Week 34: Il Fait Beau!

Even a jumble of dishes looks magical in the golden morning light

Is it spring already? This was simply a glorious week, with the winter sun, low in the sky, streaming through every window and making days seem enchanted. The last of the rain clung to our skylight but the clear blue sky beyond set the tone for a very welcome respite from wintry weather.

The skylight in our bedroom looking out to the church steeple beyond

I spent an inordinate amount of time enjoying and recording the changing light. When I went out one morning to open the outer door to the studio, I was struck immobile for a moment by the way the morning sun caught the corners of buildings and painted the Place with golden patterns. In the evening the whole landscape and castle glow pink. Moments of pure visual pleasure.

In the house the light chooses corners to illuminate.

The stairway to the second floor

At the window in our living room

Interior doors leading into the studio

Second floor hallway

Door leading out to the terrace with peachy glow

Afternoon sun playing on the terrace

***

The week was quiet and I had lots of time in the studio. I never left Montmirail, even for shopping, as Rick took care of that. When I came downstairs to open up, the light streamed into the studio, even with the shutters closed, the room was bathed in light and very inviting. One afternoon I even flung the windows open. It was that balmy.

I was quite productive and got several things started.

In the studio

I finished a line drawing for an etching called "A Loaf of Bread, a Jug of Wine and Thou," and etched it onto a rather large copper plate. I will work out some color on a second plate which I will aquatint and then overprint, inking it á la poupée. I have not yet decided on the color scheme.

etching: A Loaf of Bread, a Jug of Wine and Thou

I also made the first illustration/etching for a group of seven I have planned. I would like to make a book with illustrations of dogs in various situations. It will be my lighthearted interpretation of The Seven Deadly Sins. This one is Pride

etching: Proud Poodle

I seem to have a lot more ideas than I do either time or patience...I began another project, and got only one illustration done for that. This project is a group I'm calling "Undocumented Moments of Historical Figures." This particular one is Napoleon Stubs His Toe.

etching: Napoleon Stubs His Toe

If that was not enough to keep me busy, I also did several oil paintings. The urge for some vibrant color came over me and I squeezed oils onto my palette and working quite loosely created some small paintings rather quickly. I enjoyed myself a lot. I didn't really have an idea of what I would paint until I started smearing the color around. Images suggested themselves.

A Bump in the Night

 

Sunday Morning

On the Wings of a Dove

***

Surprisingly we were almost full this weekend. There were two separate family gatherings in the area and three of our rooms were taken for Saturday night. The first year we were here we were virtually without clients all winter long. Last year was a bit more lively and this year not a month has gone by without some kind of activity.

The only unpredictable part of a bed and breakfast business is knowing exactly what time the clients will show up in the morning to take their morning meal. We often have to wait with everything posed and ready to prepare.

Rick is ready to fire up the coffee

Of course that's a lot better than people showing up early and having to dash about to get them all served. I don't complain.

The dining room was glowing by the time everyone arrived. We serve a nice but simple meal.

A bright and cheery Sunday morning

Breakfast by the window

***

I learned something interesting from Georges last week which I forgot to mention. In November UNESCO declared French lunch a "Cultural Treasure." I contemplate this as, in typical American fashion,  I wolf down a cold tuna sandwich in front of my computer.

***

Next week we spend several days in the big city. I'll have Quinn tales and Paris adventures to relate. For now I leave you with an image of a new product Rick's sister Betsy is concocting on her farm in Oregon. It cracks us up every time we look at it - Cranky Baby Picante Sauce. Could you resist purchasing a bottle with a label like this? Besides, it's absolutely delicious!

Week 33: Rainy Days

We don't live in Normandy, where it rains significantly more in winter. We're just far enough south that our climate is generally very pleasant. In fact I notice that rain often comes at night and is over by the time the sun comes up. Certainly days and days of rain, or even hours and hours are quite rare. This week has been the exception. Here was our seven day forecast:

And it mostly lived up to it. The sound of rain on the skylights was a kind of background music to our days and nights this week. In our area every time it rains the farmers and gardeners are very happy. They can never have too much. It somehow makes it much easier to bear the grayness when I think of M. Villette or Garden Man enjoying the drumming on the rooftops from the shelter of their cozy cottages, contemplating the rising water table. Besides, with the rain come warmer temperatures.

Rick suggested I name my post Rainy Day Windows as I took so many photos of raindrops sliding down panes of glass. I do love the windows in our house and especially the views from each. I post only a few here.

Looking into the studio from outside

The spot on the terrace where water accumulates

 

Marc and Jean-François painted their shutters. I love how the bare shoots of the trees match in color

***

Most of the week was spent in the atelier, with no great adventures out of doors. We kept cozy by the fire. It really warms the entire space wonderfully well.

On Friday, just as we were getting a bit fed up with staying in, the sun came out and bathed the wet walls and pavement with golden light. We put on our jackets and ventured out.

Side street leading up to the Place de l'Eglise from the bar

Walking past the workmen's gardens we discovered a group of chickens in their yard enjoying the  afternoon sunshine. I imagine worms were ripe for the harvesting.

