The dapper Monsieur Bourreau

We arrived at the school ready for the auction of its contents (as mentioned in my last blog). This is sight which met our eyes as we entered the gates................

The world and his two brothers, their aunts and uncles had all turned up too!!! It was, bitterly bitterly cold even in the sunshine - but all the seats were full as the ever dapper Monsieur Bourreau had just started the auction.

Everyone was muffled up warm against the biting cold save for Monsieur Bourreau ,who wore his usual suit and waistcoat ( though his wife standing next to him, above, was well wrapped up!) He must have had thermals on methinks!! I felt so sorry for his secretary taking notes of the sales. She was sitting at a desk in the courtyard with her lap top ( see below) - and she looked SO cold!

It soon became apparent that the prices were hideously high. I think that everyone who had ever attended the school had turned up to try and buy a little sentimental 'morceau' of their childhood. But Monsieur B was on good form so we stayed a while to watch. The old school bell which must have rung out thousands of times caused quite a stir - and the bidding was fierce for this 19th century treasure , eventually selling for 300 Euros.

We were allowed to take a peek inside the school rooms whilst the auction progressed..............

When this old 'science class' piece was auctioned off it caused quite a stir!

...the phones hot with bids from several Parisian dealers.

The phone bids also streamed in for some educational  wall charts...

...these eventually selling for 900 Euros! But as for those divine old cast iron radiators...

...I`ll just have to keep on dreaming!!!

A la prochaine, mes belles!

xx

Tartelette....... get out of that gondola immediately !!

Well... bonjour, mes belles! Look at you sitting there looking all gorgeous! Pardon?......Yes! I have had my hair coiffed thank you very much for asking; it`s not too short at the back is it?




Honestly-....this week has been so busy that my feet have hardly touched the ground. The renovation work here is back in full swing after the Christmas break and its getting very exciting;  I can see the salon sitting room really taking shape now and it's getting nearer the time to make some decisions about decor. Pale French grey and creamy white or pale Aubusson green?

I have a chandelier and matching sconces that I have been hiding from you ( the nerve of the woman!) and it is a decadent period fitting that came from a very borgeoise Paris apartment. It is covered with pale green and rose silk twisted coils with frothy  tassel droppers.Very, very camp but SO gorgeous. I am going to keep it hidden from you until it is in situ.



 I have been tied up supplying some props for a period drama being made in the UK and then - in the middle of all that - Tartelette rings from Oregon to say she is making plans to come over to Paris!! Here is Tartelette looking Paris chic!!!!

Even in winter there are brocantes and vide greniers every weekend in Paris but not much happens mid week, so we were trying to decide whether she should just hop on a train up here to the chateau or whether I should I go down to Paris for some macaroons and a bit of retail therapy.




But..................I made the mistake of looking at the price of the flights from Paris to Venice - then it all got rather exciting!! Ryanair flights were very cheap, hotels in Venice are far less expensive in January than in the high season - and it all got organised quite quickly. I told Tartelette that she was going to Venice for a few days with Mark and me. I really didn't give her a choice - and she was putty in my hands. When Frou Frou heard about the plans she, too, decided she had to come - and so Mark has to chaperone the three of us!! All I can say is 'poor Mark'.

Our hotel is close to St Mark's Square so we can enjoy regular hot chocolat in Casanova`s old haunt,  "Cafe Florian", if the weather is too cold. We have canal view rooms and Tartellette and Frou Frou - who are both "loose cannons" - are sharing a deluxe twin room...............can you imagine it?!


You know that I am obsessed with Venice as it is just like walking into a period film set and if I am not actually in Venice, I am frequently  thinking or reading about it. I also read this week that Johnny Depp recently paid 8.5 million dollars for a palazzo on the Grand Canal, so surely he will be there checking it out? He might  need help choosing the curtain fabric so I do of course NEED to be there! Here is his new home.....

 Perhaps this trip will finally cure me and I will be ready to explore somewhere else.


Tartelette tells me she has lost 40lbs............................HOW VERY DARES SHE!! I haven`t been able to see what she looks like as Skype is refusing to work between us but I`ll soon get that back on her with all that divine Italian icecream, pasta, pizza and chocolat with cream. I was wondering how I was going to stop all those amorous Italian men from pinching the derriere of the delectable Miss Frou Frou so do I now have another  pert derriere to worry about?

