Lighting up Chamberet for the festive season!

I bet there aren't many towns or villages that can claim - not that Elvis switched on their Christmas lights -  but, even better,  that he actually installed them on all the lampposts throughout their community!  

On Friday last week I saw the commune pick-up go past and the back was filled with pots of chrysanthemums which had brightened the village since just before Toussaint.  We remarked that the Toussaint season was over and the next underway - preparations must be in hand to install the Christmas decorations. It is fairly quiet here apart from all the tractors, fuel and grain lorries which we now don't notice too much, but a different voice or engine sound and we're on the case.  Someone once said "God knows everything, but the neighbours miss nothing."  - that'll be me they were talking about! So, today I heard voices and heard some sort of machinery outside our house and looked out and here was Elvis in the cherry picker, chatting to a neighbour and installing a light on the nearest lamppost.  Not Elvis Presley, you understand, but Elvis who works for the commune (I think he's Portuguese but I'm not sure about the popularity of the name in Portugal). 

So, this evening, ce soir, we were having a little stroll and were delighted to witness all the said lights going on on all the lampposts in our street.  The lights are new this year - white and pink - and they look very festive.  Next to appear will no doubt be Santa's chalet down in front of the Mairie, in preparation for the Christmas Fayre this Sunday.  We are away here from the towns, so I'm not sure what decorations there'll be in Tulle, Brive and Limoges, but Christmas is not so commercialised here.  The local shops have decorations in their windows and normally a Christmas tree outside, decorated with coloured foil bows.  Since we moved here five years ago, we've noticed more residents decorating their houses and gardens with Christmas lights and decorations.

On Sunday we'll be going to the Christmas Fayre in the village, then a Christmas Carol concert at La Croisille, about 12 kilometres from here.  There'll be French and English carols and songs and readings, followed by mulled wine and mince pies - just right to get us into the Christmas spirit.

Three years ago, Harry made a cardboard tree from some packaging and it was wonderful, but unfortunately it had to be rerecycled and is no longer with us.  Then a

 couple of years ago we bought a small live tree from our local supermarket for 5 euros, so hope we can get one at that price again this year.  Last year was a bit of a sad affair as the house was upside down as we had changed both our boiler and woodburner, so had no heating, other than the flames from the Christmas pud!  We have always loved our family Christmases, so I'm looking forward to a proper Christmas this year, with family coming for a few days before Christmas, and before that to digging out our Christmas decorations (some so vintage, they are even older than me!).  They'll be going up hopefully on around the 13 December to cheer the dark evenings ahead.

© Marie Tyler, 2016

It's Accordeon Festival Time in Chamberet!


This weekend in Chamberet - in fact from today - we have the 10th Accordion Festival/Festival de l'Accordeon and there are at least 70 camper vans in the village with festival goers all ready to dance and listen to accordions over the next three days!   The marquee (which at least quadruples the size of the Salle des Fetes) went up in a record two days last week, including a wooden dance floor over the whole area.  Volunteers have been back and forward since then, the festival toilets are installed in front of the Salle des Fetes, and there are huge posters on empty shop windows showing this year's timetable - a great idea and a new innovation this year.  Tonight there was a special 'pot d'amitie' - literally, a friendship drink which accompanies all sorts of events - to welcome the festivaliers to the village, and from the numbers of people streaming to the marquee next to the Mairie, I'm sure it was a success.

 Tomorrow though, Friday,  at our little supermarket G20, there'll be sampling and tasting of  local produce - meat, wine, honey etc.and music, also at Mille Saveurs which has a lovely selection of speciality foods, wines, etc. On display also in the marquee at G20 (which next week will be full of crysanthemums and artificial flowers for relatives to put on the graves of  departed loved ones at Toussaint) are winning jerseys from the 1940s onwards of cyclists in the Bol d'Or, one of the local Tour de France-type cycle races.

On Sunday it’s the  Fete de l'Automne/Autumn Festival with food and other stalls, apple pressing, a buvette (of course) and a cheap meal in the chapiteau/marquee next to the Mairie from about midday.  It’s plastic cutlery and paper plates, but at 8 euros for 4 courses, you can’t complain and its one of those events where everybody and their granny is there, all eating together (a bit squashed in a marquee next to the Mairie).  If you want to go a bit upmarket,  the other cafes/restaurants will also be open and putting on a special meal (22 euros at the Cafe des Sports).

The camper vans are from all parts of France - a sight worth seeing, and the strains of the accordeon and other music in the air from now 'til Sunday evening.  (The favourite tune we noticed in previous years is that well known Spanish tune 'Una Paloma blanca'!)

©Marie Tyler
19 October 2016

NB  Bob - if you are reading this - hope you are keeping well.

I can hear the grass grow . . .

