Digging Out on Valentines day

Was taken away from yet another superb book. This one 'The Shadow of the Wind' by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. As it was Valentines Day thought there might be a bit of a respite from hard labour - but we decided to dig as much as possible during the day and then celebrate in the evening with a meal out at Choucas - a super restaurant in the medieval part of Chauvigny. We decided to hand dig out about six inches of stone and soil from the grange and level it out ready for the foundations. It is the kind of job you could imagine being given out as a form of punishment. Its unbelievably hard to lift the stone - some individual pieces weighing up to thirty kilos. The decision to do it by hand is related to cost - it saves us about 1000 euros - so digging is what we are doing. The worst part is trying to level the ground, especially when there is so much stone - but we now have some resemblance of a flat surface. Whether it is flat enough for the foundations we do not know. Levelling it out is a never-ending task. The meal out was well worth all the hard work. We started with a cocktail of fruit juices mixed with cognac. First course was salmon profiteroles, followed by lobster in a fabulous balsamic dressing. Duck was the main course with a puree of artichoke and sweet potato shaped into cubes. The cheese course was deep fried camembert with a damson plum sauce on salad. Dessert was literally a dreamboat - a praline boat floating on a sea of merangue creme with soft fruits. Coffee and chocolate for the finale. We were spoilt with some great wines from the local area - an Ampiladae sauvignon and a red from Marigny Brizay's Haut Poitou vineyard. It was a great compensation for a hard and unromantic day.