raw milk machine

Last year, when I went to the farmhouse for a visit, I noticed something different outside the supermarket: a raw milk dispensing machine.

There aren't many around, but in milk-producing regions they're starting to pop up more and more. You buy the bottle on the left and then fill it up on the right. The bottles can be sterilized and reused the next time you want more milk. It's strange when I think of how raw milk and its products are essentially illegal in Canada and here you can get it out of a machine 24 hours/day. Since stores have very limited opening hours here in France, it makes the running-out-of-milk scenario a snap to remediate!

the festival

Most of my job revolves around selling the concerts of a professional chamber choir, but there is a choral music festival that we host for four days at the end of August for which we have been recently gearing up. Vézelay plays host to three big concerts in the basilica and creates the Places des Rencontres - a square that turns into a terrace with drinks and free concerts - and then there are three other villages that host afternoon concerts and various activities, such as musical walking tours.

It's a small festival, compared with most, but we bring in some big names. This year, Helmuth Rilling is coming to conduct Mendelssohn's Elijah, with the Gächinger Kantorei and the Bach-Collegium Stuttgart on the opening night. To close down the festival, Pierre Cao will conduct Arsys Bourgogne and the Camerata Salzburg for Mozart's Requiem and Mass in C minor. In the middle, the Flemish Radio Choir will sing modern sacred music by Sisask, Ligeti, Penderecki and Sandström under the baton of Catherine Simonpietri (it's the concert I'm most looking forward to!).

The smaller concerts include all kinds of music, from Renaissance and Baroque to vocal jazz and beat boxing. Tomorrow we have 30 volunteers coming to get things set up and, starting tomorrow, we we have catering for all our meals until next Sunday's lunch. Yay, no groceries to buy!

To make things somewhat complicated, I was told that I would need to leave my apartment before the festival started because it was needed as a dressing room for visiting artists. I asked my new landlord if I could sleep at the new house for a few nights before the beginning of our rental, and she agreed to let me stay. As it turns out, they were planning on moving the first day of the festival, so I will have the house to myself on August 25th, even though our rental officially starts on September 1st. Of course, this means moving my stuff on the first day of the festival, and I'm guessing it will probably be done at some time after midnight!

The last day of the festival, next Sunday, we will take off straight away to perform the Mozart two times at one of France's biggest music festivals: La Chaise Dieu. We're likely going to be incredibly tired, but I'm sure it will be exhilarating at the same time. La Chaise Dieu is only 25km from the farmhouse, but I'm not sure that I'll get a chance to visit, since I won't have my car with me.

We ended up working yesterday (Saturday), so today is our only day to rest up for the big week ahead!

a new house

Ever since I passed my trial period here at work, Jean-Marc and I have been looking for places to live. The thing is, in this region it's more about word of mouth than about checking online ads. It was suggested that I visit all the Mairies individually to see if they knew of any houses for rent in their village/city. I made a point of doing this, putting up notices on bulletin boards. We did get a few leads, but it never went further than that. There were a few places advertised online that we checked out, and after looking at some places that were UNINHABITABLE (we're talking mould, leaks, half-torn wallpaper etc. all for the low, low price of 420€/month!) I googled houses for rent in this region in English. Lo and behold, I found something  in Vézelay!

It was a conversation on AngloInfo - an expat website with loads of good information - and somebody was looking for a long-term tenant. As I followed the conversation, I saw that the owner had actually decided to sell the house instead of rent it out. I decided that I had nothing to lose, so I emailed her and said that we were looking for a house to rent and that, if her house didn't sell, we would be interested. Luckily for us, this person was still open to the idea of renting the house and when she found out more about us, she seemed convinced that it was what she wanted to do. In her heart, she didn't want to get rid of the house, but she really wanted to find good tenants who would take good care of the property.

There were a number of things to iron out - she's moving back to England and is buying a house there - but we will be signing our rental agreement in the coming week and moving in at the beginning of September.

The best part is that the house is lovely! It's been renovated, has hardwood floors, lots of windows and light, 3 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms and an outdoor area with a small garden and terrace. She is leaving behind some extra beds, so our guest rooms will be ready to welcome visitors. Jean-Marc is excited that we also get access to an orchard thrown into the deal. It's a few kilometres away and there are apple, plum and pear trees with loads of fruit. In exchange for caring for the trees and the land, we will get lots of delicious fruit with which to make jams, sauces and chutneys. Can't wait!

Of course, being able to walk to work will be a super bonus for me (especially with the current gas prices!) and it's nice to be in a village that has all the necessities within walking distance: pharmacy, doctor, bakery, bank machines, post office, cafés, wine shops etc. We need to drive to the supermarket (at 15 km) but there is a little outdoor market in the village once a week as well as a little corner shop that is handy for emergencies.

I realize that I never posted pictures of our place in Savennières here due to the lack of camera. Perhaps I'll be able to do that on one of my weekend visits. I'll be sure to take pictures of the new place once we're there!

videos!

It's been a month since I last wrote something here and much has happened in that month! First off, I have passed my trial period at work, so we have the green light to look for a place to live and I think I may have found the perfect house. More on that as it develops.

As I think I mentioned to you before, one of the conditions of taking this job was agreeing to purchase a mobile phone. I've never been a big cell phone person; I had one in Canada but didn't use it very often and when I arrived in France I didn't feel I needed one. I came to appreciate not having a cell phone: not being available to everyone all the time, having to make firm commitments with people rather than using the phone as excuse to be late and no extra communication expenses!

