Week 33 The World of Frank

Week 33

A little housekeeping...

I remind myself that I started writing this for my daughter Cheryl and my other Aussie kids and grandkids - as some sort of curious memento that might be read in the future - just as I was able to read letters written by my Great Grandmother circa 1895. Intended to be private rather than the open slather of Facebook - more a reflection of "me" rather than Facebook itself.

I'm basically using the photos to jog my memory of what I thought at the time and/or what I think now that it has sunk in.

The Week in Saint-Georges-Motel

On the way.....

We couldn't get away until late in the afternoon so we planned to stop in Bruges. We found the  Weinebrugge Hotel of the Great Western Chain. We were late getting there with no booking. Sorry, full. As was everywhere else! We sat planning to drive on... as far as it took to find a place (maybe I'm too old for "she'll be right" travelling)?. 

Anyway, the receptionist came and said there was a cancellation...... so we jumped at it.... and had a good (no, great) sleep. Not often that I sleep through to 0700!
Good brekky and on the way again. btw. we had a Brugse Zot (beer) in Brugge!

On the way

Arrival

Apparently, Motel means "little", with the "o" sounding as in orange.

Where Frank and Pam have been living for 6 months of the year, for the last 14 years(!), is in a collection of buildings (now residential) which once belonged to an impressive, but little used, church.
So, behind the church (below) are several buildings, including a small tithe barn. 
I managed to pick up a few details of the more recent history but I fear that my account is more about impressions rather than known facts.

Patrick Marshall Foundation

A story lasting 75 years
Fernard de Baeker  from Antwerp met Laurie Marshall (from England) before the war and married after the war. Laurie was a banker (Bank of England) in Paris. She a classical guitarist. He also worked in "intelligence" during the war.

They had a son named Patrick.
Patrick was "troubled" maybe drugs, maybe gay? Fernard came into money from an uncle, so they had an apartment in Antwerp, an apartment in Paris and in trying to help Patrick they bought the property in Saint-Georges-Motel as a "retreat" or sanctuary. Eventually, Patrick took his own life in London. Fernard set up a foundation in memory of her son. The foundation included  (or consisted entirely of) the current property and presumably sufficient funds to undertake the required maintenance and pay the bills!

Fernard died, leaving Laurie alone. When Laurie died, he left the Trust to a woman who had not been expecting it. I think this woman knew Pam and thereafter came the opportunity for Frank to become "concierge" of sorts. I think it was mostly family and friends who came to visit; the terms of the Trust did not allow any commercial operation although "donations" were made by some visiting groups.

I think the property was eventually sold in 2015 - the requirement of the Trust was that any profits would go to Animal Welfare.

An American couple bought the property and have retained the main house and a "petit maison" at the rear of that. The section nearest the church was sold and is now independent. A robot named "Frank" now mows the grass - instead of the real Frank.

The new owners have said that Frank and Pam can continue to visit; so this year they have been doing their normal 6 months tour of duty, but without the demands of concierge work. So they have been able to do lots of travel, including up to stay with us for a few days. Pam goes to Norway soon for a conference, they both go to America soon to visit friends and then back to Australia "sometime in November" (with a trip to Russia in between if the visas get sorted out). Frank likes to muse occasionally - as he mutters  "what's a Noble Park boy doing, living this life?".

 

The original area, excluding church

"Salangros Armel" is the business name of the American owners.

The "petit maison" with church in the background

The main house (behind brown gate).

Our entrance (another gate) is immediately to the right of the brown gate). At this point I mention the walls and gates! Everyone has them! The photo above is typical of just about every road in every village - and even all the huge properties outside the villages. Sometimes the gates were grander than the fence and sometimes both were grander than the house itself.

Again in the photo above, the church is behind the photographer and the houses (and wall) on the right are all part of the original property.

The view from our balcony - the walls often go around the whole property!

The rear of the main house (actually another house)

We stayed upstairs in the rear of the main house. The petit maison is behind the photographer, in the above photo. So, all in all, 3 separate families could live at the reduced property, or at least plenty of guests all at once.







We had one night of rain for the whole week. Lovely weather and every meal outside. The day starts with a 5 minute walk to the only shop - a "boulangerie" - cakes, bread and croissants all magnificently presented. Un, quatre, bonjour and merci are about the extent of my French - but, as with Dutch, hands, feet and smiling go a long way.

Oh no, white sausages!!?

