Welcome to Burgundy!

In this blog I will be writing about my life in this beautiful part of Burgundy, France. We run two gîtes and a camping à la ferme not far from Cluny and Taizé in a tiny hamlet of Chazelle, Cormatin. Read and enjoy.
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Mothers’ Day

2010 March 16
Posted by nixon727@gmail.com

It was Mothers; Day in the UK on Sunday, so I popped over on the train to see my Mum. Cards for Mothers’ Day have always been made not bought in our family, so my meagre artist skills have to come into play every year. For the last couple of years (since I became a crochet addict), I have used my craft skills to make a present rather than buy one, after all how many boxes of chocolates does one need in a life-time? crochet-plantOK I wouldn’t mind getting lots of chocolates and my Mum’s petite figure could survive many extra boxes, but like it or not Mum got another crocheted gift this year. A few weeks ago I found a pattern for a miniature potted plant on the internet, on the Lion Brand website and so I set to, making my own version of this little plant. I am rather proud of the results I must say and Mum liked it as well - at least she said she did. In any case, we had a lovely few days together in London. On the train I always keep an eye out of the window as I near Mâcon to see all the landmarks that tell me I’m nearly home, I can often spot Cortevaix but the first clear landmark is the water tower in Ameugny, after that are the tents in Taizé and then the towers of Cluny Abbey and when I see the beautiful imposing castle at Berzé le Châtel I know I am almost at Mâcon Loché station. Getting off the train came as a freezing shock to me after the warmth of London! On the way home, driving through Cluny, we decided to have dinner at one of our favourite restaurants Loup Garou, but they were on a week’s holiday so we shivered our way up past the Abbey and ended up at the Brasserie du Nord for a nice meal. All in all a satisfactory end to very nice few days away.

Our website about La Tuilerie de Chazelle.

A Sunny Sunday with Songs and Silence

2010 March 7
Posted by nixon727@gmail.com

I decided to go to my favourite Taizé service today, the Sunday morning Eucharist. The service starts at 10.00 and it basically follows the Catholic Eucharist in French, but with a Taizé twist. from the Taizé website I left home with plenty of time to spare, but at this time of year that isn’t really necessary as parking is easy and near the church. In the summer I don’t bother with the Taizé car park, it is always full to overload and then there is the nightmare of getting out of Taizé itself after the service with all the busses and people milling around. I usually park in Ameugny and walk from there, this means I don’t have to drive in Taizé at all. Many of the people staying in our gites, walk or cycle up the hill, but I know I would end up marching for fear of being late, even though I know it doesn’t take that long to get there and I would be all hot and flustered when I went in. So it is the car for me - well that’s my excuse anyway, the other theory is that I’m just lazy, but I don’t hold with that one!

It is still the quiet season, so the church is at its smallest, but as always, it feels full and the singing is strong. Today there were a surprising number of tourists on the benches at the side. The tourists stand out as they usually have a badge with their name on it (yes some holiday tours include a service at Taizé!) and they rarely sit on the floor. Because of the way the church was built, one side of the front of the church rises up like a baseball stadium and the tourists sit on the benches at the top or on the steps leading down into the main floor area. It gives them a bird’s eye view of the proceedings. From my lowly position on the floor, I have noticed that the tourists rarely sing or participate and they shift about a lot during the silence, I think it makes them feel uncomfortable and I do often wonder why they came. Hopefully some of them will have absorbed some of the essence of the community and been touched by the experience, but I am not really so sure.

In contrast there was an elderly couple next to me on the floor. Obviously not regular Taizé goers, but at least they came to join in. He had decided to try out one of the little kneeling stools rather than sit on the floor, however, he didn’t check how others were using them and he also didn’t spot that the top of the bench slopes. from www.Embody.co.ukSo when he sat on it (rather than kneeling within it) he tumbled over backwards as the slope was leaning to the back. On his second attempt he checked out what other stool users were doing and did the same, with significantly more success. I have never tried the stools, to me they look uncomfortable, but people I have spoken to who use them are very happy with them. One of our campers used to set off up the hill every morning with her stool strapped to the back of her bike, the parcel shelf being just the right length and width for it to fit on nicely. My main reason for not trying the stools is that during the service you have to turn round and stand up and down a couple of times. The aforementioned elderly gentleman, had enormous problems with this manoeuvring and in the end gave up on the stool altogether. Sitting on the floor became preferable to wobbling off with every turn.

The service followed its usual pattern of songs, bible readings, prayer and silence but I was rather surprised that there were no Alleluias sung at all during the service today, a great pity as I always find them very uplifting and to my confusion, the Lord’s Prayer was sung in French. If they have changed over from English to French permanently, I need to brush up on the words, I don’t mind sight reading the songs that I don’t know, but it feels rather inappropriate to have to read out the Lord’s Prayer. It has been a while since I have been up the hill to Taizé - it was good to follow a service again, in fact it was lovely just to be out and about on such a beautiful sunny winter’s morning.

For more information about Taizé Click here.
This is our website La Tuilerie de Chazelle.

Birdsong

2010 February 28
Posted by nixon727@gmail.com

In the last few days, spring has sprung. Despite the dire weather forecasts, we have had beautiful warm sunny days and the rain has only come at night. It has given us the opportunity to spend time outside and listen to the wildlife again.

Red-backed shrikeWe have had several guests staying here, who have come specifically for bird watching. One chap let me look through his telescope at a red-backed shrike perched on a post in the field at the back of our house. I am reliably informed that we have an amazing range of birds that can be seen here, in the garden, in the fields and in the forest.

Sadly I do not know enough to identify all the bird song, I would love to know which bird it is that sounds like it’s laughing in the forest or the one that sits in dead the tree in the field and sounds like a telephone, but I can identify the nightingale that sings in the tree outside our bedroom window, it has a quite amazing variety in its song.

In the garden we have all the usual suspects of course and we have great tits, redstarts and wrens that nest in and around the house every year. The little ones are such fun to watch when they have their first flying lessons.

HoopoeOne of my favourites is the Hoopoe who hovers in mid-air in front of our kitchen window before darting off to land on the roof of the séchoire. He never fails to amaze city dwellers who come here, with the strange fan-shaped plumage on his head rather resembling a mohican. And I will never forget the crowd of long tail tits that invaded our cherry tree one late summer afternoon, zooming around and wobbling their tails.

One gite guest, who comes back regularly, told us she just likes to sit in the garden and listen. At home she can’t hear any natural sounds and here she can’t hear any man-made sounds except the bells of Taizé three times a day. She described the quiet as wrapping itself around her like a comfort blanket, and on a day like yesterday, I fully understand what she means. Maybe that’s one of the reasons why so many people come back year after year.

La Tuilerie Website has more pictures of the wildlife around here.

Bumper Year

2010 February 21
Posted by nixon727@gmail.com

grapes It is official, Burgundy has had its best harvest in 10 years. The weather last summer was fantastic, no hail or frost in the growing season and so far fewer damaged grapes leading to more grapes being suitable to be turned into wine. In fact Burgundy has produced 1,584 million hectolitres (potentially 211,200 million bottles) of wine this year. This is the largest harvest since 1999. However, what are those remarks about quality not quantity? Amazingly because of the many hours of sun last summer and rain at just the right times, the grapes were also of a very high sugar content, leading to the possibility of one of the best vintages in living memory. So not only quantity but quality too. The farmers must be rejoicing.

Anyone who has ever been involved with farmers will know that they are very pessimistic creatures and one can understand why. Not only do they have relatively uncontrollable variations in quality and quantity but they also have uncontrollable variations in their market. The French wine market has been under threat from new world wines for many years now. The methods of the new world wine makers produce consistent wines, they have ironed out the quality so that the average wine drinker will get just what he is expecting, every time he opens a bottle. The traditional production methods of the French, produce a different bottle every year, some years not so good, but some years exceptional. The new world wines will never be able to beat those exceptional years. Interestingly the two countries who buy the most Burgundy wine are the UK and the US, the UK has moved very clearly over to new world wines and the US has a booming “new world” wine trade of its own, but the connoisseurs in both these countries have always been willing to afford the good Burgundies.

burgundy-wine-2So, as I said, the farmers must be rejoicing, sadly no. The economic crisis and the drop in both the Dollar and Pound against the Euro have already dealt a blow to the French wine market and now just when the Burgundian winemakers can cash in after a number of poor years, even the connoisseurs have run out of money.

My advise - if you want an excellent vintage at bargain basement prices, 2009 is the vintage to be laying down and 2010 is the time to buy it before the UK and US economies pick up and send the prices to the astronomic levels this vintage deserves.

La Tuilerie is in Cormatin which is on the edge of both the Mâconnais and Côtes Chalonaise wine growing areas. Here is our website

Food at Taizé

2010 February 14
Posted by nixon727@gmail.com

When people I meet tell me they have spent a week at Taizé, after the stories of the group discussions and meditation, there is always a comment about the food. The comments tend to be vague, but words like “simple” are often used. Anyone can sample the cuisine up on the hill by buying a meal ticket for 1.50 Euros. To be honest I amazed they can fill up those hungry young stomachs for that price, no matter how “simple” it is.

taize-mealI am very impressed with the organisation that goes into feeding so many people at once – up to 6,000 at peak times. The menus and buying in of the food are managed by the Taizé permanents (lay people who live within the community for a long period of time) and the preparation work and serving is done by the youngsters who have chosen that as their work duty for the week. The kitchens are semi-open air in the summer and as you walk through the community you can see the kids stirring huge cauldrons full of the next meal. The meals are distributed at various locations around the community and you queue up at your allotted spot at meal times.

One blog I found said this about the food at Taizé: “The food at Taizé is basic! Mostly pasta, rice, potato based dishes, with little meat. If you find that you don’t like the food, don’t worry because there is a place called OYAK which opens three times a day and serves food such as hot dogs, pizza, croque monsieurs and drinks to supplement the rations!” Does that say something about the food in Taizé or modern unhealthy eating standards I wonder?

Many of the people who stay in our gites for their week in Taizé quote the food and living in barracks as the main reasons they want to stay with us rather than in the community itself. Having said that, they could stay in one of the silent houses, I have heard complements about the food there.

There are always exceptions of course and one young chap who stayed on the campsite the week before his stay in Taizé told us he always volunteered to do the cleaning of the church as his work duty because you could eat as much as you liked – he obviously loved the food. The church cleaners have to clean during meal times and so are fed later with unlimited rations. Another camper mentioned how attached she became to her red bowl during her stay at Taizé. The bowl is used for many things, drinking coffee at breakfast time, tea at tea time and soup with the meals. I think that so many people fall in love with their bowls, you can even buy these things in the shop. I think I would prefer one of the lovely pottery bowls that the monks make over the red plastic ones, but then I have never eaten at Taizé, if I had I might change my mind!

Click here for more about the accommodation we have at La Tuilerie.

Bingo

2010 February 7
Posted by nixon727@gmail.com

bingo-machine Bingo is BIG in this area. The January Bingo in Cormatin (held on the last Sunday of the month) attracts people not only from the town itself but from places as far away as Charolles (60km). Having said that the local villages of Ameugny, St Gengoux-le-Nationale and Cluny provide the bulk of the players.

The big event starts months in advance as members of the Amicale (the organising club) are charged with selling advance bingo cards which are a kind of interactive raffle ticket, to be played on the evening before the real bingo day. As members, we duly sold our allotment of tickets to our friends and family and arrived on the Saturday evening to play bingo on behalf of the people who had bought the 500-odd cards.

As we played, the portable DVD player was “won” by three different people. To determine who would win the prize itself and who would get a consolation prize, lots were drawn. We were excited to find out that one of our friends had one of the winning cards, but sadly they did not win the lottery and so we were told to collect a “terrine” as a consolation prize for our friends the next day. My image of a terrine was one of those large pottery dishes filled with pâté that you seen on deli counters, failing that it could be just the dish itself, in any case I excitedly let them know of their winnings that evening. Imagine my surprise when we collected the “terrine” to see that it was a tiny little glass pot of pâté. Our friends haven’t talked to us since….

terrine Playing bingo is not exactly our cup of tea, so we volunteered to man the bar on the Sunday itself. We had wine, beer, soft drinks and “bugnes” (small deep-fried doughnutty kind of things) to sell. Most of what had been bought in was sold, with the bulk being sold in the 10 minute half-time break. It was rather frantic trying to not only add up the orders, but to relay the price to the waiting customers in understandable French. The rest of the time was dedicated to silent contemplation of the bingo cards with the underlying tension and excitement mounting as the prizes increased in value. The top prize of a Wii was won by a chap from Taizé and I couldn’t help wondering if he was one of the monks!

The whole event raised just under 700 Euros to go towards the old people’s lunch and the kids’ Christmas party. We ended the day by relaxing with a glass of wine, and a chat with the other organisers and the day was duly classified as a success.

Click here to look at the website for the holiday accommodation we have here at La Tuilerie.

Cool Cats of Cormatin

2010 January 31
Posted by nixon727@gmail.com

Following on from the long cat sagas I have written on this blog, we regularly get asked by people who have stayed in the gites or on the campsite what the latest news is on the cat situation. So I thought it was time to give a cat update.

fifi-in-the-snowLittle Fifi, the kitten that arrived in the summer, is amazingly still here! Even though we have been away on holiday twice for about two weeks, she has attached herself to the house and to us and has decided to stay. While we were away different sets of people arrived every couple of days to top-up her food and water and to give her a little cuddle. To our relief on both occasions when we returned, there she was sitting in the middle of the courtyard squeaking away (she still hasn’t quite cracked a meow yet).

In October we briefly had a second cat. Some good friends were returning to England and were looking for a home for Charbon a very sweet big black fluffy thing. We have more than enough room, so as long as Fifi and he could get along, he was welcome. The fateful day arrived. Charbon, in his box, was duly introduced to his new playmate. She was not very impressed but apart from a quick hiss she just decided to ignore him. So far so good. Charbon was to be let out of his box and I was to give them both some food so that they could have their first dinner for two. However, the cage had been opened before I came out of the front door with the two plates of food and the dinner bell. All I saw of him was his black fluffy tail as he leapt over the fence into the forest and freedom, too quick for Cees to get a photo and never to be seen again. We have gained and lost a number of cats over the last couple of years, but this was the quickest!

So, this is a message to all you visitors to the area, whether you are in Cormatin, Ameungy, Taizé or Cluny and you see a big black fluffy lost-looking cat that answers to the name of Charbon, let us know and we’ll come and get him. In the meantime Fifi is alone with us again, crawling all over Cees’ shoulders, letting him pretend he is a pirate for a few minutes every day - Long John Silver eat your heart out.
cees-and-fifi long-john-silver

For the other blogs on the cats click here, here and here.

La Tuilerie Website

Mulled Wine on a Sunday Afternoon.

2010 January 25
Posted by nixon727@gmail.com

Having lived out of England now for about 20 years, I still find one of the joys of living in a foreign country is that things are never what you expect them to be. A couple of days ago we were invited for mulled wine and cake by a neighbour in the village of Chazelle at three o’clock Sunday afternoon. We explained that we might be a bit late as we had a lunch appointment, to which we received a Gallic shrug in return, 3 o’clock, 3 thirty no problem. We duly arrived just after 3 after a dash across the French countryside to find aforementioned neighbour’s house locked up, no dog and no neighbour to be seen. Ummmm… Fortunately Chazelle is not that big a place and so we started to wander around until we found a group of neighbours huddling in a wine cellar near the church, drinking what appeared to be mulled wine. With all the confidence we could muster we followed the noise and went in to find our neighbour serving rather hot mulled wine from large saucepans. There was a large table covered in the traditional cakes for this time of year the Galette des Rois (Kings’ cake) and everyone was busily chatting away and tucking into wine and cake. So what we thought was a quiet visit to a neighbour’s house turned out to be a village party!

galette-des-roisOne of Chazelle’s residents is a retired Pâtissier (confectioner) and he of course supplies all the amazing desserts for village parties. He had made the Galettes des Rois for the occasion, beautiful puff pastry pies filled with confectioners custard, very lightly flavoured with almond, nothing like the supermarket cakes which have a heavily flavoured filling that is dense enough to sink a battle ship. But the real excitement about the cake is that there is a “fève” hidden inside it. Fève is just the French word for a broad bean and traditionally a broad bean was put in the cake, but nowadays the fève is a plastic, metal or in our case a porcelain figure roughly the size a of a broad bean.

The person who has the fève in his or her piece of cake is the king for the day. In my best attempt to blend into the background, the last thing I wanted Cees or me to do was find the bean. I spotted the piece it was in and carefully guided Cees not to take that piece, phew! On the next round of cake (there were 8 in total enough to feed about 100 people with only 20 residents in our village) I was too involved in conversation to be careful, and before I could take a bite into the galette, I spotted the bean in my piece, oh no.. fevestoo late to put it back on the plate, what should I do? I carefully ate around the fève and delicately put the little figure into my napkin waiting to see if anyone had noticed. No one. Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted one of neighbours surreptitiously putting a figurine on to the serving plate, so whilst no one was watching, mine went that way too.

