An old farm house in Montfalcon

Saturday 24 November

As I mentioned yesterday I was going to tell you more about the house and show you some pictures.

Indeed, the first impression wasn't too good, even though we knew we were exchanging my place for an old farmhouse and I had seen the pictures of it.  However, if you arrive, tired from a long, not too comfortable plane trip, and discover that not only you can't find a comfortable seat, but the bed is not that crash hot either, it is altogether a bit disappointing to say the least.  So, when we got up on Saturday morning we were far from refreshed, because we had been sleeping in a bed with sagging mattress and a 'roll' for our heads, rather than the pillows that we are used to.  This resulted in a stiff neck for me, which, together with my sore leg did nothing to improve my outlook for the day.  Frank fared a bit better than I did and he eventually ventured outside to inspect the rest of the house.  So, pictures and description might follow some time during the week.

After breakfast we unpack and install ourselves and all our gear, including laptop and mobile phones, and try to stay awake. ;-)  I have brought my bobbin lace work again on this trip, but discover it hasn't survived the bag handlers' treatment of the luggage too well.  It might need some repair work before I can use it again and most certainly I'll have to make myself a new pillow when we get back home again.

Dear neighbour Mireille had turned on all the heaters in the living quarters before we arrived, but after we've had a shower we find we need to turn them down as the heat is overpowering by now and we definitely don't need a heated bedroom.  No matter how cold it is, we prefer to sleep in the fresh air with an open window.

Then it is 10am and a car stops in the yard.  It's the boulanger (baker), who delivers every Saturday and Wednesday.  What a bonus!  Real bread, instead of the rather tasteless square slices from the supermarket, and of course we want a few croissants and gateaux (cakes, but nothing like the cakes we know in Australia!).  When she returns next Wednesday we might also try a pogne, the local round bread in the shape of a crown, flavoured with orange blossom.

The rest of the day we are still in recovery mode and don't feel like undertaking anything.  I work on my blog, and I am quite content to do some reading on my new Kindle, which, thanks to my lovely daughter-in-law, has plenty of reading material on it. The maps that René has left us are quite handy.  They give me an opportunity to do some arm chair orientation for the moment.  We don't feel like having a big meal for dinner, so it's an uitsmijter (Dutch dish with fried eggs).  This comes in handy as we have doubled up on eggs and have rather too many of them...

Not long after dinner we call it a day, because we are still pretty tired, so we hop from our uncomfortable chairs in our uncomfortable bed, hoping for a better night.

As I had promised some pictures earlier on I'll show you a few here that I have taken a few days after I wrote this update:

The kitchen-cum-living area

Walnuts from the farm

Official living room, but not in use (ah well, we use it as our storage area) ;-)

The windows: in inspiration for my dollshouses

Front door opening into the kitchen

Full length of the house, including the stables and work shed

Window with shutters (still in use)

Frank in the one-and-only (not so) easy chair

More pictures tomorrow...