A couple of weeks ago, all that came to an end. I gave in. I was forced to give in. Of course, since I also didn't have a digital camera or mp3 player, I opted for one that had all that and when I got it home, instead of feeling excited about my new toy, I just felt a black pit of dread in my tummy. I had entered the consumer world of mobile phones, the world of things becoming obsolete thus necessitating upgrades. In fact, I discovered that my phone cannot connect with my computer's current operating system, meaning that I have to upgrade that in order to get my music onto my phone. That's just the start, I'm sure!

On the positive side, I have a video camera and I can share more of my life and surroundings with you. Here's a typical morning scene from my office window:

And here's a typical afternoon scene from my office window (notice the difference!):

weekend hike

This past week has been lovely; not only has the weather been nice, but Jean-Marc was able to spend the entire week with me in Vézelay (along with Domino our cat!). Of course I had to work, but at lunchtime it was nice to head downstairs to have lunch together. In the evenings we took advantage of the light and nice weather and headed out for walks around the village.

Yesterday was Saturday and we went to the local big outdoor market in Avallon, which is about 15 km away, and stocked up on fruit, veggies, cheese, and bread. After lunch, we went on a 12 km hike through the locals paths, various villages and vineyards. It was really too bad that we didn't have a camera with us because we saw loads of lovely things! (We're working on the camera thing, by the way.) When we got back, we made supper and drank some chilled Chablis that Bertrand, the maintenance worker here, had given to us as a welcome present. We still had some chèvre that Jean-Marc had picked up from a local producer and I have to say that it was an amazing combination with the Chablis (try it!).

We had some fraises des bois that we picked along the paths in Vézelay and this, mixed in with some yogurt, was our dessert. Delish. We even had enough left over for this morning's breakfast! Sometimes the simplest things are the best.

my little apartment

I have a temporary new home, as I already explained to you. To reach it from my office, I go up two steps, down two steps, down 50 steps, go outside, down a path, up 4 steps, and I'm there. There is a sort of pathway between the main building and the grange, which is a performance space that can hold up to 100 people. I take this pathway to my front door and it looks something like this (no, not the cave below!).

This is my front door from the other angle: (apologies for the MacBook photos)

The outside looks all old and worn, but the inside apartment is brand-spankin' new. The interior design is fairly neutral with a slight modern institutional feel, but it's comfortable. If you continue down this path a few metres, a huge panoramic view of the valleys and hills below opens up. There is a bench there from which to admire the view. Nice!

This week we are changing gears at work as we welcome the singers for a rehearsal period before two concerts later this week. Julian, my co-worker, and I are expected to attend every rehearsal so that we can really familiarize ourselves with the choir, the conductor's work and the sound. The meals during the rehearsal period are provided by a local caterer, so there will be time to get to know the singers on a one-to-one basis as well.

On Wednesday night we will all head up to Paris by train and on Thursday the choir will perform at the Oratoire du Louvre (I don't think it's IN the Louvre, just close by) and the following day we will head to Le Mans by train for another concert in a close-by Abbey. Since Le Mans is only about a 1.25 hour drive from Angers, I will get to spend the weekend at home with Jean-Marc before we head back to Vézelay for a whole week together.

Is this really my new job? Somebody pinch me!

new digs

Here I am, one week into my new adventure. One thing is for sure: it's beautiful here. Just take a look out my office window. This is what I see when I turn my head to the left.

My MacBook camera really doesn't do the countryside beauty much justice, so you'll just have to wait for me to get a camera in order to see its splendor. There are lots of rolling hills with little villages and mini forests nestled into the valleys and hillsides. This is the France of my dreams and comes pretty close to the France I love near our farmhouse.

So, the job! There were two of us who were hired at the same time and we both started last Monday. Julian is my new coworker and he's a documentary maker and producer, so he's an interesting person to have around. We have both been getting caught up on the history and recordings of the ensemble, the names of all the festivals and theatres where the group has sung (or would like to sing), and we've also been doing some writing assignments and working on the database. The first week flew by and we worked some long days.

I think I mentioned that they are offering me free housing during the first two months. My apartment is in the same building as the offices, but I have a separate entrance from outside. I don't have my own kitchen - just a kitchen sink, microwave, kettle and coffee maker - and so I have to use the office kitchen to store and cook my food. The only problem is that since everything is so new, it's not fully equipped. For example, they have one of those heat induction cooktops, but you need specific pots and pans to cook on them otherwise it doesn't work. They hadn't bought any pots and pans yet, so I bought a couple of cheap pots only to find they weren't the right kind (I didn't know about the special kind at the time!). This means that I've been eating a lot of salads, fruit and cheese & crackers. I've never really used a microwave in my cooking and I know there are possibilities there, but it doesn't seem like real cooking (to me!).

I like to have breakfast in my apartment before heading up to the office, so I pack a cooler with my milk, yogurt and anything else I might want before heading down at night. That way it's waiting and relatively cool for me in the morning. So far it seems to be working out ok.

I haven't had much time to explore, but yesterday I headed into Avallon, the nearest town with supermarkets. I stocked up and also found the nearest laundromat to do a load of laundry. I saw that there is a cinema as well as a number of shops, banks etc. There is a Saturday morning market but I missed it because I slept in a bit. I'll have to check it out next week.

Today I went out for an exploratory walk down and around the many winding trails of Vézelay. The village is on a hill, with the Basilique at the crest. Most tourists just walk up the long hill straight up to the church, but if you go off the beaten path, there is not a tourist in sight and you can walk in silence, with the just the birds and crickets providing the natural soundtrack. I happened upon a 12th century chapel and a sort of monastery today, and I'm looking forward to discovering more!