe this will be the last washing? Today the heat we expected is finally here. We spend a couple hours in the pool in the early afternoon. There are a lot of hornets and yellow jackets. At the time I wrote this the weather app says it is 102F and that it feels like 107F AND it is not the hottest part of the day just yet! See below. It is surprising how cool the inside of a stone home stays. It is quite nice! We are not complaining at all, the weather has been pretty nice most days.

Stuart fixed the ribs and avocado, I fixed the baked potato for dinner. We will miss our little kitchen when we leave here!

Mombrier July 28

Today we went into Bourg for the Farmer's Market, fresh baguettes, lunch, the art gallery, and the wine shop. It was a fun day. It was also a warmer day but not too hot, that will be tomorrow! 

When we got to the Boulangerie they were sold out, but more was coming out of the oven in 10 minutes. We did a quick shop at the market, just getting tomatoes, zucchini, and 1 rather soft cheese that was infused with garlic. By the time we did that, the baguettes were out of the oven and selling fast. From the first batch of a dozen, we got 2, leaving just 1 behind! I hope more were coming out of the oven because there was still a long line behind us!

At the market today they have a band. I think the music is Reggae, anyway it was lively and the crowd showed it. We could not get into our little cafe. Stuart did get in line and got us a beer. He also found out they were not serving food today...so it worked out. We took our beer nextdoor to Halle Italienne with the idea of having pizza. Stuart did have pizza but I had carbonara. I never had it with a raw egg yoke on top but I mixed it in and it was very good. The lively music was just outside so we enjoyed the time. We shared dessert - Limoncello sorbet! Yum!

From there it was on to the art gallery. We were less impressed with the art work, just not our taste. It was very dark and gloomy to me. However, we found our spot in one of the quiet rooms and enjoyed a bottle of wine before heading home. 

Once here we ventured to the pool since no one was around there. We had a nice swim. Too bad Stuart got bit or stung on his finger before getting out. It is supposed to be 104F tomorrow so I hope the pool will be available at some point. 

We ate our leftovers for dinner. However, Stuart still has some pizza left!

Mombrier July 27

Today I spent a good deal of the day scrapbooking and Stuart was writing. We had Thai soup for lunch again, my request. This time he added more noodles, it was very good. 

Late afternoon we took a break and had a nice walk around the property in a different direction. We found their bee hives. We also found a place where we thing the deer we have seen come from out of the trees. We saw some nice berries but there is no way to get to them. There at at least two giant oak trees that are just beautiful. I took more photos. After that we went to pick some plums off their tree. They invited us to do so. They are very tiny plums, but we saw the exact ones in Carrefour, so they must be popular in this area. They are very tasty. We noticed an apple tree that is dropping apples, so we picked a few of those as well. I got the idea of making a pie if possible. We didn't have all the right tools or supplies but I gave it a try. The crust was horrible! I know one isn't supposed to overwork pie crust dough, but I had no rolling pin so pressed it into the pan the best I could. At least the fruit in the pie was good! No pastry cutter, used a whisk. I won't do that again anytime soon!

Mombrier July 26

Today was another quiet day. We did go to Carrefour for a few things. I also took these photos of how the grocery cart use is set up. You take your 1€ to where the carts are. By sliding your Euro in, it unlocks the cart for your use. When you take your cart back you stick the key-like device back into the handle of the cart and your Euro pops out! Pretty smart. They do have small baskets with wheels inside for your use at no charge. The regular size cart is much easier to use. Stuart made a lovely meal of chicken and mushrooms on baguette.

Mombrier July 25

We planned to go to Cognac today. We got up early and looked outside, the area around us was fogged in! We have not had fog before! Since we are unsure of road conditions on our route and how the fog might figure in, we decided to stay home. Meals, cards, wine, a quiet day. 

Stuart made delicious Thai soup for lunch, with a baguette and coleslaw on the side. He perked up the soup mix with chicken and mushrooms. It was tasty. The breeze was blowing so it felt good to eat the soup. For dinner it was ribs and the rest of the coleslaw. We weren't all that hungry after eating a small charcuterie plate and wine about 7p. Dinner was be after 9p. See how French we are becoming!

Today Stuart showed me another way to use Google Translate. I didn't know I could do this. You can go to the translate app and ask it to use your camera. Then I pointed to the recipe directions in French and it said to take the photo. Then it translated it into English. It is totally amazing to me. Now some of you might be laughing, knowing that possibility for a long time, but I loved learning that!!!

