Deer grazing in a field near the river, down at the bottomof our road on Christmas Eve 2009
New friends of ours from northern England, Jean and Nick, came over with their poodle Lulu to spend the afternoon and eat our New Year's dinner of cassoulet with us. They have a holiday home in the little town called Le Grand-Pressigny, about an hour southwest of Saint-Aignan. And they have a blog: A Very Grand Pressigny. Lulu the poodle, by the way, is a big dog — she's a lot taller than Callie.
A quince still hanging on the tree at the edge of thevineyard after our mid-December snow and cold
Today we are planning to have lunch in a restaurant with a group of young Americans who live in Paris and are spending the New Year's holiday near Blois. Several of them have blogs too, but we aren't even sure who all is in the group. We'll drive up toward Blois at noontime to meet up with them.
Apples, always apples, composting in our back gardenSuch is the life here in Saint-Aignan. With blogs nowadays, we know many people we would never have met or even heard of back in those pre-Internet and pre-blog days. And we keep meeting more and more bloggers. Not just Americans, either, but people from England, Canada, Belgium, and Australia.
A Callie's-eye view of the vines through the back fenceThere is certainly no sense of isolation out here in the French countryside. By the way, I did an e-mail interview for a blog called A Taste of Garlic. The author, Keith Eckstein, has interviewed a lot of bloggers in France. If you are looking for more blogs about the expat life in France, Keith's blog is the place to find them.
The glassy pond out back and its wintery reflections —that's mistletoe growing in an old apple tree
The pictures here are ones I took around the yard and vineyard over the past 10 days or so.
Ken, you star you.....loved the interview.
ReplyDeleteVictoria, Bellingham WA
That meal with "young Americans" sounds fun. Do you mean young like students, or just younger than you/us?
ReplyDeleteToday started with snow flurries here too...I guess the cold and ice is on its way back.
We have just begun to read "living in France" Blogs, for the obvious reason.
ReplyDeleteYours among them.
Thank you for writing it.
Betty, I mean thirty-somethings. It's not dinner, just an apéro.
ReplyDeleteH.Peter, thanks for your comment.
Victoria, hehehe.
Now, that's fun :)) I enjoyed reading your interview! I second Betty C.'s question.
ReplyDeleteP.S. I haven't seen Linda Hanselman (from Edwardsville, Illinois) posting in many months. Are you out there, Linda?
Yes, I guess we must put thirty-somethings in the young category now, even Walt and I...(we are the same age.)
ReplyDeleteBetty, did I say Happy New Year to you? Happy New Year -- et surtout bonne santé en 2010.
ReplyDeleteWe ended up not going to Blois, but three of the group came by to visit for a couple of hours yesterday evening. The two who are bloggers are Justin and Jasmine (L'Etrangère Américaine) if you know them.
Judy, let's see if Linda H. is still reading...
We had a lovely time at yours, Ken. Lunch was delicious. The cassoulet was amazing.
ReplyDeleteAdd that to the excellent company and what better way to spend one of the greyist of grey winter afternoons. Thank you so much.
And now we're back home in England and under a couple of inches of snow again. Can't wait for spring now.....
I absolutely love that photo with the apples! It's brilliant. A happy new year to you guys.
ReplyDelete