A Minor Incident (Accident)

Just when I laud the driving experience here in France, this happened on Thursday:


I was approaching a corner when the sunlight blinded me momentarily and I lost control.
I clipped the corner of a ditch on the right and turned to the other side of the road where I skidded and found myself in the middle of a corn field. There's a bit of drop into the field so I received quite a shock from the impact.

It may seem ridiculous that a ray of sunlight could cause this to happen but I could not see anything at all for a moment and was extremely disorientated.

Luckily, the farmer and his family came out to help me and he kindly towed the car to his farm.
The wife of the mayor of Bouillon, who happens to be the Constants' neighbour and a cousin of the farmer, also appeared at the site by chance and she stayed with me and the farmer until Minette came to fetch me.

I was completely fine, although a bit shaken and with a slightly sore back due to whiplash, and the car wasn't too badly damaged. As you can see the front bumper as well as the front-right mudguard are damaged There is a problem with the radiator as it has come loose.

The car has been taken to a garage and we're waiting to hear from the mechanic.

According to the farmer, exactly the same incident (driver blinded by the sun and loses control) happened two weeks ago and that many people have crashed into his field before.
He also said that I wouldn't be the last person to do so.

Back to normality

I'm sure many of you have heard about the huge storms in south-west France. Well, they are the reason for my period of silence.

There were warnings last friday that there was going to be bad weather but most people did not expect it to be like it was.

More than a million people did not have electricity due to gusts which reached 170 kilometres per hour and many also lost their supply of water.

I was awakened early on Saturday morning by the sound of the wind pummeling my shutters and I was certain that they would burst open and shatter the windows! I managed to get back to sleep but I knew that there would be some damage.

I was glad to see that the damage wasn't too bad at Bouillon. A few trees had been uprooted and some roof tiles had fallen. But there was no electricity....

However, we were extremely lucky compared to those who live further north.

On Sunday, we had lunch at Olivier's, a close friend of Minette and Rory. He lives further north in the Landes region, which was the worst affected part of France. Here are some pics to give you an idea of how bad the damage was. The estate was full of huge pine tress and hundreds have been destroyed.

Living in Malaysia, I'm used to the occasional power cut which lasts for a few hours but I wasn't prepared for nearly four days without any electricity!

It wasn't all that bad as there is a gas cooker and oven, we still had running water and we kept a fire going in the drawing-room which kept the room warm. We also had plenty of candles but it still was extremely dark in the house.

It did feel like I was stepping back in time as I read my book by candlelight next to a fire. I can now truly understand why candles were considered a luxury as most houses would be pitch black by 7 o'clock 150 years ago.

Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised when I returned from work on Tuesday to find the house fully-lit and fully-heated and so I promptly had my first proper shower in three and a half days!

I guess now I can better appreciate the things we take for granted, such as electricity or hot water as everyday life as we now know it would be very different without them.
Normality has been restored.

Driving

For the first week of work, I drove in with Rory and he would pick me up but then I would drive back. The reason for this was that I would need to get used to the route and I would also need to get used to driving on the other side of the road from what I'm used to.

This week, I've been driving solo and I have to say that I really do enjoy driving on these 'country' roads.

Firstly, the roads are quite empty.
Secondly, the drive is quite scenic.
Lastly, it's an interesting drive with some severe elevation changes.

However, the roads can be very narrow at certain places and the French drivers will not give you space when it gets narrow and I often find myself practically driving in the mud!
As you can see, I'm driving a Peugeot 306 hatchback. It's quite a nippy car and much more fun to drive than a Volvo!

Anyway, the weather's still quite bad and there are supposed to be 100km/h winds coming in so not sure if I can play golf tomorrow (Saturday).

Today

It was raining quite heavily today so I couldn't go outside!!!
So, I just stayed in the winery but there was still quite a lot to do anyhow.

I spent most of the day topping up all the barrels with wine as nobody had done so for three months and quite a lot of wine had evaporated during this space of time.

However, I was assigned the task of translating Cabidos' brochure into english as Vivien (the owner of the vineyard) wants there to be a website in english as well as in french.

Anyway, instead of bringing lunch to work, I decided to lunch in a nearby town Arzacq which is about 7 minuntes from Cabidos.

Rory recommended that I go to this restaurant called, Le cafe des sports as they do a four-course lunch for 11 euros.

I began with a large bowl of potage, which warmed me up as it was quite chilly outside.

Then I had a mackerel salad with a mustard sauce. This was very tasty and it was a generous portion as well.

