last post, yesterday (Friday, June 26, maybe)

So my last post, with a photo of the market, neither got saved, with its photo, or posted. Rats. It also had a description of a lunch we had of fish from the Lalinde market, something called "limande", which looked rather like sole, although I knew it wasn't (sole is called "sole" even in France), but also looked REALLY fresh, so I bought some of it. Cooked it in butter, and put (as well as salt and pepper) green peppercorns on it. We ate it with buttered new potatoes and a salad and bread, along with some more of that red Bergerac wine in the water bottle, and then had cheese (OMG is the cheese over here not just GOOD but also cheap, compared with the prices you pay in the US). Not a bad way to go.

On the other hand, we haven't had any luck getting a plumber who knows what he's doing over here to repair the damage done when we had the cave (cellar) finished and a half bath put in down there, not to mention the other plumbing problems upstairs in the house from the same person putting in Phil's tub, moving the sink, etc. The cave is sort of full of water. Well, not FULL of water, but there's a leak in the plumbing in the half bath down there. I've been trying to get a plumber over here (and yes, yes, if I had been able to decipher Jeannette Dumas's letter from some months ago, I would have realized there was a BIG problem, and perhaps done something to resolve it--she and the guy reading the water meter turned the water off to address the problem--but I didn't, AND what with Sarah's wedding and all that I didn't manage to get around to phoning her until I think it was the day before we were leaving to come over here...)...anyway we've been trying to get a plumber over here since we arrived almost two weeks ago, with no success. And we DON'T want to call the guy to put in the stuff improperly and caused the problem. I/we just want it FIXED and FIXED PROPERLY. So I finally asked Jeannette if she knew anybody as the guy who is supposed to be great and who had originally put in the heating system wasn't returning our calls. She managed to get this kid named Sebastien over here late this afternoon, except it was too late to go to Bergerac and get the parts he needs.

The only problem with this is that my friends Art and Sharon Jistel (I went to high school with Sharon) were coming tonight to stay for several days, until the day we leave for Germany). So they are down there in the cave, with a toilet and COLD WATER only in the sink, and a constant drip from the tank there, bit drip. I hope nobody slips and falls, because the floor is tile.

I tried to calm Phil down by pointing out that it's extraordinary for a house in France to have two toilets, let alone three. It didn't work.

Sebastien is supposed to come back on Monday and fix several of the problems, including the leak downstairs, and then return later to put in a line for hot water for the sink downstairs, as well as a couple of other non-urgent repairs. ALSO, Jeannette has known this kid since he was about 3, and his parents live in the house just above ours, so I suspect he will actually do what he said he'll do. A whole new concept. On top of which, he told me who to contact to repair the washing machine and fix the cooker so the oven will work. Another new concept.