14 October 2018

Sunday's finest

It's Sunday and it's my morning to go out for a walk with Natasha. These Sundays in October are difficult, because hunters arrive in the vineyard at 9 a.m. and start shooting at game birds or hares. The sun doesn't come up until 8:12 a.m. today, and if it's cloudy outside it doesn't really get light until 8:30 or so. So timing the walk is tricky.

Here are some recent photos of Tasha. I took them on a sunny afternoon four or five days ago. As you can see, she keeps her nose to the ground when we go out into the vineyard.


Walt will take Tasha to the groomer's (le salon de toilettage) on Tuesday for her semi-annual brushing-out. The dog's coat looks pretty good right now but, even so, there's just too much of it. She doesn't really enjoy getting brushed, so we don't do it as much as we ought to.


We went to our late neighbor Daniel's burial (enterrement) yesterday morning. It was well-attended; I'd say there were 40 or 50 people there. There was no service at the church, just as his wife's funeral was a simple burial ceremony at the cemetery in 2015. We learned that Daniel had lung cancer but didn't know it. He wasn't somebody who went to see a doctor on a regular basis. He had some kind of malaise a week ago today and his daughter had him hospitalized. That's when the cancer was diagnosed. He passed away 48 hours later.


Daniel's daughter plans to sell her parents' house, I understand. And the other house in our hamlet that is for sale is already under contract. The new owners are supposed to close on it at the end of the month. I don't know who they are, or if they plan to live in the house or rent it out as a gîte rural — a holiday rental, as the British say. It will need some renovating, I'm sure.


And I learned something else yesterday. The people who are selling the little house had the equivalent of a "garage sale" or "estate sale." Maybe it will continue today. It's the first time in all these years of living and traveling in France that I've ever seen that kind of sale. I thought they weren't allowed, but it turns out they are if the organizers get the permission of the mayor and follow rules that specify that only used items may be sold, and the sale can only last for a specified number of days. It's called a vide-maison or a vide-grenier à domicile. Those terms mean "empty out the house" or "empty out the attic" to clear out. I don't know where it was advertised, but there were quite a few cars up and down the road during the day yesterday.

21 comments:

  1. IIRC, a year or two ago you posted a photo of that small house which was an accidental but very interesting illusion d'optique.

    Is Tasha smaller, larger or the same size as Callie?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tasha is much smaller. Her legs are shorter — more like Collette's legs than long-legged Callie's. And Callie weighed about 20 kg — at one point, she might have weighed 22 kg — whereas Tasha weighs 11 kg.

      I haven't been able to find that photo of La Grange with the optical illusion.

      Delete
    2. Here is a link to that photo. I hope it will be working!

      Delete
    3. When I try that link, I get a message saying that the page does not exist,

      Delete
    4. Yes, the link didn't work. Just like you, I tried to find it on your blog and couldn't. It looks like today's La Grange photo is the same as the 2/11/14 one (I don't know if 2/11 means feb. 11 or nov. 2). The missing one has the same date. I'm going to rename it La Grange-1 (the one, …443a, I picked from your blog at the time), and send it to you. It's a very interesting photo!

      Delete
    5. No it is not. This one is P105... and the one I'm talking about was a P104... I sent it to you renamed La Grange-1 a few moments ago.

      Delete
    6. In Le Lion et le Rat, the French fabulist Jean de la Fontaine said, Patience et longueur de temps font plus que force ni que rage.

      I finally was able to find the blog post where this optical illusion appears in second position. It was published on 27 January 2014 on a post titled Une vie en noir et blanc. Here is a link to that post. I hope this one will be working this time!

      Delete
    7. Renaming the photo made it much harder to find.

      Delete
  2. The first thing I thought of when seeing the house is that it needed some good landscaping, small shrubs and flowers around the base lol I cannot imagine how much work it needs inside. It has "potential " :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Those estate sales are common around here. I have a friend who works with a few other people to put on the sale. The preview sale is a wine party! Going to one where you knew the person that died is sad. That little house would make a nice gite.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Tasha is smiling in the last photo. She's beautiful!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Interesting that the houses in your hamlet are selling, but are most of them used as summer homes, not year round like yours? Roderick

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Right now, four of the nine houses are résidences secondaires. That may continue changing as older people leave, whether feet first or voluntarily, and houses are sold or inherited. When we came to live here 15 years ago, only two houses were not lived in year-round.

      Delete
  6. Tasha's fur looks so nice in the sunlight :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Well that little house sure went into contract quickly didn't it? The price seemed so reasonable. Or maybe it was the large parcel of land...I agree with Candice's comment that some small shrubs as landscaping would make it attractive. Looking forward to seeing the listing for your neighbor's house. ;-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We don't know when the house was actually put on the market. There was never an À Vendre sign posted on the house or fence. Maybe it's been on the market for quite a while but we didn't know it.

      Delete

What's on your mind? Qu'avez-vous à me dire ?