Charles in back to  his normal feline activities, with an endless number of mice being presented to us at the back door as 'cadeaux'. Diggers on the other hand is tucked up in bed sleeping - as usual. He is not a lazy dog; he is simply  studying for his doctorate in sleep -and of course, you have to put in the practise and undergo hours of sleep to do that!

And finally - an old school here that has been open since the early 1800s closed its doors last year and tomorrow there is an auction of the contents. The auction list includes armoires, desks, books, old cast iron radiators and much more.

 Who knows what we will find?


A la prochaine mes belles.....

xx

Who is coming to dinner?

I found a wonderful batch of old menus today. They date from 1917 onwards and most are for the traditional dejeuner and diner following a marriage. Some are gilded, some have pretty vignettes on the front covers but all carry the most amazing and decadent food choices with 9 or 10 courses for the wedding breakfast and then a similar feast for the dinner.

Such amazing confections on offer..... Saumon de la Loire Joinville,Timballe a la Marachale, Dindonneaux Truffes, Aspic de Foie Gras,Langouste de Belleoue, Couer de filet de boeuf Renaissance to name but a few!

Followed by an amazing array of desserts....Piece Montee Savoie, Compote de peches,petit fours glacee,tutti-frutti aux fraises,croquembouche and compote de pruneaux.

All washed down with Calvados,Rhum fine,Medoc, Saint-Emilion, Blaye,Chablis,Chateau Neuf du Pape,Champagnes,cafe and liquers.

So it got me thinking...............If you were to host a dinner party for any six people who would you like to have knocking on your door for that special evening?

My choice?  Well.........perhaps Stephen Fry, Jim Carey, Dawn French, Marie Antoinette, Johnny Depp and Miranda Hart would make for an entertaining evening!

A la prochaine mes belles!

Marsh fever...............

I am not saying that the current gale lashing the chateau is bad - but Mary Poppins has just sailed past my window out of control with her umbrella and carpet bag flapping in the wind!!

We are without a telephone landline for the second day and the poor swans floating on the marsh waters at the bottom of the garden have tucked their heads under their wings for protection.

George, our dragon weathervane girouette on the roof, is creaking and groaning, but as he has already survived 170 years atop the roof so far then this gale shouldn`t bother him at all!

The only good thing about such a gale is the wonderful draw we get from the vast stone chimney and Hercule blasts away like a furnace. As the day goes on and it gets warmer and warmer more and more clothing is discarded so, by the early evening, we could well end up  naked and the Baron and Diggers will be unzipping their fur!

I must admit I always thought that that would be a wonderful bonus for cats and dogs to have a zip that runs along their stomachs which they could change for a different coats - kind of a one to wash one to wear thing! Smaller animals would of course have to have velcro; and I suppose and snakes and worms would have to wear patterned stockings.

Another thing I've thought about;  does the male turtle get out of his shell and squeeze in with the female to mate? If that is the case he would have to be very careful where he parked his shell and what would he do if he came back and it was gone?

And...........if more than one mouse is "mice" why isn`t more than one house "hice"?

Lots of things to think about.


I have also been thinking about Di who writes that wonderful blog under YONKS. http://yonksnews.blogspot.com/ She lives on a boat - but what if she has been washed out to sea and is now clinging to a boy ( No...I haven`t mis-spelt that one!!)

I think I must be suffering from marsh fever...............the isolation......the howling gale...........the lack of chocolat ( it has all been eaten over Christmas)....the lack of brocantes in the Winter ( now we're getting nearer to the truth!)

I think my brocantitis is breaking out again and there is no cure until the Spring village vide greniers, flea markets and brocantes which start again in April.

Perhaps it would be safer if I didn`t think at all!!!

A demain mes belles!!!

The return of the Baron - and the edible shoes!!

When I came down to the cuisine this morning Charles had already gone out  through the cat flap so I somehow knew that he must be feeling better. He has been nipping in and out ever since so I know that he is was back to his old self - and I am delighted! He has just brought me a gift of a mouse so all is definitely okay! I did  despatch the mouse quite sharpish so he couldn`t eat it!! Panic over mes belles!! So..........back to 'normal' life at the 'chateau'.

Just before Christmas a young man knocked the door at the chateau. He told me that he had been told by someone in the village that I bought old textiles and he had some things I might like to buy. I invited him in but had a feeling of despair that he would unpack some rustic old farm trousers and a pair of wooden clogs as is the fashion here! Then I would have to decline his offer and then feel guilty as he had made the journey here.

