Australia is a wonderful place to live!

We are enjoying our time back on our property in the Hunter Valley.  It is beautiful to wake up to birds singing and kangaroos in our front yard.  Our little cottage is still a bit of a mess, as in the last 2 years, we moved from a 7 bedroom house, to a 3 bedroom townhouse, back to a 1 bedroom cottage!  So I have 'stuff' everywhere in boxes, still can't find anything, and no room to move.  Downsizing is definitely a sure way to get rid of 'clutter'.  So that it how I spend my time...   filing all our old papers for tax reasons, and slowly...  ever so slowly... getting rid of clutter.

Really into heavy jet-lag...

We are back in Australia, on our property in the Hunter Valley.  But both Peter and I are in heavy jet-lag. Peter keeps falling into a heavy sleep just around dinner time...  but he seems to still sleep at night.  But me...  I am getting up at 3:45 a.m. every morning!  Just can't sleep anymore.  Then I am super 'fuzzy' at around 3:00 in the afternoon.  Don't want to sleep, but can't seem to think straight so I am useless at accomplishing anything.  Then I am falling asleep immediately after dinner, around 8:00...   far too early.

Time, hopefully, will get us onto some kind of normal schedule, along with Melatonin!

Swiss Schloss

We are in Zurich.  We fly back to Australia tomorrow.  It is SNOWING...  lots of snow gently falling.  I do not have a coat with me.
Today we visited a Schloss...  a castle from the 1300s.  (I am on a Swiss German computer.  Cant find the apostrophe.)  Anyway...  Castle was fantastic in recreating the life and the times.  One would not want to go back and live in that era...  cold, uncomprimising, unforgiving, tedious and relentless.
Next post will be from Austrlia.

Sadness in my heart, but a new beginning...

What can I say....  it looks like we have sold our barge.  The couple came to visit us last weekend, fell in love with the barge, and today, we have received a formal agreement to sell the barge to them.  Peter is working out the details, and a deposit is yet to be paid...  but things are moving forward.

I go along with this, with mixed feelings.  We have had the barge for 12 years and it is time to move on.  We have so many places we wish to go and things we want to do.  And as Peter says, we have been offered the loan of friend's barges when we want, and if we find we miss it too much, we will just buy another with lots of 'barging wisdom'.

I love our 'Zee Otter', and believe it is going to a good home.  But it doesn't make the sale any easier for me.

Back in boozey Buzet

Buzet (pronuounced Buzay) wine region is the best kept secret in France.  This wine area was 'held down' by the larger wine companies in Bordeaux (it is only an hour's drive there), who didn't want competition.  But now Buzet has come into it's own with a huge wine co-operative to combat the bigger wine companies in Bordeaux.  Superb wines.  This is our home port, where we will leave Zee Otter for the winter.  But...  we still have friends coming to visit for 5 days, so we will be cruising the area for a few more weeks.

Keeping clean...

Impossible to keep clothes clean on a barge.  Peter goes into the engine room and Voila!  grease on his clothes.  I work the ropes in a lock and Voila! green slime on my blouse and slacks!  So we have 'work clothes' and 'clean clothes'.  And slowly, slowly...  it seems all our clothes end up on the work side of the ledger.

We are in Moissac, at the moment.  Great activity as a 'fruit festival' is going on.  Music, dancing, food, and market stalls fill the town.  I love it!

Airbus 380

I can't believe it has almost been a month since my last blog! We have had Australian visitors, French visitors, and Brazilian visitors... all wonderful memorable times.

We are in Toulouse at the moment. Today, we went on a tour of the airbus factory! Saw 3 airbus being put together, and another 3 being tested outdoors, and one other already painted with the Singapore Airlines logo on it's tail, about to be delivered!! We couldn't get close... the whole tour was conducted behind a perspex wall!  It seems parts are manufactured all over the world, i.e. wings in Germany,  RR engine in England, seats in Poland, etc. and the whole plane is brought together in Toulouse.  The logistics of it all are confounding, not to mention how they transport a whole wing down the road!

The second tour we went on at the airport was much better! It was called a 'heritage tour' and we got to see prototypes of old aircraft, as well as sit in and hear all about the Concord! Just amazing.  The death of the Concord was it's fuel consumption...  a ton of fuel just to take off...  90 tons to cross the Atlantic.  It became un-economical in a big way.  But it went from Paris to NY in 3 hours!

