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!