The galette des Rois is in fact supposed to be served to summon the kings for the Epiphany, so ours was a bit late, but none the less tasty. Originally the cake was divided into as many pieces as the number of guests plus one extra. The extra piece called “God’s piece”, “The Virgin Mary’s piece” or the “piece for the poor” was given to the poor after party. We ended up taking home half a cake so they must think we are very poor!

Just a little bit of trivia, possibly because of the separation of church and state or possibly because the French population don’t want the president being King for any amount of time, etiquette says that the President of France is not allowed to “summon the kings”. Being France of course he can’t miss out on an edible delicacy, so he has a special Galette des Rois delivered to the Elysée Palace every year which has no fève in it. Maybe that is an idea for next year’s party, because during the whole time we were there, no one admitted to having found a fève in their piece of cake!

La Tuilerie Website

Gougères

2010 January 18
Posted by nixon727@gmail.com

snowAt this time of year when you are snowed in, like we have been for the last week, I use the time to try out new recipes and in particular to try and perfect local dishes. The French are big on cheese in all regions but we in Burgundy sadly only have two AOC cheeses, so it is a bit strange that one of the most popular local delicacies is in fact a cheese choux pastry recipe called Gougère.

At an apératif evening the other day I got talking to the local ladies about these lovely little tasty morsels and I ended up with a host of different recipes, handed down from Grand Mère - bien sûr! I’ve pulled together the essence of all these recipes and here is the result which works quite well I must say.

60ml water gougeres
200ml milk
80g butter
Salt and freshly ground pepper
140g flour
4 eggs
180g grated cheese (Gruyère is the best)

Heat the milk, water and butter in saucepan gently stirring until the butter is melted and the mixture just comes to the boil. Add salt and pepper and all the flour and stir vigorously until the dough is smooth and comes together in a ball then remove from the heat and allow to rest for a couple of minutes.

Add the eggs one at a time (most important) and mix them in quickly, the mixture does look a bit curdled but it will be OK. Make sure each egg is fully mixed in before adding the next one. You can do this in a food processor, but it is relatively easy by hand. Let the dough (and your arm) rest for about 5 minutes. Add half to two thirds of the cheese and stir it in. Let the dough rest again, this time in the fridge, for about 1 hour. I am told it can be kept covered, at this point, for up to 3 days.

Preheat the oven to 200°C.

Put rounded teaspoonfuls of the dough on grease-proof baking sheets or baking sheets covered in baking paper. To make more “professional” but boringly uniform gougères, you can use a pastry bag or plastic bag with the corner cut off to pipe the dough on to the baking sheet. Scatter with the remaining cheese and bake for 20 – 25 minutes. They should be golden brown.

Homemade gougères are best served warm, and if you are making them in advance, you either prepare them and cook right before your guests arrive, or you can reheat them in a low oven for 5-10 minutes before serving.

Some people stuff them with cream cheese mixtures, prawns or salmon just to add a bit extra, but I find that homemade ones go soggy if left stuffed and uneaten for too long. So give it a go and just eat them warm, straight from the oven. Bon appétit!

La Tuilerie Website

Le Tour de France

2010 January 10
Posted by nixon727@gmail.com

La Tuilerie Website

winner-1903 Le Tour is a national institution if ever there was one. The whole country gets excited as it winds its way through the highways and byways of this great country. The original Tour was done by a group of sixty young men in 1903 who set off on their bikes from Montgeron (just outside Paris) for a six stage 2428 km race round France, but only 21 arrived back in Paris 19 days later. They had no back-up teams, no following trailers, no spare bikes, you feel hungry, you stop and eat the sandwiches which you have prepared yourself that morning, you get a puncture you sit down at the side of the road and fix it, now that is real racing!

In 2009 there were 20 teams of 9 riders travelling 3459.5km spread over 21 stages and 23 days with 156 finishers. These men are supported by huge quantities of people who feed and water them on the move, give them a new bike when they have a puncture or another technical problem, talk to them through ear pieces to tell them to slow down, move forward, pull over what ever the tactics of the moment dictate to make sure that they and their teams come in with the right number of points, not too many and not too few. There are big bucks these days, not just the honour, sad but true.

tourdefrancelogoLe Tour starts in a different place each year, but for many years has ended in the Champs-Élysées in Paris. The journey is not a continuous one around the roads of France anymore, Le Tour hops and jumps from place to place, sometimes the riders are bussed and sometimes flown between the finish of one day and the start of the next, thus allowing a number of different routes to be chosen each year. But everywhere they go there is a BIG party. Le Tour transforms the French roads and villages it passes through for a brief but exciting moment in time.

Moving Le Tour outside the borders of France was done for the first time in 1954. Le Grand Départ was in Amsterdam and the first stage was from there to Antwerp. This Tour passed through the streets of Delft on July 8th that year where a little Cees had his first view of the circus that surrounds Le Tour. This coming year (2010) Le Tour will have its Grand Départ again in The Netherlands as it sets off from Rotterdam. The so called “Prologue” will be a race around the city itself and the next day (4th July) the first stage will be from Rotterdam to Brussels.

tourdefrance-cormatinTo travel in a circle around France it is almost impossible not to travel through Burgundy. In 2006, Le Tour came to Mâcon and turned the city upside down as the riders raced up and down the main boulevard in a very exciting finish to the 18th stage. In 2007 Le Tour came even closer to us by passing through Cormatin itself in the 6th stage and in 2010 Le Tour will be just down the road starting the 7th stage on July 10th in Tournus. We have some trusty campers who come every year to stay with us when Le Tour is nearby and who knows maybe we will see all of you guys and gals again and possibly some new faithful followers next summer!

La Tuilerie Website

New Year in taizé

2010 January 1
Posted by nixon727@gmail.com

La Tuilerie Website

taize-snowTaizé is deserted by the monks at then end of each year. Only the monks too old or infirm to travel and a skeleton staff of so called “permanents” (young volunteers who live all year round in Taizé) and one or two other monks remain. The week spanning the new year is the one week in the year that no one can stay in the Communauté. The services still go on, but are usually held in the tiny Romanesque church in the village itself, much as all the winter services used to be up until about 15 years ago. All of the rest of the monks will have gone off to the annual European Taizé meeting. This is all part of the “pilgrimage of trust on earth” initiated by Frère Roger over 30 years ago.

Frère Roger did not want to create a cult or a following around the community in Taizé and his idea of the “pilgrimage of trust” was for each person who visists Taizé to go home and live out what he or she has learned whilst in Taizé. Hopefully they will have an increased awareness of themselves and of others and they will have picked up many practical things they can do within their own environment. This learning is often reinforced by these young people coming together on a regular basis for so called Taizé prayer meetings, but then they go back to their local churches and to their own community and live out the “pilgrimage of trust”.

Brother Alois is quoted as saying taize7“Many people spread across the earth are taking part in the “pilgrimage of trust” in their daily lives. … Sometimes we have to go towards new horizons, far away or nearby, to discover the hope of the Gospel over and over again. Our world, where so much suffering wreaks havoc, needs women and men who radiate God’s peace by their lives. So let us make courageous decisions to go forward on the road of love and trust.”

Every year since 1978 for five days at the end of one year and start of the next, the European meeting takes place. This time thirty thousand young people arrived in Poznań, Poland on the 29th December. They are housed with host families and they have been attending morning services in one of the 150 host churches that is near to their accommodation. In the mornings, they take part in a program organised by that parish and then they travel to the exhibition centre housing the event in Poznań itself for the mid-day service, lunch, afternoon workshops on faith and social topics and then the evening meal and evening prayer, returning to their accommodation at the end of the day.

In mid-September the preparation centre was set up in Poznań, a lorry load of furniture, computers and other equipment necessary to set up this centre arrived. ptaize-poznan-logoTen permanents and a handful of brothers of the Taizé Community and sisters of St. Andrew also arrived. They have been working with the local representatives to get this event off the ground. The shear logistics of accommodating, transporting and feeding such a large crowd is mind-blowing. One should not underestimate the amount of people involved. Mâcon, the capital of our département Saône-et-Loire, has just over 30,000 inhabitants, so this event will have housed, transported, fed and ministered to a crowd almost the size of the population of Mâcon. Quite incomprehensible.

I don’t know they do it, but the brothers are used to managing large crowds and getting things done. Even when away from home, their day is regulated by prayer and meditation and this sustains them over the three month marathon of organisation. It is through the giving and sharing required during the organisation of and the taking part in, one of these European meetings, that is the essence of Frère Roger’s initiative. To pull off an event like this, everyone has to agree to put aside any differences they may have and break down any barriers blocking their paths and in doing so they will enrich themselves and the others around them. That is the heart of the “pilgrimage of trust”.

The logo has been taken from the Taizé website. Copyright © Ateliers et Presses de Taizé, 71250 Taizé, France.

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Christmas comes but once a year

2009 December 26
Posted by nixon727@gmail.com

La Tuilerie Website

chazelle-christmasChristmas again, I can tell that because it has snowed leaving the countryside white all around, but more importantly, the Decorations are out. I use the capital letter deliberately to show my respect for this wondrousness of this festive tradition. The Chazelle Decorations are to be admired and bewondered for their truly magnificent decorativity. The tree stands proudly next to the council notice board in the middle of the village and next to the tree is a wooden box about 6 foot high resembling an upright coffin. Inside this box is a Father Christmas half sitting, half standing next to a little nativity scene – rather mixed messages there but who cares, we need to cover all angles. So that is Chazelle Decorated for another year.

Many houses round here glitter and flicker with the most amazing array lights and Decorations and exude an excess of true tastelessness, from dancing reindeer to Father Christmases dangling from ropes looking like they have been hung from the gallows, but the huge inflatable Father Christmas I have seen on someone’s balcony really takes the prize!

cormatin-chsitmasCormatin on the other hand has beautifully hand-made wooden models each year. Monsieur G makes these models himself and they are of amazing quality. Each year the collection grows and I must say I look forward to seeing the new models each year. Last year he came up with a model of the Château which lights up at night and is a very good copy indeed.

nativity-sceneThis year’s new addition is a nativity scene, complete with Mary, Joseph and the baby of course, but also the three wise men and the shepherds, not to mention the animals, a cat, a cow, a donkey, a camel, two sheep and a ram and reindeer both with beautifully shaped horns/antlers. They are not full size, but not far off.

So my vote goes to Monsieur G, keep up the good work and I for one am waiting to see what he comes up with next year.

A Nation in Mourning

2009 December 19
Posted by nixon727@gmail.com

La Tuilerie Website

Friday evening the first 20 minutes of the 30 minute news were dedicated to Johnny Hallyday. Saturday evening the first 10 minutes were dedicated to Johnny Hallyday. The whole of the front page of the local newspaper on Saturday was dedicated to Johnny Hallyday. Sunday evening the first 5 minutes of the news were dedicated to Johnny Hallyday.

A number of questions may arise from my faithful readers, who is Johnny Hallyday? and what has happened that elicits so much attention from this great nation?

johnny-hallyday Johnny Hallyday is a national icon, in a country where religion and state are strictly separated, he is a god for the masses. He first started making pop/rock records in 1959 and is still on tour today (albeit on his 3rd final tour). His face appears on the posters of the gossip magazines every week, quite a feat for just one individual. The ins and outs of his many marriages, his latest child, his latest divorce and any other titbit is chewed over and regurgitated. However, one has to have some respect for someone with a career spanning 4 decades and still making records that attract an audience of all ages, not just the aging baby boomers and the born-too-laters.

But the current hype and exposure is unprecedented, so what has happened? Johnny was admitted into hospital in Los Angeles with a post operational infection. His French medical team have flown to Los Angeles, the whole of his extended family and many stars in the French music business have flown to be with him, even one of his ex-wives has arrived. This must be truly serious! We are however, reassured by the reporter in the hospital that all his vitals are fine, all his organs are fine, the infection is under control and everyone expects him to make a full recovery. Tuesday evening on the news it was reported that the president, Nicholas Sarkosy, has been in touch with the family and Johnny is going to be all right, the nation can now rest easy. Storm in a teacup? Who knows, but the media has given up its reporting of him and we are back to trivial items, like the climate conference in Copenhagen and the search for a mass murder.

For a few days the French media was in a frenzy. We are just left as bemused observers, wondering what on earth will happen if he dies?

Rotten Wine

2009 December 13
Posted by nixon727@gmail.com

vignerons_de_buxyA few years ago the Vignerons de Buxy (our local wine merchant in St Gengoux le National) decided to experiment by making “Rotten” wine. The wine is however not rotten, just the grapes. This type of wine (commonly called late harvest wine) is made from grapes that have been allowed to rot on the vine. It sounds disgusting, but apparently it is a well known way of making an exquisitely sweet dessert wine.

By leaving the grapes on the vine two processes take place. Firstly the grapes develop a higher sugar content as they dry on the vines and secondly a fungus (botrytis cinerea) develops on the grapes which alters the acidity of the grapes further strengthening the sweetness. The grapes need to be picked very carefully by hand and processed immediately. The wine is prepared and then has to be aged before being drunk.

This year’s harvest has just been completed and because of the weather we have had, 2009 is expected to be the best year yet for Buxy late harvest wine, but we’ll have to wait until 2011 for that one. This year we will have to be content with the 2007 vintage which is just about to go on sale.

La Tuilerie Website

Roses

2009 December 7
Posted by nixon727@gmail.com

Our own Website

roses2Friday evening, one week ago, and we were making paper roses in the village hall. Stacks of crêpe paper were put on the table along with little piles of wire and the lesson began. Fold and turn, fold and turn, go slowly to create a loose flower vaguely resembling a rose, too tight and you end up with a tulip! When the flower is done, you wind one of the little bits of wire around the base to secure, leaving a tail of wire for something or other. This is an annual occurrence and of course the old hands had brought their pliers, we just ended up with very painful fingers. 360 roses were created by the stalwarts of Cormatin that evening. It was however, a mystery to us what the roses were for, something about selling a real rose and getting a paper rose or visa-versa in any case I wouldn’t be too happy to spend 1 Euro on one of the paper roses we had just made…

Yesterday morning we turned up as instructed outside the church at 08.00 to erect stalls to be used to sell cakes, books, DVDs, Christmas flower decorations, mulled wine, waffles and of course roses. All in aid of the Téléthon, a nation-wide televised fund raising event for so called “orphan” sicknesses, ie illnesses that are rare and receive very little or no state funding, which surprisingly enough affect 1 in 20 of the population. christmas-stall-telethon We buzzed off homewards at 10.00, still none the wiser about the paper rose issue, instructed to return to help out after lunch. We popped in to get a newspaper so that we could sit down in the warmth at home, with our feet up, for a couple of hours. Whilst performing this usually simple transaction, we were confronted by the lady in the newsagent and told in no uncertain terms that we should buy some tickets off her for 5 Euros 50 each and go back to the Téléthon and collect two portions of “Petit Salé” - absolutely delicious she was having hers for lunch. Back to collect our food parcels and eventually we made it home.

As an aside the “Petit Salé” did indeed turn out to be delicious, mixed pork meats (two types of sausage, thick cut streaky bacon, slice of roast pork) on a bed of deliciously flavoured lentils. I’ll have to get the recipe and post it one day.

On our return after lunch, I was ushered behind the mulled wine stall where I spent the next few hours burning my hands ladling this boiling liquid into plastic cups, no wonder they talked us into this!

Cees however, had time to take photos for posterity and all was revealed about the roses. At last! telethon-2009 I was even allowed a few minutes off from Mulled Wine duty to inspect the wonder myself. A giant Téléthon logo made out of florists’ oasis, was standing beside the stall selling roses. Every time a rose was sold, a paper one was placed in the logo as a measure of sales, with the aim to fill the whole logo by the end of the day. The little boy charged with the onerous duty of placing the paper roses had either misunderstood his task or got bored of standing around in the cold and he had filled the whole logo long before the roses had gone, ah well it made a nice photo.

After listening to the little accordion players who turned up to entertain the faithful, we left late-afternoon, relieved of our duty to dismantle the whole affair because of a previous engagement. Another successful Téléthon day in Cormatin and for us yet another enjoyable day with the people who are slowly becoming our friends.

La Tuilerie Website

No More Horses in Cluny?

2009 November 29
Posted by nixon727@gmail.com

La Tuilerie Website

haras1Cluny and horses go together. Since Napoleon re-established The Haras Nationaux (National Studs) and built one of the establishments on the grounds of the abbey in Cluny, Cluny has been inextricably linked with horses. One of his reasons for building in Cluny was to prevent the re-building of the once powerful abbey, but in reality it transformed Cluny. Cluny was able to leave its faded-glory days behind and became an important horse town.

The Haras Nationaux were created by decree on 4th July 1806. The country was split up into 6 so called “arrondissements” each of which had 1 stud and several depots totalling 36 establishments throughout the country, all involved in producing horses for the military. Of the 36 establishments created by Napoleon, only 12 are left with Cluny being one of the oldest and most established.