Even more amazing is... we went on our motor scooter... across the busy city of Toulouse, down the periferique (a 3-lane ring road) and out past the airport to the airbus factory.

A French 'street dinner'

We are 'toodling down the canal' and it is just beautiful. We are in a little village called Damazen. Last night, they had a 'street dinner' which is held every Tuesday night during summer. (In fact, many of the villages have street dinners on different nights.) A street dinner is a village 'party' which they hold in the centre square. Most of the restaurants in the village close for the night and set up a stall in the square where you can buy dinner. Long tables with chairs are set up and there is a stage with live music where people can sing and dance. Hundreds of people turn out.

In Damazen, the choice of meals included 'moules', a traditional clam dish; a huge paella cooking over a fire; kabobs or steaks done on a grill; chicken roasting over a coal fire, duck dishes in whatever way you wished them, i.e. duck sausages, duck breast, foie gras, duck kabobs; a cheese stall with 'farm made' cheese, a crepe stand; a pizza stand; and a 'patisserie' for cakes and tarts... and a 'frits' stall that did nothing but cook French fries all night. And beside each stall, you could buy fresh produce, i.e. potatoes, duck, beef, cakes, cheese, etc. to take home. It was a wonderful night!

What a day!!

We did a 14 km. (4 hours with picnic lunch) 'bisse' walk today in the alps. A 'bisse' is a man-made water course that catches the snow melt from the high mountain tops, and directs the water 'around' the mountain rather than 'down'. The water courses are either made of wood, steel, or are trenches dug in the ground, with small gates at various points which are opened when the farmer needs to water his fields.

What is so great about a Bisse walk, is that they are gentle walks, as they go around the mountain on a gentle slope rather than severe up or down. And alongside every bisse is a path. There are thousands of kilometres of 'bisses' in the canton of Valais where we have our apartment.

Well the 'Bisse de Claveaux' goes through forests, fields, vineyards... goes slightly up, down, and along. It goes through caves and alongside the mountain canyons. Vistas of the alps are magnificent. And best of all, it has picnic tables along the way, and a café/restaurant near one of the ends. Twelve of us set out at the higher end of the bisse and walked for 1 1/2 hrs, then had a picnic, and then walked another 2 hours to the café for coffee, then another 1/2 hour down to the road where we caught a bus to take us back up the mountain. Weather was a perfect 20° C.

We had a wonderful day!

Anzere, Switzerland

We are still in our little apartment in the Alps. This pic is from the mountain top behind our apartment, looking down on the Rhone Valley

We are having a wonderful time with good weather, good food, and good friends! Switzerland is expensive.... but I am learning how to shop well for food and goods with reasonable results! Australians would be shocked to know that a leg of lamb can cost $50!

Beautiful Alps in Switzerland

We are in Switzerland. We normally have our little apartment rented out in winter, and we use it in summer. But this weekend, there is a huge car rally and our apartment has some 'renters' in it!! So Peter and I are staying with Sally Mayor for the next 5 days. Her balcony and picture window looks across the Rhone valley at a huge glacier!!! Magnificent.

Guest on board

Sally Mayor, a friend from Switzerland (and a balloonist) has joined us on Zee Otter. Sally was born in the U.S., but has lived in Switzerland for 35 years, works with languages, and is fluent in French among many other languages. So she is helping me with pronounciation and meanings. Great fun.

We have moved down the canal to Mas d'Agenais, the most beautiful little town. Going to markets, visiting bastides (walled towns), eating and drinking well are the order of the day. Recently went to the 'Buzet Wine Sale'.... half bottles of wine (50 mls), red and white for €1.00 ($A1.33) that is perfect for our dinners.

And €12 lunches ($A16 that include a starter, a soup, a main, dessert and 1/4 bottle of wine.) Again... great meals, great wine. I have gained weight again. I hope I lose it before we return to Australia on Oct. 23rd!!

Off to Switzerland this coming Wednesday.

Lots of snails

We were very French last night. Went to a 'night market' where lots of food stall were set up. We bought a bottle of wine and a loaf of bread. Peter had a meal of 'saucisse and potatoes', and I had a bowl full of SNAILS!

