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Le 14 juillet
Bonjour to you all from a very sunny and hot South West of France. Today is a French national holiday, known in France as la Fête nationale or le 14 juillet. It is often referred to as Bastille Day by English speaking countries but not really here in France. What does this mean? I am sure you all know but in brief, it commemorates the storming of the Bastille in Paris on July 14th 1789, which preceded the French Revolution. Many events led to this uprising, including food shortages and raised taxes following wars, all while watching King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette continue their extravagant lifestyles. The Bastille…
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Owls and Outings
Bonjour everyone I hope you have had a good week or rather fortnight as I missed posting last week? We have had the usual array of the unexpected, some good, some not so good. We have also had a houseful of family staying which has been lovely, and also the reason for the lack of post. I hope you enjoyed the renovation update though? There is much more to come in that area very soon. In the last update, I mentioned that the plumber was coming to connect our gas supply to the cooker. Well he came, it is done and we are legal now! It is wonderful having the…
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Renovating Returns
Hello I have long promised an update on some of the many projects we have lined up. Each room is, of course, a project on its own but over the time we have been here, and even before, we have acquired numerous articles to renovate, update, upcycle or repair. There are chairs, tables, an old French sofa found in a barn, lamps, mirrors and even a baguette box! These things, one person’s rubbish, another’s treasure, have been bought at brocantes, found at vide-greniers (the French equivalent of a car boot or yard sale) or given to us. Some items were found here in the attics or came with the house.…
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Sunshine and storms
Hello again I hope you are enjoying the blog? It is great to be writing it a little more regularly again. I would love to hear your views and find out what you would like to hear more about. Our week has been filled with thunderstorms, sunshine, renovation work (more on that shortly) and of course regular work. We have to pay the bills after all! There are times when I would love to stop work for a while and focus on making better progress with the house, write more for the blog and get on with my upholstery course (there are a lot of upholstery projects dotted around the…
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Rhubarb and Roses
Bonjour to you all I hope you have had a good week. A brief update on daily life today as there are 2 posts this weekend. Please have a look at The Shutter post, part of the new All Things French section. But before I continue, firstly please excuse the Coffee and Chocolatines website for the moment – as they say in retail: ‘Please pardon our appearance while the windows are being dressed’. I am updating the website, learning all sorts of things as I go along having switched to what I hope will be a cleaner and more appealing style – eventually. At the moment it is a bit…
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The Shutter
For anyone who has visited, travelled around or lived in France (and many other European countries), you will know that most houses have shutters. In France they are called ‘les volets’. For me they are a beautiful addition to any house and come in all shapes and sizes, colours and ages, some wooden, some metal, solid and louvered, some pristine, others weathered with many a tale to tell. You may have passed through towns and villages wondering if anyone lived there, as often, depending on the time of day and the season, houses can be shuttered up completely, with no visible signs of life. In many cases this utterly belies…
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Coffee and Chocolatines is back!
Bonjour/Hello It has been ages; I have missed writing of our tales (or is that sometimes trials?) from the Tarn. So much has happened, perhaps too much, so this blog took a very back seat for a while, as I tried to navigate my way through a mountain of things. As far as the blog is concerned, after months of disarray – perhaps exhaustion really – it is back. There is so much news to share with you all. Bits of renovation have been done, rooms have changed and some of the enormous pile of projects have been attended too. We finally have a new working cooker. We have even…
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A long overdue bonjour from the Tarn
The best laid plans…. I seem to be writing that a lot these days. The last month has seen its fair share of unexpected events and the whole range of weather on offer – near enough. We have had winds, snow, ice, fog, sunshine and finally some rain. Of course when the rain came, it really made its presence felt, so much so that our cellar flooded. As I am sure I have mentioned before, our lovely old petit chateau was built at a time when foundations were not a thing, so we are planted solidly on the earth. When we had the tower roof done and contemplated further guttering,…
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Frosty, foggy February
Bonjour everyone I hope you are all well and enjoying the slightly lighter evenings. I love the fact that we get a little longer before the urge to dash around the house closing all the shutters and settling by the fire. On the subject of shutters, look out around mid-February for a post about the ubiquitous shutter – a feature of many a house in France. We love ours, which is just as well as we have a few – more than 70 – quite a job when we decide to open them all (and then close them). So what have we been up to over the last couple of…
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Citrus days are here again
Citrus days are here again and I have been busy making copious quantities of marmalade. We managed to have sufficient pots of marmalade in 2022 to see us through until January 2023, when we ate the last one – a very nice 8 fruit marmalade. I gave quite a few away and have no idea how many I made, so this year I am counting. It may be terrifying to find out how many jars of marmalade we eat in a year, but at least it is homemade. I find the process of preserve making very therapeutic. If you have never tried it, perhaps think of giving it a go…