The changes over the years have seen the Haras Nationaux move away from their military role and develop and adapt with the times. The core thrusts today concentrate not only on breeding horses, but also on horsemanship, horse racing and horse championships. haras3Because of that, Cluny has a thriving Hippodrome where flat racing, harness trotting and steeple chasing take place in the many meetings per year and numerous private riding stables and private breeders have sprung up to meet the increasing demand from the public for horses for leisure purposes. The most recent addition has been the Équivallée - a show jumping venue next door to the Haras. The creation of this facility was meant to cement the future of horses in Cluny. The General Council of Saône-et-Loire committed a total of eight million Euros to finance the infrastructure of Équivallée in 2005 and in May 2009, the first phase was completed which included an all-weather ring and a safe and secure area for visiting horses to be stabled. So far just under 2.5 million Euros has been invested and the second phase, which involves building a large stable complex, is expected for 2010. The Équivallée is rapidly becoming one of the most popular show jumping venues in France because of its facilities and location.

haras2 Having said all that, prior to all this investment, in 2003, a new government policy was announced which had the objective of altering the fundamental structure of the Haras. Last spring, the merger between the Haras Nationaux and the École Nationale d’Équitation (the school set up to train the Cadre Noir [the elite of the French cavalry]) was announced and it will become effective on 1 January 2010. The merger will result in the creation of a single public institution for the horse industry and for horse riding in France. To be effective and efficient, this will mean closures around the country. There are currently 22 Haras Nationaux in France and one huge site of the École Nationale d’Équitation, which on its own is as big as, if not bigger than, 3 or 4 of the Haras sites put together. Something will have to give and the threat of closure of the Haras at Cluny is real and raises serious concerns for the area.

But what will become of the public investment in Équivallée if the Haras is closed? This new site has become a good source of jobs for the area and it provides a significant income for the town. The closure of the Haras at Cluny could force the General Council of Saône-et-Loire to re-think its investment plans and that could deal a fatal blow to Équivallée and it will be disastrous for the local horse breeders and for the development of equine tourism in the area.

So will Cluny lose its horses? I don’t know, but if the locals have anything to do with it, the Haras won’t be shut down! Watch this space.

Petra

2009 November 21
Posted by nixon727@gmail.com

Petra

06siq-2009-11-04_13 It seems no work of Man’s creative hand,
By labour wrought as wavering fancy planned;
But from the rock as if by magic grown,
Eternal, silent, beautiful, alone!
Not virgin-white like that old Doric shrine,
Where erst Athena held her rites divine;
Not saintly-grey, like many a minster fane,
That crowns the hill and consecrates the plain;
But rose-red as if the blush of dawn,
That first beheld them were not yet withdrawn;
The hues of youth upon a brow of woe,
Which Man deemed old two thousand years ago.
Match me such marvel save in Eastern clime,
A rose-red city half as old as time.

07treasury-2009-11-04_01 John William Burgon (1845)

This poem inspired a little girl with long dark ringlets living on a little farm in South Wales, seventy years ago. It fired her imagination and made her want to travel and although she travelled throughout the world she never managed to get to Petra, until last week. And that is how I went there as well. The little girl was my Mum and at the age of seventy nine she finally achieved her dream with me and Cees in tow. We were not disappointed.

Jordan, the land of John the Baptist, the Crusades, the Greek, Roman and Ottoman Empires, Lawrence of Arabia, spice trade routes, rocks and deserts and magic0911-petra-treasury; what a place. An earthquake many thousands of years ago tore the rocks apart to create a canyon (the Siq) which you walk through to access the ancient city of Petra. The city, carved out of the multi-coloured rock face, reveals itself when you emerge at the end of the long walk through the canyon.

Match me such marvel save in Eastern clime,
A rose-red city half as old as time.


What more can I say?

Deportee’s Memorial, Cormatin - Bois Dernier

2009 November 15
Posted by nixon727@gmail.com

Another wreath laying day has come to France. Armistice Day is a public holiday here and at 11 o’clock in the morning on the 11th of November, the signing of the Armistice, marking the end of the First World War, is remembered. Well over fifty of Cormatin’s residents attended, which is the most we have seen at any of the ceremonies. Maybe Sarkozy launching his debate on national values had an effect on numbers, who knows.

091111-memorialThis year there was a double celebration in Cormatin when the 60th anniversary of the erection of the Deportee’s memorial was also celebrated. To mark the occasion, the memorial has a new inscription and a large flagpole has been placed behind the memorial which will fly the French flag continuously. The inscription reads:

“Nous sommes libres, notre drapeau flotte à nouveau, ils ont fait don de leur vie”

“We are free, our flag flies anew, they gave their lives”

It is quite incredible to think that there are still people around who remember those events and the session in a local bar after the ceremonies always brings up stories of the war when Cormatin (which was in Vichy “free” France) came directly under German occupation, the deportations, the executions, the pain and suffering of the adults but more poignantly the children - now well into their sixties and seventies. Quite a sobering event, even considering the amount of Kir being drunk.

La Tuilerie Website

Bells and Bells

2009 November 8
Posted by nixon727@gmail.com

La Tuilerie Website

Anyone would think that I am obsessed with bells, but they are fascinating things and I am not the only one who notices the bells around here. One of our neighbours was telling how she could no longer hear the sound of the Taizé bells through her new double glazing. It was suggested by the rest of the company present that as she lived next door to Chazelle church, they would go out in the morning and ring those bells for her instead.

However, at the moment it’s not possible to ring the Chazelle bell. During Madame P’s funeral quite recently the solemn bell ringer was charged with ringing to bell to call the mourners to the mass, imagine his surprise when all of a sudden he was hit on the head by the bell rope that had detached itself from the bell and now had the aforementioned rope wrapped around his neck. In a church that can barely seat eighty people, this happened in full view of the whole congregation and set off giggles rather inappropriate to the occasion.

This little story brought a lot of laughter to our gathering as well and set Monsieur B off, reminiscing about funerals in Chazelle. He reminded the avid listeners of his own father’s funeral where no one could get up to the church because of the snow leaving his father stranded at the bottom of the hill because the hearse didn’t have snow chains. Everyone in the village had to chip in with digging a path to get his father up to the church. Not exactly what you want to do in your Sunday best. However, Monsieur B saved his best funeral story for last.

It is common here for people who have moved away to return to be buried in their family grave and this was exactly the wish of Monsieur S who had spent the last years of his life near his son in Paris. His funeral was to be in Chazelle and on the appointed day at three o’clock in the afternoon, the priest and mourners arrived. Monsieur S however, was nowhere to be found. By four o’clock the priest was getting restless, saying that something should be done to find Monsieur S. The funeral directors in Paris were called and yes he was on his way, in fact he had left at nine o’clock that morning and even with the Parisian traffic problems, he should have arrived before lunch. Frantic phone calls to the hearse revealed that Monsieur S and his pallbearers were indeed in Chazelle, but they just couldn’t find the funeral. Now considering that Chazelle has only three streets connected in a triangle and consists of about twenty house and a church, this all seemed a bit far fetched, even people who forget to bring their instructions as to how to find us never spend more than about 10 minutes in Chazelle before someone gives them directions.

This story all boils down to the beauty of a satellite navigation systems. All you have to do is type in where you want to go and you get there. Cormatin is easy, there is only one Cormatin in France, but there are a couple of villages called Chazelle and also some called Chazelles. It is a pity that the funeral director didn’t check which Département he need to go to before he set off on that fateful morning, but Chazelles in Département Puy-de-Dôme is not very close to Chazelle in Saône-et-Loire in fact it is about 200km away.

Now the priest and mourners were really getting restless. Let’s have the funeral anyway and maybe Monsieur S will be here in time for the burial. But how do you have a funeral for someone who’s not there? Brilliant idea, a relation in the village had a large portrait of Monsieur S on his wall, we can put that up near the altar, surround it with candles for a bit of extra ambiance and it will be almost as good as the man himself. Off to get the portrait which was duly placed in position and the mass commenced. The priest in full flow waving his incense around bashed into the portrait which went flying smashing the frame and sending some of the candles across the church. Quick repairs to the portrait and the mass ended without further incident but totally without Monsieur S. The burial however, had to wait from him to arrive which he finally did at nine o’clock that night. The priest returned to do the honours, but most of the mourners were long gone.

The moral of the story, don’t mention your double glazing over a glass of wine unless you want to set someone off on a story telling session and think before you use your sat nav. It is a pity Monsieur S’s hearse had not used the instructions of how to get to Chazelle on our website, at least we could have directed them back to the church, if they had overshot.

For instructions as to how to get here click here.

Chicken in Cream

2009 November 2
Posted by nixon727@gmail.com

La Tuilerie Website

Bresse chickens the finest in the world

Bresse chickens the finest in the world

Back on to one of my favourite subjects – food. I love trying out all regional dishes. We are just on the edge of the country’s biggest chicken farming area, the Bresse, so chicken is one of the local specialities. The Bresse chicken is the first animal/meat to be awarded its own AOC (in 1957) which means that the farming of these birds is strictly regulated and they can only be reared in the Bresse itself. During the bird flu scare a couple of years ago, all the chickens in the country had to be kept indoors to prevent migrating birds contaminating the human food chain. This caused enormous problems for the Bresse. Part of the AOC rules for Bresse chickens is that they spend a large proportion of their time outside and there are at least 10 m^2 available for each bird. These rules had to be modified temporarily whilst the outdoor ban was on and that caused and uproar around here. This chicken is said to be the finest in the world and commands a suitably high price.

This recipe is chicken in cream. It is very filling and fattening, but very nice. I don’t make this dish with Bresse chicken although maybe I should try it!

Bon appétit!

Click for my recipe for Boeuf Bourgingnon

1 chicken portioned or 2kg of chicken bits
1 onion (chopped)
100g button mushrooms (sliced thinly)
4 whole cloves of garlic
1 litre cream
100g butter
2/3 bottle of white wine (dry)
1 bay leaf
1 bunch of thyme
seasoning
Salt and pepper the chicken pieces, fry in the butter on a medium heat until light brown. Add the onions, mushroom, garlic and herbs and cook for a further 5 - 10 mins. Add the whilte wine stir to release any residues from the bottom of the pan, reduce to half, then add the cream, cover and simmer for 30 mins. I fish the garlic cloves and herbs out, put the chicken surrounded by the onion and mushroom directly on the plates, then quickly “whizz” the sauce (check for seasoning) then pour over the chicken to serve.

The Cheese Tower

2009 October 25
Posted by nixon727@gmail.com

091022-fromageIn Cluny there is a tower called the Tour de Fromage, the Cheese Tower. A fascinating name for a brick structure. You have to pay to climb up the tower and see the marvellous view over the town, so imagine our excitement when the local paper announced free entry on Sunday 3rd October. We discussed when to go to avoid the crowds and decided that about eleven o’clock would be the best time. So there we were in front of the doors of the Tourist Information Office which give access to the tower and to our dismay the doors were locked. How is this possible? A big notice on the doors explained all “We are sorry that due to circumstance not of our making, an error appeared in the Journal de Saône et Loire [the aforementioned local paper]. The free visit to the Cheese Tower was on Saturday 3rd October not Sunday 3rd October as published, we apologise for any inconvenience”. Having been in Cluny on Saturday and not visited the Cheese Tower because it was free the next day I was rather fromaged off to say the least.

Never mind, there is always the chance to try out a different restaurant in Cluny, a bit early, but if we walk to the Bio-restaurant near the station that some friends had recommended, we will work up an appetite and be there at lunch time. Not our day, that was closed too. Ah well back to Casse Croute as per usual for the best chips in town.

Well the Cheese Tower now had to be visited as a matter of principle. So back we were in Cluny today our 2 Euros entrance fee in hand and we climbed the stairs and we climbed and we climbed it is a LONG way up. The view was worth the walk, the top of the tower gives a spectacular panoramic view over Cluny and the surrounding hills. A clever “gadget” (which they also have a couple of in the Abbey by the way) superimposes the ancient Abbey church on a live camera view of the market below. You really think that the abbey is there and wow did that building dominate the town!

After admiring the view for a bit we started down the stairs which are very steep indeed. Not something to be done by two people who have a fear of heights and won’t go above three rungs on a ladder. When we finally got to the bottom after having to stop a number of times to let the less wimpish to overtake us. Both of us arrived at the bottom with trembling hands and wobbly legs. Off to the kebab shop to recover.

PS. I don’t know why it is called the Cheese Tower, in all the excitement I forgot to ask.

Taizé Pottery

2009 October 19
Posted by nixon727@gmail.com

My Website

The monks in Taizé accept no money, no donations, no inheritance absolutely nothing, not one penny, they earn their own way in life. This attitude is very different to other religious orders who rely on donations, great benefactors, some have land and therefore income or they just expect their parishioners to pay for their services.

I had never really though about it before, but take today’s ministers of all denominations, they have a salary from their church. They are paid to counsel the parishioners, to run the church and its services. The monks of Taizé are counsellors to the young who need help, they guide bible study sessions, they assist in study groups and they run the services three times a day, but they still expect no income from that side of their lives - they do other work for a living. They have a press where they publish books, cards, posters, they make lovely enamelled dove-shaped Taizé crosses as well as other pendants and they make pottery.

The pottery is stunning in its simplicity which give it a style and beauty all of its own. You can buy a whole dinner service or you can buy the pieces which are “stand-alone”. Most notably the candle holders and the oil lamps. It all sound a bit twee and amateurish, but the quality and style of the pieces are a match to and are, one could argue, better than many of the other artisans in the area. Their aim is to “produce objects for daily use with prices everyone can afford” a goal they certainly achieve. Most of their pieces are “stoneware” with some objects cast using a porcelain paste, the lamps are made this way.

Stoneware glazes are formed by the fusion of mixtures of various minerals at high temperatures. Some are coloured by adding pigments such as iron oxides that produce ivory, green, black and brown glazes, cobalt or copper for blue and violet, titanium for orange-yellow. The glazes sometimes include vegetable ash composed of the minerals the plants drew from the ground.

Frère Daniel started the pottery workshop in the early days of Taizé and together with Frère Lutz, the pottery production has flourished over the years. Most of the work is done in the winter months when there are few visitors and then the workshops become factory-like in their scale of production. In fact some of preparation and initial firing of the pottery is done in conjunction with neighbouring potters as the demand for the pottery becomes too great for the monks to keep up with. The shop in Taizé is bursting with pottery in the days leading up to Easter, but by October, it is looking distinctively empty.

Some of the monks work in the pottery workshops all year round and when full production is not going on, they have the time to be more creative in their output In particular, this autumn, Frère Daniel is exhibiting his more creative works called “Metamorphoses” in Paris at the Compagnie de la Chine et des Indes. Click here for details of the exhibition which runs until the end of October.

Earlier this year Frère Lutz exhibited his pottery alongside the collages and aquarelles of Frère Stephen in Mâcon at the Galerie Mary-Ann. For more details of work in exhibitions check-out the Taizé website click here, they are usually announced on this page, but if nothing is there go to the books, CDs, DVDs.

But I like the simple stoneware dinner services, cups, bowls, plates and the lamps. For many people who stay with us, these are essential souvenirs to take home and something to use all year round. They make beautiful gifts for family and friends or in my case just as a treat for myself.

La Tuilerie Website

Aching Feet

2009 October 12
Posted by nixon727@gmail.com

In Cormatin we have a few big events in the year. “Guitares en Cormatinois” a series of concerts in the local churches generally around the theme of guitars, “Les Rendez-vous de Cormatin” a theatrical and musical events based in the Château, then we have the 14th July brocante and the bingo evening in the winter, but the biggest event of the year is the Randonnée de Cormatin which attracts a large number of people every year to follow the walks that have been laid out.

091011-randoneeEach one of these events has its own committee and sturdy group of followers that are needed to organise the event and make it a success. We volunteered to help out with the randonnée and were taken up on that challenge this weekend. So at seven thirty Saturday morning, before the sun was up, we were at St Roch hall, the gathering place for the organisers. Fresh brioche arrived from the baker and small strong coffees were served to fortify us for our task. There were five different walks, 7, 13, 20 & 30 km and each walk had its own colour. To complete the walk you follow the arrows on the ground and as long as you stay alert, you end up back where you started. Some randonnées are marked out better than others, on some we have been horribly lost, but the Cormatin walk is always done well. We had a big responsibility on our shoulders as we were split up into teams, armed with cans of different coloured spray paint and we were driven to our respective starting points. We had ten kilometres to mark-up with yellow and orange paint. So on this damp morning, there we were, spraying the roads of the villages around Cormatin with arrows to show the right way to go and crosses to show where not to go, all done for the walkers who might or might not turn up on what was predicted to be a very wet Sunday.

