On Wednesday Marcus and Diane drove us to Montmorillon, a nearby village. We parked up and immediately had a great view of the Notre-Dame church, river and bridge. It was beautiful. We wandered around the market, Marcus bought us all a stuffed wrap from the Turkish food stall and we picked up some vegetables. One thing you see at all the markets in France is white asparagus.
Apparently the green asparagus we eat in the UK is lazy peoples' asparagus because the farmers didn't get up early enough to pick it before sunrise (it's the sun that turns asparagus from white to green). However, I had a little read into this and I'm not sure this is entirely true, as much as the French might like to believe it. Green asparagus is grown entirely above the ground, whereas, soil is continually piled on top of white asparagus spears as they grow to stop them from seeing any daylight and turning green.
We walked up into Montmorillon old town and had a coffee in the sun, before heading to a small typewriter museum. On the way back to the car I nipped over to the river and got this picture, which I think captures the beauty of Montmorillon quite well.
On Thursday Marcus used the white asparagus he bought at the market to make a dish "as Dutch as Dutch gets" (Marcus is Dutch, Diane is English). We had asparagus, boiled eggs, ham, and mashed potatoes, with a drizzle of melted butter and topped with some grated nutmeg. This might sound a little odd but was really delicious and we will definitely try the recipe ourselves in the future!
We had a fun filled weekend, kicked off as usual by heading to the local bar on Friday evening. On Saturday we got out the badminton set and had a couple of games (when we could get the shuttlecocks back off Fripon) and played a bit of pinball.
In the evening we had a games night with Marcus and Diane and played Blokus, Settlers of Catan, and Scrabble. We're keeping a tally of who wins the most board games for the rest of our time here to determine who is worthy of the accolade of ultimate champion.
On Sunday we got the kayaks out! Craig and I kayaked up the Gartempe and it was great fun, and no one fell in. It was so peaceful when we stopped paddling- the water was really still and it felt like we were the only people for miles.
Sunday saw our first BBQ of the year, and boy, was it a good one! Bee made a Thai pork dish with shrimp fried rice, the new Dutch family staying in Marcus and Diane's gite (holiday cottage) made some Dutch salads, and we had turkey skewers with satay sauce, sausages, and pork chops. Yum!
Workwise, on Tuesday I spray painted some cast iron pots and planted flowers in them. On Thursday I helped Diane clean and tidy the gite ready for new guests. Craig has been chopping more wood and helped move a bunch of tables upstairs ready to accommodate Marcus's extensive train set! We spent Friday fixing some new bolts to the gate for the sheep field (with inquisitive lambs watching over as foremen), and Monday painting some solid wooden chests that we'd previously sanded and treated for woodworm.
Total money spent between two (including transport to next hosts in 2 weeks): €277
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