An American in Sologne

Let it rain

"For after all, the best thing one can do

When it is raining, is to let it rain."

   

Longfellow: Tales of a Wayside Inn

 

then the sun came

Along with the rain and sun.... came the mushrooms!

 

 

Just Four White Chicks Sitting Around...

Yes, yes, yes I see, there are just three (if you want to see me please go to Dedeene’s blog  

www.soyezlabienvenuechezmoi.blogspot.com) and they are standing, but for the rest of this four hour lunch we sat around,

And talked, and chattered, and yelped

 (at least Pasha did when she wasn’t

napping with her friend).

 

And ate a fabulous lunch! Here we are feeding our faces. Well, three of us feeding our faces, I was, of course, taking the photo, non? Sorry, I was way too occupied eating it and didn’t give my camera even a first thought.

 

We talked!!!!! About EVERYTHING! And yes, lambasted the French, but with lots of love…..  
    And, of course we talked about Sex, Drugs, and Rock & Roll but also everything under the sun.

 

And this was not a four hour liquid lunch In which I was known to participate in from time to time while living in Manhattan.

 

But I’m not finished…almost. 

 Leaving Rosie’s house to return,

guess what I finally found?   Mushrooms!

Lovely cêpes (ceps or porcini), pieds du mouton (hedgehog fungus),

 And coprin (shaggy ink caps),

So I put them in a sautèuse (frying pan)…….

I grill them until they lose their water then I add a bit of butter, and lots of parsley (garlic…it depends on my mood)

 

This time I served them on top of a twice-baked potatoes.  Yummmmmmmms!  You can also add the cooked mushrooms to a cheese fondue.

In anything, on anything they are great!

Oh, just one last thing I found on the way home.

Thank you lovely ladies for a lovely day.

 

Kristi anderson

Chambre d’hôtes

Saint jacques le coin perdu

15 place de l’église

45240 ligny le ribault

06.83.18.42.31

www.TheAmericanFrog.com

French Blog :  http://TheAmericanFrog.typepad.fr/lecoinperdu

The French oooooooooooo la la

My mouth puckers up into a tiny “oo”  thrusting out my lips I blow sloftly “ooooo” say then he says,  “now, errrrh a little like a young lion cub roaring.”  I thrust back my tongue to the bottom of my mouth,  “errr” I growl.  Thrusting out my lips and thrusting down my tongue,  “oooooooooooerrrrrrrrrr”. “ Non, Non, pas comme ça” (not like that)  I continue to try until my lips have gone numb and my tongue hangs limp.

 

This is the French our sound which is in, cour, tour, Louraine, courir, among thousand other French words.

 

After 10 years in France I finally can correctly pronounce “feuille”.  At this rate who knows what my correctly pronounced last words will be.

 

 

I can pronounce “les gros mots” (swear words) very well.  The French usually find it funny with my tiny little accent “à couper à couteau” (cut with a knife).  However… at a cocktail it would not be considered very elegant to espouse on the vitures of your neighbor’s mother.

 

Rosy, the other American in the “coin perdu” was a French teacher.  She thinks I will succeed with my “oooooerrrr”.  We will see.

 

 

Kristi anderson

Chambre d’hôtes

Saint jacques le coin perdu

15 place de l’église

45240 ligny le ribault

06.83.18.42.31

www.TheAmericanFrog.com

French Blog :  http://TheAmericanFrog.typepad.fr/lecoinperdu

 

 

computers...again

Some days it isn’t even worth turning on my computer!  It is a HP only three years old so I don’t think it is that.  I have Ccleaner which I use faithfully each Monday, so I don’t think it is that.  Now, one of my clients after using my Internet says I have the lowest high speed DSL, WHATEVER THAT MEANS…

 

This high tech stuff is driving me nuts.
 I have to admit I am not gifted for it nor, unfortunately, for the French language. « C’est le fléau de mon existence »  (It is the bane of my existence.) that the two things that I desire most seem out of my reach.

 

I adore writing my blog, finding subjects to talk about, taking pictures, selecting amusing clip art images and putting them together into something
coherent and interesting.

 

 Why can’t it be easier? I seem to struggle with everything and I don’t now if it is me or the computer or the lowest high DSL that I have. For example, why does the quotation key makes quotation marks at the beginning of the quote and those French “entre parenthesis” at the end? But this happens only sporadically.

 

Or the fact that today all my images have a black background. No idea why. They white backgrounds when I chose them…. So I will spend a few hours pushing butttons, trying this and that and I will probably figure out a why.  But I will publish this first.