A lunch was prepared for the workers and was served at twelve in St Roch hall. Lunch is not a meal to be rushed, it is not just a sandwich and a beer, oh no, we are in France, this is a serious meal. We decided to leave the car at home and walk into Cormatin for the lunch, as we suspected that a few glasses of wine might be consumed. What a meal. The proceedings started with white wine aperitif and nibbles, lots of chat about the morning’s activities and what the weather for the rest of the weekend might be. 091011-roe-deerFor starters, the mayor’s wife had made a delicious salad of chicory leaves with walnuts, ham and cheese cut up into small blocks all covered in a delicious vinaigrette sauce (maybe I’ll be able to get the recipe for the vinaigrette if it is not a family secret). When I saw that Cees was tempted into taking a second helping, I whispered that this was just the starter and not to take too much, he whispered back that I shouldn’t be silly as this was all we were getting. That’s men for you! His eyes popped out of his head when a huge casserole full of venison was placed on the table. The deer had been shot the previous weekend by none other than the mayor himself and donated generously to the randonnée workers for this lunch. It turns out later that the mayor doesn’t eat game, so he was grateful for some enthusiastic consumers. This casserole, not much more complicated than venison cooked for hours in red wine with some herbs, onion and garlic, was absolutely amazing, served very simply with boiled potatoes. Lunch them continued with cheese and finally pears poached in red wine with brioche. All of this liberally washed down with the local brew. The meal started at twelve o’clock and us ladies were finishing the washing-up at three while the men were finishing their coffees. Food is not something to be rushed, it is to be discussed and above all, enjoyed in the company of others. It is a time to swap gossip, get the latest news and to hear stories and what stories! As the wine flowed the stories got better, the ones about the mayor shooting an eighty four kilo wild boar and the funeral with the missing body will have to wait for another blog..

We got home at four o’clock, very merry and very full and just sat in the garden thinking we would never have to eat or drink again.

Sunday and we had to do the walk of course. The previous day’s kilometres had taken their toll on our untrained muscles, but never-the-less we had said we would do the twenty kilometres and so, to preserve our honour, we had to. 091011-restWe arrived at the refreshments post at the half-way point and were greeted with baguettes and ham or sausage, cheese and chocolate and of course wine. That boosted our resolve and off we headed for the second half of the walk. We finally staggered back to St Roch at about two o’clock wishing we had trained better. We were then invited to join the rest of the workers for supper at seven that evening. I must admit I felt a bit guilty about saying yes after the wonderful lunch the previous day and the fact that we hadn’t helped out at all on the Sunday, but why not. The evening was a much simpler affair than Saturday’s lunch, bits of pizza from Pizz’a Marco round the corner, quiche from one of the boulangeries in the high street and left-over bread, ham, cheese and wine from the walk’s refreshment posts. There was lots of chat about the day’s events, despite the dreadful predictions, the weather had been kind, cool and cloudy in the morning and cool but sunny in the afternoon, that brought the locals out and just under 500 had participated in the various walks, all in all not bad. We chatted about the organisation and it looks like we might be on the hit-list for doing more work for the village events. A great way to meet people and get involved, and also a great way to enjoy French food at its best, in the convivial company of our neighbours.

La Tuilerie Website

Local crisis

2009 October 8
Posted by nixon727@gmail.com

Our Website

The N79 between Mâcon and Cluny is a good well maintained road that makes up part of one of the major east-west connections in France, the RCEA (La Route Centre Europe Atlantique). It was announced recently that this section of road is to be turned into a péage (toll road). This will be a blow to people round here who travel to Mâcon for their work, for shopping or like us for the numerous visits to some official office for the business or for the tax office. 091003-sign The locals are up in arms as you could imagine, graffiti (a thing you rarely see around here) has started to appear on the bridges over the road, the first road-side signs have been put up and emails are flying around between interested parties.

We are on a emailing list for events in Cluny and this email list has been high-jacked by one of the groups campaigning against the road. We have received numerous boring mails about our liberties being infringed and our local taxes being diverted to the nation, all culminating in the feeling that the world will come to an end when the toll is imposed. Don’t get me wrong I don’t agree either, but maybe I am a bit more English about it, when a decision has been taken you have to comply, moan if you like but it won’t do any good, but the French have a glorious tradition of endless arguing, a lot of arm waving and going on strike. They do campaigns in style!

One of the campaigners has been digging in the historical archives and has come up with some fascinating information. In one particular document (« Paix et communautés autour de l’abbaye de Cluny, Xe - XVe siècle », Didier Méhu, Presses universitaires de Lyon, 2001) there is mention of a “route sans péage”, a non-toll route. In the Middle ages because the feudal lords had effectively been holding travellers to ransom by imposing large tolls on the roads passing through their land, the monks of Cluny became famous for managing to eliminate those tolls along the route from Paray-le-Monial and Nantua - exactly the same stretch of road that is being threatened once again.
091003-route_sans_peageOur trusty campaigner ends his email with the comment “It is thus that the current debate has been preceded by a long battle, started in the XIIth century, to eliminate tolls on this road. This gives formidable historical legitimacy to those who try to preserve this asset against today’s feudal lords: the sharks of capitalism…” With rhetoric like that we are bound to win!

click here to see the original article

La Chasse

2009 October 1
Posted by nixon727@gmail.com

Our website

La chasse (hunting) is an institution in France where the general public is a little closer to the food chain than in either England or The Netherlands. f1Every red-blooded male is out with his gun on a Sunday killing anything that moves. Having said that, la chasse is far more regulated these days than it used to be. By the early 80s there were virtually no wild animals (including little birds) left in the whole country, only cities still had sparrows, everywhere else everything had been blown to pieces by the millions of guns in the possession of the French population. Many accidents occurred killing both other hunters but also unsuspecting walkers out for an Sunday afternoon stroll.

Now all hunts have to registered, supervised and all hunters within the hunting group must wear fluorescent jackets. Also to protect the wildlife, only certain animals can be shot and only at certain times of the year. The result, the forests are filling up with wildlife again and we can once again hear the sound of song birds.

Each animal has its own “chasse” dates from 20th September to 28th February for deer 15th August to 28th February for wild boar, 20th September – 13th December for hare east of Saône, 11th October to 13th December for hare west of the Saône escargot and for pheasant and other game birds 20th September to 31st December, no hunting when there is snow and the local paper reminded hunters that racing pigeons are not wild animals and are protected by the law! However, the Chasse supplement of the local paper did not mention the dates for the most hunted animal in Burgundy. Fortunately during our picnic at Cluny’s Ouvrez les Portes a couple of weeks ago, we were given those dates as well. From the 1st of July until mid February you can hunt snails!

toiletOn the 20th of September (coincidently my birthday), we had to sort out a chasse of our own. It was a drizzly day but worse than that, the toilet in one of the gites had given up the ghost, the chasse (flushing mechanism) needed replacing and with guests arriving that evening, time was of the essence. After lots of water on the floor, lots of cursing and two tons of silicon we had a leak free chasse, just in time for the new guests.

One toilet fixed only three more to go. The start of the chasse season has now taken on a whole new meaning.

Taizé Silence

2009 September 24
Posted by nixon727@gmail.com

La Tuilerie Website

One of the underpinning concepts of Taizé is the use of silence. Each monastic community has a Rule, which is in fact a set of rules by which the community lives. In the Taizé Rule (which is called “The Parable of Community”) Frère Roger wrote that the brothers should “keep inner silence always”. taize-cross1 In the world we live in today there is so much noise and distraction from without and within and he saw the use of “external” silence as the means to achieve “inner” silence and it is this inner silence that “makes possible our conversation with God.”

There are special houses in Taizé for those who want to spend a whole week in silent contemplation, where no word is spoken even around the meal table. The people choosing this type of week only leave the house for the three services a day where they can sing along with the rest, but in principle not one spoken word will pass their lips while they are in Taizé. In the morning a monk or nun will give an explanation of the Bible reading for the day. This is not a discussion, it is merely to give a basis for the day’s contemplation. This type of week is not for the faint-hearted but it enables these people to come to rest, to give them a different and profound experience and to hopefully find that inner silence Frère Roger believed we should all aspire to.

For those seeking silence in smaller doses, there is the old Romanesque church in the village, around the St Etienne well and most of the time there is a room available so that you can spend your mealtimes in silence. Even if you don’t make use of these possibilities, everyone will experience silence during their time at Taizé because silence is an important part of the three daily services.

The first time I experienced the silence was a very strange feeling. There is no clue that the silence is about to start, the prayers stop, no singing starts and silence falls. If you walk around Taizé during the day, there is always chatter and laughter of the thousands of youngsters who are there, but when the silence falls in the church every one of those people is quiet. That could be up to twelve thousand on a Sunday morning and all you hear is an occasional cough but further there is just an enveloping blanket of silence. It seems to go on for ever and not wearing a watch I had no idea how long it was, but my guess was about 5 minutes. The silence is broken by a lone monk whose task it is the bring the congregation back to singing.

taize-candlesI have read many stories of Taizé experiences and the length of the silence seems to cause a lot of discussion. After my original estimate of five minutes, I was perfectly satisfied and never gave it any more thought. But I have been intrigued by others’ experiences and interestingly many believe that the silence is 10 minutes and I read one account where the writer stated that the silence was 20 minutes.

This summer one of our campers was a person who had lived as a volunteer in the community for two years when she was in her twenties. She was returning to show hers kids and her husband the place she had spent so much time. She was telling me of a time when she went to a “Taizé” service near her home town in The Netherlands. Along with the singing there was of course silence. One of the participants was given the responsibility of timing the silence to ensure that it was exactly 7 minutes. The organisers had been to Taizé that summer and had used a stopwatch to time the silence during a service and this information had been brought home with them to ensure that the “rules” were followed correctly. This story amused me intensely as when I took my parents to a service, having warned them that there was a long silence, my Father timed it and agreed that my 5 minute estimate was correct. But it irritated our camper and she never went back for another service at that church and I understand now that she was right, these people had missed the point entirely.

The truth of the matter is that the silence varies in length at every service, the monk responsible for breaking that silence uses his own inner clock to know when to break. Also each individual in the congregation will experience a longer or a shorter silence depending on how restless he or she is inside. Sometimes 2 minutes is too long to be silent and sometimes 20 minutes is not long enough. If you experience the silence as too long, it is because your inner noise is too loud and you are a long way from reaching “inner silence”. So it is not the length of silence that is important, it is the process of silence in itself that matters so that we can all strive to find that “small voice within” which only emerges when we have inner silence and which has, since ancient times, been one of man’s goals no matter what his religion.

Kir

2009 September 19
Posted by nixon727@gmail.com

Canon Kir in offical mayoral gear

Canon Kir in offical mayoral gear

Kir is the local aperitif named after Canon Félix Kir (1876 - 1968) who was not only a priest but an active fighter in the Résistance during the Second World War and later he became the mayor of Dijon. The drink was named after him because he always served it to visitors who attended functions during his time as mayor. Before this time it was known by its original name blanc-cassis.

Kir is 1/3 Crème de Cassis (a local blackcurrent liquer 20 °) and 2/3 Bourgogne Aligoté a local white wine. Nowadays the proportions are more like 1/4 - 3/4 .

If any other white wine is used, the drink reverts to its original name of blanc-cassis.

A whole family of drinks has grown up around the Kir name.

A Kir Royale is made by replacing the wine with Champagne and a Kir Impérial is created by adding a shot of Marc de Bourgogne (the local firewater) to a Kir Royale although some sources say that a Kir Impérial is Champagne and raspberry liquer. If the local sparkling wine Crémant is used it becomes a Kir Téméraire, Crémant from the Alsace makes it a Kir Alsace and if any other type of sparkling wine makes it a Kir Pétillant.

A Communard is made using burgundy red wine instead of white and a Cardinal is made by using a strong red wine instead of white most usually a Bordeaux.

There are many other variations on this theme. The white wine can be replaced to create the following:
Kir Normand - made with Normandy cidre and if you add a shot of Calvados and you get a Cidre Royal
Kir Breton - made with Brittany cidre
Tarantino – or a “Kir-beer” – is made with lager or light ale
Kir Savoyard – made with Rousette de savoie, apremont or abymes
Kir Médocain – made with rosé
Canon Kir also created the Double K when Krushchev visited him in Dijon and it is a normal Kir with a shot of vodka in it.

Staying with Bourgogne Aligoté, the type of liquer can be changed to create:
Kir Mûre using wild backberry liqueur
Kir Peche using peach liqueur.
Kir Lorrain using mirabelle plum liqueur

Changing both elements of the drink and you can get:
Kir Celtique a mix of chouchen (a honey based liquer similar to mead) and muscadet
Kir Pamplemousse using red grapefruit liqueur and sparkling white wine
And finally the most complicated of all
Hibiscus Royal is made with sparkling wine, peach liqueur, raspberry liqueur, and an edible hibiscus flower.

And who ever said an aperatif was easy?

Cluny - La Lumière du Monde.

2009 September 14
Posted by nixon727@gmail.com

La Tuilerie Website

b1The name Cluny is synonymous with the spiritualism of the Middle Ages. The Cluny order exercised a considerable influence on the religious, intellectual, political and artistic lives in the whole of the western world at that time. Guillaume d’Aquitaine founded the Benedictine abbey in 910. The abbey’s growth in both size and power was very rapid. In the 12th century there were about 460 monks in the abbey and Cluny controlled 2500 other abbeys throughout the west.

The first church built on the site of the abbey was constructed in the Carolinian tradition. The second, built over the first in the 11th century was early Romanesque and the final church, Cluny III - built between 1085 and 1130, was a magnificent Romanesque basilica called the St Peter and St Paul Basilica. The church was 177m long, 32m high, it had 5 naves, 2 transepts, 7 towers of which 5 were bell towers and 301 windows. The complex around the church had 4 cloisters and numerous buildings to house the monks and all the other people necessary to maintain the order. St Peter and St Paul Basilica was the largest church is Christendom at that time and has since only be beaten in size by St Peter’s Basilica in Rome, at 184m long, which was completed in 1626 some 500 years after Cluny III was finished. The Basilica and abbey buildings were built to impress and dominate. At the time of its building, Pope Urbain II said to the monks in Cluny “You are the light of the world”. Cluny was invincible and in charge.

However, the Cluny order were becoming too dominant, too important and too rich. There were many forces working against Cluny, most critics were after their power and wealth but others such as St Bernard of Clairvaux condemned the lifestyle of the monks. He in particular felt that the monks’ richness and luxurious lifestyle did not suit the spiritual life they were supposed to be living. It was this way of life that prompted him to found the Cistercian order, which promoted a return to an austere life of physical work, self sufficiency and contemplative spirituality. But it was not until the the 14th century that Cluny’s influence really started to wane and the wars of Religion in the 16th century were the last blow for the church. Between 1793 and 1823 the abbey was sold off literally piece by piece, the stones that once were the great Basilica were used around town and elsewhere in the area as building materials and today all that remains of the Basilica are two towers and a little chapel. The large cloister and some of the other buildings did survive and are now used by the National Stud and the Grande Ecole ENSAM.

clunyNext year 2010 it is the 1100th anniversary of the foundation of this once great and influential abbey and this anniversary is being celebrated throughout Europe at various Clunisien sites. The start of the celebrations was “Ouvrez les portes” held last Sunday where the twelve ancient gates of Cluny were reconstructed. Each gate was given a different colour of the rainbow and these coloured segments were radiated out on a map of Europe symbolically showing Cluny as it was in ancient times as “La Lumière du Monde”. Each village or town in the area was allocated to a gate according to which coloured segment they fell under. We in Cormatin were assigned the Porte de la Chanaise, which was the white gate, the most important gate, the one that included all the colours of the spectrum. We all had to dress in white and bring a picnic to share with our neighbours based on the theme of white. The street leading into town from the gate was decorated in white and was filled with tables ready for the picnic. There were opening speeches, an aperitif with white snacks during which time we all had to sign a letter to be sent out to the countries in our segment (Belgium, The Netherlands and Norway) inviting them to the closing party next September. Then we all walked through the gate symbolising the opening up of the gates to the city and thus opening the 2010 celebrations. Then on to more important and less symbolic things. Picnic time had arrived and all the Cormatinois sat together at the tables we had brought and we shared vast amounts of white food and white wine. After this enormous picnic, cavaliers arrived at each gate to collect our letters and take them out into the world. Then everyone from all the gates formed a multi-coloured human chain around the city. A helicopter zoomed overhead registering the event for posterity. The day went on with more speeches, music and dancing in the Abbey park, but we were too tired after a long day and we cycled home along the Voie Verte.

How many people can you get in a two-person gite ?

2009 September 10
Posted by nixon727@gmail.com

To read details of our gites click here

Sounds a bit like a trick question doesn’t it? But no there do seem to be some individual differences when answering this simple question of arithmetic.

You can sit in the peaceful garden and listen to the birds and look at the flowers

View from a bedroom window looking at the garden where you can sit undisturbed

Our gites are rented out for two people. This keeps the gites a haven of peace and quiet for all the guests who come here. Having said that, with two gites, nothing stops a family from renting both properties and then of course they can have their family around them and will not disturb the other party. I did think, when we started this enterprise, that this was clear and unambiguous, but apparently not.

We have had many requests for three people in a gite – “don’t worry the third person can sleep on the floor” and in our first year we were talked into agreeing to that on a couple of occasions, against our better judgement, and it just doesn’t work. Three people generate more noise than two and when you have two of everything (sleeping places, pillows, towels, chairs etc etc) the third person always comes up short. So after those experiences, we have had our original thoughts confirmed that a two-person gite should be just that, rented out for a maximum of two people.

