Chaumont. Hatches duly battened
Posted by contentedsouls on 16/09/2015
We only have 2 more automated locks on our ascent before 19 manual ones. The manual ones require a man in a van to escort us and operate the locks and we, therefore, have to phone through before 3pm the day prior to our intended departure to book someone. With the forecast for strong gusting winds and torrential rain all week we have been somewhat reluctant to make that commitment, plus we were waiting for post. Hopefully the worst will be done with today and we’ve booked to leave at 10am tomorrow. There may be some confusion tomorrow though as G phoned and said we were going to Foulain (which we are) whilst I got two pages in the map book stuck together and told the VNF guy that came round that we were going to Rolampont (which we’re not – not yet anyway). Oh well – it keeps them on their toes!
We had been hoping to collect Daisy’s new tracker collar (admirably researched by our Kevin Too) which should have arrived Poste Restante at Chaumont yesterday. Instead we received an email from the supplying vet to say that they could no longer get the device – a lie as we have been able to purchase one direct from the manufacturer. Why they waited a week to let us know I’m not sure and we’ve also had to ring them to get our money refunded – not very professional. Anyway, the device only weighs 5 grams and attaches to her collar so it’s just what we want – it’s now being delivered to Langres up ahead of us.
In the meantime we’ve been having a look round and doing a bit of shopping – I loved this ostentatious wine cooler.
G has been doing good things with the fruit we were given, making an excellent peach in red wine sauce to go with our duck and a truly scrummy apple turn-over sponge cake. Which tasted every inch as good as it looked
The supermarket here is vast and, in common with many others, you select your vegetables and then take them to the scales to be auto weighed and priced. I didn’t know this when we first arrived and, to my huge embarrassment, held up the entire queue at the checkout whilst someone was sent to get my veg weighed and priced up – I have to say that no-one seemed to mind. I guess that they are so used to waiting ages at check outs that a bit longer didn’t make a lot of difference – I however left muttering apologies and with a very red face.
Yesterday, for the first time in months, I spied parsnips (generally considered to be cattle feed here) and him and me are very partial to roasted parsnips in butter and honey. Grabbing my trophies I headed off to the scales for the weighing and pricing procedure – there are two ways of doing this; hitting the button with the picture of the veg you’re purchasing or using the product number displayed on the veg price sign. The latter is particularly useful when purchasing items like tomatoes as there can be 15 or more different types. I had checked for a number on my ‘panais’ and there wasn’t one, so I scanned through the pictures of veg and there wasn’t a picture of a parsnip to be seen anywhere. I checked and checked again more carefully – anything else and I would have gone without but I wasn’t letting go of my treasure. By this time, of course, I had attracted the attention of 3 French ladies who were anxious to help the mad English woman who was trying to buy cattle feed and they had no more success than I did. Eventually we found them listed as the last item, with a picture of parsnip leaves, no pictures of the bit you actually eat …. grrrr! Well do you know what parsnip leaves look like?
Muttley and I have managed to get out and about a bit between squalls and we still have a few sun flowers left tenaciously hanging on but I’m beginning to think this might be a long winter – we were still in shorts and T-shirts a few days ago.
contentedsouls 
Kevin TOO said
Parsnips… parsnips… really, oh how could you?
I’ve always thought you were a stylish couple… 🙂
Generally I tend to agree with the French about
food, with the exception of snails & frogs legs… 😉
But you are only save from further ridicule by
the sight of Grahams entry for the GBBBO, excellent :0
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contentedsouls said
What’s wrong with parsnips? Mind you, I snorted with laughter at the ‘stylish couple’; you surely couldn’t hang on to that idea now you know us!! Snails are alright although difficult to taste much other than garlic but frog legs are scrummy.
The pudding was lovely – he made a toffee peach and apple one yesterday mmm…
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andywindy said
Parsnips, an excellent food, a favourite of Royal courts even further back than old Enery Tudor ‘imself, must be cooked properly though I must admit to have had honey roasted ones but not yet with butter.
That Apple upside down cake looks absolutely gorgeous, as did the architecture. Must be my eyesight though, I don’t remember seeing Muttley in shorts (or a T shirt) at all this Summer!
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contentedsouls said
Just stick some butter in with the honey roasting process.
Muttley asked me not to publish the photos of him in shorts and T-shirts and I had to respect his wishes! Baxter is now sleeping in his Aran jersey
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alnath15 said
Hi Jill; finally I want to leave a word just to say that we are still alive 😉 Lots of things to do, so that I even didn’t finish our blog, but yesterday and today I took time to read yours. I still love it and enjoy reading how you are doing. If you like I would be glad to connect on Facebook too….would you send your name on FB? – We are preparing everything for our own boat and are really enjoying it. In the beginning of october we will hire a boat for the last time; we took one week with two friends of us and will make a small tour round Mittersheim, Lutzelboug, Saverne on the Rhine-Marne Canal direction east. and we are hoping for all of us that winter will wait and before that we will have lovely Indian Summer Weather ;-))) All the best for you, love and xxx
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contentedsouls said
Great to hear from you again and I’m glad to hear all your boating plans are coming together. The weather here is fabulous today (Monday) but it has been awful; I too hope for a good remaining September and October; it makes for a very long winter if those 2 months are bad
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contentedsouls said
PS I have sorted Facebook and left a message for you
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alnath15 said
Great! I just found it….thank you!
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alnath15 said
I am sure that the weather will be fine for some time….don’t loose faith 😉 And this winter will hopefully be very, very short – as we are looking forward to our own boat!! And especially for you…do you stay in France for the winter months??
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contentedsouls said
We stay in France and continue to travel throughout the winter – it’s just us and the commercial boats – the French people think we are completely mad!
I’m looking forward to hearing more details about your boat Anja: what, when and where?
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