 

So bear with me, I promise my writing will get better as well my computing. At least I will “caresse l’éspoir” (keep hoping).

 

Kristi anderson

Chambre d’hôtes

Saint jacques le coin perdu

15 place de l’église

45240 ligny le ribault

06.83.18.42.31

www.TheAmericanFrog.com

French Blog :  http://TheAmericanFrog.typepad.fr/lecoinperdu

Rainy days in Sologne Loire Valley

I think almost all the French blogs Sunday started with…

….It is raining today.

Here in Sologne Loire Valley it was rather

a “bruine” (drizzle)

Everybody criticises  the weather, it is too hot, too wet, too dry.  Besides the Presidents it is Mother Nature the most criticised.  I try hard not to do the same.

Frankly one of the reasons moved to Boston from San Francisco was to enjoy the four seasons.
Fall was obviously sublime but it was the snow storms that I most enjoyed.

And, while living in New York, snow had a magical effect on everyone. 
They

became friendly!

But back to France where I have been living since 1988.  I discovered just a few years ago that when a weatherman (or woman) said to expect a high of 30° Celsius “bien entendu” (well heard is the literal translation, of course, is more apt), he or she is talking about IN THE SHADE! 

I have yet to figure out how to calculate the temperature in the sun.

Would someone explain to me? Please.

And, while we are talking about French weather and such; have you ever noticed that they seldom err on the negative side? I can’t remember “une seule fois” (one time) that the sun was forecast and the rains came.  On the other hand I don’t have enough fingers, toes, and external limbs to count the times rain was forecast yet it was the sun who prevailed!

Think about it, how many people are going to complain when it is the sun shining not a drizzly grey rain?  Me, when I am loaded down
with umbrella, at, raincoat and galoshes and it turns out to be 30° (Celsius “bien entendu”) IN THE SHADE!

Back to Thanksgiving

I went to the farm yesterday and Tom has been chosen.  I wanted to take a photo to prove he is Farm Fresh but it was pouring with rain, and frankly, no desire to trample around in the muck.  Madame Martin has promised to send a photo. We'll see...

But more interesting today is  an old Art Buchwald entry from his New York Hearld Tribune Column "Paris after Dark". It is dated November 22, 1953, and, in his imitable Franglais he explains the true meaning of Thanksgiving to the French.  (I will reading it at my Thanksgiving this year)

"One of our most important holidays is Thanksgiving Day, known in France as le Jour de Merci Donnant.

Le Jour de Merci Donnant was first started by a group of Pilgrims (Pèlerins) who fled from l’Angleterre before the McCarran Act to found a colony in the New World (le Nouveau Monde) where they
could shoot Indians (les Peaux-Rouges) and eat turkey (dinde) to their heart’s content.

They landed at a place called Plymouth (now a famous voiture Américaine) in a wooden sailing ship called the Mayflower (or Fleur de Mai) in 1620. But while the Pèlerins were killing the dindes, the Peaux-Rouges were killing the Pèlerins, and there were several hard winters ahead for both of them. The only way the Peaux- Rouges helped the Pèlerins was when they taught them to grow corn   (maïs). The reason they did this was because they liked corn with their Pèlerins.

In 1623, after another harsh year, the Pèlerins’ crops were so good that they decided to have a celebration and give thanks
because more maïs was raised by the Pèlerins than Pèlerins were killed by Peaux-Rouges.

Every year on the Jour de Merci Donnant, parents tell their children an amusing story about the first celebration.

It concerns a brave capitaine named Miles Standish (known in France as Kilomètres Deboutish) and a young, shy lieutenant named Jean Alden. Both of them were in love with a flower of Plymouth called Priscilla Mullens (no translation). The vieux capitaine said to the jeune lieutenant:

“Go to the damsel Priscilla (allez très vite chez Priscilla), the loveliest maiden of Plymouth (la plus jolie demoiselle de Plymouth). Say that a blunt old captain, a man not of words but of action (un vieux Fanfan la Tulipe), offers his hand and his heart, the hand and heart of a soldier. Not in these words, you know, but this, in short, is my meaning.

“I am a maker of war (je suis un fabricant de la guerre) and not a maker of phrases. You, bred as a scholar (vous, qui êtes pain comme un étudiant), can say it in elegant language, such as you read in your books of the pleadings and wooings of lovers, such as you think best adapted to win the heart of the maiden.”

Although Jean was fit to be tied (convenable à être emballé), friendship prevailed over love and he went to his duty. But instead of using elegant language, he blurted out his mission. Priscilla was muted with amazement and sorrow (rendue muette par l’étonnement et la tristesse).

