Le Blog de La Caumette

Olives

2006-10-08T18:30:00.000+02:00

Time to harvest our olives, only got the one tree but it has produced well,7 kilos. The olives are washed and soaked in a solution for 3 hours and after that soaked in water for 7 days, changing the water every twelve hours, then they are cooked and bottled. Wish us luck with this one.

Les Vendanges

2006-10-08T18:20:00.000+02:00

We have been helping our good friends and neighbours,Albert, Rosaline and Caroline with just a little of their grape harvest. Only a part of their vineyards are cut by hand - thankfully- it's back breaking! Most of them are harvested by machine. This year the grapes are small and sweet due to the lack of rain but this promises to produce excellent wine for next year.

Petanque Match England V France

2006-09-12T18:26:00.000+02:00

Well, what can we say about our petanque match. It was always going to be a close call. Best of three games. First game was won by our French friends, the second game to us making it one a peice. All down to the third game now. If this would have been a football match then England would have lost on penalties but not us, we held our nerve and 'Lady Luck' was with us giving us a well earned victory. We hope to make this an annual event.

Corrida (Bull fight)

2006-08-23T19:02:00.000+02:00

The Feria came to Beziers last week. Whole town turned out. Street parties for 4 days. We watched the bull fight. Not for the feint hearted! The bull does not stand much chance. The equivalant of a football match would be Chelsea V Accrington Stanley when the game started only after the Stanley lads had run a marathon and had their legs tied together!
I'm sure the bull's had better days!

Game on!

2006-08-15T19:44:00.000+02:00

Went to Bernard's house last night for a soiree which included a pre-meal game of petanque, then a paella which was mega and two nice puds all finished off with cheese he had made himself.

Anyway the upshot of this is that we have arranged for six of our French friends to come to our maison for a soiree when our friends from England are here in the first week of September. This will involve a BBQ and an international petanque match....England V France! In order for an English victory to be acheived all players must go into a strict training regime which includes a diet of just green salads, a morning jog (min. 6k) and NO WINE. I am sure the team will keep to this new life change because....ENGLAND EXPECTS

Negotiations are ongoing with the BBC and SKY for the television rights.

Delicious!

2006-08-13T01:55:00.000+02:00

We went to Gilles and Martine's the other night for a nice Paella. They gave us raw mussels as an appetizer. As you can see, they were delicious!

Holy Cow

2006-08-13T01:38:00.000+02:00

We went to a Village Fete in nearby Magalas with our friends Ed and Jacky and twenty or so others. We ate our fair share of whole roast veal carcase. They started cooking it at six in the morning and we ate it at 9pm- it was mega! It was so big, they had to lift it off the stand with a JCB so they could carve it.

Home cooking

2006-07-11T12:32:00.000+02:00

Went for a meal at our French friends Bernard and Mimi 's house, where we had spit-roasted hare cooked over an open fire. Bernard had shot it 2 weeks previous. He served it with courgettes, tomatoes, aubergines and salad - all grown in his garden. For dessert we had fresh figs and peaches picked from trees in his orchard. Killed it, grew it and cooked it! Who needs Tesco??!!

As good as new?

2006-07-03T02:36:00.000+02:00

What a close call! We had the old crumbling terrace ripped up and a new one put down....all in good time before our first holiday makers arrived.

And then disaster struck! The concrete mix was no good and started crumbling in places, so it was a last minute call to the builders to see what they could do. Good to their word they returned some days later and replaced the worst bits.

With one day to go, the colour they used in the mix is uneven and has dried all blotchy. We now have large blobs of yellow (the colour of a certain person's mustard) and other patches are still bare grey concrete. What a sight. It's awful!

It's now 5pm the day before our guests arrive and we come up with an emergency plan. No time to paint the whole terrace tonight but perhaps we could just make a feature of the blotches! Yes, I know; desperate measures.

We rummage through the 'cave' and find all our old tins of paint and then shoot off to the nearest DIY store for more. It's now 9pm at night and the finished result is quite original, we think. Anyway, we are hot, bothered and tired. It's getting late and the paint needs 24hrs to dry so we call it a day.

Next morning we get up and gingerly open the door and peep out to see what we have created. What do you think?

French Soirée

2006-06-24T16:38:00.000+02:00

Here's a photo from our French soiree last week. We had a great time playing petanque with our French friends then we had a bbq afterwards.

Birdman!

2006-06-21T13:46:00.000+02:00

A tip for anyone thinking of buying a new house: get a bungalow. The DIY is much less dangerous!

Welcome to La Caumette

2006-06-21T13:42:00.000+02:00

Welcome to our blog. We'll be posting messages every now and then to give you an idea of what life is like here in La Caumette. Come back soon!