(the misadventures of an expatriate corporate dropout)

Saturday, March 21, 2009

last week, in no particular order ...


learned to prepare magret de canard ... oh. my. gawd. trés facile, trés delicieux.

attended a course at the chambre de metiers ... fortunately, we went together because it was a room filled with French entrepreneur-wanna-be's, conducted by a fast talking Frenchwoman. learned all I wanted and then some about microenterprise guidelines.

had a lovely Friday market day. discovered an old book, Culture Potagére ... tucked inside was a bona fide 4 leaf clover! JY bought it for me, insisting it was good luck for us both ... neither of us have EVER discovered a 4 leaf clover, although in our lives we've spent many a romantic moment searching...

sand blasted 3 of 4 walls in the atelier, and commenced with cleaning the exterior. this involves using a hand-pumped sprayer, dispensing eau de javel (bleach) solution. didn't quite meet the mark so now we'll try acid. this is my job! And of course, on the side ... I serve as the entertainment.

had another interesting day out and about, retrieving gardening equipment stored in various spots throughout the Dordogne. JY called and invited us to lunch at friends' house. Yes, you read that right. Never could I imagine doing such a thing in the states. 11:15 a.m. Kim dials Friend X on telephone ... "Hello, I'm in the neighborhood. Thought I'd come over for lunch. Is 12:00ish good for you?". um, NOT! Here we were greeted with open arms. We stopped for charcuterie to present as our contribution to the meal. We began with ti punch (rhum apero) and then on to red wine, charcuterie and cornichons, lentils with tongue and ham chunks, bread, beet salad, cheese, yogurt and fruit, coffee. not bad, eh? we roamed about the countryside a bit, I snapped some photos of a set of old wooden shacks that I now covet, not far from Hautefort.

spread a blanket in the garden and had an after lunch siesta in the sunshine.

washed the car (well, technically I didn't wash the car). still, it is washed.

bought 15 sacks of no. 1 sand for sandblasting. trust me. this is a lot of sand.

chose to accept my mission to locate J M Rhum from Martinique. mission accomplished. deux bouteilles.

franchement, à mon avis (this phrase is kind of a running joke for us), nous n'avons pas travaillé trop la semaine derniére. Le printemps à commencé et nous nous sommes ralentis un peu. (mrs. c, let me have it!)

moto story in production. ciao bellas!

11 comments:

Randal Graves said...

Comment traduit-on 'gawd' en français?

Kind of comical that you follow up romantic four-leaf clovering with sandblasting, bleach and acid. I will not read anything into that for fear of my safety.

What is that a shot of? The French Unabomber's shack?

Utah Savage said...

I have a bit of trouble reading about your fabulous life, because mine is so small and dull and I'm filled with envy. Not like Randal at all who always cheers the lovers on and tries not to drool on his keyboard as he reads about food he probably eats everyday, and yet I on the other hand, want to be you. It hurts a little. I feel left out. Randal would move into the French Unabomber's shack in an instant. So would I.

La Framéricaine said...

Good for you, ma chère!

Randal Graves said...

Come to think of it, I am hungry. Hey utah, let's go renovate that shack. A frenchie writers' retreat.

Non Je Ne Regrette Rien said...

rg-what can I say, I am a woman of many facets...

aw~utah, I write to include not exclude...come along with me as I discover ... whateverthehellitis I am on this journey for ...

merci bien, LaF!

and rg~EXactly!

JChevais said...

Bwa ha ha! I rewrite with love!

franchement, à mon avis, nous n'avons pas travaillé tros semaine derniére. Le printemps ont commencé et nous sommes un peu doucement.

franchement, à mon avis, nous n'avons pas travaillé trop (ou beaucoup) la semaine dernière. Le printemps a commencé et nous nous sommes ralentis un peu.

Course I could be wrong too. You know that right? ;-)

Non Je Ne Regrette Rien said...

in any event, I'm sure I will always be MORE wrong than you! merci beaucoup! most of those, I should have known better...zut!

JChevais said...

Har. I'm a few years ahead in the floundering around department. I still make atrocious mistakes where people will stop, look at me and then I'll smile and say something flip about my accent though I'm personally dying inside.

And I rarely read in French which will one day be my downfall. Honest.

Jonathon G said...

Does anyone still drive Citroen 2CV's near where you live? I love those cars.

I didnt take you for a sandblaster.

Non Je Ne Regrette Rien said...

jonathon~yes the "deux chevals" are still quite popular although you don't see as many as you used to. During the lunch I described...le monsieur had a renovated 2CV truck which was quite cute.

Funny enough, when we were in Madagascar, there were quite a few 2CVs on the road ... in other lands (like Cuba, par example) they keep those old cars going and going because there isn't a local large auto industry spewing out new models each year.

Non Je Ne Regrette Rien said...

oh, and Jean Yves is in charge of sandblasting. I'm more of the clean-up crew! ha!