Lots of things going on in the last weeks, and we've been not been very good about writing. The weather has continued cool and rainy, rainy, rainy. There has been a bit of flooding in some towns of the Charente and all rivers are close to overflowing. We're thinking of building an ark after we wipe off the mildew.
The first round of the voting in the French national elections took place on April 22. About a week before that, a row of posters for all the candidates appeared outside each mairie, the voting place. Here's a photo taken from the car at our mairie.
If no one gets a majority (which they rarely do), the two candidates getting the most votes, in this case Sarkozy and Hollande, have a run-off two weeks later. That's happening today, and a win for Hollande is predicted. (Unfortunately, the third candidate nationwide, although not in our commune, was Marine Le Pen, the leader of the far right National Front, party.)
On the Sunday of the first election, we went to another concert at the abbey church in Bassac. This time we remembered to bring along a camera so we could take pictures while we waited. This church has been largely rebuilt and is not particularly interesting inside, but the facade is quite impressive.
Our friend Bill, from Amsterdam, came for another visit. We took him to a quiz dinner in Chasseneuil, where he helped substantially with a set of geography questions. We spent one day doing tourist things in Limoges. The weather was relatively cooperative. After a sidewalk lunch, we visited the cathedral.
Inside, we were intrigued by what was apparently an old doorway, that doesn't lead anywhere. There seemed to be no information explaining this.
After touring the cathedral, we visited the Beaux Arts Museum, which is right next door in the old Bishop's Palace. They have a fine collections of enamels (from the bishops), a mediocre collection of painting, and a super collection on Limoges history with lots of Roman artifacts and moquettes of the city at different stages. The remnants of a Roman coliseum were present well into the 17th or 18th century.
On the first of May, a holiday, the three of us went to a fair in the nearby town of Aigre. One of our favorite things there was the world championship of sand marbles. Competitors take turn shooting marbles along a course, their places being marked along the edge at each round with miniature racing bikes. At the end of the round we watched, a favored competitor, just a short distance from the finish line, hit the edge with his marble and went off the course.
Because of the rain, the rendering (stuccoing) work on the outside walls, that should have been long done by now, was postponed. In a few sunny days at the end last week, they we able to do three walls on the north side of the house. We haven't been able to get photos of the completed walls yet, but here are photos of the outside of the fireplace wall in the kitchen, before:
and in-progress:
Once the sand/lime mixture has dried properly, the color will be much lighter. The covering will help keep damp and wind out of the house.
Our barn-owning neighbor has been giving us a lot of grief over this work, causing lots of anxiety and sleepless nights. She's busy suing the commune right now, and is talking about moving to Condadeuil (throwing out her daughter and grandchildren) and suing everybody in sight to get things restored to the way she remembers them as a child. This, of course, includes us. We do hope she reconsiders her plan.
In spite of all the rain, the orchids have been doing very well this year. This is a group of the Common Early Purple ones.
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