Today we went to Paris to check out a taxidermy emporium called Deyrolle. Taxidermy is de-rigueur in these parts and we wanted to investigate it. When we eventually managed to exit Les Halles station (no lie, we were walking round in circles for at least half an hour), we found the Rue du Bac and a rather unassuming shop front. This belies the huge upstairs floor of stuffed animals of every description. The buffalo, zebra, bear and rhino were particularly impressive. There was a strict no photos rule so we snuck around surreptitiously snapping on our phones, not looking at all suspicious.
Hermine has told us she has a stuffed wild boar head in the attic that we can have, and that somewhere she has some clawed animals paws that her father used to hang his gun on the wall. Exciting!
Back at the Chateau, we are gradually getting to grips with the schedule. Here is what we have picked up about local village life so far:
Charcuterie in Sacy le Petit 9 am Tuesdays.
Farm shop for vegetables 11.30am to 2pm from Wed to Sat
Farm shop for milk and eggs, 7pm daily, and very early in the morning too we think.
Watercress sold next to the bakers in St Martin on Tuesdays at 4pm
Bar in Grandfresnoy (the next village) does food on a Sat night.
Put out recycling on Wed nights.
Clothes washing is on Mondays.
Aidez-nous!
We did manage to make the 7pm milk pick up (just) which is useful as they don’t actually sell milk in the shops. And we can confirm it came directly from the cow into our reused 2 litre water bottle. Fucking fresh.
The cows who had just been milked were out in the field and looked very chilled. We might go back there to film them later in the week.
We are off to bed shortly. To bed but not necessarily to sleep. We both lie in our beds with our eyes wide staring at the ceiling, concerned the place may be haunted. Julie is consulting her ghost-buster brother in case we need to do any DIY exorcism. Or indeed try to capture any of the blighters on film. The bells are still haunting us too as they ring on every hour and half hour, all night. I expect we’ll miss them when we’re gone.
Night night, sleep tight.
