Bagnoles de l'Orne

Picnic lunch in Bagnoles de l'Orne

Having our picnic lunch on the job.

Sunday saw us at the Vide Greniers in Bagnoles de l'Orne, a spa town close to us. It is a huge two day event and for the second year running we had a stall on the Sunday.  I had made a large batch of Lemon Curd to sell on the stall as we had run out of stock at the last sale.  Sales were steady throughout the day and even as I was packing up I sold a few more jars of chutney to a lady who is based in Paris and is setting up a course for school children - teaching them about the different tastes of France. She thought my lemon curd and chutneys were an interesting addition to the Tastes of the Orne.  We also met up with several of our neighbours who were enjoying a Sunday out in the sunshine, a rare sight these days - the sun that is not the neighbours.  

Jaipur Maharaja BrassBand from Rajasthan

Each Sunday afternoon in July and August concerts are held in the park of the chateau. They vary considerably in style - last Sunday it was a brass band from Jaipur. They played music and there was a female dancer. One of the troop also did circus style acts balancing a pot on his head while dancing to the music and walking bare foot on a bed of nails.  These events are always well attended, it may be because they are free and in the open air.  After packing up our stall we spent some time watching the band.

The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.

Rob happened to be walking outside the house one lunchtime and found a cow had escaped from the field opposite and was wondering along the road. Just as we were looking up the phone number to call the farmer he came along with assistance and they quickly rounded up the cow and fixed the fence. No doubt she thought the grass was greener on the otherside and pushed her way through the barbed wire to get to it.

We are still waiting for summer to return. The only plus side of the weather is that the mushrooms are flourishing. Yesterday evening while strolling up the lane to visit a friend we found 7 parasol mushrooms just in the grass at the side of the road.  We quickly harvested them for our dinner this evening. Luckily I don't think anyone else had noticed them as they were well hidden in the long grass.