Escargot..............

We woke up to lashing rain this morning. I looked out of the window to see an old bicycle propped against our gate and that could only mean one thing.

Daniel was in our garden collecting snails......to eat!!!


I went out to take him a hot coffee and there he was searching all the nooks and crannies in the stone wall with his " escargot stick".

He launched into an explanation of how I could tell if a snail had produced any young escargot this year by the lines on it`s shell.

I explained to him that I will never need to know that as I will NEVER EVER be eating any!!

A la prochaine mes belles

xxxxxx

And no one cared.............

This old 18th century cottage is just a few miles away. 

Over the years we have watched it crumble and now it has fallen completely. The brambles are closing in on it and it will soon be invisible.

I thought I would catch it before it disappears!

No one seems to have missed it, no one seems to care, so Mother Nature is taking back the land.

Finally we have a new visitor. Every morning this Starling is waiting to be fed. He is very brave and rarely leaves the window sill as I open the window to put the seed out. He has been Christened Schubert!!

A la prochaine mes belles

xxxx

All ticking along quite nicely now.....

Last Winter whilst walking round a brocante like two Eskimos wrapped up against the cold, Mark declared he was going to buy a bronze clock he had seen on a stand miles away from the car.

Look of amazement....." A clock"....."Why?"...."What clock?"...." I have never seen you look at clocks before"....." has your brain frozen in this cold?"...."It`s so heavy we would never post it"....etc etc....!!

I always walk past clocks as I suppose over the years I have seen and sold so many that it has to be something amazing to catch my eye. I have become clock blind!

But Mark was adamant he was taking it home. The lady selling it told him it was not working but she thought it was simply dusty from being in the attic as it was her "Grandmere`s clock".  I stood there silently thinking "yes...good story Madam...everyone says that".

So Mark heaved it back to the car and of course on returning home it did not work and it has sat there looking at us accusingly since. 

Then a couple of weeks ago a good friend Gaston offered to take a look at it.

Oh my.....apparently it was "simply dusty"  and just needed a clean! It is working perfectly.

 Oooooh la la....it is delicieux. It has the most delicate "ting" on the hour and half hour and if you close your eyes you can imagine Marie Antoinette sweeping past in her rustling gowns.

So, firstly I apologise to Mark and secondly I apologise to that Madam who I now think was telling the truth!! 

A grand merci to Gaston for his cleaning job - what a star you are monsieur!

The website has been found and reinstated by our wonderful website guru Stephen Buss and many thanks to him too.

We are off truffling for a couple of days, hopefully no more clocks shall return home but hopefully lots of divine finds will.

A la prochaine mes belles
xxxx

Apologies.............

Apologies if you find the simply-chateau missing but I think we have been hacked! It seems to have disappeared and our hosting company are investigating.

Hopefully they will find out where it is hiding soon!!!

A demain mes belles
xxx