Maîtres de Pain

There is what is probably best described as a tea room that opened last year in St Suzanne. It's run by English people and they offer a fine place to come and eat or drink, enjoy the life of the town square, and the sunshine - at least in Summer. It's called "Maîtres de Pain", Bread Masters if you like. I had always thought it a bit of a strange name for a tea room.

It turns out that Maîtres de Pain is the name of a TV series that ran in the early 90s, that was filmed in and around St Suzanne. It was very popular at the time, and featured some well-known French TV stars.

On Saturday, the entire TV series was shown in the town's socio-cultural hall (community centre?), free for anyone who wanted to turn up. The hall itself is basically a big hangar, its concrete floor marked out for various sports, and it is also used for concerts, ceremonies, plays, archery, etc; anything you might need a big hall for.

It seemed that the whole town was there. The showing started at 4PM and ran on with just a break for dinner (barbecued sausages, wine, and crusty French stick sandwiches were available for purchase) and carried on until 10:30.

The TV series was excellent. Set in the 1930s and early 40s, it included all sorts of local landmarks, and it was pleasing to see one of the Harmonie's ancient horn players and his house featured too. Being French, it didn't feature a plot as I understand a plot to be. Some people were introduced, some things happened, and then it stopped. Good, though.

Project - intermission

A real intermission this time. The mason and his team came to pour the concrete floor and discovered that there is not enough depth in the centre of the room, so they refused to pour it. Quite right. I don't want my floor and tiles cracking up in a year's time. So the plumber is coming back to lift the tubes and insulation and chisel out a greater depth of floor.

Meanwhile of course the place is still a tip, and still freezing. Good job the weather has been mild.

Cool

A few days ago I bought a saw blade for pruning or trimming trees. It's from the Wolf Tools range, so you attach it to the handle of your choice, depending on how far away (read: high up) the branch is that you want to saw.

It has a curved blade, something I had taken for granted in tree-sawing blades before, but it has a subtlety of operation that I had not appreciated. When you use it with a long handle to saw high-up branches, when you pull it towards you the curve in the saw causes it to catch on the branch at the end of its travel. As a result it doesn't slide off the branch and start falling towards the ground, so you don't have to keep repositioning it.

Neat, huh?

Mirabelles

There is a type of wild plum that the French call Mirabelles. The fruit is yellow, plum-shaped and small, about the size of the end joint of your thumb. If you pick them and eat them later, they taste like very sweet plums but if you eat them straight from the tree they have a special honey-like flavour.

I have a few Mirabelle trees in my garden. Some are old and need a bit of pruning, some are crowding a fine walnut tree and need to be cut down. There are also a few self-seeded saplings around that I need to tend and nurture.

Sunday dawned cold but clear, and as the temperature rose it was clearly going to be a fine day for working outside, as long as you were wrapped up warm. The wife and I went out to cut up some of the trees I had already chopped.

The frost on the Ceanothus is melting as the sun starts warming one side, while we start cutting the wood.




















This walnut is crowded by the Mirabelles, so I will take out the ones to the right of it, and those to the left that are touching it. The trimmed Mirabelle shows its branches against the clear sky.




















In the late afternoon there is a free concert of amateur musicians in Le Mans, the first half presented by an orchestra, the second by a wind band. It starts at 4PM so it's an ideal opportunity to go and have a curry lunch, a leisurely coffee in the café on the square (shown here), before queuing for a seat. The concert hall is full, and rightly so: the orchestra is excellent given its amateur status, and the wind band were close to pro. Excellent.

Happy birthday, blog

Annual performance reviews, appraisals, call them what you like, they're an aspect of working life that I'm not sorry to have left behind. Of course, reviews of progress appear in various forms in all walks of life; for example, there's nothing like a set of annual accounts, to bring home how things have been going business-wise.

Well today is the birthday of my blog. Happy birthday! And today is as good a time as any to review it as an activity. So... why do I do it, what do I put into it, what do I get out, and do I want to continue it?

I started it for three reasons (in no particular order): 1) A friend told me it could get me some useful publicity for the gîte; 2) Some people I knew had one and I was curious as to why; and 3) I figured it would make my posting of comments on other blogs more of a reciprocal relationship.

What do I get out of it? Interesting conversations with people through their blogs, a kind of web-based pen-friend if you like. I also like to read it, to review my posts, look back on the events of the last year. And finally, more subtle, I tend to be more reflective on my day as it goes on. Perhaps I get a little more out of it, if I think about what I might say about what I am experiencing, in a blog.

***Newsflash*** I just thought of another benefit: No need to participate in the dreaded Christmas "round robin" letter. You want to know what I've been up to? Read the blog.

For the coming year? I will continue to use the blog to give my impressions of the day, the things that make me ponder, so it continues to be a personal account of life here. That might mean I post again about the same things as they come round in their annual rhythm, but then perhaps that's the best way to share the pattern of life here with you.

I hope you continue to enjoy the blog.

Brunch

There are quite a few Brits living in the Mayenne. As I have noted before, some locals are failing to take full advantage of this happy situation. On the other hand, the lady who runs our local catering college is on the ball. Once per year, she organises an English brunch.

The idea is to give her students an insight into what might go into this special meal, and to give them practice in speaking English. They are only allowed to speak to us in English, and we are expected to respond likewise.

It's great. They get to practice their catering and English language skills in one go, and we get to enjoy a special breakfast/lunch meal. My only regret is not being able to sample all the things on show (a small fraction being shown here). And they even had today's English language newspapers (The Guardian and the International Herald Tribune). And all you can eat for 8 euros 50, which won't get you a couple of croissants and a coffee in some places. Just fantastic!

Project - intermission

I passed the wild boar farm this afternoon, and saw this group of pigs snuggled up together against the cold. They all had their heads up and ears forward looking at the car as it passed, and they looked really cute.

When I stopped to get you a photo, they got up and ran away.

Sorry.

As an aside, the Google ad that appeared on my screen after making this post, runs as follows: "Pig Detector. Search Thousands of Catalogs for Pig Detector" The mind boggles. Are pigs hard to detect, perhaps? What's that big pink thing with a snout running towards me, squealing blue murder?... let me consult my pig detector, just in case....I carry it with me all the time, for just this kind of situation. But it's obviously a popular item, since I can search thousands of catalogues for it...