Aquiring Culture

We are in the ville of Nérac. A small town, but seems to have so very much going for it, not to mention that King Henry lV was born here so a very small part of his castle is still in tact. Most of it was destroyed in the French Revolution.

Anyway, we have gone to two music concerts. The first was free, and was students, and I say that loosely because these people are VERY accomplished, doing solos on the piano and violin. The second was a harp concert, the harp being played by the most famous harpist in France, Mirrille Nordmann.

The first series of concerts is being run all week with different students each night. The violinist we saw, knocked our socks off!! She was 16 years old from Taiwan... started playing the piano at 3 years of age, the violin at 5. She is equally accomplished in both, but her violin solo left us flabbergasted. If she is a student, one wonders how a professional could be better! She is 'continuing her studies' in Paris.

Today, we will visit a display of Priest's Vestments in a small church called St. Nickolas, and we plan to go back to the student's performances tonight.

So we are getting our fair share of French culture.

I can't believe it has been 3 weeks since my last post!!

Where does the time go? It is really difficult to keep up my blog when we have been so busy doing 'things'.
1. Went to the U.S. to visit my 94 year old mother, who is quite remarkable for her age.
2. Saw many relatives who adore talking to Peter because of his accent!
3. Went to a Murder Mystery Dinner in a mansion. Fun, but I don't know if we would do it again.
4. Went to my 50th high school graduation reunion!!! When we walked into the room, Peter whispered in my ear... this room is full of old people!!
5. Visited a friend in St. Jo Michigan... wonderful town, wonderful times, and their was a fantastic Carousel and 'seniors' rode free! We laughed all night on the carousel rides!!

6. We are back on the barge, on the River Baïse.
7. We extended our French 'long stay' visa for another year.
8. All is well.

Tugboat Needed!

We decided to leave the Lot river yesterday. When you go back on the Garonne River, the flow is quite strong, so a small tug gives you a bit of a hand. They let us into the lock, lowered us down to river level and opened the lock doors... and then told us we were too big for their little tug and they would have to get another one, so we couldn't leave until tomorrow. They closed the lock doors, we were raised up and Peter backed out of the lock, gently turned around in the small canal and we headed back to the previous port. In the afternoon, a larger tug pulled alongside and said they would get us out in the morning.

This morning, we repeated the exercise of going into the lock, lowered to river level, and then the big tug hooked us up with a small 'pusher tug' hovering from side to side. Out into the river our little 'boat caravan' went. All quite interesting. We had no problems, but we couldn't have gone through the narrows and the shallows without the tug pulling us and Peter on full power.

Now we are back in a quieter river called 'The Baise' and we are headed for the town of, wait for it, Condom.

More Prunes

I can't believe it has been so long since my last blog!! Time does get away when it doesn't matter what time it is!!

Visited a Prune factory. Laughed at a 'Medicinal Tin' of Prunes that claimed 'Makes purging a pleasure'

Went off the canal, onto the Garonne River, then into the Lot River through a series of locks and canals. But the Garonne is fast flowing and shallow, so you need to follow a Pilot Boat through the channels. We were fine, but the small boat in front us ran into much bother... grounded twice, ended up on the shore line twice, and had 3 goes at getting into the lock. It just reminds me how good Peter is in steering our 35 tonne barge.

In Agen, the prune capitol of France!

We left Moissac about 4 days ago, and now we are parked in the town of Agen. Peter is about to hop on the train and go back to pick up our car. On the way to Agen, we parked a few days in the small village of Pommevic and yet again, discovered a delightful restaurant. The parking spot is quiet and totally shaded by trees... pitch black at night with out a sound other than the gentle church bells on the hour, every hour.

Jackie Clough has joined us on the barge.

Jackie has worked for Peter and I for the past 25 or more years. She is our personal assistant and the one who looks after our 'stuff' when we are away. It is wonderful for us to have her as a guest on the barge for 2 weeks. She has always worked very diligently, and when we retired, she took on another job but still is our 'anchor' in Australia. But with elderly, frail parents, a full time job, and looking after our things, she is in need of a break... and what better way than to be on the barge... sitting and slowly watching the beautiful countryside go by. (Right this moment, however, she is asleep on the living room sofa!) But this is a much deserved rest.

