Then later we went to Villaines-les-Rochers which is a town that is famous for its baskets. As we pulled up to the cooperative and got out of the car the sign changed from Overt to Ferme! We tried not to take it personally. We took a walk thru the village and ended up at Vannerie Romani Art. This was a studio run by a woman and her husband that make baskets and serve drinks on their lovely tree covered deck. They have a facebook page and webpage - check them out.
http://romand-art.fr/
Catherine took a liking to Music Man (name de blog for Upstates son) and at one point I think she thought he spoke fluent French. She spoke to him really fast, I understood about every third word. He did really well and does not seem to be self conscious of speaking. Unlike me. If someone speaks to me very slowly, I can understand. And it my head I am speaking fluent French, it just won't come out of my mouth. It is very sad.
She talked to us about the coop where they make many items in willow. Baskets, trays, etc. She had worked there for 28 years making the same rectangular tray every day, until she just could not take it any more. She and her husband struck out on their own, which is very unusual in France. From what she said working there was almost slavery, they pay them by the piece and you have to make a certain number of pieces every day. They are not paid much and the owner of the coop was a very difficult demanding man to work for. It was his way or the highway, she and her husband took the highway.
We did go into the coop, I mean we had come all this way... I am happy to say we did not purchase anything and that I will never purchase another basket from China. It is a dying art form in France and that seems a shame to me. Catherine was teaching a woman to make baskets today. While the student was interested in making contemporary baskets it was explained to me that she needs to learn to make traditional baskets first. Because you cannot make new baskets without knowing the old ways. Catherine also was the first woman to get a certificate in rattan furniture. She was restoring a couple of chairs in an also dying art form. Her husband won "best basket maker in France" at some point. It was interesting to watch him work, we treat baskets gently and think we will break them. He was whacking the one he was working on with a tool that looked like a flattened hammer, so I think dropping one won't do much damage. Unless they come from China, then they will probably shatter.
We also saw groups of Boy Scouts, sweaty boys in shorts and hats with maps. We think they must be on some kind of a test, you know get to this point or get kicked out of the scouts. Who wants a scout around that 1) can't read a map and 2) can't find his way out of paper bag. Isn't that what scouting is all about?
Then it was off to the highlight of our day, lunch. We went back to Azay la Rideau to catch a bite. Alas it was too late to manger, so we gave it up and headed to the CarreFore, the big grocery store in town. We came across a pizza place in the plaza where the grocery store was and decided pizza for lunch. It was a good idea to eat before we went into the grocery store, since we were all pretty hungry and might have purchased far more than we needed for the next few days. So trying to order pizza in a place where the guy is not French. He was Greek and said he spoke French, but from what I could tell not very well. Well, I thought I ordered one large margarita pizza. My beloved said, I think he thinks we want two pizza's. No, I said one. Yes, but I think he is making two. Music man ordered two pizzas, one with meat and one cheese. Well, we ended up with four pizza's at our table. That is a lot of pizza. Photo girl did not like the look of the meat on the pizza and I think the fact that Music Man had an upset tummy a little later might have proved her right.
Now, off to the grocery store. This is a full service grocery store! They have everything you could ever want. From playing cards to badly needed sandals for Photo Girl. She had only brought one pair of shoes on her travels and while she said they were comfortable for most occasions, she needed a break from them. So there she was standing in the grocery store with a pair of sandals. Imagine my surprise when I saw that. So we gathered groceries and as we all wondered around we ended up with three of the same cheese, two of which went back, while we like cheese - to much of a good thing can back you up - if you know what I mean.
We took our groceries and our left over pizza and headed back to our little slice of the Loire. As we are standing in the cottage a woman comes up to the door with a large beautiful bouquet of flowers. She stopped at the Dutch door and said (in a french accent) there is Beth Hogan?
Yes. I signed for them and we all waited for Upstate to come downstairs. She came down and was very surprised to see that Minnesota Man had sent her flowers for their 24th wedding anniversary. How lovely. Our first thought was how the hell did he pull this off? We are out in the middle of nowhere. Really? Did he find someone that speaks French and call a local florist? Did he do it all over the internet? Did he contact Patrick and Benny? Well, he found them on the internet. He had to contact two because the first one backed out. The second one probably had better flowers anyway. I learned later that the florist had contacted Benny to find out where to come. It was really a special moment. I guess love will find you no matter where you go.
We were invited over to Patrick & Benny's for wine and whatever. We all went over and were introduced to some artist friends of Patrick and Benny's that have returned to France from Columbia. They are house hunting and I am a little jealous.
As we are sitting there talking about their art, it comes out that he does erotic art. What? What? He brought out a bag of these little boxes that looked like beach cabanas. Very nicely made and painted. There are little levers on the side or back of the box that would move what was inside. Let me just say inside the box were little cut outs of people that were naked and having sex. One of them had two men and a woman and both men had the face of the guy from 50 Shades of Grey. Um, lets just say the workmanship was great!
So now we are back in our Baulay and it is 9:45 at night and still light out. While it seems wrong to go to bed and waste this daylight, I have another early date with Patrick to get our morning drive to get bread, so off to bed I go.
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