95 degrees...

...is the forecast high for this afternoon, in Fahrenheit. Thursday and Friday will be more of the same, the forecasters say. In France, there has never been a month-of-May heat wave like this one before. What will June bring?

The scratched Citroën

Here are a couple of photos of the scratched Citroën I blogged about yesterday. The one above shows the car after I rinsed it off with the hose. The one below shows it un-rinsed. Both show the side of of the car that that got scratched when I knocked the our mailbox off a fence post a couple of weeks ago. Can you see the scratch? The car was first registered and put on the road in late December 2007.

I bought it used in Feb. 2015 when it had about fifty thousand miles on it. I've put very few miles on it since 2015. Ironically, Walt and I had been talking about selling it or trading it in for a smaller Citroën or Peugeot. We both find the car to be too big to drive comfortably on our narrow local roads, or to park in the small spaces in local parking lots.

Local news bulletins

Our neighbor who is the mayor of the village we live in gave me some sad news a couple of days ago. Her daughter has passed away. She was diagnosed with lung cancer last year. She was not a smoker. Then the cancer spread to  her brain and she had a stroke. She was in her early 50s and has left behind her husband and three children, the eldest about 20 years old. I met her a few times over the years but didn't really know her. She lived about three hours from Saint-Aignan. Her mother and father who live here have spent a lot of time on the road driving there from here and then back for months. They are both nearing age 80 and are exhausted, I'm sure.

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A few weeks ago, I had a collision with our mailbox. It was mounted on one of the posts that frame our front gate. I was taking the car and the dog out for a ride in the vineyard early one morning (long story...), and was turning right coming through the gate. Usually I turn left, which is the way down the hill we live on and to places like Saint-Aignan, Montrichard, and Blois, Anyway, I misjudged the space I needed  to make that right turn. The result was a long but not very deep scratch on both of the car's passenger-side doors. I hope it doesn't start rusting. The mailbox didn't survive. We bought a new mailbox at the local hardware store and our landscape contractor was good enough to mount the new box on the fence post for us. All in all, the incident was a five or six day ordeal. I'm sad about the car, which is nearly 20 years old and is only now starting to show its age.

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Meanwhile, I've been having a lot of problems with my eyes and eyesight since the beginning of the year. I have spent a lot of time worrying and complaining that I can't figure out what the problem is. Does it have to do with the cataract operations I had in 2024? Or am I just suffering because of pollen allergies? We had a few months of rain nearly every day in the spring, and that weather pattern has changed only recently. I spent a lot of time trying to get my eye doctor on the telephone. When I had the cataract surgery in 2024, the doctor told me I would need to contact him again in two years' time for a follow-up appointment to see how my eyesight has evolved and which would probably lead to a laser procedure to make sure lens implants I have had since then are doing to job. I asked him if his office would notify me that it was time for the check-up, because I might forget. He looked at me like I was crazy and just said Non! So when my vision went blurry earlier this year, I figured it was time to make an appointment. But I couldn't get anyone on the phone. On some days my vision was better than on others, so I couldn't be sure if allergies were the problem, or something else. I finally got somebody on the phone last week. She located my file and quickly told me that the follow-up appointment would be scheduled for the month of October. I'll need to call back for an appointment in July, not before. I hope I don't have to live with blurry vision until October.

Montgolfières survolant le vignoble

Yesterday morning at about 7:15, I did what I normally do at that hour: I look out the window in our guest bedroom to see what's happening out in the vineyard. I was surprised to see a hot-air balloon floating low over the vines. I went downstairs and out into the back yard to snap a photo.

When I got out to the back gate, I realized that there were many more balloons than just one flying by. As I stood there with my camera, I counted as many as 20 of them, and there may have been more. As one flotilla flew over and disapeared behind the trees that separate the two vineyards out there, more and more ballons came flying in from the south. I couldn't get them all in one photo.

Four more Collonges snapshots

Dans la rue à Collonges-la-Rouge

Collonges-la-Rouge, built of red sandstone, was founded in the 8th century, and some think that it might have been a Roman colony before that time. Here's a link to the English-language Wikipedia page about the village, if you want to read more about it.

Un des plus beaux villages de France

Thirty miles or so north of the little town of Bretenoux in the old Quercy province is one of the most striking plus beaux villages de France. It's built out of red rock. Have you been there? We drove through 20 years ago on out way home to Saint-Aignan after spending a few days in the Dordogne and Quercy areas. We had been there once before. It was a beautiful day. We had lunch at a restaurant with an outdoor terrace. I have more pictures.