At length she exclaimed, interrupting the ominous silence: “If the great captain of Plymouth is so very eager to wed me, why does he not come himself and take the trouble to woo me?” (Où est-il, le vieux Kilomètres? Pourquoi ne vient-il pas auprès de moi pour tenter sa chance?)

Jean said that Kilomètres Deboutish was very busy and didn’t have time for those things. He staggered on, telling what a wonderful husband Kilomètres would make. Finally Priscilla arched her eyebrows and said in a tremulous voice, “Why don’t you speak for yourself, Jean?” (Chacun à son goût.)

And so, on the fourth Thursday in November, American families sit down at a large table brimming
with tasty dishes, and for the only time during the year eat better than the French do.

No one can deny that le Jour de Merci Donnant is a grande fête and no matter how well fed American families are, they never forget to give thanks to Kilomètres Deboutish, who made this great day possible."

Come and celebrate Thanksgiving this year with us

Kristi Anderson

Saint Jacques – Le Coin Perdu 

Bed & Breakfast

15, place de l’église

45240 Ligny le Ribault

[email protected]

www.TheAmericanFrog.com

French blog : http://TheAmericanFrog.typepad.fr/lecoinperdu

 

 

 

....and I won't do that again in sologne loire valley

….and I promise you I won’t do that again!  After we had broken down the floor, leveled it and put it the gravel the Monsieur who worked for me broke his arm. (No, not at my house but falling off a ladder at his house.)  Work was stopped for 6 months, we lived in a dust bowl the whole time!

With this electrical wiring the hotel/restaurant was open until December 31, 2001!  (I bought it in February 2002)

 

The living room after we had ripped of the brown fabric wallpaper which was even on the ceiling!  We have taken out the chimney insert and have exposed just one of the beams so far.

The view from the living room into the dining area.  We found these lovely brick columns under the plasterboard.  And the beams above the windows.

The living room today.

Looking into the dining area.

We used the bar as storage for two years!  

 

 

Again, there was all that lovely brick underneath…

 

We have only one peek of the “during” for the two B&B rooms that I renovated in the house

but we have lots of “afters”!

    
This was one of the “hotel rooms” and the state it is in this picture is not far from the state in which it was rented at 35€ the night! Without breakfast!

 

I have turned it into the TV room. (B&Bs in France are not allowed to put TVs in the rooms.)

   

 

Before and after in Sologne Loire Valley

(It's Typepad that I am having problems with not my computer.  I changed to my laptop but it is the same problem, all of a sudden the arrow starts to shake and doesn't follow a command.  I am forced to shut down the computer and start over, losing everything. So please forgive me as I add the bits and pieces.)
 I am  trying desperately to organise my life.  I am sure, as in times past, I will fail.  But at least some of it will get organised and I always seem to find things thought for lost.

This time I found a missing gem. The CD of photos that our first clients took! This was in August 2002 and we were not officially even open.  A couple were desperate for a place to stay for 2 weeks in August while visiting family in the area.  I explained the situation but

they were undaunted and moved into room 12 which is located in the courtyard with a private entrance.  The three courtyard rooms were fine as the previous owner had them built six years before.

Luckily August was hot and we took breakfast on the terrace
but that didn’t stop Jean-Luc from photographing everything.  I am so glad he did because didn’t even think of it.  These are only before and after photos.

 

Breakfast on the terrace is a bit nicer now!

As for the front of the house.
I took off the jalousies, the menu box; repainted the shutters and put on a new roof!

 

 

The back of the house was the last to be done. I painted it in June of this year.

Now let's go inside...here is the entry from the terrace.
Remember these are the "during" photos; we had already torn off the mint green wall paper but before we had removed the plasterboard to find the beautiful "colombage" (half timbered brick wall)and the well. The well was in the wine cellar and when we broke down the plasterboard it was evident that, at one time the well had been here. So I put it back. 

AND WE LIVED IN THE HOUSE DURING THE WORK

 

 

 

 

  

...and then came the Russians

After the Scots came the Russians! I’m not kidding.  There is a chateau owner near here

who is Franco-Russian and loves to party. 

    
 His musicians stay at our B&B while they are working.  They have been coming for the last 4 years and are great fun.  They love my food!  And because most of them are Franco-Russian and live in France I get to try out cuisines other than French. (guinea pigs)

 

And, they sing at the table!  All those lovely sad Russian ballads. They have been here since Thursday Lunch and Dinner so I didn’t get a chance to write.  And I don’t even have any photos!

