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

Tuesday 27 August to Saturday 31 August 2024 The Autumn seems to have arrived with cooler nights and mornings and a bit of light rain. Then the sun comes out and it’s hot again. Strange sort of cusp of the season stuff. The days here at LPR have been spent catching up on admin, budget planning and completing the last tasks around the estate that have earnt us the free accommodation. We are also packing for Spain, as the big road trip is coming up in two weeks. Flashy’s ‘Keen’ boots, purchased in Australia at considerable expense, have begun to fall apart. Well, bits and pieces of the knobby sole are detaching. A whole tube of shoe repair glue has given him a bit of a reprieve but we fear that it is a repeat of ‘Daintree shoe cancer.’ No boots, no matter what brand, survive two seasons in the tropics. The soles simple detach. Looks like we have a similar problem here. Apart from his old Army boots but he doesn’t have them here, does he? The Keens have done their job I suppose. T...

  Sunday 25 August 2024 More gardening and tidying up. Monday 26 August 2024 Lady P’s big day today. 70 th birthday. We had a quick coffee, grabbed the bags and headed off to I’ll de Re, 45mins drive west to the coast. It was significantly less crowded than our previous trip, as the end of August sort of marks the end of the summer break. However, there were lots of families, dogs and small children still wandering about and plenty of British ascents to be heard about the streets. We drove right to the very end of the island to Les Portes en Re' where we had a room at a one star hotel. Something a bit strange to Flashy.   However, it was clean and tidy; relatively quiet and the lovely hostess spoke good English. Across the road was the bike shop where we hired two bicycles. One a Bosch Electric for Flashy (he doesn’t do hills) and an old thumper for Lady P (she likes the pain!). The plan was to cycle the 20 mins to the lunch spot for her birthday. This occurred without ...

  Friday 23 and Saturday 24 August 2024 The fence is down. The small rock wall is almost down and it’s raining. Fabrice has gone home and will return Saturday. No one is real sure just what he plans to do with the carefully stacked concrete panels. There has been some suggestion that he will sell them as these concrete walls seem to be the go here in rural France. We are now only 20 days until our road trip to Spain, so much planning and final booking of accommodation and car parking was done today. Saturday was a repeat of Friday, except, feeling bored last evening, while Lady P was on her 6 km walk, Flashy decided to take down the remaining section of rock wall that Fabrice had left. Soft limestone is not so bad. Into the market today and to our now favourite stalls. It may be a hangover from Covid but the stall ladies actually select and bag your fruit and veges. You don’t get to handle them. Which is OK unless you want a particular peach or all the mushrooms the same size...

  Thursday 22 August 2024 Fabrice is late, of course but once he gets here, he starts the slow job of deconstructing the fence. Here’s the story on the fence. There are 15 panels between 15 posts and 4 slabs per panel. Each slab is 2000 mm long, 500 mm deep and 50 mm thick, weighing 120 kg per slab. That makes the fence about 9.5 tonnes. Flashy’s original guess was “about 10 tonnes,” Just sayin’. It’s going to take about 4 runs to the tip, I reckon. His excavator is about 2-3 tonnes and around 20 years old but seems to do the job. I think he’s done this before! A slow start, obviously sussing out the best plan of attack, saw Fabrice start in the middle of the fence. Once he got the hang of it, he really got stuck in. Apart from a 2 hour lunch break, when his missus picked him up and they went home for the French lunch. 6.15 pm and he’s still working, so you really can’t complain. The start Whats App to EL and J and Joanne One's gone That won't take much weight! 7.00 pm. A...

  Wednesday 21 August 2024 Cool night; heavy dew but clear warm morning. The season is changing which is nice after 30 years in the two-season tropics. Big news last night – allegedly the big concrete wall is coming down tomorrow. So, in preparation, we finished the dog fence and mowed an area where Lady P intends to relocate the woodshed.  The previous owner of LPR was a mechanic and liked to do things the proper way. Maybe a tad over designed in places. Well, the woodshed has a welded steel internal frame and a Zincalume roof, tec screwed to the steel frame. The walls are 1” thick timber planks. So, Flashy’s idea of unscrewing and reusing materials that have been there for 20 years or more, won’t work. Let’s see how big Fabrice’s digger is and he can destroy the bloody thing. It's now gin time and the sun has been out all day. Glorious late summer day, no wind, just a cool breeze tumbling across the sunflower field to the west. Perfect for taking a pre prandial beverage ...