Mombrier July 24

It is a quiet day here. I plan to do a lot of scrapbooking. Stuart requested that we just hang around here today and I totally agree. It is the second year date of Darlene's passing...If anyone can understand this sort of day, I can. It is different for all of us of course, but a sort of milestone nonetheless. 

We had the rest of our raisin pastry, shared a banana, and added a few grapes - that was breakfast. It looks like it will be a nice day in the mid 80's here. A quite day and that is fine. We had baguette and cheese for lunch, chicken and coleslaw for dinner and Stuart added the avocado, it was all good. We played Phase 10 and it was a quiet day. 

 

Mombrier July 23

Today we got up and ate the rest of our baguette for breakfast. SO good. We plan to buy more today. Stuart checked and the boulangerie closes at 12:30p so we will head out late morning and get that. By the way, the name of the boulangerie is Boulangerie Du Vieux Fiour, which translates to Old Oven Bakery - Cute! We also plan to go by a special wine shop we saw called Villa Burgus to buy a nice bottle of wine for dinner tonight. Paul and Fanny have invited us over for dinner. He said he is doing duck breast on their grill. We have seen him grill several times and we are looking forward to it! Anyway, stopping for the wine first was an interesting stop. The owner didn't speak much English but we are learning to understand a bit more, especially Stuart as he knows more French than I do! It is actually a wine store to purchase wine or you can also drink it there. It is also an art gallery. We understood that Sunday when the Farmer's market is going on a new group of paintings will be hung up and festivities will be happening. I understood that many artists have a small show here and it changes weekly. We definitely plan to return Sunday. 

On to the boulangerie and I think we might have made it just in time. There were very few loaves left. We got one traditional loaf like we had the other day and one other baguette, not sure of the exact name of that but we thought to compare. 

Now it is lunch time and the little cafe we have been to a few time is right next to us! We both heard the croque monsieur calling our names! It is a two sandwich plate with a little bit of salad on the side. We added a small beer each and that was our lunch today. After our lunch we were going to try to find the place we went to for the Wine Festival when we were on the Taste of Bordeaux river cruise. We did take a nice walk and saw some interesting things, but not the place we were looking for. It is further from the river. More research is in order!

Of course, when we got back we had to taste test our 2 baguettes, we prefer traditional, the inside of the other one had a very different density. It was more like the French bread we buy at home. Anyway, both were good. We had to test the chocolate crossiant of course and just a small taste of the pastry with raisins. We better save our appetite for tonight. After we played a quick game of cards I started prepping the charcuterie board I am taking tonight and Stuart took a quick swim. To me it is not that warm because of the breeze, so I passed on that.

We walked the few feet over to Paul and Fanny's with the charcuterie in hand, along with sparkling wine, and the puzzle we had made for them.

Paul has the duck breast on a different grill that he has been using. It almost looks like a wheelbarrow but it is a grill and he is using wood. He said he likes to slow cook the duck breast like this. He makes his own sauce and put his own honey into the sauce. They have some hives on their property. We will need to take a stroll further along the property line to see those. We sat outside and enjoyed our sparkling wine and the the charcuterie board. They brought out 3 spreads and 2 different baskets of bread. The spreads were hummus, salmon pate, and a pate with row. Fanny's mother is visiting them, she joined us, she is delightful. Fanny translated a bit because her mother, Françoise. She lives in Switzerland. We also met the oldest son, who has a longer name and he said call him Bart! They all stayed and ate a few snacks. Maximillian came as well and Cautilya (still not sure about the spelling of her name) with one of her friends. The kids were in and out but did join us for dinner. 

When dinner time came we moved inside, past the kitchen into a lovely room with a huge farm table, for out meal. The entrée consisted of the sliced duck breasts and some potatoes with herbs, cooked in duck fat. The eight of us had a delightful meal. We found out the house used to be a winery, there are still four large tanks at the end of the room forming a wall. They have worked long and hard on this house to make it a home, doing almost all the work themselves.

After the duck came a small cheese plate and bread. This was followed by two desserts. One was a flan from Fanny's favorite pâtisserie and the other was a homemade tart using their plums, which Coletta made. We are stuffed! Then out comes the digestive, a choice of Cognac or Paul's preference Armagnac. We tried the Armagnac and it is strong! This brought us to our next conversation as we want to take a day trip up to Cognac. Paul gave us some advice. I will say after the main entrée Coletta and her friend cleared a good deal of the dishes and I think they washed them and put them away because I do not see anything in the kitchen. The boys didn't return bot Coletta and her friend had dessert with us, then departed. Now it is 10:30p and surely we must be going but they encouraged us to stay a bit more. They would not even let us help clear off the rest of the dishes. It was a lovely evening.

