Celebrating the Good Times and the Village Bar

Happy 17th Ed!

There has been a lot to celebrate in the village recently and most importantly, for us, was Ed’s 17^th birthday. On Thursday 19^th October 2000 at around 7.20am, Ed made his way into the world. He was late, 11 days late to be precise, and it took around 17 hours and included a full paediatric team, with a Ventouse sucking device for him to arrive, but we got there in the end. His first day at home was on the Friday, a little bit like this year in that with him away at school during the week we had to wait for Friday evening before celebrating.

Ed plays the village bar

Happy Birthday Ed and thanks for lots of fun and music - I’m not sure where you get your musical talent from, but it’s certainly not from me, something that was very obvious at the karaoke night in the bar last weekend.

Morning coffee in the sun at the village bar

To celebrate the first three months of the re-opening of the village bar, I’m calling it a bariversary, they held a karaoke night last Saturday. I’m not sure I have been to more than a few karaokes in my life as no one needs the torture of hearing my voice amplified; in fact I only sing alone, in the car, and to my ABBA cd. However, I loved it, had a great night and haven’t laughed or sung so much for ages (those of you who were there, I can only apologise). The bar may only have been open three months and might not look much from the outside, but inside it’s a warm and friendly place to be that has already become a central part of our village community.

Summer evening buffet at the village bar

Jean-Marc and Catherine worked hard to get it opened and in the last three months we have enjoyed morning coffees, impromptu soirees with music, Jean-Marc’s special cocktail aperitifs served with homemade light bites, as well as summer evening buffets where the long trestle tables have stretched from the terrace into the garden and Jean-Marc’s flaming baked Alaska has wowed the crowd at the end of the evening.

Tour de Rêves Day Two leaving from the village bar

The bar was the start point for Day Two of our Tour de Rêves bike ride, where lots of local friends joined us for coffee and croissants before we set off for what was to be a difficult 79km.

Café Linguis'tic at the village bar

It has also become home to our newest venture in the village, Café Linguis’tic. Every Thursday afternoon the bar is alive with chatter in a mixture of French and English with lots of laughter too. The conversation is light and easy, conducted in French for the British and in English for the French, and so far, everyone is having fun learning more about each other and improving their language conversation too. I can’t tell you how pleased I am to have the village bar back up and running.

Jerusalem artichoke season

Slightly less exciting, but worth celebrating in my opinion is the start of the Jerusalem artichoke season. These sweet tasting beauties (with not so sweet (windy) side effects) are ready to dig up now but will also happily stay in the ground for harvesting all winter. I’ve already been busy roasting, puréeing and freezing them as these little blocks of deliciousness will add flavour and thicken any stew, curry or sauce I make.

When the oven door hinge broke mid-roast this morning however, I didn’t feel much like celebrating. Thankfully, I have a fantastic husband who has fixed many a thing around the house – oven door hinges included (when it first went about ten years ago). It didn’t take him long to strip the door down, find the problem and replace the broken nut and bolt. He also helped me undertake a deep clean, as stripped down is really the only time you can get to both sides of each piece of glass to clean them. It now looks shiny and new, and opens and closes with ease. A working oven and a fantastic husband, that’s worth celebrating I’m sure you will agree.

This post has been linked to the All About France blog link at Lou Messugo and Dreaming of France over on my bloggie friend Paulita's blog.