Celebrating the 70's - A chronicle of time and temperature

  Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday 26, 27, 28 and 29 May 2024 The drive for the first leg to Moisacc was easy, on main roads. The BnB chosen by Lady P was a pilgrim enclave, with Camino pilgrims everywhere. It is actually a beautiful part of France, worthy of more detailed exploration at another time. And our room very comfortable. On arrival, we headed off for a walk. This of course means Lady P looking for five or six kms to march off and Flashy looking for a bar. She went one way and he the other. She found solace in the walk, he in a beer in the square, listening to all the pilgrims. You can tell by the shell, they say but I reckon you can tell by the smell. Afterwards, we found a lovely restaurant that was actually open. It was a Monday and almost nothing was open. But our little discovery was really good. A Chef’s special burger and frites for her and confit du canard for him, with a half bottle of Graves red. Wonderful. Next morning, Tuesday, we were treated to ...

  Saturday 25 May 2024 Not a bad day weather wise. Cloudy mostly with a big blue hole and sunshine for a few hours around lunchtime. Lady P mowed all the lawns, which involves around 5,000 steps! And Flashy cut down the Cyprus pine. Now this was done with secateurs, long handled cutters, a bow saw and a hammer and chisel. The result was pretty good. Tomorrow, we prepare for another road trip on Monday. So, we will do a tidy up and make some picnic food, not that there’s much left, but Monday, after Lady P’s prolia injection, we head south to Andorra. Andorra is a tiny, independent principality situated between France and Spain in the Pyrenees mountains. Population 80,000. It’s known for its ski resorts and a tax-haven status that encourages duty-free shopping. Capital is Andorra la Vella, w hich is where we are staying for one night.  And they speak Catalan.  After Andorra, we go to meet Russell and Jacqui in Beziers (France) for two nights, then race home to be here ...

  Thursday 23 May 2024 Swinging between rain and sunshine today. The rain builds up in big black clouds moves in then dumps in huge droplets, then stops. Temperature goes down, then up again as the sun comes out. So, it’s been a day of cleaning, washing and cutting down the fir tree. Well, at least starting on the tree. Friday 24 May 2024 Guess what? Today is Empire Day. Well, it used to be when I was at school. Then it became Commonwealth day. Now its nothing. So, on that note, we went shopping for some gear Lady P will need when she walks the Portuguese Camino in October. A very successful trip it was too. A new backpack, bright blue; the last in store; and 30% discount. Then on to the materiele store for some bags of pre mix concrete. 'Beton premelange', says Google. ‘Ah, tres sacks Beton, eh, monsieur?” They just call it Beton here and it’s cheap. €14 for 3 x 30kg bags. These were turned into concrete, hand mixed in the barrow and filled in some big holes in the path ...

  Wed 23 May 2024 We are now back in Les Petites Rivieres after shopping in Bordeaux for the last of the summer wardrobe. A very successful trip to the huge shopping mall. It was today that Flashy had his first éclair in France, this trip. Remarkable restraint. The shopping mall, in the industrial area, is huge. The Auchon Supermarket, which combines food, butcher, fishmonger, delicatessen, prepared meals, clothing, homewares and garden supplies, is bigger than a Bunnings store. It has very wide isles as well. As an old engineering student, Flashy was about to pace out the dimensions of the store, so he could workout the square meterage of the space but Lady P thought this might attract the attention of the anti-terrorist police. After some limited supplies and the last of the clothing from a chain store called Kaibi, we managed to find our car in the carpark and, as you do, we had a picnic of the left over smoked salmon, fresh baguette and taramasalata, before the motorway hom...

  Sunday 19 May 2024 A late start to the day and a leisurely tram ride into the city, with the plan of getting an early burger and chips for dinner. Perhaps a beer as well. Readers will recognise the recovery food so desired on the day after the night before.  In order to earn such delights, Lady P suggested we go to the Bordeaux Museum of Modern Art. You could have heard Flashy groan from your place. Now, lets have a rational look at this phenomenon of a MOMA. Museum: usually a nice old building full of stuff. Yes, a beautiful sandstone building with vaulted ceilings, colonnades and a roof top terrace supporting pop up food stations and a bar; and full of stuff. Sounding good so far.  Modern Art: just another phrase for crap or even very bad crap. Spot on here. Only total wankers can believe that a chair propped against a wall, or a pile of burnt baguettes on the floor is art. But get this, it needs to be interpreted, so we get the following from the ‘artist.’ The ‘pie...

