L'Echiquier, Seth's Blog

Sunday the first of August, it was hot yesterday daytime high of 30°C compared to 25°C all week.

10h00 – Found some mouse dropping when laying down all the wine so had a good clear out of the garde manger (pantry) and the cupboards near the TV and hi-fi.  It would appear that someone had been living in there for a while but no rodent was found, thank you cats.  Doing all this prompted me to get the new Project Genie 3 turntable working, as in the cupboard I found the QED RIAA pre-amplifier I had been looking for.  Only my big Sony has a phono/turntable/RIAA input, so I needed this for the other set-ups and to rip to mp3 or ogg.  I not sure that you can rip analogue vinyl ?

14h00 – The Project Genie 3 was quite easy to set up …

• A firm level (I mean level, spirit level job) surface.
• The instruction were clear and there was a small balance in the box for setting up tracking weight.
• Anti-skating was easy but with only 3 setting, a tiny weight on a piece of fishing line just dying to get lost by easily getting displaced.

The deck is so simple and mechanical, I love it.

Project Genie 3.

Having got the mechanics right I pluged in the cables to my old Aiwa setup on the mezzanine via the QED preamp which was powered by a Netgear 12v dc power supply from a recently failed ethernet switch.   Put on Scott Joplin Rags by Joshua Rifkin on the Non-Such label, allegedly the master was a direct-cut on a lathe in the recording studio. WOW, yes its good.  Even got some crackles back.  Nostagia eh!

Project Genie 3.

L’Echiquier web-site.

17h00 – The end of July.   Not a lot achieved today, tidied up the new shed to allow the existing garage to be cleared.  Flamenco at Ratilly tonight, ought to be good, or will it be Manouche ?.

• RAPHAËL FAYS et TITO, duo de guitares Flamenco
• Raphaël Fays, guitariste considéré comme l’héritier de Django Reinhardt, est aussi unpassionné de Flamenco. Il jouera ce soir-là comme l’un de ses disques, A l’aube d’une nuit d’été…

Pretty warm outside with a bit of a breeze.   Should get some £s transferred this weekend, how I wish the £:€ was as it was 3 years ago.

P’s making bread with the addition of some maize and in the French épi style (ear of wheat).  Cats all sound asleep on the upper mezzanine.

L’Echiquier web-site.

09h00 – No campers, no Calico again this morning, sunny and hot already, P’s gone for a long run.   Calico arrived while I was writing this I got her food immediately but she disappeared again despite being called.  We need some basics shopping and things for the garden so a trip out is on the cards.

Grass snake - Natrix natrix

11h00 – Verogica are coming here this morning to use the Wi-Fi.   Went into the living room and there was a snake on the carpet, first one I’ve seen for a long time.   It was not moving and appeared to be dead, but I was not sure.   I have identified it as a grass-snake so took some photos and left it on the window-cill.  There appeared to be some blood coming from somewhere so that’s why I suspected a cat had found it.  Its head did move and tongue came out when touched but I thought this may be a nerve thing on a recently killed, by a cat – young inexperienced cat, animal.  Did some more checking on the web, went back downstairs and it had gone, either by itself or by cat – don’t know.   See Wikipedia.

12h00 – Verogica arrived in the form of Veronica, Roger, Frances, Catherine and Harry. Roger said the snake was definitely a grass snake, Catherine was given the full if quick tour of house and garden whist Veronica used the WiFi.   Veronica said that her and Catherine were off  to the east to buy wine and would we like to go with them, we accepted as P would not have to drive.  So after lunch we drove over to Verogica’s and off we went heading eastwards to The Yonne river and the home of the Chardonnay grape, Chablis being the most notable.  French chardonnay is the real stuff, it’s crisp and clean unlike the sweet southern hemisphere wines.

19h30 – Back home with replenishments for ‘the cave‘, just over 60 bottles in total, not a Chardonnay amonst them, hmmmm.

1. From Felix et Fils at Saint Bris some Saint Bris AOC (Sauvignon) 12 and some Aligote 12 plus 2 bottles of Ratafia and 2 of Rose Cremant de Bourgogne.
2. From Colinot at Irancy some Irancy Pallote 6 and some Rose 6.
3. From Christophe Auguste at Coulanges, some Coulanges ordinaire 12 and some fut de chêne 12.  Coulanges does not yet have its own AOC.

It was my first visit to Felix and I was quite impressed we had heard about their wines a number of times.  We were given and free bottle at the end also.

I did not like the taste of the first 2 samples at Irancy I got a sulphur dioxide taste, mind you I’m no expert.  I only bought 6 bottles of their better known wine and 6 of the Rose as both Veronica and Cathereine said it was fine.  They reputably had Marc made in a lambique as well but they could not find a bottle.

Christophe seemed under pressure or he had done too much tasting, anyway he was not at his best so it was a quick tasting.   However his mood did not affect his wine.   I first tasted his wine in La Damoiselle at Saint Fargeau and it was better (in my opinion) than any of the Coulanges we had here at the time.

L’Echiquier web-site.

08h30 – Campers all up and about packing.   I said they could use the kitchen so avoiding their own washing up.   Cloudy and cool, ideal for working.  Took a few photos, said our goodbyes and they were off to Brittany.

17h00 – Seemed to have not achieved much all day, finally cleared the campfire area and got all the cotton in, well most of it.

19h30 – re-watched the finish of Le Tour and a Wallander I missed on Saturday.   Not much good, the first 15 minutes was missing and so was the end, what is wrong with the Humax FreeSat box?

L’Echiquier web-site.

09h00 – The Borroff family are going to Guedelon today, the building of a medieval castle using techniques of the day with the addition of modern day face masks, goggles etc.   I suggested a pleasant wooded route to them both there and back.

The Flying Triangles.

13h00 – Today is also Maisy’s birthday, P had got a cake from Nicolas the baker at Mezilles who is also our neighbour.   When they arrive back from Guedelon we intend to drive to Mezilles and take some photos of Maisy in front of the village sign (the pronounciation is virtually the same).  I started to prepare the party area, we were having DIY pizza and maybe a BBQ, we had bought some cotton trianglar and square sheet sunshades last year from JYSK at Cosne sur Loire, this was to be their first real outing.  I also made a birthday banner to hang near the gate.

Maisy at Mezilles.

23h00 – The BBQ was not required, the rain held off and the pizzas were great.   Everyone eventually got the idea of adding your own ingredients to a fresh pizza base then popping it in the oven.  Maisy cut the cake and we had beer, wine and cider.

L’Echiquier web-site.