First Fire

We finally got around to builing a fire. Rainy and cold out. Not sure if you can tell but these logs are like 4 feet long. Ridiculous.

How do you say disgusting en francais?

Les anguilles, apparently. Eels for sale at the marché this morning. Yum.

Driving back from the Super U

Got the car today that we're gonna use for the summer, and went grocery shopping. Had to take pix of the chateau from the other direction. (Oh yeah. Super U is the name of the supermarché.)

Sunset after the thunderstorm...

The sun washing through the dining room made the terrifiying rainstorm worth it.

Here's the stairs to my room in the tower and then the view of the countryside from the window in the above picture, as the sun sets over the hills

Thunderstorm at the Castle...

St. Pierre de Maillé is gorgeous!

This is the town square. These crazy French trees are everywhere. Below are the roses on the neighbor's wall.

The Damn Frogs

This is a little video of my favorite spot in St. Pierre. Just outside the house are a couple picnic tables right on the river. You can hear the birds but the remarkable things is these crazy frogs. Apparently it's mating season and they are going all out.

Le Shit Shop

This is the French version of a Goodwill or Salvation Army. It's awesome.

Straw and mud make a nice roof!

So this little cottage was built God knows when as a bread oven or something. There is a wood burning stove on the outside. On the inside we now have the water heaters but upstairs is a little bedroom. Only accessible by ladder. This might be the place for me when the chateau is booked. Whaddya think?


This is the low ceiling inside. really made of mud and straw. We are authentic, no?

Gouleyant!

Went to my first French winery on Wednesday, Domaine de Ris. Met the winemaker and tasted his chardonnay, chenin blanc, sparkling cremant de loire, cab/malbec blend, and cab franc. All really great. Loved the chenin and the cremant especially. the cab france here is different from a Chinon or Bourgeuil. It's lighter, which is odd b/c it's south of them. But the soil is different I was told. It's GOULEYANT, which means a light refreshing mouthfeel. No word in english (nothing in polite conversation anyway!). Not sold outside of Europe because small production. 6 Euro/bottle. Nice!

Monks in Caves!

Visited the Abbaye Notre-Dame de Fontgombault the other day hoping to hear Gregorian Chant. Apparently that's at another time but we did hear some organ practice which was nice. Today we drove around and Joyce showed me some caves across the river. Supposedly back in the day (like Middle Ages or so) the monks would hang out or hide out, not sure, in the caves. WILD! here's some pix of the abbaye from the river and some of the caves.

Technology: Keys

Here's the key to the house. Not kidding.

(the little one is for the mailbox)

Corcovado "a la campagne"

So Jesus H. Christ is everywhere over here. Crosses by the side of the road, and LOTS of crucifixes. Brought up Catholic and still paying the price, I'm not amused. But some of them are stunning.

Case in point, there is a white sculpture crucifix high in the hills that you can see from the balanceuse (the French have a different word for everything-that means the outside swing) next to the river. Here's a picture of the view. You can just see the little white crucifix in the upper left by the tree branch. You can actually make out the cross in person and it's kinda nice knowing he's up there.

Here we are crossing the bridge going to visit the little guy. This bridge crosses Le Gartempe, which flows past the house.

Getting closer...

Here's the crazy old stairs you where you leave the street...and the woods begin.

You pass through a little hamlet of troglodyte houses. That's the actual term for them. TheFrench are actually kinda proud of the ability to take the natural resource of the cave and convert it into a home. Just met a man who grew up in one and the smell of soot and mildew makes him nostalgic. Not for me I think, but very cool anyway.

And here's the big guy. Of course, as genius as the French are at making everything gorgeous, they are even better at making that same thing VERY tacky at some later time. Hence the star on top.

My favorite part about this is that this spot on the hill is a perfect view of the village and our house in it. See below a view and close-up.

You gotta kinda look for the river and the break in the trees in the first pic to find the house with the blue shutters on the water but there it is. See previous post for other pics of the house.

I think I'm moving to the castle this weekend and will be alone for a few days. Kinda freaked out by that.

New word: menhir

there is a menhir on the property at the chateau. its supposed to be pre-historic. lots of debate about sacrifices and placement around the world but it's cool, huh? more at wikipedia.

my new digs

Just to be clear, I'm living in St Pierre de Maillé in the old grainary barn of the Bishop of Poitou. He kept his 10% of the crop in this barn. Now it's divied into 3 parts, ours on the end nearest the river. I'm going to be managing Chateau d'Alogny, which is near La Roche Posay, about a half hour away. Right now we're just re-opening it after the winter and getting reason for the season.

Back to the village...

Here's the lane right outside the house (out of view to the immediate left) which leads to the chicken yard.

This is a little flower and moss growth on the side of the building which fences in the chickens.

The building we're in makes a courtyard with another family, and here's a view of that:

I woke up early this morning, as we're going back to Alogny to prune and trim. The river was fogged over and gorgeous, here's pix of the river, and the mill/bridge.

Literally right outside the door, and you can look out onto it from the dining table and living room this is the view across the river.

oh. before i go. the name of the website. i was joking at the restaurant that while all my buddies were serving Sunday brunch eggs to the Upper West Side, i was gonna be feeding chickens as part of my duties. the owners have 4 Black Copper Maran chickens at their house in St. Pierre de Maillé. they are the most beautiful blue/black chickens and make the best eggs. 4 fresh eggs every day like clockwork.

Here's a pic of Loretta, the rooster. He is the son of one of the hens and so can't quite get that he's the alpha male. He's always trying to sit with them and lay eggs. That's the story from John and Joyce anyway.

backstory

so here i am living in france again. long story, but basically a random job search one day on craigslist showed an ad "Castle Manager-France." I'd settled myself into working at the restaurant for the summer but was occasionally looking cuz ya never know...

i replied with a letter and resume and we were a match and here i am. my hosts are an interesting couple (she's american, he's english) who own a few properties and wanna step back a bit from their castle to focus on other projects. that's where i fit in.

i'm gonna be running the day to day stuff at Chateau d'Alogny, a castle which originally dates from the XI century and then was added onto a lot in the 1500s and today it's still going strong. there is actually a stone that is archaelogically significant that is like a thousand years older than the castle. more on that someday.

it was kind of a crazy month preparing to come and while interviewing i asked a friend of mine for advice and he asked to sublet my apartment. that's when i knew it was meant to be. so everything fell into place and i landed here last friday May 6, via IcelandAir (yea, i got to see the plume of the volcano on takeoff). the airport in iceland is very small but lots of glass/steel/wood. i landed at 2am NYC time but it was 7am in iceland and they didn't bat an eye when i ordered a glass of wine with my breakfast!! it was good sauvignon blanc too. an amazing open-face sandwich of salmon gravlox with boiled egg slices with a honey mustard sauce. wonderful.