Paul and Fanny are lovely people, warm and friendly. As we arrived and left they gave us hugs and cheek "air kisses" as is the custom in France. They were so appreciative of the charcuterie board, wine, and they were very impressed with the puzzle. They complemented us for being so thoughtful and kind to them! I will say the puzzle was a hit. As they kids came and went as we were outside with appetizers, they showed each of the kids. A huge smile came to their face when they realized it was a puzzle. Coletta especially likes doing such puzzles. The puzzle was a hit!

Mombrier July 22

It looks like it will be another cool day here. It says it will be 75F but with the constant breeze it feels cooler. We finished off the baguette for breakfast! Not a crumb was wasted. We are already plotting our return! Laundry is in the washer, today just linens. 

 We took the short drive back to Mombrier and decided to stop at the cemetery that we have driven by several times. It has a stone fence all around it but the gate was unlocked. In fact it is not all that old. There were a few newer mausoleums, 2 brand new without any names yet. The oldest one I found was 1903. Most had big mausoleums with family names, with one or multiple remains. What was strange to me were the multiple glass and metal plaques that were placed on to of the mausoleums for birthday remembrances and such. A custom I have never seen. There were many sites in poor conditions but each had a sign requesting any known information to be given at some location. It seems they are trying to keep it up a little bit.   

For dinner Stuart stuffed some peppers we got at the farmer's market. They looked a lot like a poblano but unfortunately, they weren't. They tasted like a mild green bell pepper. Nonetheless they got filled baked and eaten. Another wonderful meal!

After dinner we took a short walk around the property admiring the smaller stone buildings and flowers around the property. Hard to believe we have less than two weeks left here!

Mombrier July 21

One of the first things we saw today were two deer out near the vineyards. These were not the two I saw the other day but younger ones, one was smaller than the other. At least I got a photo this time before they ran away! 

Today was a peach for breakfast and then we headed out to the Bourg Farmer's Market. We weren't exactly sure where it was but we found it. Surprisingly, it was right near the little cafe where we ate, in that large square or gazebo area and a bit of the surrounding area. There were almost all the items that we saw in Blaye yesterday but on a much smaller scale. I was surprised to see the same man selling roasted chickens here too! We didn't really need anything because we stocked up yesterday. We bought a few potatoes and some dry beans I had been looking for for my cassoulet recipe. The best part was the boulangerie right by the market that had freshly baked baguettes! The place is an actual shop, not just for the market day set up. Our baguette was still warm when we bought it! After a quick beer to cool off, we headed home. We were going to stop for something at Carrefour but it apparently closes at noon. I guess that's why the parking lot was overflowing earlier. We could hardly wait to slice that warm baguette anyway! We did have a piece with butter as I sliced more and chopped parsley and celery for Stuart who is making the chicken salad. We had some delicious open faced sandwiches with the fantastic bread, an epicurean delight!

We had a small slice of the baguette mid afternoon with some cheese. We skipped our original dinner plan and had two more slices of the baguette, toasted in the oven with butter, and we added our choice of cheese spreads. Not to ignore the veggies, we had cherry tomatoes, some olives, and artichoke hearts as well. It was so delicious and we are already talking about going back for another baguette soon!

Mombrier July 20

We are up early and off to the market in Blaye. Our first stop was the fromagerie that Paul told us about, La Fromagerie de L' Embarcadère. It was amazing. I am mad I didn't take a photo inside because it was so charming, as were the couple inside. We had tastes and bought 4 different ones. The first was chèvre for our host Paul, Morbier was our next choice, Comté is the third one, and lastly St. Nectaire. It was just a wonderful little French experience to go into this small shop with Artisanal cheese, have tastes, and purchase what we wanted using our limited French and no English from the owners. I loved it!!! Of note, later at the market we go one other cheese, Gouda with pesto/basil & pignon. It is green and caught my eye, just couldn't pass it up!