Le château de Castelnau-Bretenoux

About 40 minutes by car from Rocamadour, and just 15 minutes from Autoire, stands what is probably the most impressive castle in the old Quercy province of southwestern France. Its name is Castelnau-Bretenoux [kass-tell-no bru-tuh-noo]. The Michelin Green Guide (for Périgord and Quercy) describes it as an énorme masse rouge and says its lacy stonework is de couleur sanguine. It was built starting in the 11th century. It is open to the public and owned by the French government. We didn't take the tour of the interior. Here's a link to Castelnau's web site.

Autoire, a village in the old Quercy province

The village in these photos, called Autoire, is not actually in the modern-day Dordogne, though it is in the Dordogne river valley. It is located only a 30-minute drive east of Rocamadour. It is also one of the plus beaux villages de France, as is another nearby village called Loubressac. There are two châteaux in Autoire. It's a place I'd like to go back to, because 20 years ago all we did was drive through and stop to take a few photos. We didn't go to Loubressac or either of Autoire's châteaux.

More views of Rocamadour

 

Rocamadour: views from on high

At Rocamadour, you can park your car at the bottom of the town and walk up to the top. There's also an elevator you can take for the steepest part of the ascent, if I remember correctly. The other option is to drive up the the top, walk down, and then take the elevator by up. I think we did that, and I took pictures of house farther down.

The price of fuel in France

If my arithmetic is good, the price of a U.S. gallon of diesel fuel in France is just short of 9.75 U.S. dollars right now.

• 1 liter of diesel fuel costs 2.19 euros
• 1 U.S gallon = 3.8 liters
• 2.19 per liter x 3.8 liters = 8.32 euros
• 8.32 euros = 9.73 US dollars at today's exchange rate (1 euro = 1.17 USD)

Two or three days ago I went to the SuperU filling station in Saint-Aignan and put 25 liters (6.6 U.S. gallons) of diesel fuel in our Peugeot's fuel tank. That cost me 55.5 euros. (We have two cars, and both have diesel engines.) Premium gasoline costs just slightly less.

Walt went to the SuperU filling station early yesterday morning to get 10 liters of gasoline for our lawn mower. He said he was the only person buying fuel there at that hour.

We won't be making trips to places farther than 5 miles from our house for the foreseeable future.

Old Rocamadour photos, and...

...some ramblings about French fuel and bread nowadays

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Yesterday I did something that I'd been thinking of doing for nearly a week. I drove our old Peugeot over to our local SuperU supermarket and and filled the car's tank with diesel fuel. It was down to about a quarter full. The Citröen has about half a tank of diesel fuel in it, and I may go fill it up next week if I can.

And yes, the supermarket is where you go to fill your car's fuel tank if you live around here. There are no longer any service stations in the Saint-Aignan area. We used to have a couple, but they but they closed down years ago.

I had been watching reports of possible fuel shortages on the news for while. Prices have been going up too, to about double the price of diesel fuel a month or two ago. I decided the time had come for a fill-up. We can't really live here without a car to go shopping in, even though we have three local supermarkets, each one not more than a three-mile drive from our house. Walking to one of them would take some time, though, and it wouldn't be easy to bring a good supply of groceries back home on foot.

I didn't know what I'd find when I drove to the supermarket. Long lines of cars waiting to fuel up was one possible scenario. Another was pumps closed down because of shortages. There are a dozen or so pumps at the SuperU filling station (for high-test gasoline and regular gas, as well as diesel fuel). I've heard that diesel fuel is in especially low supply right now. Sure enough, at least one of the diesel pumps was not working. Payment is by credit or debit card.

However, I decided to drive over there at about 7 a.m. because I thought that might a time when other people were not out and about yet. In fact there wasn't a single car at the filling station when I got there. One other car drove in a few minutes after I got there. Leaving the gas station, I had a thought: What about bread? It would be good to lay in a supply so we wouldn't have to waste fuel every other day or so driving around to find an open boulangerie. The two bread bakeries remainiing in Saint-Aignan were not yet open at that early hour, so I drove to the village on the other side of the river. The boulangerie there was open.

We buy several baguettes at a time and keep them in the freezer at home to avoid having to drive to a boulangerie several times a week.They thaw well and are good, but they're not as good as fresh baguettes. When we came to live here 20 years ago, there were six boulangeries within two miles of our house. Nowadays, there's only one. All the others have shut down one by one over the years. I think most people buy their bread at the supermarket. Unless you live in a big city, well... la vie en France n'est plus ce qu'elle a été...

"Perched" villages

A "perched" village is one built at the top and/or down the sides of a steep hill or promontory. One of the most famous villages of this type in France is the one called Rocamadour, built on a site about an hour's drive on winding, narrow roads southeast of the Château Montfort, which posted about a few days ago.

Here's Rocamadour from afar.

