In the Vendée we don’t have 4 seasons, but 5. We are enjoying our Indian Summer at the moment. We have harvested our sunflower grains and grapes this week and tomorrow some more raspberry jam to make. We have bought local “vin bourru” (grape must) as well.
This morning, after saying goodbye to our last family visit of this year (brother in law / brother Simon), we had a nice walk along the shore and then enjoyed the sun on a seafront terrace. What did you do today?
We look back with pleasure on 2015. We were among others back to school, got special visits, had a series of festivities, concerts and other fun activities, fished like crazy in the Atlantic ocean and found treasures.
The older, the crazier?? The Dutch are always very serious (except at Carnival), but the British do like their fancy dress parties. So we were invited by English friends to put on a school uniform and participate in the lessons. Our knowledge of mathematics was still ok, but we were forgotten where in the world the Gobi desert is situated … (do you know it?).
Hemko’s metal detector works well, judging by the various “treasures” he brought home this year. Sometimes Hemko goes on his own, or when it is high tide together with our neighbour Stephane. Amongst others they went together through the salt marshes of Thierry Odeon in Bouin. Despite that these salt pans were built already a few centuries ago they found strangely enough virtually nothing of significance.
In and around the house we had this year visits of known and unknown animals.
There are on our exterior walls often pretty little brown lizards, but we have become so accustomed to them that we pay no attention anymore. However, when such larger bright green lizard shows itself (they are very shy), we nevertheless stand still.
This very special caterpillar (about 15 cm long and a few cm thick) has meanwhile popped itself into the largest moth (Saturnia pyri) that can be found in Europe.
The Holy Ibises we see every year from autumn to spring. We have no idea where they stay during the summer. These Holy Ibises were originally escaped from a zoo in southern Brittany, 100 km away from us and live normally in Turkey and Greece, but they obviously feel in the Vendee perfectly at home.
Joel, our neighbour across the road, celebrated this year his fiftieth birthday. We decorated his tractor in the harbour, when he was at sea. He did not know how fast he had to drive away with it, but could laugh about it. We of course are not getting any younger ourselves also (46 candles for Hemko on the photo and Martine 48 this year). Jean and Marie-Therese in Brittany (IFYE host family of Martine in 1987) celebrated outdoors on their farm with a pig above a log fire and long tables with 100 guests their fiftieth wedding anniversary. With our 17 years of marriage we have still have a long way to go before we reach this milestone.
We try each year to go to a few concerts. FMR is our favourite local band and for the sentiment of our youth we have been to Nantes to hear the Simple Minds live again. Great concert!
In September an entirely spontaneous BBQ in the neighbourhood when we were awaiting the arrival of 400 company directors from our region on blue mopeds with a pink helmet and blue superman capes (really). Read more about this “anti-crisis action” on www.meulebleue.fr
We fished this year yet again cheerfully in the Atlantic ocean. For the first time a special kind of clams (about 10 cm large shell) for the wedding of our neighbour (see little movie below). After our preparations in the spring, we fished with our guests on the island of Noirmoutier for shrimp and for small fish in the harbour of Port du Bec. They were all very nice outings.
To our joy our parents all came along again, as well as Hemko his sister and her family and Martine’s brother. A nice opportunity to catch up with everyone, but also to do some sightseeing.
This year we also had a moment of reflection, when we were on the farewell party of a French-Dutch family that went (again) to the Netherlands. However, we concluded that this is not something we would consider at the moment; it suits us still very well in France. We have no time to get bored and are as well full of new plans for 2016. Amongst others, we will both start in January with a new website, so keep an eye on us! More news will follow of course.
Contrary to what some people tend to think; our work does not only consist of entertaining our guests and testing new restaurants and bars. No, sometimes we have to roll up our sleeves for dirty chores or there is some DIY to do. Please find herewith some pictures with explanations of some of our jobs in and around our house in France in 2015.
Of course we are Dutch, so we do as all our fellow countrymen extensively in water management. Every spring we pump our pool with 35m3 water empty, make it clean and fill it again with fresh water. Depending on the strength of the sun, after 1 or 2 weeks, the water is over 20C. Also, we clean every spring all the walls of our cottages and if necessary we paint the walls as well. Our outdoor furniture and pillows are cleaned every year as well and our teak furniture is also treated with oil. The bottom picture is from this fall. We removed the paint around the door and window frames of our B & B room le Sable and replaced it with “Enduit”, which is permanent
We now own almost 2500m2 of terrain, so the pruning of our trees and shrubs is not done in a day anymore. With the branches our neighbour Stephane enjoys making a nice bonfire. Also there are every year still small and large investments for the garden. For example, this year investments include a few m3 of fresh sand for the sandbox for the children and we have bought some more plants for the garden.
This spring we have put in our cottages La Plage and La Bergerie an extra bookcase. Moreover, we have also moved 2/3 of all the books of our three cottages, so that our returning guests have new books and comics to choose from. The magazines that our guests have left this summer will soon go to Dutch friends in Normandy..
Nantes has not only a lot of fun things to see and do, but there are also many DIY stores. We are pleased with the carrying capacity of our VW Touran. We have now in our cottage la Bergerie on two sides of the kitchen more tiles and all the doors inside and outside all the walls have been repainted. The bathroom of our cottage la Plage got new tiles too.
After nearly 10 years of DIY classes from our neighbour Stephane (who does not like going on photos), we can now do many things ourselves and we have more and more serious equipment to work with, but from time to time, we must still seek for his help, if only for the fun of his company. Thus came this spring with his help a roadside billboard 500m before our home, because a lot of GPS on arrival in our little hamlet say “you have arrived” even though we live 500m further. It remains strange that on the French countryside many homes do not have a number.
We have radically changed the decoration of our summer kitchen. There grow now not only grapes above the outdoor kitchen, but also across the dining area, with lights between the leaves. Our neighbours Claire and Joel kindly lent us their truck to pick up the timber.
In the summer we try to organise every week a nice local getaway with our guests; clam fishing on the Passage du Gois, clam fishing on the beach of Notre-Dame-de-Monts, a visit to Port du Bec at the return of the oyster farmers or we visit the salt marches of Thierry Odeon (Hemko made a nice website for Thierry http://www.sel-vendee.fr/ ) As well we have been shrimp fishing for several years with our guests (best time August / September). We try in the preseason constantly new sites or other activities in our area. This spring, we decided after several expeditions that there still are the largest number of shrimps to fish at Barbatre on the eiland Noirmoutier. We are for most of our trips with our guests dependent on the tides. Sometimes low tide can be very early in the day or just when it’s almost bedtime for the children. This year we have therefore tried to fish with a cross web, because then we are less dependent on the tides as you can fish at the lock at Port du Bec any time. Our test run resulted in catching an eel, some small fish and a few shrimps.
In short; we entertain ourselves throughout the year well with a wide variety of work. Our life is a mixture of private and business and relaxation and work. After 10 years we still do not regret the fact that we have moved to France!