We regularly get telephone calls from the French saying that they want to rent one of our gites for six people. They seem most baffled when I explain that they are for a maximum of two people – “don’t worry the rest can sleep on the floor”. And early in the year we had one person who wanted to come alone for two weeks but it then emerged that she was coming with her son and daughter for a couple of nights -“don’t worry they can sleep on the floor” and then the following week her daughter’s parents-in-law would come for a few days “don’t worry they can sleep on the floor”. We reminded said person that we have a simple rule – each gite can be rented out for a maximum of two people, above that number both gites need to be rented.

One Monday this year we saw to our surprise an extra unidentified car in the courtyard. Obviously one of our gite guests had visitors, a bit strange that they didn’t tell us when the visitors arrived, but hey they are on holiday. The guests stayed all afternoon and into the evening and then stayed the night. We explained the two-person concept the next day “don’t worry they don’t mind sleeping on the floor”, the extra guests left to find alternative accommodation and the only noises to disturb the peace and quiet went back to being the woodpeckers in the forest and the frogs in the pond.

Boeuf Bourgingnon

2009 September 6
Posted by nixon727@gmail.com

La Tuilerie Website

One of the Charolais cows the source of the best beef in the world.

One of the Charolais cows the source of the best beef in the world.

Every region has its own food specialities and what is conjured up in your mind when you think of Burgundy? It has to be Boeuf Bourgingnon. This is a dish that is surprising difficult to get hold of around here and if you find it, most are very poor indeed. There is one exception and that is Monique’s version served every so often as the “plat du jour” at La Terasse in Cormatin. She is very precious about her recipe and rightly so, all she will say is that it is cooked for a very long time – not giving away much there Monique!

Anyway, a lot of research and trial and error and I have come up with a version that comes close. You don’t need the extra cocktail onions or in fact the carrot, I sometimes put them in and sometimes don’t, they just add a bit of interest. It is always a favourite with our gite guests.

Bon appétit!

1kg stewing steak chopped
1 med onion chopped fine
1 bottle red wine
20/30 small cocktail onions drained and washed (optional)
Bay leaf
100g butter
100g pork belly chopped finely
1 large carrot
Corn flour

If using them, fry the cocktail onions in 50g butter until brown, remove and set aside.
Add the second 50g of butter and fry the stewing steak, pork belly and onions on high in the same pan until brown.
Pour in the bottle of wine, add the bay leaf, chopped carrot and some salt and pepper, bring to the boil then reduce the heat and simmer for 3 to 4 hours or put in the oven at about 100 degrees for the same amount of time.
Just before serving, mix a tablespoon of corn flour with some water until smooth, add to the pan with the previously fried cocktail onions. Bring to the boil stirring and serve with mashed potatoes or pasta and a vegetable of your own choice.

Campanology

2009 September 3
Posted by nixon727@gmail.com

La Tuilerie Website

Taizé bells

Taizé bells

I live within the sound of the bells of Taizé. When I hear the bells, here in Chazelle it reminds me three times a day what time it is. When the bells stop in the morning at 08.30, I know I should have got up, when they ring in the middle of the day at 12.15 I know I need to get lunch on the table and when they start in the evening at 20.15 and we still haven’t eaten I know I am running behind schedule!

When I heard the bells this morning I started thinking about how strange it was that I seem to have lived near bells almost all my life. As a child in Ickenham our house was within the bells of St Giles church, my first house in Worksop was next to the Priory church, my second next to St Leonards in Hythe, my third across the valley from The All Saints church in Highbrook, in the Netherlands whilst living in Benthuizen, I lived within the sound of a carillon that sounded the hour and now it is the bells of Taizé. I was struck by how all of these bells were very different and all were played differently as well.

How the Taizé bells are operated has been a mystery to me. I have always seen a monk scurrying into the services late after the bells have stopped ringing, I recognised him not only because of his lateness but that he look like a ex-colleague of mine, Rick. I was convinced that he was the “bell-monk” and he was the one that started and stopped the bells, but quite how that worked I had no idea.

Saint Leonard's, Hythe

Saint Leonard's, Hythe

In most English churches the bells are operated by one bell ringer per bell, each person pulling his rope and ringing his own bell on cue to create “rounds”.
Worksop Priory

Worksop Priory

To add variation to this process the director of the group will call out a change during the ringing to alter the order of the bells in the round, commonly called “change ringing”. This was the case for both the Worksop Priory and St Leonard’s at Hythe . However, the bells in St Giles were operated by one or other of the choir boys.
Saint Giles', Ickenham

Saint Giles', Ickenham

All the bell ropes came down into a box about 2 feet wide and one choir boy would operate the bells by pulling the ropes in the set pattern. I found it fascinating to watch the frantic action of these boys. As this was a tiring job, to complete the full ring prior to a service, two boys were needed, one taking over from the other half way through the ring. During the changeover the two would work together to synchronise the rhythm then one would duck out and return to the vestry.

Another type of bell and belling ringing are carillon bells. These are a set of bells that play full tunes rather than just ringing out.

Highbrook carillon

Inner workings of the Highbrook carillon

My first experience of carillon bells was when I lived in Horsted Keynes. All Saints in Highbrook played tunes automatically at mid-day, three in the afternoon and six in the evening. The sound echoed through the valley and were clearly audible from our garden.
Benthuizen carillon

Benthuizen carillon


In my house in Benthuizen, The Netherlands, I was within earshot of the carillon mounted on a post outside the old town hall. When the town hall had been shut down and sold off as a private house the carillon had been in a poor state of repair and no longer worked. The new owner had the bells retuned and the whole mechanism overhauled and reinstated the hourly ringing, 24 hours a day. There was soon an uproar in the village as the neighbours started to suffer from sleep deprivation because of the noise! The bells were really deafening from close by, even in my garden (a block away) you could not talk over sound of the bells. Having said that they were beautifully tuned and from a distance they made a pleasant sound. Finally it was agreed that the bells could play a tune on the hour starting at nine in the morning with the last tune at nine in the evening.

Today I decided to get to the bottom of the Taizé bell mystery. dsc_0005-copieThe five bells are hung in a very ugly (in my opinion) tower. We had heard that originally under the bells there was a small pond, this was intended to act as a “sound mirror” and reflect the sound increasing its potency, but complaints from the neighbours have meant that the pond was filled in and now wooden planks lie under the bell tower. Each bell is operated independently by an electro-motor connected to the top of the bells by a chain. The motor makes the chain oscillate back and forward, waggling the bell, if you like. Each motor operates at a different frequency, with the motors for the smaller bells moving quicker than that for the largest bell. When the bells are ringing, the “tune” created by the bells constantly changes because of this lack of synchronicity. We lay in wait for the bell monk and he never arrived, the bells just started and stopped most probably and quite boringly on a timer switch.

So now I know the truth about the late monk, he is just late and nothing else!

Les Vendanges

2009 September 1
Posted by nixon727@gmail.com

La Tuilerie Website

Yes it’s grape picking time again! Normally the vendanges are strictly regulated by the relevant authority and grape picking starts in mid-August around here. This year it was announced at the beginning of August that viticulturists would, for the first time, be free to decide their own harvesting dates.

Many of the vineyards around here are small estates who sell their grapes to the local cave co-operative in return for a small amount of money or copious amounts of table wine. Grape picking These are the vineyards that use machines to harvest. These machines are often co-owned and rotate around the fields at harvest time. Most will only take one pass at their vines which means that after harvesting is over there are plenty of grapes to be had free of charge from the vines. The machines only pick ripe bunches and so late developing bunches and bunches too deep in the foliage to be caught, remain on the vines for the birds and other (human) scavengers. If you want to make your own wine, you can certainly do that with free grapes if you have the time and patience to go searching.

The hand-picking is for the better crus, where the quality of grape is more important. Pickers can go up and down the rows of vines a number of times during the two to three week picking period and make sure no decent grape is left.

The first pickers appeared in the vineyards yesterday. grapes2This new flexibility in picking times means that the pickers will have more work as they can move between vineyards in the same area and also all vineyards will have enough pickers. It is not badly paid (up to about 200 Euros a day) but picking is really hard work, not for the faint-hearted and not for those with a dodgy back! Apart from the pay, a full-blown meal at lunch time is included and accommodation is often also part of the deal.

At the end of the picking there is a huge party, called “une paulée” round here, where lots of the local brew is consumed and the party can go on for more than twelve hours. Traditionally these parties were for the pickers to round off a few weeks of hard work, but now they have been institutionalised and have been taken over by the wine growing towns. These parties usually called “Fêtes des vendanges” are held in all the towns and villages which live from the wine trade, all have their own particular events and way of celebrating the end of another season. There are very famous large fêtes in the Côte de Nuits area particularly in Nuit St George where the fountains flow with wine. Closer to home Beaune, Pommard, Chardonnay, Peronne, Givry and Buxy all have their share of fun. It is also a welcome boost to the tourist trade just as business is trailing off at the end of the summer.

The last two years have been mediocre years for Burgundy wine as for most of the French wines, but this year there are stories of a very good year. Not that farmers of any nature are optimistic creatures, but there are rumours that this crop could be destined to make some of the best wine ever. Time will tell.

Another Cat?

2009 August 31
Posted by nixon727@gmail.com

We have yet another cat at La Tuilerie. When we came back from working at a client’s house on Friday 7th August, there was a message on the answering machine announcing that it was my birthday (normally celebrated on 20th September) and that I should ring the caller urgently to arrange collection or delivery of my present. FifiI went round in the car and Cees on the bike to be presented with a beautiful kitten that some friends had found in their village. She was one of the many stray cats that roam the village and beg at summer tables. Our friends asked the neighbour who was feeding her if she had any objection to the little thing being adopted, which she didn’t and so when our friends saw her again, they picked her up and put her in their cat cage awaiting collection.

To make sure she stayed here, we kept her in the cage, but after a day it did seem rather cruel, so we bought a harness and lead and took her for walks during the day time and back in the cage at night. Quite unusually for a stray cat she loves being cuddled and played with and she is very tame indeed. Now she is off the lead and roams around all day and shows no intention of leaving, well we hope not. At night she goes back into the cage, she is still very small and we are afraid that she might get lost in the dark.

Fifi 2The latest new step has been to find her a permanent place to sleep, we have decided on the “water room” ie the room where the hot water boiler is, as this is always warm even when it is way below zero outside. So Cees installed a cat flap in the door and we have had fun the last few days tempting her to go through the flap. As long as the flap is slightly open she will go through, but we haven’t managed to get her to open it herself yet. She is still in her cage at night (now in the water room) so she doesn’t need to use the flap just yet, but soon she’ll be completely free to roam day and night and before then she will have to have figured it out.

After a lot of discussion, debate and international phone calls (to Mum in London and my brother and family in Brussels) she has been named Fifi. She even looks your way sometimes if you call her name.

Fifi has been here now for nearly a whole month and she shows no sign of leaving, so we are hoping that we might have a cat at last.

La Tuilerie Website

Camping Championships

2009 August 18
Posted by nixon727@gmail.com

La Tuilerie Website

The season is coming to an end and we can reflect on all the new people we have met this year and remember with fondness the renewed friendships with people who have visited us more often. But most importantly now is the time to calculate the current camping champions.

The winners at the end of the 2009 season:

Category 1 - the longest stay ever
Fam G are still in the lead for their 25 night stay in 2007, with Fam P (2007) and Fam D (2009) at 21 and 20 nights respectively.

The two tents of Family H viewed from Taizé

The two tents of Family H viewed from Taizé

Category 2 - the most cumulative tent nights (this category is open only to returning campers)
Fam H are the clear winners at 56 tent nights with Fam S trailing by 12 nights at 44. However, the next nearest rival is way down at 29 nights for Fam F.

Family S. enjoying the sun

Family S. enjoying the sun

Category 3 - the most return visits
Fam S are the winners with 5 visits, with Fam B, Fam Mc and Fam M running a close second at 4 visits each.

Congratulations to all the winners and hopefully see you next year!

The Archbishop of Canterbury

2009 August 9
Posted by nixon727@gmail.com

La Tuilerie Website

He was supposed to be in Taizé this morning. I have had this date in my diary for a couple of months ever since I saw on the Taizé website that he was arriving on Thursday 6th and leaving on Sunday the 9th . The Reverend, who had rented one of our gites, had assisted on Friday at a communion service where the Archbishop had officiated, along with the second in command of the Anglican church the Archbishop of York, so he had been seen. I was banking on the fact that as a very senior Christian “official” he would be invited to officiate at the communion, but as the more than 50 visiting clergy filed in, in their white cassocks and green shawls, he was not among them. There was a Cardinal and an African guy who could have been the Archbishop of York, but no sign of the Most Reverend Rowan Williams. Maybe I had just not recognised him.

As I was watching the monks walk in, I spotted him. Amongst the more than one hundred monks he walked into the church wearing the monks’ white cassock. He walked up through the church and sat simply amongst them. The only difference between him and them was the beautiful silver cross that he wore outside his tunic. I was moved by this humble action, it made the other clergy look garish with their green shawls, towering above the rest of the congregation on their benches.

The Archbishop of Canterbury wth Frère Alois the Prior of Taizé taken from the Taizé website.

The Archbishop of Canterbury wth Frère Alois the Prior of Taizé taken from the Taizé website.

The service progressed as normal for a Sunday morning, that means that if you sit at the front of the church you have to turn through 180 degrees for the readings to face the direction of the reader and as in other churches you stand for the Gospel. You then turn back 180 degrees and sit down again. What I didn’t spot until I was back on the ground was that the monks had not turned to face the altar, they sat still facing the back of the church. I quickly returned, (not an easy job when the church is that full) and I saw a single monk standing in the middle of the church at the lectern, it was the Archbishop himself. He then read out what I would call a sermon. This was translated into French in stages by one of the monks. For regular churchgoers there is nothing odd about this, but because the average Taizé congregation will consist of people of probably more than 50 nationalities, the explanation of the scriptures is left to the small groups that meet in the mornings where a monk will do that in the language of the group. So to my knowledge, this is the first time a sermon has been ever given in a service at Taizé, a very special occassion.

After that, the service continued as normal, however, none of the visiting clergy were invited to celebrate the communion, that was done by the monks themselves as is the case in the winter when there are no visitors around. Not even the Cardinal was invited to join in.

When the communion was distributed, the Archbishop stood in line with the other monks simply waiting his turn.

A moving experience and one I am happy to say I witnessed.

Singing in Taizé

2009 August 3
Posted by nixon727@gmail.com

La Tuilerie Website

The beauty of Taizé songs is that they are sung in many languages, most of which I and most of the people around me do not understand, but their meditative quality is quite mesmerising. I have spent many hours struggling at home with the German ones, just so that I can sing along on my next visit, in particular “Gott is nur liebe” has been a serious tongue twister for me over the years. I have just about cracked it and so I was very disappointed last week when I discovered that all my work had been in vain, this year the song is sung in Polish and is now called “Bóg jest miłościa”, an even worse tongue twister, so more homework to be done! bog

Sometimes songs are in English, Dutch or French which makes pronunciation for me easier and even Latin is not a problem. It is just the German and Slavonic ones I struggle with.

There are some beautiful singers every week in the Church but there are some not too good singers as well, but it is the enthusiasm that is the most important thing. It can be a bit off putting sometimes though if you are stuck next to someone who is a bit too loud, like last Sunday, I was sitting just behind just such a chap. He sang VERY loudly, he also sang slightly out of tune and he was always a semi quaver behind the rest. It made singing along with the rest of the congregation a bit tricky, but hey he was involved and doing his best. The first half of the Sunday service is the Eucharist and that part follows a special song sheet all in Latin, as the communion is being distributed the “real” Taizé songs start, what did we get? Yes you guessed it “Bóg jest miłościa” Oh well I did my best, but this English chap with the loud voice was definitely not singing the same words as me, also not last year’s version, it didn’t take me long to realise that he was singing English! Maybe he hadn’t spotted the change of language or maybe he knew the song in English or maybe…..who knows. I joined a difference queue for communion from him, to get out of earshot.

Returning to our places and more songs and one of my favourites, “Singt dem Herrn”. singt
My over-loud neighbours gustily sang again in English. He was getting a touch annoying at this point and a large circle of emptiness was being formed around him as people moved, which of course made his voice even clearer for me and less easy to ignore, when he started singing a French song also in English, I left, I was even out before the monks.

I must say that it puts singing songs in many languages into a different perspective and one I hope never to repeat!

If you click on either of the songs you’ll get to the MP3 and podcast page of the Taizé webiste, for their homepage click here.

Organ and Harp Recitals

2009 July 31
Posted by nixon727@gmail.com

La Tuilerie Website

There are a wealth Romanesque churches around here, you could spend days visiting them all. A middle-aged couple renting one of our gites two years ago, spent a full two weeks visiting churches and they hadn’t seen them all before they left.

Chapaize Church with its exraordinary tower

Chapaize Church with its exraordinary tower

However, for me a church benefits from being put into “context”. Churches are places of worship and places of music and are best visited when one or other is taking place.

After the French Revolution Napolean took over ownership of all the churches. They say it was to remove the links between the church and the state, that logic is lost on me as it seems to increase those links, but who am I? I really think that it was to reduce the power of the church and strangle their financial hold over the community. Interestingly what that means today is that the church no longer has the financial burden of maintaining these ageing buildings but it also no longer has their exclusive use. These two facts combined mean that the local communities have to use the churches to provide income to maintain them. Very beneficial to the many visitors here, as the main use of these beautiful buildings is for concerts. In my humble opinion, there is no better acoustical venue than a church.