 Saturday Gala Dinner

  Saturday 18 May 2024 Flashy headed off this morning to the Hotel Intercontinental for the 10.00 am AGM of LCDR. This was conducted in French and English with UN like instantaneous translation via head phones for those who needed it. It was due to finish at 12.00 noon. It finished at 11.59 am, proving that LCDR do get some things right! Lady P arrived to find Flashy in the bar having a refreshing Pinot Noir and joined him for an Oringina, before we trammed it back to home via a neat little neighbourhood café, where we had exceptional sesame tuna and average Caesar Salad. Time for a rest before we head off again in the glad rags this time, for the Gala Dinner at the Bordeaux Palais de la Bourse. Expectations were high, as the Gala Dinner is the pinnacle of the international Chaine year. There are 350 delegates from 39 countries attending the dinner and the venue, the old stock exchange, is a magnificent building in the centre of Bordeaux.  Our Uber was on time and as we ...

  Thursday and Friday 16, 17 May 2024 The International LCDR, Bordeaux Grand Chapitre Thursday was the Secret Welcome Dinner to four days of gastromonie as part of the la Chaine des Rotisseurs, Annual General Meeting and International Grande Chapitre. No one was told of the destination for the secret dinner, as we loaded onto five busses and 250 members of the la Chaine des Rotisseurs, from all around the world, headed to the WW2 Bordeaux submarine base, now a function space, on the outskirts of Bordeaux. This base was constructed by the Germans, so you can imagine the quality of the concrete and the build. As was in vogue at the time, they did use a lot of Spanish prisoners to do the heavy lifting. Then they gave it over to the Italian Navy for their subs to patrol the Atlantic. No laughing or naughty jokes, please. They did their best with the old subs they had. Later in the war the Germans put their own subs in these pens. It is an amazing facility at night, with the sil...

  Wednesday 15 May 2024 A reasonable drive into Bordeaux, with some scattered showers on the way and straight to a gigantic shopping centre to look for some summer clothes. This proved to be quite successful, with most things on our list purchased. Summer shirts, shorts, dresses and new undies among the purchases. We still have summer shoes to buy but since the total of our purchases was under €200, we were pretty impressed and are contemplating a bigger spend on shoes and a couple of good tops. Lady P managed to get a bit of beauty treatment done and we had a pretty average croque madam/monsieur at the bistro. So, typically shopping centre! As an observation, the shopping centre was a replica of any in Australia. Similar layout and the shoppers looked as bogan as anywhere. No high heels and tight arses here in Bordeaux. Maybe it’s a Paris thing or the homogenisation of fashion world wide? Our home exchange apartment is nice – a one bed clean and modern unit with a lock up ca...

  Tuesday14 May 2024 It did sprinkle last night but this morning the sun is out again. Washing and cleaning duties and poisoning the tree stump that we cut down. Cleaned the chainsaw and wrote Claude a note in French to go with a bottle of Pineau as a thank you for the loan. (thanks Google). Flashy is actually enjoying the gardening duties, not having done more than supervise tradies for the past 25 years! Thank God the lawnmower started first pull. Claude is delighted and it appears that the note was actually readable. He also complimented Flashy on the very clean chainsaw returned. Lady P made a number of phone calls to various family and friends and despite warnings from Flashy, left the gas on, boiling water for tea. Almost a melted saucepan. Goodness, a busted kettle now an empty gas bottle. As a result, he is using the Thermomix to boil water and make all sorts of stuff totally unfamiliar to us. Flashy thinks that an air fryer and Thermomix is all that the future will b...

  Sunday 12 May 2024 After yesterday’s yard work, we had an easy morning then headed into Saint-Jean-d'Angély to catch the stores between opening, lunch closure and re-opening. They have to have their lunch! Anyway, we got some stuff for the house such as door mat and wine glasses of a size bigger than a thimble. And Jenny and Alyssa take note - a very grand lapin , ready for the cassoulet. I’d show you a photo but you’d find the intact head, fully skinned a bit disgusting. A relaxing afternoon, as the weather has turned a bit and it’s now overcast with rain predicted for a week, before more 28c summer days. This place is a bit like Melbourne! After Guinness and chips and bread in Ireland, Lady P thought Flashy wouldn’t fit his suit for the Grande Chapitre in Bordeaux next week. Tried it on. Fits. Just. Monday 13 May 2024 Weather is back to reasonably sunny, some cloud but mid 20’sc again and no rain as was predicted. As we have no summer clothes, Flashy looks a bit like ...

  Friday and Saturday 10 and 11 May 2024 Friday we were away early to la Rochelle, about 45 minutes drive to the coast. It is a beautiful city (75,000 people) with an amazing marina full of yachts, seaside restaurants and shops. Very touristy and full of people for the (almost) long weekend. Wednesday and Thursday were public holidays, so what’s Friday? A sick day of course! We took a bus de mer (water ferrry) across the marina to town and wandered around the markets. Unfortunately we left our planned big bowl of mussels too late. Lunch service was off by the time we tried, so a couple of wines sufficed and a lot of people watching before a drive back to les Petites Revieries. Flashy is up early Saturday and starts the process of removing the apple tree, as agreed with Johnny before he left. We met Claude (no English) our (no French) neighbour and negotiated to borrow his chainsaw.  Amazing what a background in charades can do. Said item is a relic of the revolution. Mus...