We're in hot water!

After further investigation following the water heater flood, Ed decided that it really was time for a new water heater, and went off to get it. Before he could get it installed, our next guest (our friend Bill from Amsterdam) arrived to miserable cool and rainy Charente and no hot water.  There's a separate, small water heater in the kitchen that serves the kitchen sink and the sink in the Tardis (half-bath) in our bedroom, so we weren't entirely in the cold, and a neighbor let us shower at her place for the duration.

When Ed went to uninstall the supposedly empty water tank, he discovered that it wasn't as empty as he thought. Luckily there was a big garbage can available to catch the water, buckets to bail that out, and three people to dump the buckets down the drain. All the mop-up towels from the previous flood were standing nearby, clean, dry, and neatly folded, only to get put back into use. Once that was cleaned up, BIll got to help Ed carry the old heater down, bring the new one up, and hang it on the wall. We do go out of our way to give our guests a special time. The picture shows the old water heater going down, although it doesn't look much different from the going up process. (Yes, one day we'll hang pictures on the wall by the stairway.)

After the new heater got cranked up and running again, life got back a bit more like normal. Although the weather didn't.

One day we visited the Resistance Memorial in nearby Chasseneuil, umbrellas in hand. There are more than 2,000 graves of resistance fighters here. The line between Free France and Occupied France run through the area, making it a big center for resistance activity.

Another day we visited the Contemporary Arts Museum in the château in Rochechouart. The best part of this museum is two rooms of the château that are decorated with 16C frescoes. The walls of one room is decorated with scenes from the life of Hercules, This room is decorated on all walls with hunting scenes. On the wall to the left a deer is being chased. Moving to the right you can see him being killed and then gutted. The man behind the door looks to be singing for his supper.

For Bill's last days, we actually had a bit of sunshine, although we never got to eat a meal al fresco, either at home or at a restaurant. Since Bill left we've had some sunshine and the weather is a bit warmer.

Last weekend the European elections were held. In spite of our contribution, the Front National made big gains, winning for the first time in the Charente to the distress of the local (liberal) newspaper.

The political item that continues to be in the news is the fate of the Poitous-Charentes region as the number of regions is reduced from 27 to 12 "super-regions". Ségolène Royal, former president of the PC region, now minister of ecology and energy development in Hollande's recent government reshuffle, wants the region to merge with the Loire region to the north. People in the Charentes would prefer to merge with Aquitaine to the south. Hollande himself is proposing to merge with the region Centre (capitol, Tours), which seems to make no one happy.

And that's all the news that's fit to print.