A close look at the new commercial centre for the Commune

The more we think about it the project to create a new centre to unite the "old" centres of Marsilly and Nantilly is a bold venture. We wandered around there today and were surprised at just how big and how many the shop units there are. The Superette is going to be 1000 sq metres and run by Coop Atlantique using their Eco Frais brand.

A day trip in the Vendee on Saturday

The Vendee is the next department north of us and the border is only about five miles away. We went on a coastal route exploring a whole bunch of coastal towns / seaside resorts. It is smashing up there. We had a late morning start and did a fair bit of driving about but it was mostly meandering from place to place rather than bashing along the road. In all we called in on L'Aiguillon Sur Mer, La Tranche Sur Mer, Jard Sur Mer, Sables-d'Olonne and back via Lucon. Here's few snaps

Lucon Catherdral

Day Two of the ORMA Consulting Easter Golf Challenge

Well Mckay's golf game is going south and I don't mean to the Cote D'Azur. Even though there was a marginal improvement in the lad's game and Annika was not quite on song, the margin has widened. Looks like a miracle is needed or the championship will be decided by the end of the next round. And what's worse the muffins did not really work out.

OK I took some liberties with the recipe (not enough butter) and the silicon cup cake thingies were a bit small, but still..........

Operation "Remove the Oil-fired Heater" gets underway

That's the flue loose....

Hmm, I wonder how I get this off....

Out, out, out

OK it is not the prettiest Banana Loaf you've ever seen....

...but it was delicious. So we used a foil container because we don't have a loaf tin here in Nantilly, so it is a bit wonky. But we need help from you baking mavens.
All the banana and pecan ended up at the bottom of the loaf - any idea why?
Next up fairy cakes or do we call them cup cakes these days?

Visible progress with the new Centre Commercial for Marsilly

The car park is more or less ready

The shop units have windows - mostly

I do wonder if the local mayor owned the land that this big (relative to the size of the commune) development is being built on.
In the three and a half months since we last reported it is easy to see the progress and it looks to be about on schedule for a summer opening. Of course that means it has to be finished over the next two months as we are told that the french building trade goes on holiday for the whole of August. It would not surprise me.

It looks like the development may have caused its first "casualty" as the mini Co-op by the church has closed its doors for good. A sign says their last day was February 18th. To be honest our experience was that it hardly ever opened its doors and so perhaps its demise is separate from the prospect of a new "Superette" in the new CC.

In addition to the new shop / business premises about 100 homes are going up on the site and many are already complete and occupied. We have yet to have a real mouch about the whole site to really assess progress.

The large grey building in the centre back is a puzzle

As I write a Banana Loaf with rum and pecans is in the oven with about 30 minutes of baking to go. Does anyone know the difference between Pecans and Walnuts or are they just different names for the same nut. Are they nuts, perhaps they are seeds? I must google - watch this space for a report on how the baking works out.

Lots of work going on

Day One of the ORMA Consulting Easter Golf Challenge

The first tee box at Golf De La Pree our local course

 Of course there is no need to say who has the first round advantage. We are playing stableford  and on the current deficit I am going to have to restrict Annika to only using one club for the whole of the next round.

The golf course seems to have pretty much recovered from the inundation of the storm, tempte xynthia, of February last year. One also has the feeling that it has been a pretty dry start of  he year as the golf course is very hard underfoot.

The McKay eyeview from the yellow tees -
the reds are someway in the distance to the right

Not much else to the day; a trip to the local Intermarche for a few essential supplies and to discover what we might about the shop opening hours over the Easter weekend. There were no notices of special fete hours so I guess things are going to be "normal".

We called in at the Marsilly boulangerie for a baguette and they had some delightful easter eggs that looked just like  boiled eggs with its top cut off, very tempting.

Partly in an attempt to avoid the temptations of the french patisserie we are going to doing a bit of baking ourselves. Watch this space......

O'Reilly making mincemeat of the 15th

Springtime is really here in South West France

(NB email readers - remember you can click on this link or the one below to visit the blog that this email comes from)
We have made a number of car journeys to Marsilly with the car packed tight with stuff. On more than one occasion we have observed that we had packed "everything but the kitchen sink". Well this time we packed the kitchen sink! We are recycling the sink that was in the kitchen in The Knoll to the house in France as part of our plan for the next small upgrade to the kitchen fittings. Whether we actually do an upgrade is anybody's guess but at least we are now prepared.

We also brought a new table for the backyard - another eBay bargain. It is light weight and in a black mesh so it matches the chairs. [picture shows]

The journey here was very good, truly like a start to the holiday. We left Beckenham "early" and called in to see Alison & David on Hayling Island before transferring to the ferry port. The new terminal at Portsmouth is now open and is a big improvement on its shed-like predecessor.

The ferry was busy but we secured an early table in the restaurant and enjoyed a very good meal before ending the evening watching a magician giving his show to the huge delight of all the children (of whatever age).
We had a glorious day for the 200 mile drive down and we landed at the front door about 12.45pm. Just starting to get the feel of the place, everything in good order. The house has got through the winter without any problems even thought the saga of the water stop cock continues.
No we will turn to thinking of what we will do to while way the next couple of weeks.

Monday was Il De Re - for a quick wintery visit

M&A left late morning to travel up to the ferry port for their return. Part of the leisurely preparation for their departure was to source some engine oil for their Mini. As luck would have it the local (Marsilly) Renualt dealer was open and able to supply, althoug it was a hefty 30euro for a 2 litre bottle.Once they were on the road we tootled off to Il De Re with our cheif stopping point being St Martin

Even in the cold of winter, but with a little bit of sunshine, it presents a delightful picture. 
 A couple of the dock side bars and cafes were open and indeed the one we thought we might get a snack in, was absolutely packed with people enjoying their lunches that filled the place with a tantalising aroma. However we did not fancy the idea of sitting outside.

  This little spot provided for a warm seat inside and a very strong coffee and a sandwich that found the spot, as one might say.

We heard later that M&As journey to the port was "eventful" in that they needed to get a new tyre - two in fact. They needed one new tyre to replace one that had shown a bit of a fault earlier in the week. But this model of Mini has run-flat tyres and you have to replace them two at a time it seems. Sounds like a wease developed by the tyre industry boyos.

On Sunday we went to a rugby match

A scrum very close to us

The local team Stade La Rochelle were hosting Stade Francais and we bought a couple of tickets online so as to add a new expereince to our french sojourn. SOR has been to many a rugby match but Peter had never (ever) been to one. Indeed he has only (ever) watched rugby on the telly when SOR was so engaged an he couldn't be bothered leaving the room!

Lots of standing around!

 

The only tickets we could get were "ground" tickets that basically meant we were standing on the level ground behind one of the goal posts. The match did not start until 4.30pm and so it was getting  bit gloomy for the very old digtal camera we keep here in Nantilly to take any sort of a photo.

As best as we could see it was quite an exciting game and there was a great atmosphere with very vocal local supporters chanting "Ici, ici, c'est La Rochelle" but quite why I just don't know. The final score was 26- 26 so a bit of a disappointment for La Rochelle as they were the only team to have the lead at anytime in the match, but then again La Rochelle are bottom of the league so I suppose some points would have been very welcome to them.