11th October

I spent this morning with Pascale. She has just started to sew and asked me to help her make a drawstring bag as she wants to make some for her nieces for Christmas.

We used her Grandma’s Singer sewing machine. A few problems with the tension and the post that the bobbin of cotton should sit on was missing (a job for Jean Luc, Pascale’s husband) but we managed and spent a really lovely morning sewing and swapping words from each other’s languages for things such as pins, fabric etc. The result was a bag made out of some lovely white fabric that I think Pascale said used to be a table cloth. We put an embroidered label on the front saying « lingerie », some ribbon through the top that came out of my Tunnocks box- et voilà- un petit sac blanc 🙂

Part way through the morning two men arrived to sweep the chimney of the fireplace in the room where we were sewing. Anyone who knows me knows that I am a perfectionist and so initially the idea that they were doing something so dirty only a few feet from where we were doing something so clean (white fabric!) was horrifying. But Pascale just took it in her stride and I joined in. It was nice actually- not giving a damn 🙂

I was invited for lunch today too. Lunch in France is an event. The shops all close across lunchtime and reopen around 2pm. Jean Luc came home from work and Clément (their son) came home from school. Jeanne was already there at the house. So the five of us sat down to a feast. We had white port as an aperitif and then bread and different spreads- tomato, fish and pork. Then vegetable soup, then a cassoulet, then apple tart (all homemade of course) and then bread and cheese! It was delicious and so lovely to spend time around a table eating with other people. That’s one thing I really miss about being on my own- sharing a meal with others.

Later in the afternoon I went to a fabric shop recommended to me by Pascale. It’s called Self Tissu- tissu being the french word for fabric, cloth, material. They had some beautiful fabrics- oh my word! A lot of amazing designs and types of fabrics I haven’t seen in England. I wanted, of course, to buy everything, especially some stunning fabric with peacocks and flowers on it that would have made an amazing headboard (why headboard I don’t know but that’s what came into my head) But in the end I didn’t buy anything! I thought it was quite expensive and also I’m travelling around and will see so much more as I visit different places. Plus, I have a MASSIVE box of fabric in storage already. I was pretty impressed with my self constraint I have to say!

Julia FaceTimed me whilst cooking but then we lost the connection- no surprise there, the internet being what it is. I had a lazy evening watching tv.

Oh and I got a reply back from Angel Strawbridge saying that unfortunately their diary is completely full and so it isn’t possible for me to visit. She said that they have « up to 30 sets of visitors at the gates to the chateau every day » and that I could follow them on their website. It was a very nice email but I wanted to write back and say I didn’t want to come as a « follower » but as someone who has kind of done what they did (minus the chateau) and also because I love making/creating things as does Angel. Anyway, in the end, I didn’t reply. Disappointed though.

Bonne nuit 🙂