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

  Saturday, Sunday and Monday 27, 28 & 29 July 2024 Lady P finally got her train out of Paris and 4.5 hours later arrived in Surgeres, where Flashy was waiting in the little red Peugeot and we took off for Bordeaux. It was busy on the road but not like the good old days in Melbourne on the Hume at Easter, but close! Jo was waiting by the kerb at the airport and we turned back for LPR. The trip home was surprisingly good. The next two days were a bit of a blur with Flashy and Johnny cutting down more trees and the others lying around and in the pool, as the weather was magnificent. Much sampling of wines and a couple of good old fashioned wood fire BBQ’s, sitting in the shade of the cherry tree. Sunset here is around 10.30 pm, so some in the party struggle to stay up that late! Monday we catch up with admin, and head off to Saumur. A spectacular Swiss wine Under the Cherry tree

  Monday 22 July 2024 The tiler arrived at 0600 as he said he would. Although a full moon was still visible, it was very dark. He got stuck in though, and started laying down the fiberglass underlay. Tomorrow apparently, he will commence tiling. All this has been communicated in French, with lots of mime. Luckily Flashy is good at charades! Tuesday 23 July 2024 Lady P is off to Paris today for her four days of Olympic stuff. Flashy drove her to Surgeres to catch the train. There were no crashes or near misses and surprise, surprise he managed to find his way back to Landes for a baguette and home to LPR.   Even parked the car in the garage. Amazing eh? The tiler did arrive at 0600 and he is laying the tiles around the pool, although, when I looked out the window at 12.30 pm he was lying on his back on the lawn, staring at the sky. I didn’t think he needed CPR. I’ll check in an hour or so. Just chilling he says. Wednesday 24 July 2024 Johnny has arrived with two chainsaws,

  Saturday and Sunday, 20-21 July 2024 Final clean and tidy of the ‘estate’ before EL and J return on Tuesday from UK and Lady P heads to Paris to join the heaving crowds for the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics. I see that the mayor of Paris finally took her swim in the Seine. Rumour has it she is still alive. El Presidente hasn’t ventured in yet. As one Parisian noted, ‘it would just be another turd in the river.’    Today, Sunday, we solved one of life’s little mysteries. Well, a mystery anyway. Lady P has been doing most of the driving, mainly because she likes driving. Even when navigating she still likes driving and of course, there’s less screaming when she’s at the wheel. So, it hasn’t been that necessary for Flashy to locate his international driving license. Except, the nine hour drive from Switzerland back to LPR required him to take the wheel occasionally. So, where would his IDL be? Glove box of course, along with Lady P’s. No. So we took the risk and drove f

  Friday 19 July 2024 Another cracking simmer's day today. Lady P ‘suggested’ that Flashy mow the lawns on the next cog down on the mower. Afterall, she did them all the other day. ‘Make it look really good.’ So he did. Cross mowing against the grain. Fred would have been pleased. No time to have a refreshing beer, we were off to Saints. A Gaulic–Roman town, half an hour down the road. Primarily built on the left bank of the La Charente River, Saintes became the first Roman capital of Aquitaine. Later it was designated as the capital of the province of Saintonge under the Ancien Régime. It is a beautiful city and well worth the visit. But why were we there? Lady P had determined that Flashy needed a haircut. Well, there are lots of barbers in Saints, that’s for sure. So, in we go to the one she had found on the internet. Pretty flash place and €25 for a buzz cut! Nobody waiting though, so…. “Numero deux, SVP.” Deux?. Oui! Two fingers in the air to be sure. Sit down. Fiddle

  Tuesday 16 July 2024 In to St J d’A this morning to collect the lawnmower and some supplies. The lawn mower service department is closed until next week. The young repair bloke has gone travelling, apparently!  Luckily we found someone from another department who opened the service room and had a cursory look about and told us to come back next week! As the tension built between certain members of both parties, neither speaking the other’s language particularly well, Flashy remembered the photo he took when he delivered said mower, parked outside the (closed again) service department two weeks ago, with a very precise note in French taped to the handle, asking for two cables to be replaced and the blades sharpened.  Should said mower bloke find anything major needing fixing, he is to call Mme Cubitt (Emma Lou) on her UK number. D’accord? Oui! Says the English speaking girl at the cashier, taking copious notes. Off we go to Switzerland. Flashy whipped out the photo. “Ah, jaune et

  Sunday 14 July 2024 – Bastille Day We walked into the old town looking for a breakfast spot and the force was with us, as we found a delightful, canal side café for a petit-déjeuner. Flashy upgraded his order to include cheese and meats, which disappeared with half the baguette into the back pack for later. Prior preparation and all… It was a delightful breakfast by the canal and all the flowers. Our plan was to then wander aimlessly through the old town, stop for a beverage; find a park for our baguette roll; a shop for bottle of gin (as we ran out last night, sacre bleu!); think about a venue for a late lunch or an early dinner; and generally soak up the ambience of Colmar on a beautiful summer’s day. We managed to do all of this, among a large crowd of tourists. Shabbily dressed, lots of tats on display, generally casual strolling about like any city almost anywhere. No flags. No bands. No uniforms. No national anthem. Bastille Day? What’s Bastille Day? We walked back home f

  Saturday 13 July 2024 We drove to Colmar in Alsace, France today. A good 2.5 hr drive to number 1 Avenue Foch and our room in the basement of a castle tower. Not the dungeon of course. It has windows looking upwards on to the footpath. Lots of streets here named after WW1 Generals. The Bastille Day celebrations are happening here on Friday, Saturday and Sunday with the big one on Bastille Eve (today/tonight). So, we wandered into town for a look around. Colmar is a beautiful city, just south of Strasbourg in Alsace. So, a mixture of French and German language, architecture,heritage and food and  wine. Flashy and the Major were here for a night in 2012 on the Route du Vin part of their ‘Battlefields and Burgundy’ tour. Flashy remembers it as a nice little medieval town of a few hundred people with a hotel, canals and a couple of restaurants. He was a bit surprised when we arrived and found it was actually a city of 200,000 people with hundreds of restaurants and thousands of t