For my main course, I had some grilled veal with a garlic and pepper sauce and fried potatoes. It looked like a huge portion but it turned out that there was quite a substantial amount of fat so the portion was smaller than it looked. It was a good-sized portion in the end. The meat was tender and the sauce went perfectly with mild taste of the veal.

Finally, I had a chocolate fondant which was quite disappointing as i suspect store-bought rather than being made on the premises.

I was extremely satisfied at the end of the meal and it is nearly impossible to beat in terms of value as I cannot think of many places in Europe where one can have four courses for 11 euros!

I shall certainly be visiting 'le cafe des sports' again, not least because Arzacq is the nearest place where I can get petrol.

Apologies for the lack for photos- i was too busy eating!

The past few days

It felt like the weather was going to continue spoiling me but it was not to be...
It has been raining this week and it's been quite chilly!
It even snowed a bit this morning (Wednesday).

Anyway, enough about the weather.

Work in the vineyard has been different this week so far as the weather conditions sometimes mean that we cannot work among the vines. In fact, I've only been out amongst the vines for 3 hours so far!

I've mainly been cleaning vats and barrels and transferring wine from one vat to another and from barrel to vat. It's tiring work but at least I'm not getting soaked outside!

However, today was particularly interesting as I attached the wine capsules, labeled bottles and packed them into boxes.
The machine which attaches the capsule

Label roller

Where I'm staying

I've just realised that I hadn't mentioned where I'm staying or who I'm staying with!

Anyway, I'm staying in small village called Bouillon, which is half an hour away from Pau, the nearest large town.

I'm staying with some family friends, the Constants, who are British but settled here 12 years ago.
They live in a beautiful house where you get an excellent view of the Pyrenees on a clear day.

Here are some pictures of the house:

This pic was taken in the summer

You can just about see the Pyrenees in this picture

Sunday

We had planned to go to the coast on Sunday but since the weather did not look too promising, we decided to head down to a local ferme auberge for some lunch.

In France, a ferme auberge (literally translated as farm inn) is a small restaurant where all the ingredients are produced on site, with the exception of cheese and wine.

The ferme auberge

The place we went to is in a village called Morlanne, which is only 5 minutes from Bouillon.

We all had potage and duck gizzard salad for starters.
The gizzard was especially interesting and it had a very strong taste and fatty texture.
For my main course, I ordered confit de canard which was the most delicious confit I have tasted!
In the middle, there was a large bowl of potatoes fried in duck fat (of course!).

Finally, i had some local sheep's cheese to complete the meal. The cheese was very creamy and had an aftertaste which could only be described as 'sheepy'! Nevertheless, it was an interesting way and tasty way to end this delightfully satisfying meal.

Patrick (Rory and Minette's eldest son) and Rory's friend Mark both ordered the magret. It was a huge portion and I tasted some. In my opinion, it was the equivalent of having a duck steak because its texture was almost identical to a steak's.

Rory ordered canette (a young female duck not bred for enlarged breasts unlike the magret) which was simply roasted.

After lunch, we had a brief look around the village. The village is very pretty and is a typical Bearnaise village, complete with a fortified chateau.

Morlanne

By chance, a classic car club were also in the ferme auberge so there was an impressive collection of classic french cars parked outside the restaurant. It also turned out that they (the classic car club) had visited Cabidos for some wine tasting before lunch.

We were all stuffed after lunch and so Patrick and I hit golf balls around the garden as a vain attempt to burn off the many calories we had consumed.

Golf!!!

Yesterday (Saturday) I played at Pau Golf Club which is the oldest golf club in continental europe.
It was founded in 1856 (older than our dear RSGC!) by Scots who had settled in Pau and it was a very interesting experience indeed.

I called the club that morning to book a tee-time and I secured a 3pm tee-off time as it was the only available time. I asked the reception if there would be anyone available to play with but I was told that I would have to wait and see once I was at the club.

I arrived at the club around 14:30 and waited to see if anyone was available.As you can see, the clubhouse is very English.

However, I was fortunate because a chap named Thierry arrived at the first tee box just as I was about to tee-off and so he joined me.
The course itself is very interesting. It's not a long course (5314 metres from the back tees) but it can be very narrow in certain places.
The greens weren't in the best condition and were a tad soggy but they were still running quite well. The greens are also small and I suppose this makes up somewhat for the short course.


I did not play well at all during the first nine- no pars and mainly double bogeys!