 

***

Our friend Georges came back this week to work in the atelier. We had not seen him since September. He has two new plates made by Fanny Boucher, who uses a complicated technique for transferring photographic images onto copper plates. She works for some of the most celebrated artists in Europe who wish to make prints of their images. We once visited her in her glorious studio. She is very charming.

Georges working over the hotplate. The photo was shot from outside looking in.

I enjoy it when the studio is in full use, messy and lively. We cranked the music up and had a grand time working together on our separate projects. Georges has two new images. One is of a beautiful young pygmy girl and the other a slice of apple, which looks, for all the world, like a funny gnome.

It is always informative to watch other printmakers at their craft. Everyone works differently. Georges uses a roller to put on his ink. I generally use a dauber, but I may adopt his technique, as it spreads the ink more evening and thinly. He warms his ink on the heater before spreading it around and he generally mixes up a huge amount. Of course he does only printing while here, and in the course of the two days on site, he probably made close to one hundred impressions. I tend to print just three or four at a time.

As usual Georges came prepared with his hand colored papers. He uses spray mount to glue the thin frames around his printed image. The white printing paper, the glued hand colored thin frame paper and the inked plate all go through the press at the same time.

Paper is dampened in water for an hour before printing

He also sometimes glues thin tissue over some of his images to lend broad color. Of all the prints he makes, he will, in the end, save just a few and throw all the others away. He works in large quantities so that he has many choices and can get everything exactly right.

***

It looks like more rainy days ahead and more days with Georges in the studio. Next week we have clients.

Week 32: Happy New Year

A beautiful winter day in Montmirail! Happy 2011.

If the year ahead portends its themes on New Year's eve and New Year's day, then we can look forward to a year of very hard work and lots of sunshine.

Last year was the first time someone requested Maison Conti to host a New Year's eve dinner party. I was happy to oblige, as frankly new year's eve has never been one of my favorite holidays. I'd just as soon be putting on a party as attending one. A participant from last year's party contacted us again this year. Wayne and his wife Katherine are Canadian but have lived in Paris for seventeen years. Wayne works for the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) and wanted to organize a feast for a group of his co-workers. He proposed a menu for us to prepare. It was much more complicated than last year's, including six courses and several choices (two entrées, two main courses, two desserts) Plus homemade rolls. We were full-steam ahead all day long making the various dishes.

Our guests were international, French, Italian, French Canadian, English Canadian, Irish, English and Thai. The party went off well. Many bottles of champagne and wine were killed and the festivities went on into the wee hours of the morning. A few arrived at breakfast with swollen heads, but after a few cups of coffee and some orange juice, all seemed to recover. Jonathan the Brit told us a groaner of a joke:

Why does a Frenchman only have one egg for breakfast?

Because one egg's an œuf.

***

This year brings an exciting new project for our family. My daughter Emily, who is creative from head to toe, invited her brother James and me to participate in an idea she had cooked up. She wanted to launch a web site where we could share creations. The idea was that we would choose a monthly theme and take turns posting our response to that theme. We could post prose, poetry, art, videos, recipes, quotes, photography, and anything else that strikes our fancy. It gives us the opportunity to collaborate and share ideas.

We have been working for many weeks to put together our new web site. We joined Squarespace and learned how to build a very nice site with all the widgets we could ever dream of. We will continue to add more functionality as time goes along. We searched for a name and finally came up with a line from the poem Horse Fiddle by Carl Sandburg, one of Emily's favorites:

FIRST I would like to write for you a poem to be shouted in the teeth of a strong wind...

We call our site To Be Shouted. I hope you will come by and visit us. We also invite you to be a guest collaborator, if you have anything you'd like to share around our themes:

January: Home

February: Maps

March: Sunday

April: Green

May: Birds of a Feather

June: Bread

July: Capture

August: River

September: Kitchen

October: Branch

November: Soft Spot

December: Tomorrow

James has inaugurated the site and will be posting various entries during the coming week. I will take over next week and Emily on the third. And how about you? Do you have anything to share on the fourth week?

 

***

I was overjoyed to see the sun come out this weekend. Clients gone, dishes washed, beds stripped, and our calendar clear, we had the chance to get out into the countryside for a brisk walkabout. It was chilly, but with blue skies it didn't seem to matter. Even in winter it is very beautiful in the village.

It was quiet in town, not many people were out and about, although we did see Guy with his baguette under his arm, and Patrice leaning out of his window, as he often does.

Bonne Année!

Meilleurs Voeux!

Pour tout l'année!

The guardians of the castle were at home but not at work on the grounds. They stayed inside by the fire in their cozy bungalow.

 Down by the bus stop one can look up and see all the layers of the village. The road spirals around like a snail's shell.

There  are several grand stone houses throughout the village, built during different centuries.

 Some have incorporated parts of the old defensive walls into their facades.

 The winter sun cast its long shadows and we tried to stay within its rays.

