Monday 21st April to Sunday 27th April
Monday 21st April
Author: Iain
Another market today, Duras. Buoyed by progress in the garden we need more flowers. We return with more geraniums, petunias and marigolds than we can carry back to the car in one trip. Jack immediately leaps into action to get them planted before the soil sets hard again.
Long list of things to do today. None of them in the vineyard. The first one was to repair Beck’s bike tyre – it somehow gained a puncture when she followed Jack and I around the vineyard on Friday. No bicycle pump. So Beck and I trolled off to La Vitaille to collect one, along with plant pots and dishwasher tablets (it really is an exciting life out here).
With the bicycle tyre sorted out, Beck and I decided we should take the cover off the swimming pool. We expected green gunge but actually it wasn’t too bad, lots of leaves, couple of dead frogs and a lizard or two but the water was reasonably clear. The cover is huge and in need of a clean, so we drag it onto the grass for future attention.
Jack takes Beck to see her friend Fleur for the afternoon and we take advantage of the Rebecca-less situation to sort out some jobs. Jack cracks on with the gardening and I plumb in a dishwasher that Anthony and Jane have lent us and fix a curtain pole in Becks’ bedroom. After fixing down some of the wooden decking (very ground-force) around the pool I try to fit the pool pump that had been removed for winter, I am eventually successful at this but the various combinations of valves and priming mechanisms leave me somewhat more than perplexed. Jack knows better than to talk to me for a while and disappears to collect Rebecca.
By the time they return I manage to get some kind of circulation going in the pool. We calculate the pool to be 150m3 and add an appropriate amount of algaecide to sort out the slight green tinge. There are more chemicals left over by Joel and Nelly but, even after a search of the Internet, we’re unsure what to do with them so (fortunately as it happens) we don’t do anything else.
Jack decides the pool cover needs to be mopped down with disinfectant and gamely takes off her shoes and socks so that the plastic isn’t damaged. Hot work and after about half an hour with the heat getting to her, off come the trousers. I immediately spring into action and take a couple of photos (these pictures are available for a fee for anyone with deep pockets and a strong stomach). Notwithstanding mopping in her knickers, the pool cover is pristine within the hour.
In the midst of preparing the evening’s barbecue Jack, by this time back fully clothed, hears a loud roaring noise. We run past the hangar to check it out and see a hot air balloon about to land on our vines. It’s huge (we take more pictures, which are also available, no fee this time). I stand, hands on hips so the balloonists are fully aware of how unhappy I am, and watch the spectacle wondering how on earth we would phrase the insurance claim. After about 10 minutes the thing lands just after our boundary. Close call.
So in the space of a couple of days we’ve escaped the twin threats of bedside cabinets and hot air balloons. You don’t see that in the textbooks on viticulture.
The barbecue is useless. It looks very nice (in-built thing with its own chimney) but it just doesn’t get very hot. Fortunately I’d cooked most of the food early but I kept my piece of steak to cook last. It took ages and I got more and more fed up. For the second time today Jack felt that the best approach was to say nothing. Eventually I gave up and took it off the grill in a thoroughly bad mood, looking for any excuse to throw it away. It was fantastic, even lukewarm it was the best steak I’ve had in years (it came from a cow called ‘blonde aquitaine’ apparently) Beck also loved it and helped me finish it off (as long as I scraped off the bits of black pepper).
Took Becks to bed, late again. We discuss the barbecue and, particularly, the steak. “Daddy” she said. “Is Mummy a virgin?”. Well, obviously I could hardly hold back a snort but how should I answer this without getting myself into trouble. While I’m vainly searching for a response she makes me even more worried with “she doesn’t eat meat”. Oh my god. “oh, I mean a ‘vegan’, don’t I?”. Whew.
Tuesday 22nd April
Author: Jack
Beck back at school today after the Easter holidays. Had to drop her off early at the garderie as we have an appointment with the man from Agrifoy is St Foy (he’s helping us with equipment and the design of our cuverie). On the way Iain scans the fields regarding blonde aquitaine cows with a newly found respect. The man from Agrifoy has a morning of trips to vineyards planned for us so that we can inspect their cuverie installations.