Brancion church overlooking the valley

Brancion church overlooking the valley

I’ve mentioned the “formal” concerts before in this blog and will undoubtedly mention them again when I go to another one, but there are other types of concerts here, the walk-in ones. Visiting a church when music is being played by a musician (as opposed to a tape recorder) adds so much to the atmosphere of the place.

Both Chapaize and Brancion have these walk-in concerts and although both churches are worth a visit in their own right live music adds just that little bit extra. Visitors are asked to make a small contribution which they are more likely to do under the watchful eye of the artist and so everyone is a winner!

Every Thursday afternoon in the summer from 17.00 to 18.00 there is an organ recital in the church at Chapaize. The organist Paul Chambers comes up with an interesting selection of organ pieces every year, which he has transcribed to fit the peculiarities of the organ in that church.

Didier Kugel

Didier Kugel

It is a very pleasant way to spend an hour or just wander round the church while he is playing, if you want to stop and listen, bring a cushion, the seats are murderous.

Most afternoons in the summer from 14.00 until 18.00 Didier Kugel plays the harp either alone or with a flute player or a violinist, in the church in Brancion. Some of the compositions are his own and some are traditional music, but all add a gentle atmosphere to these churches. His music fills the whole place and spills outside so that you can also enjoy his music when you are looking at the stunning views over the valley, it adds a certain “je ne sais quoi” to a visit to Brancion.

For pictures of more churches in the area click here.

La Tuilerie, making bricks again!

2009 July 30
Posted by nixon727@gmail.com

Yes La Tuilerie Chazelle is back in business after 85 years.

From about 1885 up until 1924 La Tuilerie made bricks and floor tiles. Now we are back up and running. When the factory was originally in operation, the clay was mixed in the mixer, the bricks were formed in moulds, dried in the drying shed (sechoir), then put into the oven to be cooked at over 1000 degrees Celsius and then they were cooled and stored ready for sale.

Today the bricks are made of old newspapers, scrunched up and soaked in water, the paper pulp is then put into moulds which are pressed by hand. The bricks are removed from the moulds and then placed in the sun to dry. We’ll use them in the winter instead of kindling.

Not quite the same as in the olden days, but just look at the photos below of our little factory!

Mix the paper with water

Mix the paper with water

Close the mould

Close the mould

Put the pulp into the mounld

Put the pulp into the mould

Push down on the handles

Push the handles down

Turn the mould over

Turn the mould over

Push down hard

Push down hard


One brick made!

One brick made!

Push it out of the mould

Push it out of the mould

Out it pops

Out it pops


The bricks drying in the sun

The bricks drying in the sun

Now isn’t that impressive?

For Cees’ blog on how the old Tuilerie worked click here and for a photo album on some tuileries around here and the old equipment click here.

La Tuilerie Website

To stay or not to stay that is the question..

2009 July 29
Posted by nixon727@gmail.com

La Tuilerie Website

The continuing story of the cats..

catWe left that exciting story at the point that Poepie, our new lovely white cat with a black tail, had adopted us and had settled into life at La Tuilerie. She had discovered moles and was learning to stalk and catch them, not successful as yet, but she is only young. We have been feeding her, initially we rattled two cans together to attract her attention which worked very well but then we moved over to ringing a lovely Buddhist bell I bought at the Kong Meng San Phor Kark See Monastery (Bright Hill temple) in Singapore. cat
Just a tiny ring on the bell would see her darting out from her current hiding or stalking place to come and be fed and have a cuddle. She had found a few different sleeping places dependant on the position of the sun and she was really settled, so we thought.
As suddenly as she had arrived, she disappeared. One morning we rang the bell and no Poepie; lunch-time, no Poepie; evening meal still no Poepie. The next morning no cat in sight so off we went direction Chazelle ringing the bell. We rang it all round the village and still no Poepie. When the campers started meowing when I rang the bell I decided it was time to admit defeat - she’s gone.

Cardinals and Archbishops

2009 July 29
Posted by nixon727@gmail.com

La Tuilerie Website

During the Sunday morning service at Taizé, all the visiting clergy sit at the front left of the Church of Reconciliation dressed in special white cassocks and they wear a cleric’s stole. At this time of year the stole is green which it is for most of the year.

A Cardinal wearing a calotte

A Cardinal wearing a calotte

All the clergy wear the same outfits except for their head gear. Orthodox priests wear their traditional hats, not dissimilar to a mitre and Catholic Cardinals wear their red calotte (small cap). This morning in Taizé there were two cardinals which for some reason I always find rather exciting even though I am not a catholic myself.

If there is a Cardinal present he will normally be the one to open the service and to officiate at the blessing of the bread and wine. All the clergy at the front take part in the blessing process by standing with their hands outstretched but there are usually three clergy at the altar who do all the talking. Today the two Cardinals and Brother Alois were at the altar. The Cardinal who conducted most of the service was a Spanish guy with a very long bushy beard. When the second Cardinal (who was out of my view) took over, I heard a familiar voice. To my amazement it was Cardinal Murphy O’Connor, the head of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales. There is something very special about hearing an English voice officiate at a Taizé service, it happens so infrequently. Somehow I have managed to be at a service where Cardinal Murphy O’Connor has officiated for three years in a row now. I don’t go to a service anything like once a week so it is a really special coincidence as his visits are never made public in advance.

Cardinal Murphy O'Connor and The Archbishop of Canterbury

Cardinal Murphy O'Connor and The Archbishop of Canterbury

However, the visit of the Archbishop of Canterbury has been announced, he is coming to Taizé from the 6th to the 9th of August. As the head of the Anglican church his visit is considered to be very prestigious to the Communauté. I have never heard him in a service so I will definitely be there on Sunday the 9th and hopefully he will conduct the service. As an Anglican, that will be for me a very special moment indeed.

Cats

2009 July 21
Posted by nixon727@gmail.com

La Tuilerie Website

Ever since I was a little girl I have wanted a cat. I used to pester my mother something rotten, but to no avail, she didn’t like cats (even though Dad was crazy about them) and so no cat. As I got older I realised the responsibility that comes with ownership of animals. When I owned chickens in the UK, every time we wanted to stay away just for one night, we had to make arrangements for them to be looked after and holidays were a big problem. Recently, I have developed allergic reactions to cats, so I thought I would just have to give up on the idea. But I would still like to have an outdoor cat to keep the mole population on the campsite at bay, but where do you find such an animal?

Last year at the beginning of May, I heard some meowing in the lock-up we keep our bikes in.

The first time we saw them all together

The first time we saw them all together

As always with Cees being rather deaf, he said I was imagining things, but I was certain I heard something and so I kept looking. It was however another week or so before I saw a beautiful little kitten walking around on top of the lock-up. For several days I watched and I was convinced that there were more than one, but how many I didn’t know. The area is totally inaccessible for us, so we could just climb up and see what was going on. Gradually we realised that we had three kittens, being fed by their mother who went off every day returning to feed them. We went out and bought cat food and put that down for the mother, which she gobbled up every morning. However, we couldn’t get near any of the cats and so they grew up shy of people.

I was thrilled to bits, at last a cat (or four to be precise!), no responsibility regarding days away or holidays (we bought an automatic feeder for those occasions) and none in the house to upset my asthma as they were real outdoor cats.

The three kittens following their Mum.

The three kittens following their Mum.

Sadly though Mummy cat left for good one day in July and took the kittens with her trotting behind in a little row (see the photo). Funnily enough after two weeks the kittens came back, three stayed until mid-August when one disappeared, another disappeared at the end of September and the third one last ate from the food on Christmas Eve. Since then no cats. They must have found somewhere warmer to live or somewhere where they got better food.

The other evening, we heard meowing again, just as some campers returned from a walk. They had been followed by a little cat.

Our new cat

Our new cat

The cat is very friendly and immediately made herself at home in the shower block of the campsite. Where she comes from we don’t know, but she has adopted us. Since then we have been feeding her and playing with her, I hope she stays, I’ve missed having cats around.

Randonnée de Patrimoine

2009 July 18
Posted by nixon727@gmail.com

La Tuilerie Website

We’re on the map ! Well we always knew that in fact if you look at the IGN walking map of this area it clearly marks the location of La Tuilerie. We are also findable by GPS if you type in La Tuilerie for the road and Cormatin for the town, and you will end up in front of our gate. But that is not what I mean literally.

The local tourist information office organise walks from either St-Gengoux-le-National or Cormatin throughout the summer with different themes. The themes centre around the local architecture or nature and they are led by a guide who give information on the way. At or near then end of the walk there is a stop for a drink and a nibble. The walks last about 4 – 5 hours, but don’t cover much more than 5 kilometers, so there is plenty of stopping, looking, talking and time to enjoy the surroundings.

The walkers arrive at La Tuilerie

The walkers arrive at La Tuilerie

A couple of months ago, the tourist information office approached us to see if we would like to host the so called “vin d’amité” and we were delighted to show off La Tuilerie to a group of walkers. The wine, water, squash and buns arrived in the morning and the walkers duly arrived, almost on time, at half past four. We split the group of twenty walkers into two groups and I gave a guided tour. We do a tour for people who stay in the gites or on the campsite very regularly, so that is not a problem. We have researched how Tuileries worked when ours was in its prime and we know a lot on the subject so we can field most questions with confidence. Before the walkers arrived I was brushing up on my vocabulary and I did my best to give a good story and in the end I was quite pleased with how it went.

If I made a mistake of tense or conjugation of a verb, I was gently corrected but I was a bit thrown by the correction of a word I used. The heart of the tuilerie is the oven and this was filled with the bricks and tiles covered by a layer of lime which partially acted as insulation but it also needed to be “cooked” itself to be used in mortar.

A tuilerie identical to ours when it was in use

A tuilerie identical to ours when it was in use

The whole oven was heated up to one thousand degrees Celsius. On the second tour around the tuilerie, when I was describing the layer of lime (chaux) I was corrected by one of the walkers and he told that the word I should use was “chaume”. Fair enough, they are French, they speak the language better than me. So for the rest of the tour there was a layer of chaume on top of these very hot bricks.
Our Tuilerie today

Our Tuilerie today

We later looked up the words, because both Cees and I were a bit baffled by this correction. We then discovered that chaume is a rather obscure word for straw! So we now have a bunch of French people wandering around telling their friends that a layer of straw was used to top the oven working at one thousand degrees. What was in the guy’s head when he corrected me? Ah well, we’ll know better next time!

Having said all that, we were very happy that the walkers came here, it means we are on the map and in the system and who knows maybe we will have another group next year.

For Cees’ blog on how tuileries worked click here

EXTRA! EXTRA! Read all about it!!

2009 July 17
Posted by nixon727@gmail.com

La Tuilerie Website

Our local newspaper’s cultural attaché has finally published her article on the wreath laying ceremony on Tuesday.

For the non-believers, the original article.

For the non-believers, the original article.

This is translated version:

“Cormatin - Wreath laying at the memorial
The Mayor and local citizens, in the presence of the local volunteer fire brigade, celebrated the national holiday by placing a wreath at the war memorial. The ceremony ended with the playing of the Marseillaise.”

Wow Michele that was an in-depth article and well worth waiting for!

For a slightly longer article about the ceremony see my blog July 14th – Bastille Day – Wreath Laying.

Expanding Churches

2009 July 17
Posted by nixon727@gmail.com

La Tuilerie Website

You can tell that Taizé is filling up to its peak occupancy when the number of hitchhikers at the bottom of the hill starts to build up. We call them “escapees” as these are the kids who are fed up with attending bible readings or workshops or they are the kids who are just here for a cheap holiday, pretending to their parents that they have a higher mission in life! During the height of the summer, you see rows of them at the bus stop at the bottom of the Taizé hill from about ten in the morning until lunch time all looking for a lift to the nearest town. On a busy day there could be up to fifty in total which actually pales into insignificance when compared to the 6,000 (yes, six thousand) young people that Taizé attracts per week.

The Church of Reconciliation

The outside of the Church of Reconciliation with its familar onion domes

Driving through Taizé is almost impossible at this time of year, outside of the church service or activity times, as the whole lot of them swarm over the road. That is not to mention the numerous bus loads of tourists who go to see what it Taizé is. They are greeted by eager, earnest youngsters in the welcome centre who are more than happy to explain what Taizé is all about. They come to look and be amazed at the numbers, they come for the beautiful pottery the monks sell to fund their life in Taizé and they come to attend a service.

Taizé is an ecumenical community which tries to get Christians to see through the differences and to concentrate on the central core themes of what Christianity is all about. The future of Christianity lies in the common factors and not in the differences, but these differences should be cherished and celebrated. Just as each person is different, each group of Christians should be allowed to be different and they need to accept and enjoy the differences in their neighbour’s group. The monks themselves come from catholic, protestant and orthodox backgrounds so there is a wide-spread of understanding in the community.

The services are a mixture of songs, prayer (in various languages), a short bible reading (repeated in various languages) and silence. The songs are normally multi-voiced and to get everyone to sing, the church needs to be “full”. There is nothing worse than a large church with a few people, hardly anyone sings and the thin sound dwindles into nothing. So, how do you solve a problem like that? In the middle of winter on a Sunday morning, the congregation will be about 200 locals plus the monks so maybe 300 in total. In the middle of summer on a Sunday morning the congregation will be more then twelve thousand. So how do you always keep the church full? The ingenious Taizé solution is: you create an expanding church!

The altar in the Church of Reconciliation

The altar in the Church of Reconciliation

The Church of Reconciliation was built with just this idea in mind. The “core” church, remains a church all year long and all day long. According to the number of people who have signed up to attend a week at Taizé, and according to the service (some are more popular than others) the church expands and contracts to make sure that it is always full. The church building is in fact a series of smaller rooms with vertical roller partitions.
Full church

The church is so large you can hardly see the altar

During the day these rooms can be used for discussion groups and during the services the rooms disappear and they become part of the church.

So the church is always full, the singing resounds around making everyone join in. Having said that, when the church is at its fullest at this time of year, the shear quantity of voices is quite something, when I am there within the singing on a Sunday morning it surprises me that the people here at La Tuilerie can’t hear us and join in as well.

If you want to read my other blogs on Taizé go to the Category list on the right-hand side of this blog page and click on Taizé.

The photos have been taken from the Taizé website. To get to the Taizé website click here.

July 14th – Bastille Day - Brocante

2009 July 15
Posted by nixon727@gmail.com

La Tuilerie Website

To celebrate the storming of the Bastille on July 14th in 1789, which marked the beginning of the French Revolution and the downfall of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, the French have a national holiday. Every town and village Cormatin brocantecelebrates in their own way, some with fireworks the night before, some with fairs or circuses and in Cormatin it is the “Brocante de qualité”.

There are various grades of “brocante”. Vide grenier is the bottom of the pile, where mostly individuals from the commune sell off their rubbish, puces is the next level up where some people are clearing out rubbish whilst others are selling their wares for a living, brocante is for the professionals and “brocante de qualité” is what we have here in Cortmatin, nice stuff but their prices are not very affordable.

Back in January we offered to help with the annual brocante, it seemed like a “good citizen” kind of thing to do. The main man Alain, came round the other day to let us know we should be at the commune storage shed at 08.30 on Saturday morning. So we duly arrived not having the slightest idea what we would or should be doing. We first had to load the truck with poles, metal frames, tarpaulins, tables, chairs and who knows what else. This load was then driven the couple of hundred meters to the brocante area (outside the library) and then it was all unloaded, put into piles of related parts and then the marquees were pieced together and then erected. Hard physical work, but good fun, even if only to watch and listen to the bickering between the rival groups as to how this tent goes together or where that marquee was put up last year. It was definitely considered to be a boy’s job, I was the only woman there and at first the older men kept taking poles off me as they felt I couldn’t manage, but I think I have more strength than the couple of eighty-year-olds that turned up to help and in the end they needed every hand they could find. I am a bit on the short side, so lifting the marquees to their full height had to go to the tall blokes and I was left the get the legs in place and crawl underneath to fix pins etc. About 10.30 it was wine, French bread and sausage to feed the hungry souls, then on for a little while longer. Marquee at Cormatin BrocanteSome were conscripted to return that afternoon but Cees and I were told to come back Monday at 15.00. Monday was another 2½ hours’ work putting up different marquees, then everyone went home (after the obligatory glass of wine of course) with fingers crossed that the predicted storm wouldn’t undo all our work.

Monday evening a massive hail storm flew over Cormatin dropping hail stones the size of golf balls, for about 10 minutes, leaving gardens ankle deep in the things. Three kilometres away in Chazelle we didn’t even have a drop of rain. Amazingly our marquees survived the ravage and the brocante went ahead as usual.

In the evening it was the taking down of all the marquees a huge job in itself, not helped by the inept brocanters who took nearly 3 hours to pack their vans, leaving us twiddling our thumbs in the rain. Taking the stuff down was a lot quicker than putting it up despite the chaos caused by some workers with random minds and a lack of teamworkership. To our surprise, no wine this time, but we got a bagette to take home for our tea at 9.30. It was really hard work, bits of me, I didn’t know I had, ache but we are beginning to be seen as part of the community and that is worth all the effort and besides it has been good fun as well. Another successful July 14th comes to an end.