The market was amazing. Wonderful fruits and vegetables are in large supply, we bought 3 different types of peppers, a melon, green beans, cabbage, peaches, and cherry tomatoes. In addition, we bought a whole (very large) roasted chicken with a bit of clear sauce that is loaded with herbs and tons of garlic cloves and 2 pieces of seabass. I took lots of photos. We were given a whole Canelé as a sample and there was some sort of rum sample to go with it. Along with many cheese samples along the way. We had a great time. It was warming up and we were thirsty. Surprisingly, the only beverage we saw at the market was that rum sample and several places to get coffee. We walked back, crossed the street, and went to the cafe where we ate lunch the other day. A cold beer tasted really good. Now it is time to head back to Mombrier.  

We had a nice cheese plate that Stuart prepared in the mid afternoon. For dinner I used some of the shrimp stock Stuart made and made a sauce, it wasn't great but the fish we bought at the market was delicious, as were the fresh green beans. A nice dinner and playing cards completed our day. I will say we did not eat dinner until 9:15p! We are becoming quite French!

About the Cheese:

Chèvre is cheese made from goat's milk. Goats were among the first animals to be domesticated for producing food. Goat cheese is made around the world with a variety of recipes, giving many different styles of cheeses, from fresh and soft to aged and hard.

Morbier is a semi-soft cows' milk cheese of France named after the small village of Morbier in Franche-Comté. It is ivory colored, soft and slightly elastic, and is immediately recognizable by the distinctive thin black layer separating it horizontally in the middle. It has a yellowish, sticky rind.

Comté is a French cheese made from unpasteurized cow's milk in the Franche-Comté region of eastern France bordering Switzerland and sharing much of its cuisine. Comté has the highest production of all French Appellation d'origine contrôlée cheeses, at around 66,500 tons annually. It is classified as an Alpine cheese.

Saint-Nectaire is a French cheese made in the Auvergne region of central France. The cheese has been made in Auvergne since at least the 17th century.

Gouda infused with Pesto/Basil and pignons. A soft cheese with a good pesto taste, a balanced mix of pine nuts and basil. Here's something to give an original color to your cheese platters.

Mombrier July 19

This morning at mid morning I was sitting outside and 2 small deer ran swiftly down the hill on the east side, across the road, through a vineyard, and back into the trees. It was so fast, even with my phone in hand I did not get a photo. It was fun to see them, even if for a few seconds! It is a nice sunny day today. Supposed to be in the 90's, it never seems as warm as it says because there is always a breeze.

We went to the market today, just needed a few things. We got this in the frozen section, scallops au gratin. It wasn't very good but fun to look at and try new things. 

We both spent most of the afternoon on our computers, Stuart writing, and I worked on my summer album. Dinner was steak and a baked potato. I am not sure what cut of beef the steak was. It was pretty thin so only in the fry pan for 1 minute on each side. We split a baked potato with all the toppings. It all ended up being very tasty. 

We had just finished eating when Paul popped over. He wanted to take a photo of us dining outside at the picnic table. After that we had a nice conversation about the house here and the market we plan to go to tomorrow in Blaye. He gave us some good pointers as to the best booths to go to for fish, etc. He also told us about the best fromagerie as well. It is pretty close to the market. Looking forward to that tomorrow.  

Mombrier July 18 and 1 La Tenotte information

Today marks 2 weeks of being in this lovely little setting. It has been really wonderful. Since we were both still sick on arrival we have not been "busy" doing too much. Mostly daily things such as going to the market, cooking, laundry, and for me scrapbooking and Stuart has done some writing/website posts. Today it is quite warm and we are enjoying it. Stuart made breakfast of fried potatoes with the few leftover shrimp added and sliced tomatoes. We went to the pool late in the day because their kids were in it most of the day. I am sure we could ask to join them but I really didn't really want to.

I did dinner tonight. We had a couple of thin steaks, which I sliced up and used fajita seasoning on. We used our last 2 tortillas from the fajita kit, added lettuce and tomato and enjoyed that. 

Now, what about this place? The weather has not been as warm as expected. Our hosts commented on that as well. Yesterday and today have been sunny and nice. We even started a fire at the beginning. Since the smoke backed up a bit, we decided we would rather be a little bit cool that do that again. It did not help the coughing. However, Stuart seems well, while I am still coughing, yet I am much better. Now are we thinking about a couple day trips we would like to possibly make. 