We visit three different vineyards. The first, Chateau Thenac, a Bergerac AOC. Well this is more than enough to humble us. A fantastic Chateau, which is being restored, an army of workmen on site, the garden being landscaped with fully-grown trees (there’s money here to be sure). And then we see the cuverie. Fully equipped with all the latest gizmos and pristine. A cuverie to die for (yes I know I am becoming a bit sad). But it was lovely. Anyway probably more than we can afford! An American who married a Ukrainian and who now works in Russia in the oil business owns it, apparently. Apparently money is no problem and the man from Agrifoy was not actually that pleased that he had designed his cuverie slightly against his recommendations! Still no doubt if the owner has made mistakes he can afford to rectify them. Anyway, having seen what money can buy we move on to what might be possible on a more modest budget!
Our next visit is to Chateau Picon, which is miles away from the previous one. This is AOC Bordeaux and produces huge quantities of wine for a mass market. The cuverie is nowhere near as impressive, looks a bit old. But still they obviously produce wine that can sell for a reasonable price. An interesting though.
Then on to the third vineyard. We are both quite tired by now and since neither of us had any breakfast are both getting a little grumpy as well. Can’t quite recall where the third vineyard was but probably not an issue and don’t know what it was called either. Arrive to find a cuverie and not much else apart from some debris around the place and a quad bike, which is obviously used for vineyard work. Cuverie seems very basic and is filled with the white fermentation tanks that the man from Agrifoy is trying to sell us. Have to say, although they sound very good, they don’t look as good as the stainless steel variety, which were in both of the other cuveries. Iain is clearly unimpressed and by this stage we have run out of questions and are both desperate for food, drink and the loo!!!!
So we make a fairly swift departure, declining the suggestion of lunch with the man from Agrifoy and decide that, although we had planned to go straight to Leclerc to shop once again, we should really go via home for some refreshments and the euphemistic comfort break!
Suitably refreshed it’s off to Leclerc on the hunt for, amongst other things, chemicals for the swimming pool. The world of pool maintenance is not as simple as it may seem. Iain has already spent a considerable amount of time messing about with the pool, trying to figure out how it works. We spend sometime trying to work out what all the various boxes of pool chemicals are for, decide that Leclerc doesn’t have all we need, nothing that matches the stuff that Joel left anyway, and when we have finished shopping in Leclerc head for Mr Bricolage. Bound to have what we need there – well they don’t! Fortunately we know of a swimming pool shop just up the road so off we go. Not so easy here. We find an assistant, tell her we know nothing about pools and ask if she can help. She immediately bombards us with questions about our pool set-up! Didn’t we tell her we knew nothing? Fed up with these silly English people she disappears to find someone else who can speak English. In discussion with him we discover that we have over estimated the cubic metres of the pool! It seems we added enough algaecide to kill all the algae in another pool as well as ours. Well that should sort it out then. After some debate about our requirements we leave with a 5kg tub of chlorine tablets and 80€ less in our pockets. Cost enough so must work!!!
Back home we discover that the water level in the pool has dropped in our absence! What? Iain disappears and fiddles with the numerous valves and eventually finds the ‘fill up the pool’ valve. Very slowly the level starts to rise. We read the instructions on the tub of chlorine tablets and armed with the correct cubic capacity of the pool, determine that we need three of the tablets. Other that algaecide it seems that all pool chemicals are put into the skimmer baskets. So we take off the skimmer covers so that we can pop the tablets in – - but – discover that the skimmer baskets are home to an assortment of wildlife, mostly flies, spiders, beetles etc, but also the odd dead frog. So something else to look forward to on a daily basis – the contents of skimmer baskets.
Wednesday 23rd April
Author : Jack
We are eager to check the pool and try and clean it out. The haul from the skimmer baskets today is 3 dead, very white, frogs. The chlorine has been very effective on them but not sure about the pool. We need to try and get the pool Hoover working but seems that no matter what we do we just can’t get it to suck any of the debris up. Give up and decide to do a few jobs in the vineyard.
