ROAMIN' ROADS

The Ecomusée at Véron.

I spent the afternoon with Christelle touring the Veron region on our bicycles. Rich had to go to Saumur to LaPeyre (something like a Home Depot) to make arrangements for someone to come out and measure for our new windows. Christelle helped with calling to find out what the procedure is and suggesting vocabulary to use. She also helped decipher the arcane language of our property tax bill and Rich’s speeding ticket (he got a ticket for a stretch of road where there is a radar-activated camera).
After all that secretarial work (muchíssimas gracias, Christelle) we were ready to get out into the countryside on our bikes. We crossed the bridge at Càndes and went looking for the old Roman road that is marked on the map. We followed the cycle path and even though there were not the typical paving stones we concluded that the cycle path and the Roman road were one and the same.



Christelle talks a goat into a corner.


Black sheep of the family! (Photo courtesy Christelle)


Unusual black-wooled sheep of the Poitou region.

We headed for the Ecomusée. I was just there on Sunday but I enjoyed visiting with a native-French speaker who could fill in the details that I didn’t fully understand. We both agreed that the museum would be much better if they offered guided tours, perhaps by older local people who were familiar with the traditions of the area.
Something new that I learned this time was that the nuclear reactor was originally planned for a site directly opposite the church at Càndes. Imagine what that would have done for tourism! Fortunately, the planned site was considered unsuitable (for geo-mechanical considerations, not for aesthetic reasons) and the reactor was eventually built at Avoine (even though it is named Centre Nucleaire de Chinon).



Christophe and Christelle. (Christophe is the one wearing the gay flag).

In the evening Christophe drove down from Saumur to join us. We went to the creperie for dinner. Everybody had a crepe except me – I tried the pickled herrings (harengs a la ancienne) which were served with boiled potatoes and onion. Christophe complained that the pickled herrings that you can buy at the supermarket are never as good as these restaurant herrings. He tried to get the proprietor to tell him the secret of the pickling that made the bones soft and edible but she wouldn’t divulge her grandmother’s secret recipe. We did ask her about the man who used to be in charge in the restaurant. She gave us a glowing smile as she said that “he was gone”. We think he is now the ex-husband who she is glad to be rid of.



Christophe (tres matelot).

After dinner we came back to the house for an after dinner glass. We finished off the last of the épine from AnneMarie and Tim.
Christophe and Christelle are very amused by my attempts to speak French. Most of my vocabulary comes from LeMonde, which I read every day. They were particularly amused by a word that was used in an article about Jack Lang’s vote for the constitutional reforms proposed by M. Sarkozy. Lang went against his colleagues in the Parti Socialiste and gave Sarkozy the one additional vote he needed to pass the reforms. LeMonde used a hunting expression – c’est l’hallali, to indicate that it would now be open-season on Lang among the PS faithful. Apparently, “hallali” is not a word that one uses in everyday conversation.