Flowers for Andrée

Posted on November 24, 2011 by chezmirabel

Andrée, our friend and neighbor on the Impasse des Fleurs, told us she was leaving Mirabel on Sunday. She is scheduled to go to the hospital in Montelimar for surgery. We brought her flowers and wished her a smooth recovery. She is remarkably warm and generous, and truly is our ambassador to the village. Each day she brings villagers to our house to meet us. The Impasse des Fleurs is so-named because of her house — abundantly festooned with beautiful flowers and plants. We wish her well and hope we’ll get to see her back on the Impasse before we leave.

Andree's house, just a few steps from our front door.

–Dory

Posted in Mirabel-aux-Barronies | Comments Off on Flowers for Andrée

To Steve and Jim

Posted on November 22, 2011 by chezmirabel

Each night at dinner we toast our missing partners, Steve and Jim. We wish you both were here! Tonight’s dinner is in honor of Alice, our dear friend, who is leaving tomorrow to return to her home in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Our menu is potato/leek soup with apple garnish; roasted farmer’s chickens and potatoes with au gratin fennel; cheese and melon; and pear and chocolate tarte. Alice graced our table with a beautiful floral decoration composed of flowers from Lynda’s garden here at Bello Visto. We salute you Jim and Steve, and thank  Alice for all her inspiration and hard work here at Mirabel.  We miss you!

–Dory

Posted in Chez Mirabel | Comments Off on To Steve and Jim

Isle sur la Sorgue Market Day

Posted on November 22, 2011 by chezmirabel

We decided to take the morning off and go to the market at Isle Sur La Sorgue for the big Sunday market.  There are rows and rows of stands with olives, breads, lavender, fruits, vegetables…on and on.  Alice, Lynda, Martha and I started the day with coffee and croissants at the venerable Café de France and wandered from there throughout the market.  We bought food for dinner at fresh food stalls and sweaters at trendy clothing stalls. Our quest was to find holiday presents for family and friends. We walked away with bags of treasures and happy smiles on our faces.

–Dory

Lynda buys fennel for dinner tonight - Alice's request!

Dory and Alice buy sweaters from this vendor at the market.

Posted in Provence Region | Comments Off on Isle sur la Sorgue Market Day

The Summer Kitchen

Posted on November 19, 2011 by chezmirabel

Today, while Rick finished tiling two more bedrooms,  Alice and I tore into the old “cuisine d’été” on the 3rd floor — tearing down  old cabinets, shelves and tiles. Martha, Lynda, Alice and I have been painting walls and ceilings for two days and finally made it to demolishing the old summer kitchen that leads onto the terrace.  For the past two days, we concentrated on painting fresh white paint between the beautiful old wooden ceiling beams in the adjoining sitting room.  At the end of the day, we took sledge hammer in hand and pulled away the old tiles in the “cuisine d’ete” in preparation for new floor and wall tiles and a fresh look.  One of our favorite features of the Mirabel house is the spacious, sunny terrace. We anticipate much enjoyment in this newly refurbished seating area off the outdoor terrace, perfect for playing games, watching TV and relaxing in the beautiful Provençal sunlight.

–Dory

Here are two of the vintage decorative tiles we removed from the old summer kitchen.


Posted in Chez Mirabel | Comments Off on The Summer Kitchen

Quite an exciting day today with three different kitchen adventures.

Cuisine #1: we began the day in Avignon where we finalized the design for our own new kitchen at Chez Mirabel.  We put the finishing touches onto our digital design, with the able assistance of Melchior, who helped us along the way to make design decisions and applicance choices.

We celebrate the completion of our fabulous new kitchen layout with Melchior, our designer, at the Ixina showroom.

He was terrific to work with and gave us lots of time to try out ideas on the computer before we all settled on what we think will be a stunning and highly functional kitchen plan. We left elated and can’t wait for it to be installed in February and begin cooking in our new home!

 

 

 

Cuisine #2: We had time to walk around Avignon before dinner and enjoyed wandering through the charming lanes and spectacular buildings of the Palais des Papes.

Exploring cobblestone lanes of Avignon before dinner

We then visited the historic La Mirande hotel and met the chef who teaches cooking classes there.  The cooking classes, and wine tastings, are located in the old kitchen of the oldest part of the property.  What a charming environment – the table was set for private dinner and we enjoyed chatting with the ebullient chef as he prepared the dinner.

 

The happy chef de cuisine at La Mirande

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cuisine #3: Our last culinary delight of the day was dinner at Numéro 75, a terrific restaurant beautifully located in a lovely 18th century manor house. After dessert, Martha went to the kitchen to give our compliments to the chef, Romain Foubert. After talking together, he let her know that he knew Philippe Boulot, former chef of the Heathman and current chef of the Multnomah Club, from Portland. He came to our table and greeted us Oregonians warmly.  He was a charming gentleman and an exceptional chef.  He suggested we try the restaurant “Entre Vigne et Garrigue” in Pujault, located close to Avignon. He highly recommended the cuisine of chef, Serge Chenet.  Yet another wonderful restaurant to try!

–Dory

Martha and Alice at Numero 75

Lynda and Dory at Numero 75

Posted on November 19, 2011 by chezmirabel | Comments Off on Day 18 — Les Trois Cuisines

So, Where is Chez Mirabel?