One evening, we had a French couple to dinner. Patrick and Danni. I was the shopper but I wasn't sure of some of the stuff so I ended up with herbed chicken pieces and some very German looking white sausages. I managed a pumpkin salad and with everybody else contributing, we ended up having a real banquet/bbq.

BUT, there were some uneasy murmurings about the sausages. Apparently, they have a very ritualised eating process - aperitif, entree, the main (with items eaten separately, not all on the plate at once), the cheese course, the dessert and of course, the wine! It seems the white sausages are "only eaten at Christmas", so this was not the done thing at all! But everything was eaten amid much laughter assisted by the beer and wine - and champagne!

Patrick and Danni

Timberwork upstairs bedroom

It must be Frank's fault......

.......that I drank so much beer and wine! I rarely drink these days but I really had to force myself to keep up with Frank....ok, ok, being on holidays and totally relaxing may have helped!

One of our quieter evenings

Cultural norms?

As we walked past the schoolyard, on the way to the Boulangerie one morning, Pam mentioned that the kids' early schooling is very interesting. Over the years she has picked up that the kids spend the first couple of years learning "social norms" and behaviour. Pam says she notices it with the politeness of just about everyone including kids who always say "bonjour madame/monsieur" as they go past. I wonder if this also helps with a sense of "belonging" or being "French" - with also a sense of exclusion for those who aren't brought up the same way? 

This may also account for the raised eyebrows at eating white sausages out of season?

Geocaching

We found 2 of the 4 "caches" along a cycling path which has been laid where there was once a railway line.

found it.... 1

found it.... 2

Old Railway Station

The Royal Chapel of Dreux

Dreux is quite a major town in the area and was "full of Royals at the time of THE Revolution".

There are so many grand houses around the area; if there was only one then it would be a National Treasure fully funded by the Government, but because there are so many of them they tend to fall in to private hands to be saved from decline.

The Royal Chapel was built in the 19th century to house the art treasures of the Orleans family. Other relics on the site date from the 12th century.

Family members can still be buried here; the most recent was 2003.

Had to be a boat somewhere.....

Kayaking on the Eure

Recovery

Is it over?....

Anet

Another castle and a classy lunch. The castle is still privately owned. The Anet castle was built in the 16th century by the architect Philibert Delorme for Diane of Poitiers, the favourite of king Henri II.

Entrance to the Castle at Anet

There is also the mortuary chapel, built according to Diane de Poitiers' last wishes to contain her tomb. Her body had been removed during the revolution and placed in a pauper's grave. It was later restored to the chapel.

Castle walls

Various...

This cat NEVER goes to anyone......apparently

More fences

Bell tower dating from the Renaissance

Richard the Lionheart's home - circa 1188. Owned privately and partially restored.

Discovered on a walk - privately owned - an old Abbey

An "everything" bar - including good coffee!

And the further travels of Ben.... now in Sri Lanka

Visit to a slum city near Mumbai

Teamed up with a German and an Italian

Cricket is the most popular sport in the slums

Visit to a temple - no shoes

Ben in Kandy, Sri Lanka

Week 32 A Lonely Passing

Week 32

Another aerial photo

(Taken by Brother-in-law Henk during the recent balloon flight).

In front of the new addition are Anneke and Zoey. Zoey goes bezerk when balloons go overhead, especially when the burners are on. It didn't help this time that Janny was calling out to her.

A Lonely Passing

From the Newspaper 8 august 2016

It's the Leeuwarden Daily (Leeuwarder Courant) commenting on the increase in the numbers of funerals having to be paid for by the Local Government. In Leeuwarden alone at the turn of this century there were, on average, 5 funerals per year where there was no family able or willing to pay for the funeral.

This has now risen to 15 per year and thoughts have arisen as to the cause. 

Aged people living alone and the last in the family is one possibility. It is also thought that some families refuse to accept the responsibility for any debts including the cost of the funeral.

Leeuwarden engages the services of a funeral company to provide a Christian Service, with a simple advertisement, a sober but dignified service with music, flowers and coffee for any attendees.

Cremations are no longer undertaken but Leeuwarden does provide the gravesites, with the costs being absorbed by the Local Govt.

There was a follow-up story the next day - but I've lost the newspaper in our clean-up. From what I can remember, there were more than 750 such funerals across the three Northern Provinces (These three - Friesland, Groningen and Drenthe, often get linked together for statistical purposes).

Further Travels of Ben

Moscow

6 hour flight Moscow to New Delhi

Vivek Hotel At Connaught Place

View from the room at 2350 hrs

And a video clip from the next morning. I guess we've all heard of the horn-blowing?

