Stephen & Madeleine Kear's Holiday Gites In France

After Stephen's exhausting years and demanding schedules as a violinist in the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra we left it all behind us to run idyllic gites in the Gartempe Valley, La Vienne, France.

Saturday, June 28, 2008

Summer Daze

The week has just got better and better. After very heavy levels of humidity (last weekend it was so humid the floor of the Grange gite was permanently wet and would not dry out) which ended in some heavy downpours we seem now to have at last arrived at true summer temperatures and weather.

Our guests in the gite were blessed as it was the best stable patch of weather we have had in a while. We had two couples from New Zealand in the Grange gite and a lady and her daughter from UK in the studio. They thoroughly enjoyed themselves with swimming, barbeques and a day trip to the Atlantic sea coast near La Rochelle. At night we could hear their great guffaws of laughter as they sat under the stars and enjoyed themselves. It was a good sound. Only Maggie, our Battersea dog, disgraced herself on the last day by stealing into the small studio gite while guests were sunning themselves by the pool and opening a sack of garbage and spreading it happily about the gite. And that was after they were telling me what a lovely dog she was and how attached they had become to her!!

Other grand events this week include the resurfacing of the mile long road that leads into our hamlet that was previously full of potholes and bumps and bone-shattering ditches. It is now all smooth and resurfaced and looks wonderful.

They have harvested some of the wheat this week although I think the level of ripeness this year must be very dispersed as normally the harvest carries on in all one period but for now some fields have been harvested while others remain untouched.

We have enjoyed some cycling with Avalanche and of course the vegetables are growing at a speedy rate.

Went to a concert in Tours that Stephen was playing in on thursday. It was a celebration of Vivaldi and the small orchestra played the four seasons and some choral works. The choir were not very good having never, I think, sung with an orchestra and being quite elderly. But all in all it was a good concert. However, a nice surprise for me was to meet a friend of one of the musicians - a lovely girl from Italy called Valentina. I told her my mother was Italian and from near Trieste. She looked surprised and asked where and I told her my mother came from Gorizia which - very bizarrely - is the same town Valentina comes from. It cemented a good friendship in a very short time!!

Monday, June 23, 2008

its hotting up

After a lot more rain we have finally arrived at some good hot tempertatures and as this has also co-incided with new clients in both gites it is a double celebration.

Everyone has been swimming. Stephen, now back from Jordan, is happy to be on home territory. Our guests are all happy so that is all we want.

The vegetables are growing at a fast rate and we are beginning to share them out. Its a good time.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

glow worms and a full moon

It's time for the glow worms to appear. I had heard of these wonderful insects but had never seen one until we came here. The other evening I was attending to the pool cover - it was just about dark but not quite - and just near the pool was the familiar flourescent green light of the worm. It was the second one I've seen in four years and as usual I was full of a kind of awe as the light in it is so bright and - well- manufactured looking. It doesn't seem possible that such a bizarre green is a natural feature. Apparently it is just the females who do this for a short time of the year as they are trying to attract a mate. I believe they do not reproduce very greatly hence they are quite a rare creature.

A slow start to the day but I managed a walk with the dogs (no cat this time) and a swim as after a cool start to the day the temperature soared and it was hot and humid this afternoon. Picked more raspberries and some strawberries and got down to some serious weeding. Worked outside until 10.30pm. Tonight is a beautiful yellow full moon - set low and large in the sky. Stephen is in Jordan touring with the RPO Pops orchestra. This tour is more comfortable than the eastern european one but I still think he'd rather be home looking for glow worms...

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Giant raspberries and we want broadband

It took so long to get this page downloaded I just about fell asleep waiting for the bloody thing to become available. I'm hearing a lot on radio 4 about people in rural communities in UK who are truly hampered by slow speed of internet due to not having broadband. We have the same problem and it is a real pain. We keep hearing it will 'be here soon' but like some mythological creature it never seems to materialise.

It has been horribly dull and cool here with everyone grumbling about the lack of summer warmth and hence the slow production in the vegie patch. The constant rain has done wonders for the growth but for ripening we need a lot more sun and heat. However, today we ate the most wonderful batch of freshly picked raspberries which were pretty enormous and very tasty and I also cooked up some rhubarb to put in the freezer for another time so things are slowly getting there.

The Aussies are doing well at cricket.

Monday, June 09, 2008

cats and dogs and gardening

Today was a complete marathon with work this morning at beautiful La Bussiere then a four kilometre brisk walk with the two dogs and the cat, Ollie, who decided to come for the outing. Our local farmers eyed me suspiciously as we all - me and my furry friends - paraded past their farm, tails raised high and proud. Ollie however lost her nerve when we reached the road and took flight in some weeds. I then had to coax her out of a hedgerow (all of this in full view of the farmers) and carry her until we were safe in the woods. I am a little worried about her as she hasn't surfaced for her evening meal - in fact since the walk she seems to have completely disappeared. I am now wondering if she has expired from heat exhaustion or is just sulking.

It was a superb day - gardening was hot hard work. I weeded and hoed and weedkilled and mowed until about 6pm when I had a swim to cool off. The water temperature was 78 so it was delicious. Tonight I used some of our rainwater store to water the vegetables and plants. We need this sun now to ripen the vegetables and fruit. It has not been hot enough recently - a factor much agreed upon by my friend in La Bussiere who said emphatically that the climate these days was 'la saloperie' which literally means 'a bitch'.

I was amused by the consternation raised by Australia's Prime Minister Kevin Rudd who said we need to set fire or strike a match to OPEC because of the rising cost of fuel and diminishing oil supplies. This was a highly inflammable remark!! But one should understand that the Aussies are nothing if not frank.