Posted on November 16, 2011 by chezmirabel

I just realized that we haven’t shown you where this adventure is taking place! Here’s a link to Google Maps with a green arrow on our roof top terrace Show on Google Maps. The Impasse des Fleurs walkway to our front door is on the right, with the adjacent green area being the large garden our back bedroom looks into. On the immediate left is the Rue Gen. de Gaulle (aka Rue du Bourg) street, on which our garage fronts. A rare book shop, our favorite bakery (boulangerie), small grocery (épicerie), and meat market (boucherie) are all on Rue Gen. de Gaulle, between Chez Mirabel and Rue de la Republique. The church, with its bell steeple, is just off the top of the screen (bell tolls hourly). Zoom out to see all the surrounding hills and fields of vineyards, apricot orchards, and olive groves. The larger towns of Nyons (to northeast) and Vaison la Romaine (to the south) are only about 8 kilometers (5 miles) away.

– Rick

Posted in Chez Mirabel, Mirabel-aux-Barronies, Provence Region | Comments Off on So, Where is Chez Mirabel?

Perfume from Provence

Posted on November 16, 2011 by chezmirabel

Laura, our friend from Piégon, suggested a delightful book about remodeling a house in the south of France.  In the 1930’s Winifred Fortescue and her husband, Sir John Fortescue, left England and settled in Provence, in a small stone house amid olive groves.  Her book is a witty and warm account of life with stonemasons, builders, and everyday life in a Provençal village. It was an instant bestseller when it came out and is still in print and much-loved today.  It is fascinating that she wrote the precursor to Peter Mayle’s A Year in Provence more than 75 years ago!  I am enjoying each charming vignette as we go through similar experiences ourselves in Mirabel.

–Dory

Posted in Provence Region | Comments Off on Perfume from Provence

Dick and Laura in Piégon

Posted on November 15, 2011 by chezmirabel

One of the wonderful things about living in a small village is getting to know the interesting people who live here. We’ve come to know Dick and Laura, who live in a beautiful home set amid a grove of olive trees in the tiny village of Piégon, perched just outside of Mirabel. Last week, Dick and Laura invited us to their home for apératifs.  After a day of tearing old wall paper off walls and demolishing kitchen cabinets, we tidied ourselves up as best we could and drove a few kilometers up the hill from Mirabel to their home.  Dick greeted us warmly at the gate,  with an open umbrella and the typical Provençal greeting of three kisses –  right, left, right.

Provençal Black Redstart

Dick and Laura let us know that a bird had flown into the living room and their dog was, naturally, a bit excited.
At last, the beautiful Provençal Black Redstart flew into a windowpane and was stunned momentarily.

Laura and Dick rescue the bird!

Laura rescued the delicate creature (held here in her hand for a moment)  and then let it fly into the dark night through the open terrace doorway.  Thus began a fascinating evening together, hearing stories of Dick’s childhood in Eastern Europe and the United States, subsequent years in Brussels and south of France, and Laura’s life in south Africa before France.  Dick was a student at Yale in the 50’s before returning to Europe to help his father run his diamond cutting business.  Dick graciously offered to  help us in our remodeling efforts, managing work done while we are all back in the US.  Since then, Dick and Laura have stopped by the house and given us enthusiastic feedback on our remodeling efforts! We appreciate their warmth and friendship.

–Dory

 

Posted in Mirabel-aux-Barronies, Provence Region | Comments Off on Dick and Laura in Piégon

Day 16 — Bathroom Demolition

Posted on November 14, 2011 by chezmirabel

Martha tackled the upstairs bath today, removing all the wall tile. Before & after shots below (unfortunately I didn’t get a picture of her standing in ankle-deep debris):

 

Unfortunately the before shot doesn’t capture the tub area’s very low ceiling and arch (although you can see where it was above Martha’s head).  Getting rid of it really opened up the room. We are going to turn the existing tub into a tub/shower combination. This bath currently has a bidet which we are going to remove, replacing it with a toilet. The existing “loos” is in its own closet off the hall. And we’ll put a a stacking washer/dryer into that closet. There was a existing vent hole which we planned to use for the dryer, but we found that it just emptied into the cavity above the tub. So now we’ll have to put in a duct in the wall or ceiling, exhausting into the hollow sidewall, which vents up to the roof.

We also had an electrician walk through the house, identifying new outlets, lights, switches, etc. This is in addition to fixing the underlying system problems identified by him during a pre-purchase inspection. He is also a plumber, so he will also give us costs for installing new toilets, etc. We’ll also have both a mason and a door/window expert come in the next few days, so some time next day we should have a pretty good idea of where we are financially. We’re holding our collective breath that we don’t get budget-busting numbers.

Posted in Chez Mirabel | Comments Off on Day 16 — Bathroom Demolition

Day 15 — Back Bedroom Tiled!

Posted on November 13, 2011 by chezmirabel

After almost a day of measuring, calculating, re-measuring, and snapping countless caulk lines, I started laying tile on the bedroom level. Since none of the maison’s walls are anywhere close to square, we decided to lay the tile on the diagonal, which greatly increased the challenge. But I am quite pleased with the result. Thankfully it will be a couple of days before I tackle the next bedroom; time for my back & knees to recover!

The rectangular raised area is the front entry’s archway, which we are going to transform into a bed. And here is the view out of this bedroom’s windows, onto a large Impasse des Fleurs garden with a beautiful persimmon tree, and the Baronnies in the background.

Today we met the garden’s owner, Nat, emerging from a door across from our front door — he is french with a Belgian wife and they live in a converted hotel at the end of the Impasse des Fleurs. He had heard about the “the new Americans in the neighborhood” from Andrée & Barry, and was very excited to meet us.

Posted in Chez Mirabel, Mirabel-aux-Barronies | Comments Off on Day 15 — Back Bedroom Tiled!