Michel & Christiane’s chalet is called Les Groseilles (The Currents), and there are lots of red and black currents on the property which they make good use of in their delicious home-made confitures. Last winter, which is when I took this picture, Dave and I stayed upstairs in the lits superposés (bunk beds), but this time we had the downstairs studio apartment to ourselves.
Les Groseilles has been in Christiane’s family for a long time. Her 91-year old mother lived here as a young child, and was born nearby in the village of Rigaud. Christiane took us for a hike (with pique-nique & pastis, of course) and a tour of the picturesque village of Rigaud. (Unfortunately, by this time my camera was kaput due to a dead battery.) Christiane got one of the villagers to unlock the Mairie (Town Hall) so that she could show us an old photograph of her mother as a child that sometimes hangs inside. We rifled through some things in the office, but since it was Sunday, and her good friend, le Maire (the Mayor), was out of town, we had no luck in finding what she was looking for. Some other villagers, a couple with a lovely arbored garden, were very happy to show us around their yard and describe the new breed of tomatoes that they are growing, which are red and kind of long and pointy with fleshy meat and very supple skin. They also were very interested in telling us about the history of the area, which turned out to be a hobby of theirs.
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