Sunday, June 08, 2008

care in the community and an eastern block visit

Here in the commune of Antigny it was a quiet weekend of work which meant an early start both yesterday and today. My weekend shift occurs only once every three weeks and so the people I see over the weekend are not as familiar to me as my weekly people. I am learning the art of tolerance and not jumping to conclusions. Some of my people on the weekend I find truly difficult. One lady who is very ill-tempered (she once famously gave one of the other workers a clout over the ears) always make me nervous. I count myself fortunate that she reserves only sneers and disgruntled 'tchs' to my service. It's strange how people can give a real sense of their personalities even through illness and dementia which of course, with medication, alters character. There was a thread of niceness today when I timidly asked her how old she was as she told me she had 6 great-grandchildren. She is 90 years old and really doesn't look it. This I told her quite sincerely and she giggled like a girl and all the sourness went from her face. Even Madame Millet who is one of the most unbearable people to work for as she follows you around and continually bosses you and can even be quite aggressive has her redeeming qualities. She has a complete obsession with my chickens and their state of egg laying asking me each time I go there if they are producing. If I say 'no' she looks deeply satisfied as if she in fact knew all along they were a lousy bunch of fowl and totally good-for-nothing and if she had her way she would have wrung each and every single ones neck. Her attention today, however, was fixated on a wasp that had the temerity to enter the house and sting her ailing husband on his hand while he was reaching for the jam pot at breakfast. This event caused much consternation and the conviction that this wasp had somehow sneaked into the house with the expess intention of upsetting the harmony of the Millet home.

It was a sad weekend though too because one of my favourite people is no longer at his house but died just over a week ago from heart failure. He was Monsieur Abel Demay - once the Mairie of Saint Germain - and a truly lovely kind and very sweet gentleman. He loved asking me questions about my native Australia - admittedly some of them a bit insulting such as: 'Do you have electricity there?' and 'Have you hospitals and doctors?' I was a bit put out at first by this obvious assumption that Australia was some kind of third world savage outpost but as it was not intentioned in any way to offend I soon got used to it and we both had some good laughs and chats with his lovely wife Renee who is also now in hospital. One of the laughs we had was when he pointed out an article in the local paper regarding a wild boar that had escaped into a clothes shop in a large shopping complex in Poitiers and ran amock in the shop. The poor thing had in fact been hit by a car and was terrified out of its wits and had to be put down. But just the image of the animal charging about 'Auchan' was enough to make us laugh. He was also a keen member of the chasse so his interest in wild boar was heartfelt.



In the meantime Stephen leads the life of the glamorous musician with a tour to Italy, Poland, Lithuania and Moscow. It sounds wonderful but I know he'd rather be home and checking how the chickens are laying.

Thursday, June 05, 2008

Sarkozy has six brains

Was taken aback by a quote from Carla Bruni's memoirs revealing how she fell in love with Sarkozy. She is reported as saying that it wasn't just his physique that attracted her - and here I am guessing she perhaps has a preference for gnome sized men or is being kind by patronising him - but she said she also fell in love with his 'five or six brains'. It makes one shudder to think what other extra parts the man might have. It could be an explanation, however, for the odd shape of his head.

Clinton is out of the running squashing America's chances of having their first woman president. It reminds one of how close France came just over a year ago to heralding Segolene Royale as a president - but alas the man with the five brains got in. So far, from what I glean from the french, not many are impressed with his performance as presideent and even though his wife is very pretty people are largely appalled by their head of state's elevation to a celebrity.

It remains very humid and wet - we've had more rainfall this afternoon but thankfully no more thunderstorms as they tend to be fierce here. Apparently the french have managed to fine e-bay for the sales of counterfeit Hermes handbags. Quite right too.

Wednesday, June 04, 2008

Rome summit, snail traffic and gm crops

No-one can get away from the grim warnings issued from the Rome world summit today which has announced we need to find extra sources of food over the next few years to feed an ever increasing world popluation. No-one seems to dispute this factor - the only disputation seems to lie in how we actually achieve this world increase in food supplies.

In the meantime in Poitiers protesters made a snail's progress of disruption through the city in order to make a loud statement against rising fuel prices.

One of the arguments raised in the summit today as reported in the local paper was the declaration of some that bio-fuels were helping the world fuel shortage. Others said no - that it was having the opposite effect. And then there were those who slowly but surely were advocating the usage of GM crops as an answer to all the world's problems.

The only bright thing on today's horizon for us was the purchase of more cadbury'ys chocolate from hyper-u and some strong warm sunshine which appeared this afternoon!!

Monday, June 02, 2008

stormy weather

The main house computer is back at the doctors after a major storm hit overhead on saturday afternoon. We had two blackouts and after a large crash and bang the computer was no longer working and the room had an odour of sulphurous smoke lingering in the air - very disconcerting. Having just got the thing back we are all very frustrated here with this latest setback so the laptop is serving as our stand-in.

The weather has been wet and humid and very electric. After such deluges of sudden heavy rain the garden is growing at a fast rate. Thunderstorms here are spectacular - very dramatic and loud.

Today Chantal and I went to the vente de porcelain in Chauvigny where beautiful Limoges porcelain is sold for 3 euros a kilo and many good bargains are to be had. The china is of excellent quality and in differing styles and colours and is dishwasher and microwave proof. It is a great asset to the local area and only happens once a year for two weeks. We were able to equip the gite out with a twelve person complete set of porcelain for a very reasonable price. It is always a pleasure to visit this once a year local event.