On the move again...

We are preparing the barge to leave our winter port tomorrow and move on down the canal towards Bordeaux. Our next stop is in the port of Moissac, which is about a 2 hour trip on the barge, 8km by bicycle. We are keen to get moving again.

Strawberries to die for....

It is market day in Castelsarrasin. It is obviously strawberry time as the stalls were just full of large, plump, red strawberries. Peter doesn't like strawberries, so I rarely buy them... but these looked so good, I bought a double punnet thinking I might make a shortcake or something.

When I got back to the barge, I popped a strawberry into my mouth. My face must have said it all, because Peter said 'What's the matter?' I just handed him a strawberry... him who does not eat them because they are tasteless with seeds that stick in his teeth.... He had one, and he said, 'Good Lord'... What did you do to them?" I said, "Nothing." He said 'Come on... did you sugar them? glaze them? marinate them in something?"

They are the sweetest, juciest, taste like strawberry, plumpest strawberries I have ever had.. a bit of heaven in each mouthful. So we ate the whole double punnet and are going to a market in another town tomorrow to get some more!!

Brazil Balloon Meet - Fabulous

We have just finished flying at the Balloon Meet in Torres, Brazil. Fabulous! Organised superbly, flying fun (especially HAVING to land on a beach), and the pilots were well taken care of with food and lodgings. Crew was fantastic. What more can I say.

Brazil seduces you!

We are in Brazil. First was Rio. Impressions: wonderful people, happy, kind, helpful. Ipanema Beach: bodies that are thin, fat, muscular, old, blobby, voluptuous, dark brown skin shaded up to very pink! I know why they call the bikini here, the thong. It is hardly there except for a triangular patch at the front... and worn by all females... thin, fat, blobby, voluptuous, etc.!!! They seem to be proud of their bodies and exude a kind of raw sensuality, no matter about the blobs. visited a Samba dinner place... again, the samba is a sensual dance and it doesn´t matter if you are old, young, fat or thin. They are all doing it!

Finished cooking school... now off to Brazil

Sorry I haven't been blogging! The Gascony Cooking School was fantastic, the only down side is that we ate so much and so well I felt I would burst every night! The best thing about the classes is that we learned skills we could take away and apply to lots of recipes. The last day, we BONED and stuffed a complete chicken, something I would never have thought about doing. And it tasted fabulous that night, along with our lemon tart and 'two-coloured' pepper soup!

But now, I am madly packing, washing, cleaning etc. as we leave for Brazil tomorrow. We fly into Rio de Janeiro!

Puff pastry and apple tarts

I am at the cooking school now, on an hour's break. This morning, I made Puff pastry, pizza dough, and pie pastry. We also had a session on knives, what to buy, how to use them, how to store them, and how to keep them sharp. This afternoon, we are making a 'Cassoulet'... a typical casserole with duck, Toulouse sausage and white beans. It really tastes wonderful so it will be fun to learn how to make it. The problem is you can't just make it for 2 people. You need at least 8 portions. You should always make it the day before you want to eat it so the flavours meld together. It is true 'farm' peasant food.

During the knife session, we learned how to properly slice and dice an onion without losing your fingers, and how if cut properly, you won't cry. And how to use garlic and make a garlic paste. We also learned how to use garlic without a 'garlic' taste... just the full bodied flavour. (Would you believe the Cassoulet had about 20 cloves of garlic in it, but when Peter tasted it, he said it was delicious and couldn't taste the garlic!! He even had seconds!)

I am loving it!!! Peter is here with me. My puff pastry collapsed while cooking... I unfortunately cut through it slightly when I was 'decorating it. I learned how not to do it!

Spring has arrived.

The weather is glorious and flowers are everywhere. We are in an 'apple' area, and the pink apple blossoms fill the orchards. Tomorrow, we are going to Gramont where we are staying at a farmhouse for 3 days. I am taking a cooking course and Peter will be exploring the countryside between coming back to the farmhouse for a gourmet lunch and dinner! All is well.

I am winning....

My intensive French course is now over, sad to say. It was great fun. Peter took me out to dinner on the last night and said, "Don't be sad. You can't expect to speak French by taking 5 weeks of a 30 week course. And it is difficult to learn a new language at our age."