Let's see what else I can say. The kitchen is small and not greatly equipped. For instance, we have one small, cracked ice tray - it functions. When we saw the price of a single ice tray at the market was 8-9€ we decided what we have is adequate, and it has been. The fry pans are exceptional, even if they don't have lids. There is a hand juicer we have not used. We use the box grater almost every day. Dishes are adequate, as is flatware. Overall, we have managed just fine. We have not been able to bake anything because there are no measuring cups or spoons. We hope to find some on our next trip to the market.  There is a microwave and our fridge plus a freezer on top is large by European standards.   

The beds are quite comfortable. They use just a bottom sheet and a duvet, as so many places do now. There are also extras, same for towels. The real plus is the washing machine. It takes a long time to do a load but works well and we are thrilled to have it. There is a laundry facility near the market, but we don't feel we need it. Things dry fine on the clothes rack, either inside or out.   

The floors are rustic tile in the kitchen, living room, and one bathroom. The downstairs bedroom has wood floors; they creak quite a bit when we walk across it. One doesn't think much of it until getting up at night. It seems very loud then. The upstairs bedroom has an area rug over the wood floor and some other carpet attached to part of the floor. The wooden stairs creak on the way up for sure! The claw foot tub upstairs is nice but very deep. I guess that is a good thing for a soak but getting in and out one must be careful!  

The stone both inside and outside make the area so rustic, inviting, and comfortable. During one conversation with Paul we asked about the house and what year it was built, etc. He is not exactly sure because it has been damaged and repaired after WWII, and also remodeling has been done over the years before they bought the place. However, when they were doing some re-wiring, he crawled down into an area and found stone that had a date in the 18th century. He says this is not really proof because when repairs were done, they could have used stone from other structures, this is often the case. Another thing, near the end of WWII the Germans occupied the house they are living in. This is the damage he spoke of as there were bullet holes all over the outside of the structure. I am not sure who but someone paid the owner at that time for the necessary repairs. He said the structure where the down stairs bedroom is was initially from the 17th century! He said he has not been able to find any original photo of the house earlier than the 20th century.  

When we were invited to dinner, we found out the house used to be a winery, there are still four large tanks at the end of the room forming a wall. They have worked long and hard on this house to make it a home, doing almost all the work themselves.  

The trash, recycle, and garbage system is unique and new in this area. They used to have pick up but not anymore. Just a couple minutes from the house is the church and city hall in Mombrier. They have locked bins to deposit all the different categories. There is a key card that we use. I was not very happy with the idea at first but it is easy.

Mombrier July 17

Stuart did a fabulous dinner tonight SHRIMP - something out of Julia Child's cookbook, Crevettes Sautées au Citron. He did an extensive and excellent job. He preped the cervettes yesterday and some of the sauces. I fixed a simple romaine salad with our last peach chopped up on top of it with a balsamic dressing. We ate outside. It was a beautiful day. It was nice enough to play cards outside too!

Paul stopped by for a quick chat. He is such a nice man!

Mombrier July 16

Another blustery day. It is a little bit warmer today and supposed to be in the 80's tomorrow. We are hopeful!

I had an upset stomach most of the day. Stuart went to the market on his own and got what we needed, or wanted is more accurate. I am making great progress on scrapbooking. 

Stuart prepped a shrimp dinner but instead of cooking it, we will have it tomorrow. No use him going to all that work when I don't feel hungry. Toast and tea was my dinner!

The only real excitement here yesterday was Paul pulling out their tractor, adding the forklift, and moving 2 huge pallets of supplies into the shed. I suppose it is all items for Fanny's staging business. She is gone this week, so she will unpack all of that when she is back I am sure. Still enjoying the countryside!!!

My personal notes:

The A/C at Julie's stopped working. She is staying at my house (with Tony) until it is fixed. Sam looked at it last night and thinks he knows what it is. He plans to fix it on Friday unless something comes up. I DO appreciate Julie can call them and they help her. The family is always there when she needs them. I am grateful Jeff will get the parts from his work so that is helpful too. 

Sierra called me on a video chat yesterday. I was so happy. I do miss my family and hearing about day to day things. I got to see baby Noah and that was fun. She told me all about the birth, which was exciting to hear. He was 2 weeks old yesterday. He now weighs more than 8lbs. He lost quiet a bit of weight in the hospital but happy to see they have been to the doctor 3 times to monitor that. He also had a tongue tie that is clipped now so he does not have to struggle to eat. Anyway, they are happy he is healthy and growing. Doug is back and so far the adjustment has been good. 

