Another interesting Friday

One of Rob’s colleagues is married and his wife works at the Napoleon and African Museums on the Ile d’Aix. The Ile d’Aix is very small and no cars are allowed, especially in the summer months. The ferry ride is about 20 minutes from the mainland.

Last Friday saw us catching the ferry to pay a visit to our friends. They actually live in the south of Charente Maritime, but while she is working she lodges in a little house behind the African museum. The family passes their time between two homes. The Ile d’Aix is a wonderful island and their other home is in a small town where artists have taken over the old fishing huts and painted them bright colours. What amazing memories their 8 year old son will have when he grows up.

 The little house is situated in a large walled garden, well away from the public eye and I was fascinated to see this dovecote placed over a well in the grounds:

They had other visitors too and we all started off our visit with a walk around the island. It takes a couple of hours and the day was very, very hot. There’s plenty of shade and between the trees you can catch glimpses of little coves and azure blue sea. Out hostess is a good guide and she pointed out places of interest and told us about the island as we went round.

Lunch was eaten under the trees, which was lovely and delicious and I picked up some new cookery ideas.

After lunch we were taken around the Napoleon Museum. Napoleon slept in the house, which is now the museum, for one night on his way to exile. Unfortunately, I was suffering from too much sun so didn’t really appreciate the visit as much as I’d liked to. I had to go back to rest. Strange to say I visited the museum on a very hot day when I was expecting Christian nearly 30 years ago and was unwell. I’ll have to try to visit in winter!

 Rob and his colleague visited the African museum which was actually the one I wanted to visit as it contains the famous dodo that I got involved with on Wikipedia. The talk page has been cleared over the years but here’s the post I wrote on my postcard blog. I now know that the dodo is not a real stuffed dodo.


After a rest and a drink of water I was fine again. The ferry was pretty full on the way back to the mainland. It was a lovely day – but hot!

Nearly a month has gone by…

I’m sorry that there hasn’t been an update for so long. Rob went back to work this morning – 5 weeks after his accident. Our 27th wedding anniversary passed without divorce proceedings due to my driving. It’s not that I drive badly I just don’t drive like him and get nervous when I’m constantly ‘given advice’.

I met up with another blogger for the first time ever in my blogging career. Caroline and her partner were passing through La Rochelle on their way home by car. They usually wave as they fly over, so it was nice to see each other for real. We sat on the port and drank coffee and chatted. I wish I could have stayed longer. Here’s the proof:

 (Weather was a bit windy)

 Dom and J-M came for the weekend as it was Rob’s birthday on Saturday. Dom made one of her wonderful cakes; Chocolate on Chocolate (can’t get more wonderful than that). It’s always good to see them and we all spent Sunday morning browsing around local Brocantes/boot sales/garage sales. I found a lovely leather wallet and the partner to a candle holder we found last year under similar circumstances. Dom’s paper has now been accepted completely for publication. She’s just submitted her second and I think, has started on a third.

That about wraps up the update.

Blast from the past

A very good friend of mine from way (way, way) back is sorting out photographs and she sent me these:

 I was 17 when this was taken

My 18th birthday.  I got drunk on whisky mac.  The next day I had my first hangover.  Oh happy days... I was so thin.

(Thank you Melinda for bringing back some magical memories)

A very good start to the week

This has been a true week of Gifts of Prosperity if ever there was one. In the post on Monday came a nice cheque refunding me for over-payments to the social security last year. Next came a knock at the door. I’ve recently translated a CV and letter for a neighbour applying for a job with a foreign company. My neighbour presented me with a very posh platter of expensive sweets/candies; marzipan fruits, stuffed dates jellies...

I’ve written recently about buying some albums of postcards back in September, they came from a château. Yesterday the present owner of the Grandmother’s château contacted us. He’s very kindly sent me some of the history of the family from before our postcards were sent. Our postcards have brought to light a daughter he didn’t know about. I’ll try to compile as much as I know so far to help him , unfortunatel, I'm going to have to try to write in french:( . This is exactly the kind of thing I love about my postcards, real live history. For example; in the summer I gave Dom a catalogue from one of the auctions we went to because it contained a quote from a letter George Sand sent to a friend. Only the people who have seen the catalogue would have seen that quote. Our expert is a mine of little details, we learn a lot from him.

I’m looking forward to seeing what happens next!

The main news of the week is, of course, that Debbie has now had her surgery and is doing well.

Sad news and good news

I’m sad to say I’ve removed two blogs from my blogroll this afternoon. the first is Patchwork Progression; Patch hasn’t posted for a long time and I see that his domain name is up for sale. I’m hoping that this means that Patch is living a happy, busy and fulfilling life somewhere out there. I’ll miss his posts, he helped me to understand Christian’s problems.

Isaac Stolzfut was another exceptional person. He was well into his eighties, a very busy man and interested in everything. In August last year he went out for a walk (we think) and never came back again. His Grandson Adam hasn’t posted for a few months so I don’t know if Isaac was ever found.

Now for the good news. Spooky is back. I had an email today telling me of the happy event so if you like grey men with yellow eyes Spondoolies for you.

Someone who I’ve been meaning to add for ages is Breezy Break Blog. The adventures of another Brit who has moved to France.

Every blogroll tells a story

I was going to write this post a few days ago, before the latest round of bad news. My blogroll is squashed down at the bottom now, but everyone is still there. Most of you are well and carrying on as normal, there have been some changes.

In August around the 2nd or 3rd Isaac Stolzfut disappeared. He could have gone for a walk, every thing was left as it he’d just popped out. His grandson Adam has been keeping us up to date, but Isaac hasn’t been seen since.

Patch seems to have disappeared too, though I suspect he’s getting on with the rest of his life like he should. I did try writing an email too him a while back but his email box was full.

Zoe is dealing with being a famous writer and celebrity and now the parents of up and coming bloggers will be using her as an example of what you can achieve if you post regularly to your blog.

Leslie needs all the encouragement she can get for the next chapter of her life

Best wishes

Mary Lou is in hospital as she’s been rather tired lately and now they are sorting her out. I think that getting her revenge on Phyllis for the photo will spur her on to a quick recovery. Please pop by and say ‘Hello’.

Camping, cooks and postcards

Don’t ask me where the past week went. I can’t say that I’ve got much to show for it. We went to see how Dominique and Monique were getting along at their campsite (they are in the window at the top); they were pleased to announce that they got married in September! Olivier’s friend has started work as an apprentice chef. Now I feel old. I can remember them sitting together on the front doorstep when they were 5 years old.

I’ve been busy sorting out postcards. They are all in alphabetical order. Now all I have to do is sort out the Paris, Lourdes, abroad and miscellaneous sections. Paris and Lourdes are so common that they aren’t really worth selling and some of the Lourdes ones give me the creeps.

The weather is more like March, or is it October?