Then yesterday, we had a meeting at the bank, as we have a few problems with our account. The women we spoke to had very little English, so she explained how to fix our problem in French. I could see Peter wasn't 'getting it', BUT I UNDERSTOOD THE PROBLEM!! So I confirmed back to her in French, then wrote out (in French) the steps we had to take to fix the problem. She said (in French) 'You understand correctly.' When we left the bank, Peter turned to me and said he was 'amazed' and in 'great admiration' of what he had just witnessed. He said he couldn't believe what I had learned in 5 weeks. And then he asked if I wanted to go back to school!!!

So I will be taking a few more weeks of 'intensive French' later in the year.

Peter is Cooking

Tonight, when I got back to the barge from French school, this wonderful smell was wafting from the kitchen. I looked at Peter and said... What's cooking? You won't believe it... he had followed a recipe and had made 'Roasted Vegetables with a Blue Cheese Crumble Topping'. Very 'gastronomic' and delicious. What more can I say....

Learning a new language at the age of 67!!

Going back to school at my age is a challenge! I am loving my French language course, but gosh!, I am completely suffering from brain fatigue every night. It is an effort just to think!!

The course is intensive, but I already notice results in that I can understand more when I read, and I can now understand how to use a past tense and a future tense of the main verbs. However, I am still very frustrated in that I can't hear the individual words when I listen to the French speak. They all seem to speak soooooo fast.

We already had a written comprehension test, and I did very well on the verbs, but where I am falling down is on 'the little words'... le and les, de la, des, au, aux, en, à, etc. So I have to do more work on 'prepositions' and how to use them.

But the more I learn, the more I realise I have to learn!! Five weeks of French lessons is not even touching the surface. I already told Peter I want to do this again next year!!

Peter has been very supportive...

He has been shopping, cleaning, doing the dishes, and going to the markets (as well as attending to 'barge' needs, i.e. filling the water tank, sweeping the deck of leaves, etc. And each day, when I get off the train at 5:37, he is waiting for me at the train station, and carries my books back to the barge (300 metres away.) And when we get back on the barge, he pours me a much needed glass of wine!!!

On Thursday evening, he cooked the fish he had bought at the markets (he made Trout Mueniere) and it was extremely good.

And on Friday, the train station intercom accounced my train would be an hour late... so I went back to the barge and Peter drove me into Toulouse so I would not be late for school. (Unfortunalely, on the way back to the barge from Toulouse, he pulled off the road to make a U turn and hit a rock which demolished the catalytic converter attachment point under the car... a VERY EXPENSIVE little exercise!)

Have to Share this one with balloon friends.....

A balloonist friend of ours, also now retired, sent the following in an email, which made me laugh out loud whilst reading it!!!

"I sometimes still dream about balloons and flying, more often than not a bad dream where I an flying very high and then find I have no gas or landing in a snake pit.
The best, or should I say the worst one, was a couple of months back when I was in a balloon at about 3000 feet when the pilot light went out and I could not relight it. My wife woke me up as I was jumping all over the bed and swinging on our bedroom light fitting. I was trying to relight the bedroom light as a balloon burner when she switched it on, and I was able to make a safe landing on the bed, but very shaken. The light fitting had to be replaced and the and the ceiling needed a little attention. Since then I have been trying to give up night flying."

French Language School

I started my intensive French language course last Monday (4 days ago). I am a bit brain dead by the afternoon, but am loving the course. In only 4 days, my reading comprehension has increased noticeably, and I am catching about 20% more words in conversations.

When a French person speaks, however, I am still not 'hearing' much of the little words as they all sound like they are running together. I get the gist of the sentence, but not the detail. I really have to 'speed up my ears' to keep up with the sentences.

Today we visited the Viaduct of Millau and the village of Roquefort

Viaduct of Millau (pronounced Meow) is a 2 1/2 hour drive from the barge. It is a suspension brige over a gorge... the highest and one of the longest suspension bridges in the world, an engineering marvel. It was spectacular. We drove under it and then on it! The lovely thing about French engineering is that an object must not only be functional, it must also be aesthestically pleasing.