Below is a closer view.

Better

It's raining again this morning, but not so hard. Tasha the Shelie seems to be over her appetit loss and general lethardy. All that is good news. I've got more photos from Dordogne, but I'm not ready to struggle with posting them yet. Later...

Gloom

It's pouring rain outside this morning. The dog is feeling sick, so she needed to go outdoors at 5ive a.m. She got soaked. I was able to dry her off some when she finally came back inside. She wouldn't eat anything. No pouch food, no bread, no kibble. No dog biscuits. The only thing she would eat was a small portion of her morning croissant that we share every day. She did drink a small amount of water. Then she went back outside and wandered around in the yard for a few more minutes. I'm not sure what the problem is. More later.

There are heavy rains in France, right now, to the south and west of us, with flooding and hail. Charming.

Tasha the collie slept for about five hours this morning. Then she suddenly woke up at around 10 o'clock and ate a small amount of food. She walked around in the house for almost an hour. She has now gone back downstairs, where we have the front and back doors open so that she can go outside when she needs or wants to.

Dordogne châteaux (3): Montfort

Here are a couple of shots of another château on the Loire less than half an hour's drive from Castelnau and Beynac. It's called the château de Monfort, and the first castle on this site was built starting in the 11th or 12th century... and torn down the the 13th. It was torn down and rebuilt st least three times during the Hundred Year's war between the English and the French in the 1300s and 1400s, if I can believe what I read. Here's a link to the Montfort web site, in English and with photos of many other châteaux.

Dordogne châteaux (2): Beynac

A mile or so north of the Château de Castelnaud and also on the Dordogne river, is the Château de Beynac, also built in the 12th century. The owners of Beynac and the owners of Castelnau were at war with each other for centuries, during the Hundred Years' War between England and France in the 1300s and 1400s.

Below is a close-up of the main tower at Beynac.

Dordogne châteaux ( 1): Castelnau

This was one of our first stops as we rode into the Dorgogne province 20 years ago. It's called Castelnau (meaning "New Castle"). A first castle was built on this site in the 12th century, but it was torn down a century later. Then, for several  centuries, Castelnau was often more of a construction site or ruin than it was a functioning château, from what I've read.

It was re-built a few more times over the centuries and has looked as it does now for more than century. In the first photo here, you can see how a village has grown up around the base of the castle.

Headed south

This is not a photo I took in the Loire Valley but in the Dordogne in southwestern France. I was there 20 years ago with Walt and our friend Sue, who lives in northern California. I think I might publish a few other pictures from that trip over the next few days.

Grape leaves and dandelion flowers...

..it's the season. 

  

The Pépin soufflé

For our lunch yesterday, I made Jacques Pépin's mother's cheese soufflé. It's a fairly simple recipe which doesn't reuire separating the whites from the yolks of eggs and then whisking the whites until they are light and foamy. The most complicated part of the recipe is making a white sauce (une sauce béchamel) with butter, flour, and milk, cream or Half-and-Half. Pépin says this is the kind of soufflé his mother often made when he was growing up (in France, near Lyon).

Here is a link to several examples of such soufflés that I posted years ago, and a photo of a slice of yesterday's, which included a pre-cooked broccoli base.

I noticed yesterday when I went out for a walk with 'Tasha that we now have irises blooming inside our back gate.

Another April Vineyard View

A view of vineyard parcels and clouds at sunrise in April from our back gate.

The vineyard yesterday morning

I've been taking a few days off. The weather has finally warmed up and started letting the sun shine on us.

Ragoût de légumes

A carrot or or two, a courgette or two, a turnip or two), some celery stalks and leaves, a Belgian endive, some tomatoes, and some bell peppers — those are some of the vegetables that went into the ragoût or mijoté I made for lunch yesterday.

Cut the vegetables into fairly large pieces so that they will tenderize but won't disintegrate when they cook. Put them in a big pot or wok with some vegetable oil and some salt and pepper. Pour a cup or two of water over them, put a lid on the pot or wok and then and "sweat" them over medium heat until they are just starting to get tender (about 15 minutes).

Then add enough water to the pot or wok to barely cover the vegetables. Let the vegetables finish cooking. It will take 40 to 60 minutes. Add some herbs — dried thyme, bay leaves, and dried oregano).
 

Optionally, serve the stewed vegetables with grilled chicken breasts or sausages.

Village paths and streets

These are some of the streets and paths lead to our village center (called le bourg) which is on the left bank of the Cher river deep into the river valley. They start on the higher ground on the southern edge of the river valley, which is mostly fields and vineyards. Actually where we live is equidistant from the village center and the little town of Saint-Aignan. The village has a population of 1,200 and an area of 12 square miles.