 

 

 

 

Kristi Anderson

Saint Jacques Le Coin Perdu

15 place de l'église

45240 Ligny le Ribault

06.83.18.42.3

French Blog:  http://TheAmericanFrog.typepad.fr/lecoinperdu

 

Following the trail of François Premier in Sologne, Loire Valley

  
^{The Prince of the Renaissance}

 François Premier, why I am so fascinated by him, can’t tell you. He was good, bad, handsome, ugly…. what do you want me to say.  I LOVE HIM.  If he was alive I might even agree to marry him although I can’t bring a dowry and I am no longer of childbearing age, but if he would have me I would say YES!

He was born into an era that was awakening otherwise known as the Renaissance.  The Spanish and Portuguese expeditions were discovering the unknown lands of Africa, Asia and the New World. Luther and Calvin were reforming the known religions.  The 100 years war was over, there was peace.

 His 32-year reign has left an indelible mark not only in France; but did you also know that it was in the service of François Premier that the Florentine navigator, Verrazano, was sent to explore the U.S. Atlantic coast?

The world’s longest suspension bridge connecting Staten Island to Brooklyn carries his name.

When you realise that that we are talking about from 1515 to 1547, this guy really moved his butt around the world!

 

^{There is an excellent web site which follows François Premier’s influence in France and further.  www.routesfrancois1.com .} 

 

^{And, while his legacy} is felt around the world, it is in France and, above all, here in Sologne and Loire Valley that he is still alive and quite well!

Chambord is the most grandiose of his legacy but since I have already

 

I don’t think they have something bigger than this even in Texas!

talked about Chambord in my October 17^th article it is “les petits chateaux” (the little castles) influenced by François Premier for today.

 

 

Chateau de Talcy

Rendered famous by Ronsard’s  “Mignonne, allons vor si la rose…” (My lovely, let us go see if the rose…) which was dedicated to Cassandre, daughter of the rich Florentine banker, Bernard Salviati, financier to François Premier and owner of the chateau.  Talcy offers a clear perspective on the transition from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance.   www.chateauxcountry.com  

 

 

 

      Manoir de Clos Lucé

Built in 1471 Charles VII acquired it not long after and for 200 years Clos Lucé became a summer Royal house and is where Louise de Savoy raised two of her children, Marguerite and François.  And it is where François Premier brought Leonardo di Vinci in 1516 to live in the French court.  It is here at Clos Lucé that Leonardo di Vinci only three years later.  But not before he had designed the plans that would become Chambord. www.vinci-closluce.com

 

 

 

 

           Beauregard     

Before Chambord,  Beauregard was François Premier’s hunting lodge who then sold it to his uncle the bastard from Savoie. Under Jean du Their’s direction the chateau was embellished in the Renaissance style.  In the 18^th century Paul Ardier, the then owner, would create the noted “Celebrities Gallery”. Consisting of 327 portraits from 1328 to 1643 this unique collection is a veritable chronicle of Europe’s history during this period. Kings as well as ministers, men of war, religious men, bankers, explorers and other important personalities look down on you in this impressive gallery.  www.beauregard-loire.com

 

 

 

 

Chateau de Troussay

Although the smallest jewel of the Loire Valley Troussay’s superb collection of furniture and elegant gardens make it a favourite among François Premier’s fans. The Renaissance style of this mansion was typical of the period, built not by royalty but the squires (as in this case), financiers and other people important to François Premier. www.routesfrancois1.com 

 

 

 

   
   Chateau de Fougères-sur-bièvre

The Renaissance arcade gallery of this chateau was the last phase of construction for this tiny fortress and was completed by Jean de Villebresme, chamberlain to the brother of François Premier. It is an interesting example of three different architectural styles each steeped in local tradition. http://fougeres-sur-bievre.monuments-nationaux.fr

 

 

   
Chateau de Gué-Péan

The furthest from our B&B (1 hour) this imposing castle is snugly tucked into the woods and fields overlooking the Cher River. The reconstruction of the chateau was started early in the 15^th century by an Italian family, the Alamans.  It was Nicolas Alaman, a squire in François Premier’s service who extended the buildings deeply influenced by the Renaissance.  Privately owned, this lovingly furnished gem is well worth a visit.

http://www.monthousurcher.fr

 

And don’t forget our B&B, Saint Jacques El Coin Peru is an easy reach to all.

 

 

Kristie Anderson

Saint Jacques Le Coin Perdu

15 places de l’église

45240 Ligny le Ribault

www.TheAmericanFrog.com

French Bog: http://TheAmericanFrog.typepad.fr/lecoinperdu