Village of Roquefort is, of course, where Roquefort Cheese is made. It is cured in special caves that are only in the side of the mountain where this village is located. No one else in the world can make 'Roquefort'. Story has it a shepherd, while tending his flocks aout 2000 years ago, left his sandwich (bread and curd) in a cave he was sheltering in. Months later, he returned to the cave and found the sandwich covered in a green mould. Being hungry, he scraped off the mould and tasted it... and voila! Roquefort was discovered. Whether this story is true or not, these caves have the moisture, air flow and temperature variation to turn sheep's milk (with the help of a penicillan mold grown on bread) into world renowned Roquefort cheese. The tour was fascinating and of course we bought some cheese. All in all, we had a great day!

A very French experience today....

Next Monday, I start my intensive French language lessons, so need to travel from Castelsarrasin to Toulouse/return every Monday to Friday. So today, while Peter waited in the car, I went into the local train station to buy a ticket for 5 weeks travel. I told the man I was studying in Toulouse, and needed a ticket for the next 5 weeks. I didn't qualify for a 'student discount' because of my age. So he decided I needed a 'senior's card' which allowed me a senior's discount. I know he was trying to be helpful, but then he tried to see the best way for me to travel... a monthly ticket? No. A concession ticket of someother description? He decided no. And with every step, he was consulting another colleague. Also with every step, he decided to explain to me very carefully in French how he was going to do it. To make a long story short... 45 minutes and now 7 people waiting very patiently in line behind me, he decided I needed one ticket for each trip... so proceeded to print out 50 single tickets with a Senior's discount, putting each day in a different folder, and patiently explaining to me how I must protect so many tickets, how I mustn't carry them all at once, how I had to accompny each journey carrying my Seniors' pass, etc. It took an hour for me to buy the train tickets.

On the 'up side' his diligence saved me about $150 in travel the way he did it. The down side was Peter was waiting in the car park the entire time when he could have been on the barge which was just across the canal. C'est la vie en France.

I have been very lax in keeping up the blog. I will try to do better.

We are back in France on the barge, after being in Switzerland for 3 weeks. Loved every minute.. cold but very little snow.

Today, we are visiting Lourdes which is about 130 kms away from Castelsarrasin, our winter port. We have been reading about Lourdes... besides being a 'Disneyland' for the religious (do you want a paperweight with snow falling on the Blessed Virgin Mary?), it is the second most visited city in France (after Paris)!! But winter is their low season. I guess not too many people on crutches and in wheelchairs move around outside in the winter.

There are over 150 people each year saying they have been 'healed' after visiting the Grotto and touching the water (Bernadette had a vision of the Blessed Virgin Mary several hundred years ago, and a spring welled up on the spot, now a 'grotto'). The Vatican over the centuries has recognised 61 of these cures as 'miracles'. So... it should be interesting.

Tomorrow night, we are going out to dinner at a restaurant just started by a young French women who, last year, won the TV show title of 'Masterchef' of France. The prize of €100,000 allowed her to open up a small restaurant at her farm. The restaurant is only about a 30 minute drive from the barge. But this woman, would you believe, lives on the farm with her husband and their 6 children between the ages of 18 months and 8 years, and raises her own cows, chickens, and garden vegetables for the restaurant!!! And we thought we were busy!

Ballooning around the Alps in Switzerland

We flew at a balloon meet last weekend, in Crans Montana, a VERY POSH ski resort. We were asked to fly the Crans Montana balloon, so Peter was the 'Hare' for every flight (but in Switzerland, they call it the 'renard' or fox). The flights were spectacular but the down side is all flights had to be only about 30 minutes long due to wind currents and landing opportunities.

Discovered a gem of a restaurant

Happy New Year to all, and we wish everyone health and happiness in the years to come. We went on a drive to the North and found a 'Plus Belle Village' as listed in the Micheline Guide called 'Les Plus Beaux Détours de France'. But better yet, in the old village square, we happened upon a tiny restaurant called 'Les Sommeliers'. We had a 2 course meal that rivalled anything we have ever had, for $16.00. The service was spectacular, the local wine superb, the ambiance warm and friendly... even the 'loo' was decorated with warmth and flare! Loved it. I had a starter (smoked salmon, creme frais on blinis, which I shared with Peter) and a main (baby deer slow cooked in wine). Peter had a main (three types of fish in a cream/wine sauce, and a dessert of roasted chestnut cream cake roll which he shared with me). Love being in France!!!