He pulled out some old parcels wrapped in brown tissue paper and began to unwrap them.  When I saw the rolls of old ribbons inside I had to stop myself from smiling and shouting! ( Just as they do in an over the top romance story with those ridiculous sayings...."my eyes darted across the room and my breath came in short pants"!!).

He had come bearing the most wonderful old costume , ribbons and trims.  I could have hugged him - except that it would have been totally bizarre and rumour would spread around the village that the English woman at the chateau is rampantly affectionate and tries to pay "in kind"!!

One of the treasures he brought was this pair of amazing shoes......

Rich regal deep purple felt embellished with fabulous gold wirework embroidery...............

leather soles with impressed dots and patterns............

Silk ribbon ruffles...................

I have no idea of their date;  I just know that they are so gorgeous I could eat them!!

So.................how are you at dating period shoes? Any suggestions appeciated mes belles.

Le Baron du Breuil update...............

I woke up at 4am again so went to on check Charles. I found him still curled up on the sofa; he hadn`t moved at all from the evening before so I gave him a syringe of glucose water and left him curled up on a quilt. It was blowing a huge gale outside so I was rather glad he was safely indoors.

At 7am I came back downstairs again and he followed me into the cuisine and sat by the cat flap a while before going out into the lashing wind and rain. I waited for him to come straight back in but he did not appear. So, for the next 10 minutes you would have found me in my coat getting soaked in the garden with a torch trying to find where he was hiding! He eventually appeared from the cellar under the house and I carried him back inside, got him settled and put the kettle on whilst I went to dry off! Charles went to sleep on his quilt again.

He didn`t move all morning but I was delighted when, after lunch, I managed to get him to eat a very tiny amount of tuna.

Since then he has nipped outside once more but he is still not himself. I took the advice from Nicole who advised a strong smelling fish, found some prawns in the freezer and defrosted a couple. He ate them with relish and went back to sleep. He has had a couple more prawns but is still on the sofa cuddled up.

So, it looks as if things are slowly getting better as he has started to eat a little.

I will keep you updated and thank you all for your comments and support.

Merci mes belles.........

Poor Charles le Baron.........

Charles le Baron du Breuil is not well. This is the cat who is as strong as a lion and has never been ill before so you will understand my concern. Even when he was tiny and lost his paw he seemed to sail through the operations.

Yesterday morning he went out as normal through the cat flap. We went off to a New Years Day breakfast party and returned home in the early afternoon to find him curled up asleep on our bed. When he hadn`t moved by the early evening I went up to look at him and realised all was not well. He was lethargic and his face just didn`t look right and his eyes seemed a little dull.

Everyone knows that the only place the Baron will allow you to touch is his head and neck before he starts the growling and scratching, but he simply lay there and allowed me to check all over his body for injuries which confirmed to me that all was not good.

I could find no injuries at all and brought him down to the sofa so we could watch him and he stayed there all night. He turned down food and drink and hardly moved. Just before midnight he rose slowly and made his way to the cat flap, spent a minute in the garden then slowly came back and resumed his position on the sofa.

Just before we went to bed I tried to get him to take a drink of water from a spoon held to his lips as I know that dehydration would be serious but he refused and I managed to dab a little water on his lips which he did eventually lick off .

I came down at 4.30 to check him and he was in the same postition and refused a drink again and when we came back down at 7.30 this morning he was in the same spot.

So, we have just returned from the vets and his temperature is normal, his lungs and heart sound fine but he groaned when the vet squeezed his stomach gently.

The veterinaire seems to think he may have eaten a whole rabbit again or something that has upset his stomach. The fact she was able to examine him at all shows he is not himself as it was this poor vet that he lacerated when she removed the stitches from his leg when he was just 12 weeks old and already as fiery as a firecracker! Typical redhead behaviour!!

Now we have some stomach medicine and rehydrating liquids that we will feed him with a syringe and if he is not eating and drinking by Wednesday he has to go back so that he can have an x-ray to see if he has a rabbit bone lodged in his stomach.

As we speak he is refusing to leave the cat basket and is sulking big time!

A demain mes belles

We danced the night away....................

If you press on the link below you will see how we danced the night away!!

http://retrait1.cybercartes.com/retrait/725cdf110dde7416bd90/1/203

What a pair of movers!!

A demain mes belles!
xxxx

Bonne Annee.................

Wishing that ...........

in 2012

all

your hopes

and dreams

come true!

Happy New Year from all at the chateau!

A la prochaine mes belles!