We have here more than our fair share of rain - torrential Correzian rain - then sun, then rain, then sun . . .

Today after a cool start, we have had glorious sunshine, a temperature of 25 plus, a bit close at times with a storm threatening, but now at 7.30, it's still warm with all the birds still singing and busy as ever.

With storms and heavy rain forecast for the next few days (though that might not come to anything hopefully),  I can now see and/or hear four different grass-cutters.  Ours is Harry pushing an old electric machine which we inherited with the house, Monsieur Gomes cutting the next door neighbour's flat garden with a ride-on mower, the young fella, Yann,  across the road pushing a huge petrol-driven, then out of sight, over the hedge Monsieur Lagarde on his ride-on.

So, bring on the rain, then we'll all be back here again next time the sun shines!

Armistice Day with rosebuds, primroses, globe thistles and this winter's hellebore all flowering

Today, Wednesday 11 November 2015, is Armistice Day in France and it is a bank holiday.  All our local shops are closed, apart from half-day opening at the boulangerie and the supermarket, but some of the larger supermarkets are open as they have recently started to do on other bank holidays.  All cities,  towns and villages hold a ceremony at their war memorial, much like the ceremonies I used to attend in Langley Park in Co Durham.

The format of the ceremony here is similar, but much better respected and attended.  There's the familiar parade - from the Mairie (Town Hall or Council Offices) with the Mayor, councillors and other officials, also our local Pompiers (firefighters) including about 16 young firefighters.

One of the councillors reads out all the names that are on the memorial and after every five or so, another official says 'Morts pour la France' (Died for France).  In the First World War 238 men from the commune were killed during the conflict or as a result of their wounds.  This was out of a population of about 3,000.  As in lots of small villages, especially here in rural France, it was noticeable how many families were affected - some with four or five men lost.  

One of the young pompiers, a teenage girl, had been chosen to read out the official government letter which is always sent on this occasion.  The Mayor then made a thoughtful compassionate speech as he has in previous years, detailing the devastating effect that the First World War had on whole families and the futility of it all.

Wreaths are laid and there is the lowering and raising of the banners/standards with the bugle accompaniment.  After the official ceremony some local English residents place poppies around the memorial.  

The ceremony is always followed by 'un pot d'amitié', literally a drink of friendship, in the Salle des Fetes, to which everyone is invited, and most people attend.  During the month of November this year Chamberet is hosting a touring exhibition in our new mediatheque of hospitals that were set up in France, many of them by volunteers during 1914 -1918.  Everyone assembled in the mediatheque for a word from the Mayor about the exhibition, and as a doctor about the basic treatments that were available then for the most horrendous wounds and injuries.  Then the departmental archivist who is responsible for the exhibition which has been staged in and around Correze since 2014 gave some further information. Finally, everyone was invited to the pot d'amitié, with  drinks of rosé and Chamberet's own local cider and apple juice and nibbles.  

And a note on the weather - it is 11 November and the temperature was almost 20 degrees this morning and this afternoon! Correze has lots of all varieties of trees and the autumn colours this year have been stunning, possibly because of the long, hot summer.  In the garden now we have roses still flowering and in bud, primroses which have been flowering again for about two weeks, globe thistles the same, and the first of the white hellebores which normally flower from early December 'til March just starting to open.  Long may it continue!


© Marie Tyler 2015

It's raining rain, hallelujah! First rain for weeks!

Last night we sat in the garden, under the dripping parasols, wearing rainjackets, jeans and even socks!  It was the first rain for about seven weeks, other than odd five-minute showers.

It made us think of all those camping trips - sitting, all wrapped up, inside the tent flap in the Lakes, Hawes or Northumberland, glass in hand,   looking out at the wet and not looking forward to waking up with damp clothes in the morning.

We were so pleased to see the rain  - never thought I'd say that! - but with temperatures often in the low 30s for days on end, and in the 20s during the night, it is a welcome change and relief. The gardens and fields are all parched and the water butts empty.  There are of course watering restrictions, and the farmers have had to dip into their winter  feed as there's no grass in the fields for the animals - mainly cows, Limousin, around here.

More storms forecast on and off for the next few days, so bring on the rain.  We don't want rain on Saturday though,  thank you very much, when we have a stall at our village Vide Grenier (car boot-type sale), or for Friday or Saturday evening when there are two free music and dance concerts with local folklorique dance groups and visiting troupes from Mexico and Belarusse.  
Back to 30s temperatures next week though when we'll all be complaining about la grande chaleur (the big heat!) again.



