Monday 18th August to Sunday 24th August
Author: Jack
With visitors here Monday morning has to be the mandatory visit to Duras market. In the summer there are many more stalls, many of them selling tourist type goods, but nevertheless, it is still fun even though it isn’t what you would call a traditional French market. Mind you it’s more fun than the off-season market, which seems to be neither one thing nor the other as a result of the vacant pitches randomly spread throughout the market. Anyway we spend the morning idly wandering around, buying bits and pieces we don’t really need, and sitting in one of the local cafes watching the world go by.
After lunch Chris decides to try a new job. Having tried head gardener he now tries his hand at head pool cleaner! As far as I am concerned he has got the job, but sadly he says that he can only stay the week!
I have arranged to go and visit another vineyard, the owner of which is American. Chris and I go together leaving Kuldip with the happy task of entertaining three children. Bob owns a 24-hectare vineyard in Monestier, ten minutes from us, in the Bergerac appellation. This is just his second year. I am hoping that he can inspire me into believing that with no knowledge of how to make wine we can succeed. He had no experience of winemaking before his first harvest, although he does have a chemistry background, which must help. Chris and I spend two hours discussing various aspects of viticulture and winemaking. Bob seems pretty confident about his vineyard and certainly seems to be making a real go of it. He gives us a sample of each of his wines to try. So far I have tried the white and the rose; I would be ecstatic if I had made either.
Tuesday for me is really boring – I am attacking the ironing mountain – whilst the rest enjoy some holiday fun and relaxation! I spend all morning working my way through the heap and eventually give up! After lunch we decide to go and visit a vineyard (again you say!) but more as tourists than would be viticulteurs. Petit Malrome, an AOC Cote de Duras, is a vineyard of similar size to ours, who harvest by hand and who are organic. We are treated to the full tour, including a slide show, which demonstrates all the various jobs on the vineyard. I had not intended not to divulge the fact that I owned a vineyard, I mean, what exactly was I going to say, but eventually the lady owner became suspicious of the type of questions I was asking and asked if I thinking going to buy a vineyard. At which point I had to own up and say I had one and that I was a near neighbour. At which she blushed! And accused me, in a very light hearted way, of being a spy! After that I stopped asking questions!
Wednesday morning I finally managed to finish all the ironing. While I was doing that Chris decided to do some strimming, after repairing the strimmer, which hadn’t worked since the first time I used it. To celebrate the end of the ironing we all went off to St Emilion for the rest of the day. I never tire of St Emilion. It is just so unbelievably charming. We had a ride on the ‘train touristique’, the only naff thing about the place. However it does take you out of the town and alongside and through about twenty different vineyards. For me it was fantastic to see how some of the best chateaux have managed their vineyards. Chris and Kuldip were equally interested. The children just sat back and enjoyed the ride, although I noticed that even Rebecca was making comments about the vineyards from time to time; more interested than she would care to admit? We then had a wander round the town, including a lovely walk round the outskirts of the town, which ended up outside the vineyard of Chateau Ausone, one of the most expensive St Emilion Chateau, where I spent some time inspecting their vineyard for a few tips! Chris and Kuldip treated us to a lovely meal. St Emilion has over fifty wine shops and probably as many restaurants. We chose one at the top of the town near the square, which proved to be excellent. We didn’t get home until about 10.30.
Chris and Kuldip left Thursday after lunch. They were off to somewhere near La Rochelle until Sunday as they had been invited to a friend’s wedding. The house seemed suddenly empty without them. But we had jobs to do, launderette, cleaning and ironing (again!).
Iain arrived Friday for a four-day weekend, as Monday is Bank Holiday Monday in the UK. We stopped en route back from the airport to stock up on supplies at Leclerc in Langon arriving home just in time for a quick lunch before the man from Agrifoy arrived. An auspicious day for us as we signed the contract with Agrifoy to supply us with all the material for the chai. All we need to do now is build the chai! AND sell our house!! This is proving to be extremely difficult, not to mention frustrating and depressing. Business over it was time for swimming and some more lessons from our resident diving instructor (Iain), followed by supper, relaxing on the patio with some lovely chilled white wine and then falling asleep whilst watching a DVD! Can’t be bad.
On Saturday I managed to get Iain to put on his DIY hat and tackle some jobs around the house. After lunch we went down to Marmande to finally order the quad bike. I chose a red one, colour being a girl’s thing whilst Iain went for the higher spec 400cc model. When we got home we had a lovely walk around the vineyard inspecting the grapes and generally surveying our territory! Not bad.
Our friends from Ryarsh, Caroline and Cathal and their three children
Eliza, Orla and Jack, arrived after lunch on Sunday. These are Rebecca’s
best friends from school in Ryarsh. She has been so excited about them
coming. Once they had settled in it was time for the pool, and yes,
more diving lessons. This included diving lessons for Cathal, a near
non-swimmer, and despite his reluctance he overcame his fear and eventually
took the plunge. Another success for the family instructor. I had arranged
for Nelly’s daughter, Camille, to come over and look after the
children, so that for once the adults could have a night out. We spent
a lovely evening out at our favourite restaurant, the Hostellerie des
Duc in Duras. Having all drunk too much, apart from Cathal who being
practically teetotal was our chauffeur, it didn’t take much to
persuade us all to take a midnight swim!