Mombrier July 15

It is a blustery day here in Mombrier. We are surprised it is so cool. When we looked up weather we assumed it would be warmer. We didn't bring many long sleeved things. We are certainly not complaining when we see the warm tempertures at our prospective homes!

Today I was determined to be current on all things Bordeaux. Yes! I did it! For lunch Stuart fixed some delicious scallops. He took and inventory of all the food we have. This was a good idea. We probably have enough food for a week. We are also making a shopping list again. Dinner was the last of the ribs from the freezer, squash, and half of a baked potato. 

Mombrier July 14 La Fête Nationale

La Fête Nationale (Bastille Day) but we will lay low. Decided it was probably not a good time to venture out into crowds of merry makers. I really want to work hard on scrapbooking but I still haven't even caught up on this trip we are on! However, I have learned how to count to 12 in French, so I am feeling a tiny bit accomplished. We heard our hosts going in and out a few times but we did not interact with them.

Late lunch yesterday was fresh pasta pesto ravioli. We still had some mushroom so we made a sauce for the ravioli out of those, sliced up, sautéed in olive oil and butter with Herbs de Provence and garlic. Fresh parmesan grated on top. It was delicious! We were still full late evening so we had just a brioche toasts with cheese spread. That was enough. 

Late evening, around 11p we could hear fireworks but even when we went outside to look, we could not see anything. Quite different than at home but we are pretty remote here. We know there was to be a large celebration in Blaye, supposedly wonderful with the fireworks over the river. 

 

Mombrier July 13

A quiet and relaxing day. I guess there is no need to say that because most of our day are quiet and relaxing. Today besides scrapbooking for me and writing for Stuart, we played cards. I guess I can say that every day as well! Anyway, we are enjoying every day!

Fanny's birthday is tomorrow. We suspect they will be gone for celebrating that or Bastille Day or La Fête Nationale as they call it, so we went into Bourg to find her a gift. We looked up chocolate shops in hopes of finding something nice there. We chose Pâtisserie Chocolaterie Frédéric Blanleil. We quickly found the place since it was right around the corner from the rustic cafe where we ate the other day. There weren't as many items in the store as shown on the website. I suppose those with fresh fruit must be ordered ahead. We got a few things for her and a few tastes for us. We took the chocolates and a bottle of sparkling wine over to them. Paul and the daughter were preparing a birthday meal for Fanny but he called her to come into the kitchen when he realized we brought her a gift. She seemed very touched and hugged us and gave a kiss on the cheek. She said it was a very wonderful chocolate shop. Such a sweet woman. Yes, they are celebrating her birthday today because they will be gone doing something tomorrow. 

We got a small sampling for ourselves. The odd looking ones are interesting. Here is the little story about them. I like figs so wanted to try them. Quite different, there is a sort of nougat filling with nuts, then the outside pink substance is the fig paste or I am not sure what to call it. It was good. Well, I hope she likes them because we got her the box of 24!!! We got 6 of those, some orange sticks, and 2 cherry cordials. A tasty treat for us. We didn't eat it all but sampling a little at a time. 

After that we played cards the rest of the day. Lunch was a 3 cheese flatbread we turned into a 5 cheese flatbread. Dinner was a repeat of the chicken fajita, really good. 

Mombrier July 12

It has really cooled off today, with a breeze as well. Another quiet day of scrapbooking for me, writing for Stuart, and other computer work. In the afternoon we went to Carrefour for a few items. We found a bottle of wine from Fort Medoc, even on sale, and got that to have with our leftover lasagna for dinner. We saw a lot of Bastille Day decorations at the store before. We wanted to get those today but alas, they were all gone. We did find a little flag and bought that. 

I also took a few photos of the fish market that is part of Carefour. 

After dinner we were playing cards at the kitchen table when Fanny's cousin Allan(?) stuck his head through our open window and invited us out to have wine with them. How fun! We also met 2 of their 3 children. A young son Maximilian, maybe 10-11 and a daughter 18, who we didn't ever get the name quite right. She was a delight, perhaps because she spoke fluent English? Anyway, she went to school for a year in Buffalo, NY area. Paul and Fanny have lived here for 20 years. It was an interesting chat with them. The wine they had was from Perpignan! Some friends of theirs moved there a few years ago and started their business. Domaine Mas Terra. Paul's grandfather is from Perpigan! I was stunned to hear this and told them of my ancestry from the same area. He also told me the correct way to pronounce "Brial" (Bre-al-lay) is the closest I can think of phonetically. Back to cards and called it a day.