Anyway, Thierry had to leave after the first nine and so I waited for the flight behind me to catch up and I asked them if I could join their flight as they were a two-ball.
The people in the flight were a Mr and Mrs Lopez and they gladly let me join their flight.
They were both steady players and I began to play quite well.


As it started to get darker, Mr and Mrs Lopez decided not to play the final 3 holes.
It was getting quite dark but I was determined to play the entire course so I continued.
Everything was going smoothly until the final hole.
The final hole is a 122 metre par 3 and when I got there it was very dark.
I hit my tee shot and I saw my ball travel to the left of the green but I lost sight of it as it landed.
When I walked to the green and began looking for my ball; I knew it was in the rough to the left of the green but I couldn't see it.
I gave up looking for my ball after a few minutes as it was nearly pitch black.
It was half 6 when I finished.

I think I'll play here again next weekend as I really enjoyed the course and the members are extremely friendly. Also, the green fee is quite reasonable at 33 euros whereas the other nearby course's green fee is 45 euros!

Weekend

It seems that my main job will be applying the fungicide to the newly-cut stems.
It's not the most exciting task but at least I get to be out in the fresh air.
Moreover, the weather was stunning today and it's hard to believe it's winter now!
I spent the morning applying the fungicide (or faire le bleu as it is called) but I spent the afternoon preparing for a wine tasting this weekend.
I had to take samples from each barrel and store them in a small bottle.
In fact, I had to take two samples from each barrel as the earlier samples which were supposed to be analysed were not analysed in the laboratory. So, we had to send another batch of samples to the lab!

I had the poulet Basquaise for lunch today which was quite disappointing. I was expecting it to be quite peppery or spicy but in my opinion, it tasted just like chicken in tomato sauce. At least I had brought a jar of rillette to have with my baguette and this was delicious.

This week has gone extremely quickly and I am pleased with the progress I've made with regards to my french-speaking. I have to admit that it was quite tiring to have to speak french all the time because I was translating everything that was said to me into english and then translating an english reply into french.
However, after a week, I have gotten into a state of mind where I think in french when I'm speaking french and so my spoken french has become more fluent and I'm more confident when I speak.

Now for some golf!!

Third Day

It was extremely foggy this morning but I was told that when there is fog in the morning, there should be good weather for the remainder of the day.

This turned out to be true and it was a beautiful day.
In fact, it became very warm and sunny and I had to take off my Barbour as it was too hot with it on!

I spent the whole day applying fungicide to the vines. This was not too tiring and I found it quite relaxing.
The fungicide is a green/blue liquid and smells of minty toothpaste in my opinion.
I'd learned frommy previous mistake and so I brought quite a substantial lunch Pot au feu du canard and some brandade (leftover supper!).
The Pot au feu came in a jar and I just needed to heat in the microwave.
It was delcious and filling and so when Meo needed to go the post office in Arzacq (the nearest village), I followed her and went to the supermarket and bought another jar.
I also bought a jar of Poulet Basquaise and some goose rillette.

Second Day At Work

My second day turned out to be very tiring.
My job was to pull out the vines which had already been pruned (tirage in french).
It's quite physically demanding and it started to rain after lunch.
What made it worse was that I had only brought a cheese, chicken, lettuce and tomato sandwich and so I became rather hungry in the afternoon!


My right hand also became quite sore due to the huge amount of work with secateurs but hopefully I'll get used to using them!

Some pics of the estate

First Day At Work

I'm working at a very small boutique vineyard in a hamlet called Cabidos.

The estate is only a 15 minute drive from where I'm staying and Minette drove me and we arrived at around half past nine.

The vineyard is run by the de Nazelle family who have a stake in Veuve Cliquot champagne.

Vivien de Nazelle is the proprietor of the vineyard and his mother, la Comtesse de Nazelle lives on the estate.

However, the actual winemaker is a Thai lady named Meo.

My first task was to help Meo collect wine samples from all the oak barrels in the cellar. Firstly, we labelled bottles with the unique number of each barrel. Then, we used a large pipette to collect the wine samples and transfer them to the bottle. The reason for collecting these samples is that the wine was to be analysed in a laboratory in order to find out the exact chemical composition of each wine.

Next, I had to transfer wine from one vat to another using a pump and then clean the vats.

I brought some duck confit with lentils for lunch which I heated up in the microwave. It was very tasty and very filling!

Unfortunately, I didn't actually go to the vines themselves but the work was interesting nevertheless!