  Saturday 17 August 2024 Time to pack up and leave Brittany for LPR. Uneventful road trip but still fairly busy on the roads. Sunday 18 August 2024 Minding Truffle today as J and EL head back to Ill de Re for lunch with friends. Flashy cooking Tex/Mex beans on request for dinner. Finding at last, the remaining yeast packet, a gluten free ciabatta is planned (EL is now GF). Beans and ciabatta were excellent. Two St Emilion reds didn’t seen to go far. Monday 19 August 2024 Flashy and Johnny started the construction of a small dog fence which will be needed when the big concrete wall comes down, then we cooked a whole fish with herbs from the garden on the BBQ and enjoyed a celebratory Champagne, Burgundy Premier Cru Chardonnay and a Grand Vin du Bordeaux Medoc. The Thermomix made an excellent crème brulee and by the time we got to cheese, the BBQ embers were glowing, the red (or was it a blue) moon was visible and it was finally dark. Tuesday 20 August 2024 EL and J ha...

  Friday 16 August 2024 We crashed early last night after a long day of driving and navigating. Just some walnut bread toast and jam for dinner. It rained lightly last night too and it is still sprinkling this morning. It has turned the grass green overnight. A quiet day in today, researching routes and accommodation and like things for the Spain trip in September (Flashy for a change) and since we are heading to San Sebastian (400k) and Santiago de Compostela (another 700k), it will take some time to get there and explore San Sebastian then leave the car at the SDC airport car park and catch a train (3 hrs) on to Madrid. We’re excited about the Madrid stay as we will be spending a few days with Alan and Cherete Harton, good friends from Adelaide days and then Andrew arrives for his and Flashy’s 5 day wine educational with the l’Ordre Mondial des Gourmet Degustateurs of the la Chaine des Rotisseurs. What could possibly go wrong! After admin duties and a light lunch, we deci...

  Thursday 15 August 2024 There are only about 10 houses in our little village here in Brittany and the Java Bleue Restaurant has 120 seating capacity and is usually booked out. God only knows where the patrons come from but they were there in force last night. We started with a couple of coupes of Champagne, then ordered a decent house Chardonnay to accompany the rabbit terrene entree. A Rhone red was acquired to match the steak – a Scotch Fillet for Flashy and a rib eye skewered steak for Lady P. After enquiring twice that we actually wanted it ‘medium’ – ‘Are you English? Na, we’re Australian but we do speak English. Just checking, it is French medium,” he says. Rare of course. So how to describe the meal. A vegan would call it ‘disgusting’. A meat eater, ‘too much!” and a lover of beef, ‘spot on.’ The steak was bloody huge. Too much for Flashy. He should have ordered bread and two bottles of red. It, the wine, was very good and the whole wine list very reasonably priced....

  Wednesday 14 August A sleep in was planned. Cairns friends called on Lady P’s phone at 8.30 am so it was apply Rule number 4. (one up, all up). A leisurely breakfast followed. Now, get this. Flashy purchased a can, yes a can! of chilli con carne, made by some French couple in chef’s whites and a smiling face on the label. As you know there are many good things that come in cans. Baked beans for one. Tomatoes for two and the range of beans and lentils are not bad either. Purchased as an experiment, of course! Well, it was excellent. Enough for three breakfasts. You could add a poached egg and some Tabasco if you fancy. It seems that the French can a lot of stuff, including cassoulet, confit duck, ravioli and lots more. So, after breakfast we drive leisurely to the small town of Janze (9,000 population) a short drive south. A beautiful little town with a market and town square. We purchased some cheese, specialty bread, coffee beans and some fresh veges; had a coffee and a walk aro...

  Tuesday 13 August 2024 A road trip to Mont Saint-Michel and the area around there today has been planned and an early start is needed to avoid as much summer traffic as possible. The morning here is foggy, low 20’s and signs of overnight rain, which is a small relief from the past days of 30+C temperatures. Long pants and a light jumper are packed and we head off. Mont Saint-Michel is probably one of the most iconic images of a Benedictine abbey, perched atop a small island, across a tidal affected beach on Normandy’s southern border with Brittany. There is no access to the island apart from a shuttle bus or walking from the carpark, 2.5kms from the island, across a causeway. Some idea of what awaits us, comes as we find a carpark in the by now (10.00 am) half filled, 4,000-car capacity, car park. Glad we came early. Then as we walk to the shuttle bus station, we see the 3.5 km long line of human ants, creeping their way, either walking to the island or lining up for one of the m...