Unfortunately Rebecca is none too impressed with this idea but eventually we leave her indoors and head off to repair a broken and wire and do a bit of tidying up. We spend a couple hours out there and manage to get a few rows done. I had started to tidy up he vineyard earlier in the month and this still needs to be finished as the vines have begun to grow more vigorously we now also need to remove all the shoots growing on the trunk of the vine (épamparge). This is a job that is normally done using a special attachment on a tractor. However it can also be done manually. It’s not as simple as it sounds but we do manage to complete a few rows before time gets the better of us and we have to go back for lunch and then off to the airport for Iain’s flight home.
Our journey to the airport is pretty sombre in comparison to previous few days. The constant fact of having to say goodbye is very hard to take, in fact it’s almost surreal.
Whilst in Bordeaux Beck and I decide to go to Ikea again. I have a few things in mind that we need but find myself quite uninspired once there. For once our purchases are minimal and happily we leave without the prospect of another Ikea’s ‘build it yourself’ IQ test to look forward to.
Thursday 24th April
Author : Jack
We don’t seem to have had many, if any, days that could be called normal, but today is probably how ‘normal’ would be for us here. Up at 6.45 to get Beck off for the school bus at 8.30. Back and out in the vineyard all day. Spend the day removing the water shoots from the vine trunks. This is a totally manual and exhausting task. Whilst shopping the other day Iain decided that a wire brush might help make the job easier. So I created a very Heath Robinson tool by attaching the wire brush to a bamboo cane using elephant tape (all high tech stuff here!). The theory is that I can then walk along the rows and literally brush off the shoots. Don’t think this tool would make it on Tomorrow’s World. Using my hands to rub off the unwanted growth is much more effective – except that it involves crouching or bending down resulting in increasing back pain and aching leg muscles. Mind you on the positive side by the time I have finished all 35,000 vines I should be very fit for the job (or maybe just unable to move at all). But the new heath Robinson Vine-Water- Shoot-Removal-Thingy does have its uses. Whilst it may be quicker by hand it’s much less painful with the Thingy and so from time to time I use that to give my back a rest.
I spend all day doing this so by the end of the day I am completely exhausted. Collapse in a heap.
Friday 25th April
Author : Jack
Despite my exhaustion of the previous day I am still keen to get on. However this morning I have to attend to the wealth of forms that arrived recently from the DDAF (Agricultural and Forestry Commission) and which have to be returned by the end of April. Fortunately my guardian angel, Nelly, has offered to help me complete it. She arrives at nine and we sit outside on the terrace, the only place where there is a table (thank goodness it’s not raining!). She has prepared all the necessary information and she takes me through the various forms showing me what I need to complete. This will be an annual task so I ensure that I have a copy of everything for next year. Actually despite the number of forms to be completed it isn’t that complicated. Once we have finished we sit and chat about this and that, in French! I am beginning to feel a bit more confident about conversing in French and am finding it easier to understand what is being said. However as a result I realise even more frequently how poor my French is. Nevertheless we manage to spend an hour or so in conversation. I mention the problems we have been having with the pool and she says that Joel will come and help us when he can.
Joel is in fact working here today cutting the grass between the rows. Nelly disappears off to see and him I wander in doors wondering which of the many jobs I should do next as it is nearly midday. I have lost half a day in the vineyard and as Joel is cutting the grass am not sure if I can work outside in the afternoon.
I had asked Nelly if she knew anything about the pool set up as we were having a few problems getting it going. My problem regarding which job to do next was soon solved by the arrival of Joel who instantly leapt into action. He showed me how to sweep out the pool, doing about half of it for me and then set about sorting out which pipes should be open and explaining what I should be doing. However all did not seem that clear and he and Nelly seemed quite confused themselves about what should be working. Eventually they seemed to have arrived at the right set up. He was none too impressed with the chlorine tablets we had put in a few days earlier, removed one of them and then and gave me a list of items, which I needed to buy immediately from –yes you’ve guessed it – Terre du Sud! They told me not to touch anything, to finish sweeping out the pool and Joel said he would be back later to check I was OK. I continued to sweep out the pool, which by now looked more like a very murky pond. As soon as Terre du Sud was open I was off and left with four different tubs of chemicals and even less money in my purse! Joel returned later to check everything was OK and apparently I was meant to turn one of the pipes off, which I hadn’t and water was overflowing from the pool and disappearing into the ditch out in the road! So he turned the pipes again told me not to touch anything again and said that I would be able to Hoover the pool out in the morning when all the dirt that I had stirred up had settled to the bottom! Seemed simple I thought – silly me!
