Le fin

Cor, look what the chickens live in here.

chateau des poulets

With the wind and the rain (a complete contrast to scorching Saturday) the walnuts and apples descend from the trees like hailstones all over Mr Smith's car.  He gathers them up like a squirrel.  The squirrels here are red, a deep beautiful red.  (Ecureuil - word du jour) I quite fancy a squirrel coat.

Wednesday, September 14th
We're bored.  Yesterday we went to a charming town, Charite sur Loire, where we had a delicious lunch served by a lady in a bate - I think it was just her french manoir. We then Carrefoured and bought nutcrackers which is an easier way of getting into your walnut rather than pulverising it underfoot.

We are fed up because nothing works in our house and it smells of pee so we decided to have an adventure.  I am going to dress up as Joan of Arc and we are going to Orleans where Mr Smith is going to burn me at the stake.  Actually, they did that in Rouen so we should be OK.


Thursday 15th September
Happy Wedding Anniversary us.  We had a totally brill time in Orleans where there are real shops full of real things, less now that I've been there.

 I came up with an ingenious way to mend the oven door that wouldn't close when it was warm; I tied it up with a bit of tapestry wool from my Bayeux Tapestry.  However, the smoke alarm was working.
We went out.

The last day was spent quietly at Granny's house with Mr Smith having caught a streaming cold and me finishing the Bayeux tapestry.  I was torn between "Oh poor lamb with that long drive back to Calais and beyond" and "Gosh, I hope I don't catch it trapped in a car with him snuffling all the way to Calais and beyond."  He packed lots of walnuts.  I packed a spare loo roll;  I wasn't putting up with his confounded sniffing all through the tunnel.

And now we're home trying to ram jars of mustard into our already bursting cupboards and boring our uninterested boys with our photos.

We did have a lovely time.