  Thursday 11 July 2024 Stay at home, admin day. Friday 12 July 2024 Off on the train early today to Geneva. This was a pleasant trip along the edge of the Lake. We wandered slowly in the old town, looking at all the tourist sights and sites, including the many world fashion and watch brand shops, the water fountain and the cathedral. The latter, being Prody, is nowhere near as blingy as the Micks. Just sayin’. Looking for a lunch stop, we heard the voice of an Australian in loud conversation with another Aussie sitting at Brasserie-Restaurant de l’Hotel de Ville, as we passed. Pretty swish as it turned out. Baldy and the Young Bloke were still there 15 minutes later when we returned from a walk along the Reformation Wall and we decided to go in. The waiter seated us next to them. They were clearly engrossed in each other’s company and did not notice our common accent or indeed, our presence. Baldy, the elder, seemed to be a world traveler – “just got in from DC, mate.” An

  Wednesday 10 July 2024 Still warm despite some showers overnight and a bit of cloud this morning. We bussed and Metro’d it to the Pully Port and grabbed a coffee at the Italian café. Here on the side of the ash tray, is a sign that says “Who the Fred is Fuck.” OK, a little research tells me that there is a web site called Who The Fred Is Fuck, based in Lausanne and they sell tobacco products, legal cannabis and vaping products. That’s why it’s on the side of the ash tray, says Flashy. I guess Fred wanted to shock, so he put in Fuck in the name. got my attention. Must be Swiss humour.   And to that - Swiss people are extremely humorous so some Swiss say, at least if you don't do laundry one minute past your allowed slot. Light-hearted fun is something that is taken very seriously in Switzerland. Anyway, we then walked along the shore of the Lake to Lausanne proper. It is a nice city, very neat and tidy ja! To the market we went and got some tomatoes and some cheese, then fou

Tuesday 9 July 2024 Another clear hot day with the temperature getting to 31c. We took a drive up to the hill Tour de Gourze behind us (930m) for some spectacular views of the Lake from the Rhone Valley at Montreux to almost Geneva.  Then, looking for a winery that, by chance could be open, we headed to Rivaz and onto the shore of the Lake to find Lavaux Vinorama wine cave open.  Despite 80% of the wines being Chasselas variety and white, we opted for a tasting of three reds. These were of very high standard.  A Divico grape from Chardonne, which is a Swiss variety and a bit like a Pinot Noir. Then a blend of Cabernet sauvignon, Garanior, Gamaret and Marra grapes from nearby Epcesses area and lastly a flinty Syrah from St Saphorin.  All there places are next to each other along the slopes of the Lake. A drive along the lake shore to home and to let Monk out for a stroll in the garden. He barely lifted his head from his bed. I think he likes sleeping.   We picked raspberries and bea

  Sunday 7 July 2024 The weather is trying to clear from the storms overnight and the cloudy sky. We walk down the road to the waterfront of Lac Leman, the official name of what others call Lake Geneva. It’s Sunday and the families are all out with their little kids at the waterfront playgrounds and little, tiny trains chuffing about, a restaurant that serves more than coffee, where we have a Pullyspritz and an IPA, and an ice cream kiosk that is very popular. A walk along the waterfront is nice, with the sun breaking through the clouds and we end back at said ice cream kiosk for a cone and then the bus home up the hill. Marinated chicken and fresh beans from the garden on the BBQ for dinner. Almost, for the first time since we left Melbourne, we have TV. There are a dozen English language stations and Flashy has been following the French elections on BBC and Sky News. It will be interesting to see the wash up in the next few weeks. And, in another thing French, Parisians have

  Thursday 4 to Saturday 6 July 2024 It’s our road trip to Switzerland today and we depart LPR at 9.30 am and follow the “A” roads all the way to Moulins. This is a beautiful medieval town, not far from our overnight stop and just over half way to Switzerland. An easy, relaxing drive. The roads are excellent and traffic light. Moulins has a Musee du Batiment (construction) which is housed in a very old building and run entirely by volunteers. It has artifacts from most trades, including carpentry, plumbing, electrical, brick/block laying, painting and decorating, tiling and kitchen artifacts as well – all from the period 1945 to 1975. A really interesting stop with lots of “Ah, remember those!” Then a short drive to the village Neuilly le Real for our overnight stay in Chateau Segot, a castellated chateau, recently renovated from its 15c and 17c originals. A cold beer from Audrey, our host then unpack in our giant bedroom. We are the only guests in a house that caters for 15. A

  Monday – Wednesday 1 to 3 June 2024 These three days we are preparing for our trip to Switzerland, where we will mind Munk, the 10 year old dog in Lausanne. Munk only understands French. Should be fun. I see that the Parisians rioted in the streets on Sunday evening, after the first round of National Assembly elections. Oh, my goodness! Can you believe it? The French taking to the streets? Well, as it turned out our apartment overlookd a big gymnasium and swimming pool and on Sunday morning, we noticed the French out exercising their right to vote, as the gym was a polling station. It was a lovely, sunny day and all was calm. We departed for the RER and Metro which took us underground to Gare Montparnasse, as I have explained before. Consequently, we did not see anything of the above ground carryings on and departed for home at 3.45pm. The Frogs got real worked up after 7.00 pm at the Place de Republic. I noticed on the news that they smashed a McDonalds front window. Perhaps t