Saturday April 26th
Author : Jack
Had planned to work in the vineyard this morning but as it was raining I thought better of it. So instead I opted for a bit if DIY and spent the next four hours putting up two curtain rails and four shelves in the utility room. This sort of DIY is definitely not one of my strengths and I think Rebecca would prefer in future that I avoid doing any. However my efforts eventually paid off and I was finally able to hang up the pair of curtains I had bought from IKEA to cover up the two huge built in cupboards.
I planned a slightly more relaxing afternoon for the two of us but before we headed off to Marmande I decided it was really time I took all our rubbish to the local décheterie (tip). We filled the car up completely with the rubbish we had accumulated recently, including mountains of cardboard packaging from our various recent purchases. The man at the décheterie was very interested in the contents of our car, and whilst he seemed a little unwilling to help us unload it, was very eager to rifle through our rubbish, select and put aside few of our finer items of rubbish, presumably for his own personal use!
We stopped off at a couple of shops in Marmande looking for a patio table and ended up with a collection of plants for the garden, including a Bougainvillea, a plant I have always wanted and may now finally be able to grow and enjoy. Then in to the town centre for a refreshment stop at the café. We sit there watching the world go by. Something that is becoming apparent to us is the difficulty of finding the right size clothes. It seems that as a race the French are actually of a smaller build than we Brits. As a result clothes marked for say Age 10 would actually fit and English child ages six or seven. Not only are they generally slighter in build they are also shorter. So clothes are always too short and too tight! Iain, who by English clothing sizes is definitely a small, had to take back a pair of medium size shorts and swap them for large! Jane, who is an English size 10 says that she has to buy size 16 here! And Rebecca, who is probably now and English age 9 or maybe 10, is on to Age 12 and 14 here! I have decided to avoid the embarrassment of looking for clothes here and have phoned my sister to ask her to find me some. If Iain has to buy a large size then I very much doubt if there are any clothes here that would fit me! What Rebecca and I did notice was that almost all the young people were extremely thin, but once middle age sets waistlines broaden significantly. It is at that age that people start to wear what is the more typical kind of French outfit, as worn in England about forty years ago! What am I going to do?
Sunday April 27th
Author: Jack
Back to sunshine today after a wet day yesterday. Plant out the new purchases first thing, planting being made easier by the rain of yesterday, which has softened the ground. Without rain the ground here is rock hard and it is almost impossible to dig. And then on to pool hoovering once I had removed today’s collection of dead animals; 2 mice, 1 frog, 2 lizards and two snails! I was quite looking forward to seeing the pool cleaned up but once again my optimism was nothing short of foolish. I thought I knew what to do but try as I may I could not get the pool Hoover to suck anything up. I thought I had understood what to do but clearly something was wrong. Frustrated I rang Iain to se if he had any ideas but he was less than sympathetic to my problem, having himself spent several hours getting nowhere. Eventually I had to give in and admit defeat.
Beck realised that as a result I was not in a very good mood and made herself useful by emptying the dishwasher, preparing and clearing up lunch. Beck and I then spent the afternoon flitting between playing games, her homework and gardening. Foolishly at one point I decided I ought to try and getting the latest industrial strength piece of equipment that we have bought up and running, this being a handy sixteen litre knapsack sprayer! However after about half an hour I gave up on that too. The drawings of how to put it all together bore no resemblance whatsoever to the bits I found in the box and I couldn’t find all the bits anyway! Not my day! Gave up completely and went to bed early!!!
