Canal du Centre

Canal du Centre

Tuesday, April 19, 2022

Joyeux Paque!, Tuesday, April 19

After Storm Diego blew through the weather gradually improved with warm, sunny days and chilly nights. Flowers are blooming, trees have started to bud and the tourists have appeared. Spring has sprung.


Easter is a big deal for France’s patissiers and chocolatiers. The displays of their wares are like small (or in some cases, not so small!) works of art.


Last week, after a visit to our favorite pouilly fumé winemaker, Sebastian Truillet near Sancerre, we made a stop at Mason Pinard, in San Satur. We stumbled across this place several years ago and have managed to return several times. Their Easter displays are epic.



This chocolate rabbit is about 2 1/2 feet tall

and costs 200 euros



Elegant Mr. Eggheads



It’s hard to see but this is an underwater display

with all kinds of fish and other sea creatures


We bought a couple of small things, a rabbit, an egg, some candies and this chicken.




It’s in two parts and when the ribbon is taken off, the goodies inside reveal themselves.



The goodies inside the chicken

 salted caramel and more chocolate.



I mentioned projects in the last posting…


Last year our always balky generator finally gave up the ghost. The two year Covid layoff did it no favors and we didn’t use it that much anyway. Rather  than spend the thousands of euros to replace it we decided to go the “green” route and greatly increase our solar panel capacity. The new panels are supposed to be delivered today and after their installation we should be ready to head off. In the meantime, Cathy Jo has been catching up on some painting projects.


It was very quiet in the marina when we arrived; even the office wasn’t open yet. After a couple of days the other boaters started to trickle in. Klaus and June on Doris Pickel, Pete and Sarah on Mariana, Maggie and Charlie on Proper Job  and Debrah and Bob on Paradoxe have all appeared. The parties have begun.


Midway through writing this, the truck carrying the solar panel arrived. Tomorrow we return the car to the Paris airport, wander around Paris for awhile to find some lunch and then take the train back to Briare. It’s bicycles from now on!





2 comments:

  1. I'd love to hear more about your solar panels and their installation. We'd like to go that route too, but don't have much idea of how to go about it yet. Enjoy your Paris wanderings!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Val,
      There will be more info in the future. I'm going to be tackling that starting on Thursday.
      We already had a smaller system so I just have to make everything (wire, controller, etc,) bigger. There's lot's of information on the internet. The DIY Solar Power forum has been really helpful.
      Really looking forward to Paris. We haven't been in several years.

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