correction

what I meant was that the sink in the cave doesn't work, as the water has been turned off, but the toilet in the cave works. Everything else (except the cooker's oven) seems to more or less work. Personally, I can live a long time without an oven, unless I get a yen to cook bread or an upside down cake or something--and why in the world would someone want to do this in France?!? So I am not stressed a lot about not having an oven (and hey, there's a microwave, or "micro-onde" as they call them here), and now I have actually figured out how to turn the burners on without using a match. What you have to do is to turn the knob, and then press the top button on the front over to the right, and it will make the electronic ignition work. It's kinda like a sophisticated version of my mother's aunt's stove, the aunt I spent so much time with when I was a kid. She had to use a match, as hers didn't have a pilot OR electronic ignition.

I managed to plant a bunch of begonias (bought them at the Issigeac market on Sunday) in the planters today, so the place looks better outside. Also, P has cleared all the "Tree of Heaven" nasty invasive trees up on the ledge above the house, both above ours and above Mme. Dumas's house. Also all the other weeds and rubbish that have grown up there since last year. There's this ledge or berm or dirt thing between the stone wall at the back of our terrace and the other stone wall (the one in really bad shape). I'm not sure which one of them was the exterior stone wall to the castle; maybe both of them were. It looks a lot better, though, and Jeannette loves it when he does this. The tacky little balcony now has a hanging planter off it. I say it's tacky because it's just big enough to go out onto and look at the sunset, and not big enough to take a chair or anything else out onto. I have no idea why anyone would bother to make a balcony, and not make it at least big enough to sit on. There is a great view.

Can't remember whether the castle that used to be above us was destroyed in the revolution (1789-ish) or during the Hundred Years' War. Seems like it's the Hundred Years' War. People think that our house was probably the gate-house for the castle. The Hundred Years' War was certainly fought up this river valley, and responsible for a lot of the change around here. One of the Englishmen we know who lives here thinks that the remains of what appeared to be a boarded up stone door down in the cave (hey, we covered it up with drywall and things...) was many hundreds of years ago the door to a tunnel to the old castle.

And a big problem, for me, at least, is that there's evidently nothing we can do to alter the bottom steps to the alley leading up to the cottage. THey are VERY OLD and VERY STEEP, and are evidently original to the old castle. We put in some steps up the alley that make it rather easier to climb, but the bottom 3 or 4 are a big problem for some of us...so far, I haven't fallen or slipped, but I don't carry stuff up the alley. So there...

Everything is so very different over here, and land is generally at such a premium, although this isn't a particularly crowded part of France. There is evidently a war going on between Mme. Dumas (next door), and the couple who live across the road in an old Boulangerie (bakery). They have bought that building, and own the garden halfway up our alley (she calls it her "pelouse"...don't ask...), and evidently seem to think that, as a consequence, the entire piece of road separating the two pieces of property belongs to them. They have a garage in their house, but they never park a car in it, and they have two cars. They park both of them on the road, which means that we can't park our car at the bottom of the walk/alley, as there is only space for two cars on the road. The last time I checked, the road was a public conveyance, AND the alley up the mountain/hill is the responsibility of not only us, but also of all the property owners whose property borders the land, e.g., the people in the old boulangerie and the guy who owns the house on the other side. Neither of these parties offered to pay their 1/3 of the cost of improving the alley/walk up the mountain (hey, we did it...a couple of us were afraid that yours truly might fall going up there...). The other guy is okay. But the couple that owns the old boulangerie (Fernand and Mme. Roy) are not okay; they remind us of the couple who lived directly behind us on Nicholasville Road many, many years ago. We lived on Nicholasville Road, and they lived on Lackawanna...I won't elaborate, but she was a ***** and he sort of sat or stood there wringing his hands. This couple is the same sort. Mme. Dumas hates them, and would, I think, very much like for us to take them on. We aren't going to. Life is far too short to fight with people like them...

Lillie