I’ve been sooo busy, I nearly forgot…….Today is our 2nd year anniversary, here at Beauregard. (Due to annoying PC crash, late last night…read ‘yesterday’).

Where does the Time fly?

And I’m sooo busy, I don’t have the time or energy to get it all down here.

Maybe a very quick recap of the last few weeks:

• Schools out for Summer; Summer taxi service resumes
• La Ronde…over and done with. 50km a day and a wonderful finale at Agen, whooping and whistling through the city streets, didn’t do much for the traffic-flow! (Disasters with my French comprehension and confidence therein…another story for another day!)
• Apricots picked, jammed, frozen, eaten
• Mange touts…ditto, well, apart from the jam part
• Haricot verts ‘Pongo’ variety…(so cute!)…coming along nicely
• Courgettes….found one hiding under a leaf, a whopper….dinner for the next fortnight
• Talking of whopper…I saw a toad in the sitting room recently, the size of Pikachu. Must have got in through the cat-flap
• Swimming pool repainted, refilled and in use….lovely!
• Up to 4 markets a week and about to launch into the night markets and medieval ones…gotta make hay and all that, with such a short window of opportunity!
• Oh, The Boys birthday…7 at last! Feels as if he has been with us for ever…is he really only 7?! Still to arrange the birthday party

Ok, onwards and upwards with year 3…..

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©2009 S.Peyton

Sooo delicious!

We are nearing the end of term and don’t I know it.

It is a frenzy of activity,events and general mayhem. For those of you planning on having a slower, gentler pace of life, by relocating to France profonde, think again.

We have football tournaments and outings, the same with rugby and riding. The choir is having a concert the day after we get back from La Ronde. Thankfully, the theatrical goings on have stopped for the time being. We have had La Ronde training…up to 50km a day on the bikes and the real La Ronde starts on Monday. I am now in the process of packing all the neccesary stuff for us to take.

It’s The Boys birthday next week, so I need to find some pressies. Graham is in fixing the kitchen in the cottage, so I am backwards and forwards to the not-so-local bricomarché. We are now up to 3 markets per week…..hopefully up to 4 or 5 in the near future.

In amongst all this, the cherry tree finally burst forth with plump, juicy, delicious cherries. We have been picking, de-stoning, jamming, syrupping, clafoutying, cheese caking, ice-creaming, freezing, bottling, eating- pounds of cherries.

Yep….we’re having a wonderful time!

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©2009 S.Peyton

Tonight we went to the Chateau de Duras to watch Diddy perform with her class. It was a joint theatrical production with the other local schools. Our school was performing a work by Jean de la Fontaine….Les Animaux Malades de la Peste. Unfortunately, most of it was lost on me, with my limited French and my complete ignorance of one of France’s most famous fabulists…Ah well!… one has to start somewhere!

Diddy was a tree and a good tree she was too! She opened the dialogue, very well, I thought with….

Un mal qui répand la terreur,

Mal que le Ciel en sa fureur

Inventa pour punir les crimes de la terre,

And as far as I can make out…..well, here’s the translation in full .

We did have to endure the wrath of an angry Mami, who claimed we had kidnapped her grandson. Quite honestly, he’s such a horrible child, you couldn’t pay me to take him away. And as far as I’m concerned he should be shackled to his parents anyway…so I let it flow over me in the hope that she would keep her eye on him better in future.

But her hiss of angry, impassioned French was quite scary…and I don’t suppose we’ll be invited to sit by them at next weeks village BBQ!

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©2009 S.Peyton

Duras Market on a sunnier day

Yesterday was our second day of trading at Duras market.

We knew it wasn’t going to be a particularly good day, as we set up in the pouring rain. Plus, it wasn’t a Bank Holiday or UK half-term like last week…so not so many families about, but we didn’t want to lose our pitch, next door to the boulangerie, along Rue Paul Persil. A good pitch!

And, with only 3 chickens on the chicken-mans spit, my suspicions were confirmed….this was not a good sign!

So we stood in our handy doorway, chatting, watching the World go by….even though a little thin on the ground… and the morning passed quickly enough. We even managed to sell a few bits….bonus! And as the clock struck 12 o’clock, we started to pack away.

That’s when the sun came out….

We’re doing it all again on Saturday at Ste Foy market, apparantly one of the top ten French markets. See you there!

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©2009 S.Peyton

Awake at 5:30, up at 6, after a night of tossing and turning…..’Why?’, I hear you cry…. Well, today was the first day of my path to riches and almost certain unabounded wealth by way of the French markets….understandably, sleep evaded me!