© Marie Tyler 2015

Yes, it's that time again - my old-fashioned (labour-intensive) Christmas cake

I wasn't going to bake a Christmas cake this year, as I would just be hauling it to Durham over land and sea at Christmas.  But Christmas cakes are a well-established and essential element of the Taylor-Tyler Christmas experience, not to mention my family's Geordie/Scots tradition of giving visitors their 'New Year drink' accompanied by a slice of home-made Christmas cake when they first visit your house in the New Year and give the New Year toast of "Health, wealth and happiness - here's wishing you all the best!"

So, today, armed with my Old-fashioned Christmas cake recipe from a 1970s magazine (they said then that it was a much older recipe) I set off on the journey.  Even though I've been using this recipe since the late 70s, every time I make it, it is a new experience, and I manage to forget every year what size cake tin I used previously, how I calculated amounts of necessary ingredients dependent on tin size(s), how I calculated variable cooking times.

The recipe states that preparation time is 30 minutes - huh!  We don't have any labour-saving gadgets like food processors, more's the pity, but can say we appreciate life in a Downton Abbey type of kitchen, but unfortunately without the essential staff (can't get them these days). The problem is when you have to mix large quantities of butter and sugar - to arrive at a white colour - never managed that - stone, then chop a kilo of dried prunes,  add and mix with a kilo of sultanas, plus almonds, beat eight eggs - all to be mixed by hand, then that preparation time of 30 minutes needs to be trebled.  The process included  calculations by the scientist/mathematician in the household on cubic capacities of cake and other kitchen containers to make sure I had got it right.  

I also made the mistake of measuring out double quantities from my recipe, then realising that no way would they all fit in one mixing bowl, and would they fit in the tins we had organised?  I then had to divide everything with the added complication of being 'down' on some ingredients, therefore having to substitute with others.  Anyway, I need to acknowledge here that I was ably assisted by Harry who did lots of enthusiastic stirring and mixing, and the cakes are now almost there.  

I am happy to report that the smaller cake (which will probably travel the 800 miles to Durham and beyond) is now cooling happily and the larger cake is just about ready and both will receive their first dose of brandy or armagnac later as we're out of brandy I believe.

(The old-fashioned bit of the recipe apparently is the inclusion of the prunes, which were used in cakes before raisins and sultanas and glace cherries became so popular.  Please feel free to ask for the recipe and to ask for a taste when we see you!)



© Marie Tyler, 2014

The nights are fair drawing in (and it's still August!)

Yes - it has felt like autumn morning and evening, and sometimes during the day!, for at least the past week and our central heating which is set to come on at minus 17 has been coming on early morning and sometimes staying on during the morning - the outdoor thermostat is at the back of the house and in shadow until the sun moves round at about 11.00 am. We've also noticed some of the leaves are turning to their autumn colours as well.

In August here, everyone starts thinking about wood supplies for the coming winter months. Most houses in our area have a wood burner, une poêle à bois, possibly as the only source of heat or, like us, in addition to heating with oil - very expensive.   We are on the lorry and tractor route through the village as the road narrows on the other through road and tractors and trailers have been going back and forward loaded with wood for the past few weeks.

A friend of ours had rescued some wood last year from an English couple who had cut down a number of trees, and she offered to bring it over last week.  On our job list was 'sorting out the woodstore'.  This is open fronted, built of breeze blocks with a corrugated roof supported by various old wooden joists, old tree trunks and old broom shanks.  In one corner are all sorts of ancient agricultural and gardening tools imaginable - mostly rusty - , various sticks and stakes in a ancient stout wooden crate which possibly housed sewing machine parts originally.  (The house originally had a hairdresser's, sewing machine shop and tailor's and the original sewing machine and other sewing paraphernalia is still in the attic - beautiful wooden templates for suits, silk threads and hundreds of buttons.)

There is also the stack of wood from last year which has to be moved in rotation nearer the front of the store for easy access during those cold dark evenings.  We have lots of sticks, old rotten wood and smashed up fruit crates for kindling, along with pine cones and the remains of the pine needles from last year's Christmas tree which produce great sparks and scents as well as getting the fire under way.

Two wheelbarrows also live in the woodstore - a modern metal one that we bought here new and an ancient wooden barrow, with useful detachable sides - very sturdy, but it weighs a ton before you even load anything on to it.  Some of the plastic garden chairs are often put in there, along with vintage parasols and parasol stands which weigh a ton and were originally the bases of the 1960s hairdryers from the haridresser's.

So, we cleared everything out of the store, Kay arrived with the wood and that is now all stacked in there - and hopefully will be suitable for our woodburner, as we realised that some woods give off no heat but lots of resin to tar up the chimney!  So, now we need to finalize the order with a local farmer for two stères (think that's about two cubic metres, but possibly more) and await the main wood delivery in September or October when it'll be 'Wagons, ho!' with the two wheelbarrows pressed into service.

© Marie Tyler, 2014.