July 14th – Bastille Day – Wreath Laying

2009 July 14
Posted by nixon727@gmail.com

La Tuilerie Website

Attached to almost any holiday you can think of, there is a wreath laying ceremony at one or other of the war memorials in Cormatin. Attending the wreath layings is one of the ways we have tried to integrate into the community here and they are always an interesting experience. The Mayor is not always as organised as he could be and we await with baited breath to see how smoothly things will go or if something will go awry again.

Everyone has to assemble at the Town Hall at the allotted time and we walk behind the flag-carrier to whichever war memorial is appropriate for the occasion - today it was the main war memorial in Cormatin, the simpler of the two to march to. This time things got off to an even slower start than normal. We are in France after all and nothing starts on time, but by 11.15 it was obvious that things were not going to plan. Garde ChampêtreThe Mayor, his Deputy and the Garde Champêtre (in this instance read the village road sweeper who wears an impressive uniform for such events) had all disappeared, the flag had been in and out of the Town Hall and had also disappeared. The Garde Champêtre finally came running down the steps of the Town Hall brandishing the wreath shouting “Found it!!!”. It was another couple of minutes before the Mayor, the Deputy and the flag reappeared, they’d been desperately phoning for some new flowers. Apparently the florist has hidden the wreath to stop it being damaged by the predicted storm, pity no one at the Town Hall knew.

We’re off! We march down the road - or should I say straggle down the road – towards the war memorial. To the chagrin of Monsieur P., cars try to overtake us rather than showing respect and waiting the couple of minutes it takes – we are ordered to spread out across the road to stop the traffic, thus blocking the path of an English campervan who is now stuck in the middle of our little band and has to travel at our speed as far as the war memorial. We then climbed up the stairs to gather around the war memorial, the Mayor demanded 2 minutes of silence (it was actually 10 seconds, I counted) and then the Mayor was supposed to read the message sent to him from the president M Sarkozy. The Mayor had either lost or forgotten the speech or had decided to boycott Sarko’s words of wisdom (as was decided by general consent on June 18th “Appel de General de Gaulle” under the motto – what do those blokes in the government know about it, they weren’t even born during the war) so no speech and it was straight on to the usual, very crackly and rather poorly played version of the Cultural attaché. the Mayor and Garde ChampêtreMarseillaise played on Monsieur P.’s car-mounted cassette recorder. This time, rather unusually, Monsieur P. had put the wrong side of the cassette in the player, so we heard bursts of other patriotic songs until he ejected the cassette and manually wound the tape. He wound it the wrong way but never mind, we only missed half of the national anthem.

The whole event was covered by the local newspaper by the woman we call their “cultural attaché” who took photos and made copious notes of the event to publish an article in the paper sometime this coming week. We await her article with interest.

Vin d'honneurAt the end of a ceremony the Mayor invites everyone back to one or other of the local bars/cafés for the “Vin d’Honneur”. On this occasion it was La Terrasse for Kir and delicious quiche and savoury brioche made by Monique herself. Next ceremony 11th November, let’s wait and see what happens that time.

Concert in Chapaize

2009 July 7
Posted by nixon727@gmail.com

La Tuilerie Website

Starting Easter weekend and going on throughout the summer, there are classical concerts of all genres in the beautiful Romanesque church of Chapaize. Saturday night we went to see “Les Symphonies du Roy” playing an interesting selection of Baroque music. They had a woodwind section of five instruments (three oboe d’amours, one cor anglais and one bassoon) a four man brass section (two trumpets, one unknown instrument the size of a trumpet but looking a bit like a French horn [if anyone knows what it is please let me know] and a French horn), finally they had a percussionist playing two kettle drums. They were fronted by a narrator who told the story about the pieces that were about to be played, filled in the gaps when the group were re-tuning instruments and (very handy indeed) he gave the lead as to when we should clap, always useful as you can never be sure when to clap when the pieces are so short and there are so many of them!

The woodwind section were well balanced and very good for an amateur group but the brass (as usual in my opinion) were a bit varied in abilities! The first trumpet mostly played the right notes, the second trumpet played with gusto but not always in tune or on time, the unknown instrument was played well and the French horn was played very well indeed. The percussionist was also very good.

Les Symphonie du RoyIt appears from the bumph that the lead oboist is a woodwind teacher at the music school in Montceau-les-Mines and that the bulk of the players were students. The brass section looked too old to be students, which may explain the difference in quality of playing between them and the rest.

The whole group were dressed up like musketeers including hats with feathers, which was sort of cute, but the silly waving of the hats in a musketeer bow after a piece gave a very amateurish and comic effect that I am sure was not intended. The front-man was dressed in “gentleman’s” period clothing with a long white wig, which I suppose fitted in with the theme but well ummm….

The acoustics in the church are fabulous for music, which is what makes this such a popular venue and this old music resounded round the church quite beautifully. All in all, a very enjoyable evening.

You can find out about concerts organised by Chapaize Culture for the rest of the season by clicking here. They also have free organ and harp concerts in the daytime throughout the summer, you can just wander in and listen, however, you are expected to leave a donation for the church restoration fund, having said that they are worth every penny. One thing though, if you do go to any of the concerts, don’t forget to take a cushion, the seats are unbearably hard!

New Crocheted Dress for Fiona

2009 July 4
Posted by nixon727@gmail.com

La Tuilerie Website

The trouble with being the second child is you always get hand me downs. Particularly if you have an older sister. I don’t have a sister, but my two little treasures are both girls and Fiona has suffered over the years by having to wear her bigger sister’s old clothes. So I thought it was finally time I got around to crocheting Fiona some new clothes. She has been wearing the same knitted dress, cardie and hat that don’t fit properly for at least the last thirty years. Oh, I forgot to mention Fiona and her larger sister Sarah are my Tiny and my Teeny Tiny Tears (and if you know what they are, you are really showing your age).

Massive searches on the internet Sarah and Fionahave led me nowhere, no one knows what Tiny Tears are any more, so in the end I had to make it up as I went along. I had great fun piecing together ideas and snippets of patterns to make Fiona her new dress. In the end I got so carried away, she got new matching pants as well. Now she looks just as smart as her sister who is still wearing the same dress, scarf and pants my Mum made for her in about 1970. Let’s see if these clothes will last that long!

I got the bodice from Christina her Peach Delight Baby Doll Dress and it was very simple. It was slightly too big for Fiona so I used 2.5mm hook instead of her D hook.Fiona's new dress
Ch 42.
Row 1: Dc in 4th ch from hook and in the next 4 chs, dc, ch1, dc in next ch, dc in next 6chs, dc, ch1, dc in next ch, dc in next 12 chs, dc, ch1,dc in next ch, dc in next 6chs, dc, ch1, dc in next ch, dc in last 6 chs.
Rows 2-3: Ch 2, turn, dc in each dc across. Dc, ch1, dc in each ch 1 sp.
Armholes made: Row 4: Ch 2, turn, dc in each st to ch 1 sp, dc in sp, ch 6, dc in next ch 1 sp then dc across to next ch 1 sp, dc in sp, ch 6, dc in next sp and dc across to the end. Join to ch 2. Armholes made and now you will be working in rounds.
Now working in Rounds 5-6: Ch 2, dc in each st around. Sl st tog.
The skirt I just made shells of 3dc all around and increased in the middle and sides for about 6-7 rows, then just shell in space between shell until the right length was achieved. The edging at the bottom is two rows of sc then little chains of 4 attached every other sc with a sc. The sleeves were ruffles created by a row of evenly spaced dcs then row of 3dc per dc. (Nomenclature is US not UK).

I made the pants by making a paper template from the top of the legs under the crotch and back up to the top of the legs at the back. I crocheted the top part of the pants as a tube then following the template crocheted the front by decreasing down to the crotch and increasing up the back, then a row of sc to connect to the back of the tube. I hope that makes sense! If you want to know more just mail me! The top band was a contrasting row of sc and the leg edging was the same as for the dress, but this time only one row of sc then the chain 4 loops.

Anyway she’s thrilled to bits with this new dress as you can imagine!

Non-changeover Day

2009 July 4
Posted by nixon727@gmail.com

La Tuilerie Website

It is Saturday morning, I don’t have to dash around and clean the gites and I don’t have to fight for washing-line space with the campers - I have a non-changeover day. I must say it is really nice for a change, but it means that we have no-one in the gites. Well actually that’s not true. We do have a mother and son in one of the gites, they have come to Taize for a long weekend.

They have been watching the website very carefully and spotted a non-changeover weekend and have been monitoring it for a couple of weeks now and last week they Bedroom Gite L'Etable asked us if we would do a long weekend. Great for us and just what they wanted! What I am also very impressed with is that they have been analysing the photos and spotted that the large double bed in L’Etable (the gite with the bedroom upstairs) can be converted into two singles (spot the legs!). So even better for them, two single beds and no need to put the son in a blow up bed on the floor. All they had to do was bring their own duvet and hey presto.

This is not the first time we have had two people stay in that gite in separate beds and it works well. This is our first “Taizé long weekend” and so far that’s working well too.

Crochet - a passion

2009 July 3
Posted by nixon727@gmail.com

La Tuilerie website

In December 2007 I was in a craft shop in the UK and I saw a book “Crochet 4 Dummies”. I have always wanted to crochet and have tried many times and just got nowhere with it. Aunty Nancy, my Mum’s eldest sister, had tried to teach me, but somehow it didn’t work. If I got the stitches right I ended up with more or fewer stitches at the end of a row than I was supposed to have and quite frankly crocheting wonky squares didn’t really get me too excited. Surprisingly, Mum bought me the book, but I could see in her eyes that she was convinced that this was going to be yet another attempt to master something I couldn’t.

I didn’t have any hooks or wool with me, so while I was at my parents for a week, I read the book and tried to imagine what it would be like to make something. Before we went home we dropped off to see relatives in The Netherlands and there I bought wool and some hooks. I practiced the stitches I had been reading about and yes I ended up with too few or too many stitches at the end of every row, but I was going to beat this one! I studied how the stitches were made and exactly where you had to put the hook and very soon I could make rows the same length. A big step forward!

My first project were two robins for my parents to show them robinsthat I could actually do something. They look like a six year old had made them, but I was pleased to have completed at least one project. I then moved on to a cardigan that didn’t fit and then my first real success - a jumper. But these big things take along time, need a lot of wool (which isn’t cheap) and after all how many jumpers does a girl need?

I then moved on to doilies and bookmarks and there I have found my niche. They are small, so they are not difficult to carry around, they are complicated, so they keep your interest and they don’t take too long to make, so you don’t get bored. In fact for a simple bookmark all you need is a couple of hours.

This is my favourite bookmark, which I made for a camper who helped me a lot when Cees was ill last summer. It is called a “Fancy Crocheted Cross Bookmark” taken from Cheri Mancini’s crochet website.
This is the pattern: Cross bookmark

Special Stitches:
Chain/Dc Cluster (I think Victorian’s called it Rice Stitch so I’ll call it Rice Stitch):
Chain required amount mentioned in the pattern. Then, in 3rd chain from the hook - insert hook to where you have 2 strands of the chain on the left side of the hook and only 1 strand of the chain on the right side of the hook - it makes a firmer foundation/joining (if you pick up only one thread of the chain, to work into, the finished effect won’t be as nice) - make 2 dc’s into this chain, holding the last loop of each dc on the hook and not working it off. You should have 3 loops left on the hook. Yarn over and work all 3 loops off at one time.

“Slip Stitch in chain” on Round 1 - Position your hook in chain like for the Chain/Dc Cluster (Rice Stitch):
After chaining required amount mentioned in the pattern, insert hook in the correct chain - to where you have 2 strands of the chain on the left side of the hook and only 1 strand of the chain on the right side of the hook - it makes a firmer joining (if you pick up only one thread of the chain, to work into, the finished effect won’t be as nice) - yarn over and pull through all loops.

Directions:

Round 1:
Bottom/Right of cross:
Chain 3, Rice Stitch in 3rd chain from hook.
(Chain 4, Rice Stitch in 3rd chain from hook) nine times.

Right arm of cross:
Chain 6, put gold safety pin in 5th chain from hook. Rice Stitch in 3rd chain from hook.
(Chain 4, Rice Stitch in 3rd chain from hook) five times.
Slip stitch in chain between 4th and 5th Rice Stitches from hook.
Chain 3, Rice Stitch in 3rd chain from hook.
Chain 4, Rice Stitch in 3rd chain from hook, chain 1, slip stitch in chain marked with a gold pin.

Top of cross:
*(Chain 4, Rice Stitch in 3rd chain from hook) six times.
Slip stitch in chain between 4th and 5th Rice Stitches from hook.
Chain 3, Rice Stitch in 3rd chain from hook.
Chain 4, Rice Stitch in 3rd chain from hook, chain 1, slip stitch in chain marked with a gold pin.*

Left arm of cross:
Repeat from * to * once.

Bottom/Left of cross:
(Chain 4, Rice Stitch in 3rd chain from hook) two times.
Proceed to join with a slip stitch to the bottom/right section of cross by skipping the next 2 Rice Stitches, and slip stitching in next corresponding chain on the part of the bottom/right of cross that is already crocheted. See photo.
**Chain 3, Rice Stitch in 3rd chain from hook.
Chain 4, Rice Stitch in 3rd chain from hook.
Skip next 2 Rice Stitches on bottom/right of cross, and join with a slip stitching in next corresponding chain on bottom/right of cross.**
Repeat from ** to ** 3 times, with very last slip stitch put into first chain at beginning of round.

Round 2: continuing around -
Bottom/Right of cross:
Chain 1, sc over the slip stitch joining you just made. Chain 4, slst in sc just made - equals beginning picot - (to do this type of slst into a single crochet - on this round, slip stitch in the top/front and the left/side strands of the single crochet, yarn over and pull through both strands - it makes a flat joining in the correct position for the next stitches).
Chain 4, sc in side of Rice Stitch (over the center of just one dc).
*Chain 4, sc over next ch 1 space. Chain 4, slst in sc just made (a picot).*
Repeat from * to * 4 times.

Right arm of cross:
Chain 3, sc over next ch 1 space, picot.
Chain 4, sc over next ch 1 space, picot, chain 4, sc in side of next Rice Stitch, chain 4, sc over next ch 1 space.
Chain 5, slst in 5th chain from hook, and mark this 5th chain with a gold pin. (chain 4, slst in 4th chain from hook) twice, then slst back in chain that’s marked with a gold pin. Remove pin. Slip stitch in single crochet that’s just below.
Chain4, slip stitch in side of next Rice Stitch.
(Chain 4, sc over next ch1 space, picot) 2 times.

Top of cross:
Repeat “Right arm of cross”.

Left arm of cross:
Repeat “Right arm of cross”.

Bottom/Left of cross:
Chain 3, sc over next ch 1 space, picot.
(Chain 4, sc over next ch 1 space, picot) 4 times.
Chain 4, sc in side of next Rice Stitch, chain 4, slip stitch in beginning sc.

Tassel:
Chain 1, 3 sc into first half of beginning picot loop of round 2.
Chain 35, turn.
Skip first 3 chains.
Put 4 dc into each of next 18 chains, crocheting under only one loop of each chain. (total of 72 dc).
Chain 1, 2 slip stitches into side of last dc, sl st into base of last dc, ch 1.
Slip stitch into next 14 chains (back to base of cross). Chain 1, 3 sc over second half of first picot on round 1. Slip stitch at base of last sc into picot and fasten off. Tie ends together in a square knot on back side of cross and hide the ends.

La Tuilerie website

What is this phenomenon called Taizé?

2009 July 1
Posted by nixon727@gmail.com

La Tuilerie website

I am woken up every morning by the bells of Taizé, the single bell for the monks rings out at 07.45 for about 5 minutes, calling the monks to their morning prayer then the bells start in earnest at 08.15 and ring until 08.30, letting all the pilgrims at Taizé know that the service is about to start. When the bells stop I know I really must get up. The bells ring from 12.15 to 12.30, so I know lunch should be on the table and if dinner is not ready when the evening bells go at 20.15, I know I am very late. And that was what Taizé was to me when I arrived here in 2005.

The monks during a Taizé serviceAfter Easter in 2006 we went to Taizé to have a look around and we were amazed at the number of young people milling around. We didn’t go to a service as that seemed inappropriate, with all these kids around it seemed like a young person’s thing. I wanted to go to a service, but I didn’t know how it worked, so I didn’t dare go alone. In July some campers (Ans and Simon) arrived, she had been to Taizé for the first time that spring and wanted to camp nearby to take in a few services and tempt her husband to go too. He however wasn’t interested and she didn’t dare go alone. At last my chance to go to a service, so on a Friday evening Ans and I went up the hill to Taizé.

