Sam and Pat visit again

We've been busy beavers in the last week or so. Our friends Sam and Pat from Houston ended up in Bordeaux last Saturday after a week of biking in the countryside and we brought them home for a brief visit before they flew back home. They last visited in September 2007, before we had moved here permanently.

On Sunday we went to a bread fair at the village of Condac in the north of Charente. This was especially interesting since Sam and Pat ran Houston's favorite bakery for a while. For the fair, the commune's old oven was fired up. First a blazing fire is built; when the fire burns down, the coals and ashes are all swept out. The oven temperature is tested by putting a piece of crumpled newspaper on a paddle and seeing if it singes within eight to ten seconds. When the temperature is right, they start loading in the waiting loaves.

Baker #1 (at the center) rolls two loaves from the floured canvas (where they rested while rising) onto a board. He hands this over to Baker #2 (at the oven mouth), who turns the loaves onto a long paddle, like the one standing against the wall, and hands the board back to Baker #1, who loads it up again. Meanwhile, Baker #2 slashes the tops of the loaves using an exacto knife that he keeps between his lips when it's not in use, and uses the paddle to place the loaves far into the oven. The sawhorse at the right helps to support the back end of the paddle when it's pulled out.

Regular loaves of bread fill the back and sides of the oven and while baguettes are lined up at the front. Being smaller in diameter, they spend less time in the oven.

We wandered around the vide-grenier (flea market, literally empty-attic) without finding anything we couldn't live without. Then we sat under a tent to eat our midday meal, including Charente melon with pineau for a starter and lots of bread baked on the site, and were entertained by a Breton piper group. If you dare, you can list to this small example. The pipes on the left are called bombards, with oboe-like double reeds.

The next day we drove even further, into Vienne, for an English-language tour of the abbey at St Savin sur Gartempe, which is a Unesco world heritage site. We took some food and stopped for a picnic along the Gartempe river on the way.

At the abbey we were shown around by a guide speaking charming Franglais. Paintings in the church date from the 11th and 12th centuries. (Here is a French-language site with lots of good images. Click an picture to get a larger, clearer version. Be sure to admire the wonderful picture of Noah's ark, at the bottom of the first page.)

Tuesday we took our friends to their train in Angoulême, so they could go home and rest from their adventures.

Ed's been working in the kitchen, putting handles on the cabinets. Here's a photo showing our makeshift handles and one already installed. (Yes, that's still the makeshift counter. One day ...) The remaining cabinets, the two that go to the left of the stove, are assembled and waiting the installation of some small shelves (to hold salt and pepper, timers, etc.) before final placement.

Yesterday was the annual Fête de la Motte in our commune. Kaye had planned to go on the morning walk with friends (it started too early for Ed), but we neglected to reserve our places, and in the end we all decided it felt too busy to take part. In the afternoon Ed and Kaye went up to a choral concert in the church, but skipped the dinner. There was no bonfire this year because of the dryness.

After a bit of rain earlier in the week, our weather has turned seriously hot. Today got to up to 37C/98.6F. Tomorrow should be hotter. We're staying inside. It's only June.