***

I have made my resolutions; the usual ones. I also like to use the impetus of the new year to reorganize. I have devised a new system for storing my plates and prints, making it much easier to find them. I have been working on labeling and packaging my cards and tags and designing a few new objects for the boutique when it reopens in the spring. I have come to love the winter months when days are very free and quiet.

***

I am happy to have green hills to look out upon again. I do not miss the snow, although Mme Guedet, the baker's wife, says it comes again this week. Goggle disagrees. We'll see who is more reliable.

***

Quinn turns two at the end of this month. He got a haircut while he was in Belgium visiting his other grandmother. He looks like such a boy now. He used to call himself "baby" but now when he points to himself he says "boy."

"How big is Quinn?" we ask.

"So big!" he replies:

Week 31: Christmas Pleausres

Our wintery neighborhood

We had an eventful Christmas week spent with our local family. So much was enjoyed and shared together that it would take several blog posts to recount all our adventures, so I will mainly focus on one of them. It was Quinn's second Christmas and he got right into the spirit of things. Emily spent a great deal of time making presents for everyone. Adric organized three wonderful activities for us to participate in. One involved taking photographs of stories we all acted out, another was a series of impressions we wrote about one another and the last was a crafts project we participated in together in the studio. He put all these mementos into a beautiful book and presented them to us on Christmas.

James offered us a Christmas eve treasure hunt/adventure that took us out into the snowy world. We came downstairs to discover an envelope which had a map, a quote, a comment and a clue:

Imagine a vast sheet of paper on which straight lines, triangles, squares, pentagons, hexagons and other figures, instead of remaining fixed in their places, move freely about, on or in the surface, but without the power of rising above or sinking below it, very much like shadows--only hard with luminous edges--and you will then have a pretty correct notion of my country and countrymen. Alas, a few years ago, I should have said "my universe;" but now my mind has been opened to higher views of things. --Edwin A. Abbott

We're all points on a map, when it comes down to it. Today our maps converge here. This morning, shall we chart new territory?

It's hard to imagine how all our maps crossed here. They just, well, they did. In this country of little hills and little towns with little churches. So many little hills, and so many towns and churches. It seems there's always time to discover more. This little church is in a little town which is not half as charming as the little church itself.

There was also a photo with a town name just visible. From this we searched the provided map and headed off to our first stop.

Emily and Rick discover our first destination

Quinn is dressed and ready for the adventure

We drove to an adorable 11th century church in a village we had never visited named St. Georges du Rosay. The church was turreted and had a lovely statue of St. George above the doorway.

Emily discovered the next clue nestled under the plaque mounted on the church wall.  James had gotten up early that morning and hidden clues along our way. Each one led to the next location. Each destination was something special and almost all unknown to us before this day and, as we came to realize, each also represented one of us.

Our second destination was a feudal motte. Rick found a clue hidden in the ivy nearby.

Next stop a snowy pasture full of horses. Quinn had a nice conversation with one as the others looked on.

By now it was mid-afternoon. Our next stop was La Perrière, one of the most charming hilltop villages of the Perche, where we had a wonderful long lunch in a place we love called Maison d'Horbé. It is a restaurant, salon de thê, fancy food boutique and antique store all in one.

Quinn was enthralled with all there was to see.

The shop is always overflowing with interesting knick knacks.

This time of year, beautifully decorated for the holidays.

Quinn tried on a lovely red hat.

After lingering well into the late afternoon, the waitress handed us another clue and off we went. This time to discover a prehistoric dolmen.

These stones were stacked together thousands of years ago and are thought to have been a kind of ancient communication point. For us they revealed yet another clue.

Our last destination of this memorable Christmas eve was a beautiful château, which we reached through a narrow forest track. The windows were aglow, another family gathering to celebrate the season.

Our last clue took us back to Maison Conti. The sun was just setting as we turned our car towards home, with even more fun and adventure in store for us.

Whenever the family gets together, a great deal of cooking and eating always takes place. We all dream up our favorite meals and take turns sharing them with one another. Everyone helps out. Our week included some exceptional meals. Adric cooked up a traditional Filipino feast, including a delicious fresh shrimp and mint salad, chicken adobo and tilapia followed by pineapple upside down cake. Jos made us sauerkraut and German sausages one night and a fabulous minestrone another. Rick made a particularly delicious roast beef. I offered homemade bagels with lox and cream cheese for one breakfast, eggs Benedict for another and New York Goodwich sandwiches for lunch one day. Christmas dinner was a platter of shellfish, fresh from the sea served with Rick's excellent potato leek soup, accompanied by a memorable bottle of Marsannay (from Jos) and finished with a box of Mont d'Or which had been nestled in the coals of the fire until it was as soft as fondue.

Quinn was amazed and delighted by Christmas. He was quite surprised to find an electric train running under the tree on Christmas morning, and the stocking he had hung by the chimney with care the night before was magically filled up with all kinds of wonders.

Holidays over, family departed, the sun rises this morning on another snowy week. Our last one in this wonderful year.