The services are made up of singing and silence. The songs are mesmerising. With pilgrims from all over the world the songs need to be simple to enable everyone to sing. There are a mixture of languages, Latin, German and some sort of Slavonic language are the most popular with French, English and Spanish there too. Each song has two lines and these are sung over and over again. The songs are a mixture of four voices, rounds and solo singing with the congregation singing the chorus. It is not to everyone’s taste, but I absolutely love them. In every service there is silence, five minutes of it. Five minutes is a very long time and it is quite amazing that a church full of people can be so quiet for so long. The singing continues after the monks have left and on a Friday and Saturday night this can go on into the early hours of the morning I have been told.A service at Taizé

The peace that pervades in a service is tangible and I can quite understand why some people come back year after year, just to regain that and to take a little bit of serenity back home with them. It is definitely not just a young person’s thing at all. Everyone is welcome to the services. Many, many of the visitors in our gîtes or on the campsite come for Taizé, to take part in a couple of services while being on holiday and enjoying other things that this area has to offer.

The photos are from the Taizé community website. For more information click here

Pickled Walnuts

2009 July 1
Posted by nixon727@gmail.com

La Tuilerie website

Ever since I visited Haywoods Pickle factory in Bury St Edmunds regularly back in the early ‘90s, I have been fascinated by pickles in general, but pickled walnuts in particular. These black, unappetising looking things were like gold. The walnuts arrived in June from Italy and were processed so quickly I never managed to get a visit to see what happened. Once they were bottled, they were so valuable, no one would open a jar for me. I never saw them in the shops, but they always sold out at Christmas time according to everyone in the company, they just couldn’t make enough of the things.

walnuts To my surprise I found that we have a walnut tree in our garden. Two years ago I saw green fruit on one of our trees, and such fruit I had never seen before in my life. When I found out they were walnuts that was it, I decided to make pickled walnuts. The first attempt was not a success. I had picked the walnuts too late and the hard nut was already forming. The resulting mess was not something to be proud of! This year I have picked, tested and done everything in time – I hope. Today was the end of three weeks of processing. Two weeks in brine and several days drying in the sun and today the bottling. The walnuts look like nothing on earth, but I am reliably formed they are delicious – although some accounts say that they are an acquired taste. I’ll edit this blog when I get to eat them in a couple of months’ time!

The recipe:
I made this recipe up from a whole load I found on the internet.

Pick the walnuts before 15th June, with rubber gloves on prick the green fruits all over and soak in brine made of one part salt to 10 parts water. The juice from the fruits will stain your hands a dark brown, hence the gloves. Put a weight on top to make sure all the walnuts stay under water. Renew the brine after a week and soak for a second week. Remove the fruit and dry in the sun for 2-3 days or a little longer, until the fruits are all withered and black and look like dried prunes.dried-walnuts

Sterilise jars and lids – I used 250-300g jars. In each jar place a clove of garlic sliced in half, ½ tsp of mustard seeds, ½ tsp cloves, ½ tsp peppercorns and about 8 – 10 whole allspice. Pack in as many walnuts as you can and top up with hot vinegar (about 200ml per jar), seal immediately. When cool label and place in a dark cupboard.

They will be ready in about 7-8 weeks, but the flavour develop longer after all it is a traditional Christmas treat, so we’ll see.

Sunday Constitutional

2009 July 1
Posted by nixon727@gmail.com

La Tuilerie Website

VineyardsSunday morning and it is randonnée time. Every week from mid-April to the end of June and all during September and October, there are organised walks in the area around here. I must say that “organised walks” kind of put me off from trying them, the very thought of having to walk with a bunch of other people didn’t thrill me to bits, but we tried one anyway and now we are hooked. There are basically two types of walk, the ones that are set out and which you walk at your own speed and those where you walk in a group. The groups walks are not our cup-of-tea. You have to walk at the speed of the slowest and you have to stop every time someone wants to pick flowers! The one time we did a group walk, it took us nearly 4 hours to do about 10 km, I was EXHAUSTED, never again.

We like the walks that are laid out and that you just have to follow the arrows chalked on the ground or nailed to fences or trees. You pay a couple of Euros and then off you go. There are one, two or three stops along the way for refreshments, depending on the length of walk you are doing. This is France, so the refreshments are wine, cheese, sausage and a bit of bread - what more do you need?Cees walking

What we really enjoy about these outings is that we get to see different footpaths and areas that we would not normally venture into. Last Sunday was Flagy and the walk was beautiful. Some of the paths were rather difficult to walk on (large wobbly stones) but most were really nice. The whole course was well thought through, not too steep and yet hard enough work for 30 degrees. We got slightly lost having missed a little blue arrow somewhere, but we weren’t the only ones and we had a map, so we were soon back on course.

The season is now over as the holidays are starting. I can’t wait until September when they start again, but if we want to go for a walk in the meantime, we have a mass of information on the nice walks round here, the only trouble is you have to take you own food and wine!

Changes in Taizé

2009 June 27
Posted by nixon727@gmail.com

Window in Taize church The church of Reconciliation in Taizé had a monstrosity of an organ mounted on the wall on the left-hand side when looking to the altar end of the church. Tall pilgrims could hardly stand beneath it and I have seen one man hit his head. Frère Roger thought that the organ was too big, pompous and loud for the community. Taizé’s music is simple and requires little or no accompaniment, so the little organ, played by one of monks within the “garden”, that usually sounds like a guitar, suits the whole service. New organ in Taize churchDuring the refurbishments of two years ago, this ghastly thing was thankfully removed which did wonders for the simple beauty of this end of the church. The orange curtains draped at the altar end church and the small stain glass windows are the only adornments in the church and they achieve the right effect.

So what has happened in the last two weeks? Suddenly a new organ has appeared, at the same spot as the old one and as big and as ugly, just a little bit more shiny and maybe with a bit more head room underneath. It could even be the old one polished up and returned, I don’t know. It looks like it could blast out music and drown the singing. At the service today it was not in use, so I will have to wait and see whether it is as loud as it looks. What would Frère Roger make of this?

Our website

New Café - L’Annexe

2009 June 26
Posted by nixon727@gmail.com

Real excitement has hit La Tuilerie, the guests in one of the gîtes has notice a new café. Not just any café but one on the Voie Verte, the cycle path that runs through Burgundy on old railway lines or along old tow paths. The guests in question, Jan and Eric, have been here for two weeks and have cycled extensively along the Voie Verte north to Givry and south to Mâcon and they have done many of the “boucles” off the Voie Verte that take you up into the countryside and small villages around here and range from easy to do up to seriously difficult.

L'AnnexeThey have been watching the goings on in a little house on the Voie Verte very near here. The house in question has been in the throws of renovation ever since we came to live here. The last two weeks, under Eric’s watchful eye, there have been strange comings and goings at that house. Firstly a large upright fridge with a glass front arrived, then a huge chest freezer and then (most suspicious of all) a large box, that Eric was convinced was full of parasols, arrived yesterday. On Eric’s outing this morning, the truth was revealed, a gravelled patio with tables chairs and parasols and a sign saying that L’Annexe was open for business! Now all those thirsty cyclists that travel up and down the Voie Verte can stop and enjoy a hot or cold drink and a snack.

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Red- and White-currant Jelly

2009 June 26
Posted by nixon727@gmail.com

Late in 2005 Mme Chachuat pointed out to me the red- and white-currant bushes in the dilapidated vegetable plot. Redcurrant bushThey had been badly pruned over the years, most were half dead and all were held together with metal wires. She claimed that they produced enormous crops and that the jelly you could make from them was delicious. Not being a jam or jelly fan myself, I didn’t really get too excited by the prospect. Anyway, Mme Chachuat phoned in the spring of 2006 to see if I knew how to make jam or jelly. I knew she just wanted to see what we had done during the renovations on the house, so even though I have made tonnes of jam in the past, I said I did not know how to and she obligingly offered to come and teach me.

The day before she arrived I spend hours in the veg plot dodging the brambles and stinging nettles to pick as many red and white currants as I could be bothered to, to enable the jam/jelly lesson to go ahead. When she arrived she made it very clear that she wasn’t very impressed with the state of the gardens, but she certainly was impressed with what we had created for the new gîtes or holiday accommodation. Both of the stables had been totally transformed into two very roomy “houses” for renting out in 2007. Compared to the dark stables the new light and airy rooms quite surprised her.Mme Chachuat was also not very impressed with the amount of currants I had picked, I fudged my way through that one by saying that they weren’t ripe yet. Quickly on to my French jam making lesson. In France they use sugar with pectin in it. It is fantastically expensive when compared to normal sugar and why you would need it if you are making jam or jelly from a fruit high in pectin is beyond me, but she insisted we use that type of sugar and not the normal stuff. What was also strange to me was the fact that she put the boiled up fruit pulp through a metal mouli-sieve, so the “jelly” ended up cloudy, but I suppose you get more juice that way.

The real point of the visit was to see Mme Chachuat again and to let her know that at least the buildings were being looked after and that was a success. The “jelly” was excessively sweet but some people who I gave it away to said they liked it (were they just being polite?) >

This year with the gardens in a better state and the surviving currant bushes neatly pruned and all metal hoop free, I decided to make “real” jelly.

The recipe is really simple:Red-and white-currant jelly
Pick the red- and white- currants in any quantity or proportion, wash and remove bugs and leaves but stalks can be left in. Heat the currants very gently in a large non-aluminium pan (don’t add water) stirring all the time until the now liquid currants start to boil. Boil for 30 mins.

Put the pulp into a jelly bag, some muslin lining a non-metal colander or sieve or in a suspended pillow case and let the juice drip out of the pulp for about 12 hours. DO NOT SQUEEZE THE PULP!

Measure the juice and add 1 kg of normal (granulated) sugar for every litre of juice. Put these together in a large wide open pan (again non-aluminium) and gradually bring to the boil. Boil for 5 minutes or until setting point is reached (point at which a teaspoon of the mixture will set when put onto a cold saucer). Scoop off the “scum” and save for immediate use. (You remove this to stop the jelly crystallising in the jars).

Pour the jelly into sterilised jars and seal with sterilised lids – leave to cool, label then put away somewhere dark and dry.

This jelly is both sweet and tart and is really delicious in fact it is so yummy I have taken to eating it for breakfast. I hope that there will be enough left for the welcome packets we give to the people who stay in our gîtes!

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Repeat Offenders

2009 June 25
Posted by nixon727@gmail.com

They are back again, our most prolific repeat visitors! Hans and Joke (pronounced yoker), a Dutch couple, came to our campsite in 2006 just to see if the campsite was OK intending to stay only one or two nights. In 2006 they stayed for nearly two weeks, 2007 for one week on the way to their “real” holiday destination, 2008 for one week with some of their grown up children, 2009 for a week on the way to their “real” holiday destination and now for 3 nights on their way home. I think they like it here!Hans, Joke, Simon, Ans and Cees

We have a number of people like Hans and Joke, who come back again and again, they have all become friends. What is so nice is that when they arrive at the campsite and say “it’s like coming home”. For us it is really gratifying that we have “got it right”.

We built the campsite to suit ourselves making it the campsite we would like to stay on. No electricity on the site so no blaring TVs or radios. We have included a small fridge in the toilet block so that you can keep your beer or white wine cool or to enable you to buy in for breakfast without worrying if your pâté will have gone rancid before the morning. We keep the showers and toilets spotlessly clean, unless some anti-social people come and wash their muddy/grassy boots in the shower, no only making it disgustingly dirty but blocking the drains in the process, which happens every so often but we have learnt to deal with that type. Above all we have peace and quiet and I mean quiet. Most of the time you cannot hear a man-made sound (unless I’m mowing of course). At 08.30 the bells of Taizé ring out calling the faithful to the morning service, at 12.15 again and in the evening I know I am late with dinner if I hear the bells (20.30) before I have food on our plates!Taize, Taizé

Many of our visitors come for Taizé, some to really get involved in the discussion groups etc, others out of curiosity (“what is this place we have heard about?”) and still others who want to go to one or two services. Many walk or cycle from here (how they get up or down that hill on a bike is a mystery to me) and others go by car.

Anyway, back to Hans and Joke, the only negative thing is that now we won’t see them for another year as they will be leaving on Monday. It’s sad saying goodbye to your friends but hopefully some of our others will be turning up soon to fill their gap.

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The Front Garden

2009 June 25
Posted by nixon727@gmail.com

I have just been trying to bring back to The front "garden" mind how the front garden (that is the garden in front of the gites) looked when we arrived and also trying to figure out why it has taken so long to get it under control. I put it down to lack of effort on my part, but having found the old photos I am now very proud indeed of my achievements. This is what we arrived to in September 2005 a complete wilderness that had once been a very nice garden. So I could not just strip it to bare ground and start again (well I could but that is not in my nature) I needed to identify the friends and eliminate the foes and that just takes time.

The front garden 2009Mme Chachuat (the previous owner) had grown more feeble over the years and had not maintained the garden probably for the last two years she owned it. We bought the house in March 2005 and moved in September, so the garden had not been touched at all that year – so you can imagine what a mess it was. My Mum once told me, “one year seed seven years weed” and she’s right, there those three years of neglect will take a long time to eliminate. Both 2006 and 2007 the garden got the better of me by July and I couldn’t keep up with the weed production. Last year went better, but this year I can finally say that the garden has been tamed. The weeds are reducing in number and I have managed to keep on top of them, so far very little has gone to seed, so the seven years start from now! By 2016 it’ll be weed free (ummmm).
View from the living roomStructure is starting to come into the garden and at last I have something I am happy to work in not overwhelmed by so much work that I don’t know where to start. The roses that Mme Chachuat had planted are now coming into their own, they are getting the light and air they so desperately needed and I am pleased with the extra bits that I have added. Some things are not in the right place (the Michaelmas daisies for instance), but they can be moved to a new location in the autumn, now that space has been created. The ground is very heavy clay so in dry weather it is like concrete and in wet weather I gain several inches in height as the mud sticks to the bottom of my boots, so the time you can work within the garden itself is quite limited hence the new paths, I’ll be creating more when we have some sawdust again from chopping logs (nothing goes to waste here).
In the meantime the guest in the gites can enjoy the flowers of Burgundy as they change through the seasons.

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Cormatin Guitar Festival

2009 June 24
Posted by nixon727@gmail.com

 The first concert was a couple of weeks ago and as usual the season was started off by a concert from Emmanuel RossfelderEmmanuel Rossfelder.  His playing is superb and he always enchants the audience not only with his playing and his presence but with his stories about the pieces he includes in his programme.  A concert with Rossfelder wouldn’t be complete without “Recuerdos de la Alhambra” by Tarrega which when he plays it you can hear the water trickling down the fountains and over the walls in the Alhambra’s beautiful gardens.  This year, unusually the first concert was in the lovely Romanesque church in Malay.  I wasn’t convinced that the move from Cormatin church would be good for the event, but the acoustics were much better in Malay and we managed to get comfortable seat as well! 

On Saturday might we went to the second concert in the 2009 series.  Yet another new venue, this time an open-air concert at the Plan d’eau at Cormatin, rather a chilly night, but it was a nice idea.  The group Zancle from Lyon, played mainly folk songs from SicilZancley, the two singers were from that region.  They had an accordion/guitar player, flute player/singer, the leader who played the mandolin and a number of different types of guitar as well as being the lead singer and the percussionist who rattled his different types of tambourine with great precision and seriousness.  On the whole they were not of the highest standard, the leader of the band certainly had difficulties hearing that his strings were not always in tune, but what they lacked in that department they made up for in enthusiasm and they created a wonderful atmosphere of southern Italy even though it was probably below 15 degrees!  I think they were supposed to have a pause in the middle so that we could all sample the food and drinks being sold by the committee members, but they obviously wanted to get home at a reasonable time and just played through.  The poor ladies behind the bar were shivering by the time we all arrived to eat their hot waffles and sandwiches!

 

We will be going to the violin concert in Chazelle church, just a little walk down the road for us, in a couple of weeks.  We’ll be taking cushions as the seats are a bit hard there.

 

La Tuilerie Website  

 

How we got here

2009 June 23
Posted by nixon727@gmail.com

La TuilerieSeptember 2005 the huge removal lorry containing all our worldly goods arrived in front of a barely habitable Tuilerie with lots of potential and very little dry storage space.  Unbelievably less than a year later our brand new campsite had completed a very successful season and the two gîtes were ready for tiling, painting and furnishing to accommodate our first guests in April 2007.  When you hear all the stories of nightmare rennovations, ours had gone very well indeed, but we had a clear goal in mind and nothing would stop us getting there.  We were supplying simple but roomy and comfortable accommodation to people who wanted to visit this beautiful area of the world.

Burgundy, in particular this part, has so much to offer, beautiful rolling hills ideal for walking and cycling and you can choose your route from  flat (along the Voie Verte) to seriously steep Mont St-Romain or Mont St-Vincent and everything inbetween.  The are numerous Romanesque churches to visit and chateaux in abundance.  Many of our visitors come to experience the religious orders near here, Taizé a Christian ecumenical monastery order that attracts thousands of young people througout the summer or La Boulaye a Tibbetan Buddhist monastery, the first in Europe.  Other people come here to visit Cluny and Beaune with both Dijon and Lyon (two magnificant cities) being easily accessible too.

Life in Cormatin can be exciting, just watch this space!