4 days taxi (with driver) for €100

They were going to use buses, but were advised not to due to possible theft of belongings. There was also some notion that the locals preferred to keep the buses for themselves.

Dus nu hebben we een privé taxi die ons naar Agra en Jaipur brengt en naar alle bezienswaardigheden

A Whatsapp message from Ben "So we now have a private taxi to take us to all the worthwhile sights in Agra and Jaipur".

3 (young) men in India

Meanwhile, back at the ranch......

I seem to allow myself the luxury of always moving on to "another job". Sometimes there just seems to be so many jobs.... This manifests itself in quite a few ways, not least of all a list of unfinished jobs! (duh!),

I also end up with little piles of tools here and there, as I put one lot down and gather up whatever is required for the next one. I often have to remember where I was when I last used.... whatever,,,,.

I also have been known to say that "it took me 5 years and 30 minutes to finish off.... whatever".

Now, with Janny's parents here I'm finding myself under increased pressure to actually get things finished - things that are in their little corner - like the water fountain in the grass, a little bit of fencing, spouting on the chook shed. It might be that we get a little more impatient as we get older? In any case, I've been busy for three days this week doing things that I could quite easily have left until....... well?

We usually get one of the brothers-in-law to do the electrical stuff - but I had to do it myself and enjoyed the "aha" moment when it actually worked!

Off to Saint-Georges-Motel

Hence early this week!

Week 31 On the Move

Week 31

Another aerial photo _ mid to late 60's

Janny's Mum put this on Facebook. I hadn't seen it before, although I had heard of the "building that used to be in between". At the front of the house is one of "The Two Beeches", or "De Twa Buken" in (old) Frisian. The huge 45m x 15m winter barn has yet to be built - adjoining the rear building (which now houses toilet wing, main kitchen and my workshop).

Just to compare, here again the same photos.

Late 90's

July, 2016

Not much news this week....

The major item was Ben going away for 5 months. Hard to get used to the idea and we'll be much happier when he is settled in Hong Kong. In the meantime, he had a farewell BBQ at our place. He has some really nice friends and the different groups all seemed to get on OK.

BBQ

Half inside and half outside due to the threat of rain. Finished the night inside, in front of the fire!

The bottom half of the next photo has Ben's friends on the skelters. Somebody thought that the photo looked like a scene from a movie.... and so they put the two photos together.

We spent the next couple of days cleaning up, which was a good thing as it needed to be done thoroughly for our re-organization.

Schiphol

It's (only) 169 kms, so we left at 0645 hrs and made it easily in just over 90 minutes. On the previous few days there had been security "signals" and so traffic had been very slow due to security checks and Schiphol itself had been under a lot of pressure with long delays. There was also a malfunction with the baggage system so that 9000 suitcases went "missing". Luckily, we had plenty of time and no delays at all. 

Ben is travelling with two mates, Tjardi (pronounced Chardy) and Tobias. A third friend will also be studying in Hong Kong. We think it is something special that four young men from our "sleepy hollow" will be coming together in such a faraway place, albeit at different Universities.

 Two "girlfriends" travelled with us to Schiphol and two others even came to our house to say goodbye to Ben (at 0530 hrs!). He really does have some nice friends.

The trip...

We use Whatsapp to stay in touch and so far it is still working seamlessly in Riga, St. Petersburg and Moscow.

An Aussie Pub in Riga

and Ben's first photo from Riga..

Flight from Riga to St. Petersburg

BED

BED AND BIKE HOSTEL DOSTOEVSKOGO

Church of the Savior on Blood

Hermitage Museum (was The Winter Palace)

Train from St. Petersburg to Moscow (4 hrs)

They did a boat trip but the commentary was all in Russian!

Meanwhile, back at work

One apartment is ready. Our all-important coffee drinking area is ready. The workshop is ready. We still have to empty our existing work area and set it up as an apartment. Inventories have to be made (with photos of existing conditions).

We have a heavy week coming up with kids on school holidays, normal day clients and trying to get the last of the moving done. 

Janny and I are still planning a trip to Saint-Georges-Motel in France and needless to say, looking forward to the break! Having a few personnel problems (they want to go on holidays!) so we have to do a few days ourselves. I'm usually good for a few hours getting some of the bigger kids to do some "work". 

I've even managed to do some painting and set up the "backyards" of the apartments. Trying to get them to "live" outdoors on that side of the building, rather than "our" side. We'll see how that goes....