And, as it turned out, it wasn’t only sleep that evaded me. So did my first day at making a buck. Unfortunately, my much needed ‘attestation d’assurance’, had, unbeknownst to me, been left on the desk of Monsieur l’assurer the previous Friday. And Monsieur l’assurer is closed on Mondays.

So, unperturbed, we went to Duras and found the very friendly market man,(who, by the way, gets his wood from down our track and is to pop in for a coffee next time) and who assured me that assurance is essential but next Monday he will find me a lovely spot by the war memorial, up by the old Shopi car-park…so all was not lost. Unless you take into account my first days takings, which would, no doubt, have me at this moment scanning through glossy car magazines, in search of a new car, which brings me neatly onto my next trauma of the day……

….The Cars

Clapped-out old Escort, in for Control Technique (MOT) 3 weeks ago

Rather posh (by our standards) Renault Megane, developed fan belt problems on the way to Bergerac later in the morning. We limped back home, left it at the garage, to discover it needs new fan-belt-turny-thing and the MOT is due at the end of the month. So he did a pre-MOT test and it needs about E1,000 worth of work doing.

Anyone want to buy a rather nice, but unroad-worthy Megane, going cheap, reluctantly for sale?

By all accounts, the clapped out old Escort will sale through the MOT tommorrow….go figure! And the Porshe order will have to wait…..

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©2009 S.Peyton

I had the pleasure of being transported back in time by 20 or so years last night! For last night, I went to see UB40 in concert at Monsegur, along with Plum and Deana.

We planted ourselves to one side, not far from the wine stall, the poubelles and a very handy hedge. We danced and swayed and sang. We drank lots of wine…red, red wine in fact.

We all took advantage of aforementioned hedge as the night grew old and the bottles of wine got emptier.

And so I have UB40 to thank for making me feel like a 20 year old again…fantastic music and memories….. plus, the realisation that even at my age, you are never too old to pee behind a bush! It’s good being 20, even if it was only for one night!

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©2009 S.Peyton

If my stats are to be believed, it’s Stavros Flatly that’s going to be the winner of Britains Got Talent…not Susan Boyle.

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©2009 S.Peyton

At Mums funeral last year, we set up a collection towards a tree fund. With flowers being so expensive and short-lived, people responded really well to this idea and the donations flowed.

Throughout the year, we have cogitated as to which type of tree we should go for. Suggestions and ideas have been discussed and corresponded upon…..but the sheer choice just helped to confuse. And then there was the question of ‘when do we plant?’ and of course, ‘where?’

With the first anniversary looming last weekend, we thought a trip to a local nursery would help…we could see what was on offer and plant something on the Sunday.

We ambled around, seeing nothing that we really fancied until we turned a corner and saw the Japanese maples. Instantly, we all agreed that they were perfect!

We planted them on Sunday, in a little flowery-plot next to ‘Susans Patio’. In the absence of pebbles, we pinched some stone from the ruin, in order to cover the bare soil. House leeks were poked into crevasses and freesia bulbs planted and in a few months will have grown through. We are really pleased with our efforts so far.

So, thank you all for the donations, the suggestions and the support…just pop round when you fancy, for a cuppa and we’ll show you our new, special additions!

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©2009 S.Peyton

Just indulge me!

This had me crying…but for different reasons!

Edit: Sorry….clip has been disabled….you’ll have to check it out on YouTube!

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©2009 S.Peyton

‘…..is now one of the favourites to win.’ So says the Daily Mail today.

I am, of course, referring to Susan Boyle, of  ‘Britains Got Talent’ fame. I, like the rest of the World, it seems, has been mesmerized by her modest, unsophisticated charm and voice!  I didn’t  watch the show itself but saw it on YouTube, (quite a few times now!) which has now clocked over 18 million hits…in a matter of a few days.

Unfortunately, the sound card on my pc tends to render everyone as Pinky and Perky, but even with this handicap, she sounds amazing.

And how does she manage it with bushy eyebrows?! Not to mention frizzy hair and a frumpy frock? How could she possibly be so talented, looking like that?!  47….shouldn’t she remain invisible?!  How smug the audience are, in  their New Look  glory…how ashamed they must be now!

I get the feeling though, that despite the plucking, straightening, styling that will inevitably follow, that she will remain a sweet, charming, unaffected lady.

As far as I’m concerned….the show’s already over!

Edit: Sorry….clip has been disabled….you’ll have to check it out on YouTube!

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©2009 S.Peyton