Theil Rabier

That's the name of a village in the Charente region. Yesterday morning bright and early, I caught the train to Ruffec. In fact, it was so bright and early that poor old Christian had to drop me at the station. The night bus was going to get me to the station with an hour to fill in - and there is nothing there to do, believe me - and the first of the regular No 8 buses was going to be cutting things a bit fine. As it turned out the train was about 25 minutes late leaving as we had to wait for another train which was running late. But it's not very often the trains are late. They are great really.
Ruffec is only about half an hour away and Derry was waiting at the station for me. Derry(Dermot) is the brother of Vikki, my friend in Oman. We drove to Theil Rabier to where Derry and his wife Todd live in a gorgeously French house with probably even more gorgeous outbuildings which they hope to convert to living quarters.
They will then turn the current house into holiday lets. Incidentally, they run a business called "French Vintage Linens and Antiques" and if you are at all interested in the sound of that, have a look at it on Ebay. I was just drooling looking at all the beautiful linen - sheets, tablecloths, napkins etc, along with nighties, and babies' robes. The hand embroidery and handmade lace is just beautiful. They buy all the articles then Todd washes and irons everything - quite a job.
It's all beautifully presented. In their store room they also had a lot of antiques and collectables, and I had to work very hard to maintain my discipline and not come away with several rather gorgeous plates. Can you imagine me trying to get them home?
So anyway anyway. At lunchtime we had a wonderful outdoor lunch to which Suzanne came. She is an old-ish neigbour who is rather gorgeous but does talk a lot. And as you can imagine, at great speed! However, she was quite cool really and complimented me on my French so I thought that overall she was quite a discerning and perceptive person. :-)

After lunch I confess that Todd and I had a nap! It's the heat you know! Actually, I'm sure that plays a part. Yesterday and today the thermometer on the wall of the coutyard was registering about 42 degrees. Now obviously it was placed on a hot wall and getting reflections and so on, but it was hot, whether it was 42 or not! We just mucked around and then got ready to go out to a birthday gathering. John, an English friend of T & D's had his birthday, and few of us went somewhere for a meal. It wasn't actually a restaurant, but kind of a tent and a mobile kitchen by a lake. And it seemed that almost all the people there were English! It was a fun night. The meal was ordinary, but the ambience was great, the red wine somewhat velvety and easy to slip down, and we all had a great time. It was also the night that people could get up and perform, but I did not feel that my rendition of Haere Mai was quite what people were wanting to hear.
And so to this morning. John had stayed the night too as he lives in a village a wee way away, and as Todd was out walking he took me for a drive there to see it. It's called Aigre and has a population of about 1500. It was another perfect day, weather-wise, and driving through the country side with all the sunflowers kinda made me melt really. Or was that the heat?
Back home for lunch and Todd did us all proud once again.

She is American but cooks like a French woman! A leisurely meal - by god I am getting used to leisurely and there's a lot to be said for it!! - and then nap time again! Another lovely blobby afternoon and then Derry took me back to Ruffec to catch the train back to Poitiers.
Which is where I am right now. Believe it or not! Always good to get home and do some washing, but Todd and Derry are really good company and 'easy' if you know what I mean. So I could have happily stayed a bit longer. But anyway, tomorrow afternoon I am going back to stay with Claudine and Francois at St Secondin. Busy as a bee.