There is every sign that the new shops for Marsilly will become a reality..

Les sapeurs-pompiers

So the fire brigade story goes like this....
M&A arrive back at 8 Rue de Nantilly to discover a very strong smell of smoke and quickly locate it as coming from the garage. Bravely Michael dons the guise of un pompier and opens the rear door to the garage to be met by billowing dense smoke with the heavy characterisitc of kippers. Driven back by the smoke, tears already streaming down his face he has to retire to the backyard. After a fwe minutes the smoke has settles and Michael once more makes a foray and this time returns with a smoldering bucket. The bucket that contained the ash and embers cleared form the fireplace that morning by the fire-lackey!
Depositing the bucket in the backyard they duse it with water and leave it to damp down. The garage smells like a kipper factory and they leave the door open to help reduce the odour. A couple of days on and their is still a disitinct aroma of kippers about the garage and everyhting in it!
The fire lackey has been sent on a retraining programme.

 On our trip out to Marans we also had a short stroll in a pleasnat village called Courcon that had a striking church; worth a closer look on a warmer day.

And we all joined in....Happy 2011 from the Nantilly blog

Michael gets o grip with the chicken and duck

The three sous chefs pause for a photo call

Ann volunteers for the toughest jobs

A pavlova in the making - vinegar?

Someone has to test the wines

The pavlova comes together....

And is soon demolished

Marans - a nearby town that is 10km from the coast and yet carries a name that means "sea place" hmmmm...

 And yet when you stroll along the river you can see every sign of how this could have been a prosperous port that lost its right to trade in 1598 with the Edict of Nantes. At least that is what we figured out reading an orientation board in the town.

There is also an attractice looking market hall that hold markets on  a couple of mornings a week. Along with a fair selection of cafes and bars it looks a real propspect for a more thorough visit in the spring and summer.

M&A were not at the house when we got back but they have left a mysterious note about a visit from the fire brigade that we will have to learn more about on their return!

It is New Year's Eve and we are preparing for a long weekend

 There is a Friday morning market in the car park by the Marie in Marsilly so we thought we'd try to ssource all our needs from the local producers. The market was a bit short of stalls, no greengrocer for example and the fish stall had nothing od interets to us.
However we got two very nice local free range chickens, some good looking duck breats and a decent beef fillet joint so we should be OK once we have some vegetables.

We also popped to the boulangerie for the essential breakfast pastries!

We need to have the log fire burning in the late afternoon and evenings....

 .....so we have moved the desk upstairs to the small bedroom and so we can move the sofa further away from the fire.

 We seem to be getting through the logs at a pace

But now we won't have to fight about who sits and roasts directly in front of the fire.

Nous arrivons

Hello from Nantilly.
We were the third car on to the ferry and the third car off the ferry, pretty much to schedule at 8.00am this morning. We split the 4 hours and 55 minutes of driving from the ferry port at Le harve to Marsilly between us and with a couple of pit stops made the journey in five and a half hours. We pulled up outside the front door at 13.30.
Trouble free journey; the temperature never got lower than -1c and peaked at +4c. Roads all clear and there was no sign that there had ever been any snow once we got about half way to La Rochelle.We had packed a "picnic" to make a lunch during the journey but everything went so smoothly we ended up having the "picnic" on the kitchen table in number huit.
It was around 2.5c when we got here but the newly installed electric heaters had done their job and the ambient temperature in the downstairs was 14c. One slightly negative side effect of the radiator installation is that the place is covered in a fine dust from the work - so a nice bit of dusting to do.
On another topic altogether I learned a new acronym today CRAFT - it is a bit like a "senior moment" - Can't Remember A Fecking Thing.

The next two posts are photo's we took in October when we went to see the start of the Velux single handed round the world race start

We are having two electric radiators installed....

...possibly in by Christmas. One will be under the window in the salon area and the second will be a vertical one - a bit like this picture in the corner of the kitchen by the entrance to the larder / utility room. The idea is that when the oil runs out we will have the oil burner and its tank taken away. We are hoping that the electric radiators, combined with the fire will be enough.