This year (or rather last year 2011), we decided not to give a New Year's party, partially because we were tired, and also because our good friends Davey & Elsa were not available (they were having fun in Indonesia).

So instead we got invited by our friends the Froidures to spend the evening and early morning in their lovely castle close-by. This is what their castle looks like (in the summer):



They had kindly allowed us to invite other friends, under the motto "the more the merrier", so we ended up coming with 10 people. Another good idea they had, was that each couple would bring the "aperitifs" (the nibbles), meaning we had several large platters of nice food on the table, each made to different taste and material.



It was colorful, and very tasty.



The party ended at around 5 AM, while dinner ended at 2 AM. We were all so absorbed eating and talking, that we forgot about the time.

Anyway, here are some photos of the start of the evening. After that, I left my camera alone, so no more photos...

Our good friend Jeannine from Normandy, who had moved down South (to an area called Les Landes), turned 65, and as most people do, threw a party. So on December 17th, some 80 people gathered at a village "party hall" to celebrate her birthday.

People came from all over France including Normandy, and a big gathering from her friends of her adopted region of Les Landes.

Below you'll find 83 photos and several videos in between the photos. If you follow the story line, when you come to a video, it'll be a summary of the above photos, but in video style. The videos were made with my Apple iPhone, so don't expect high quality.

Some of the photos were taken with my iPhone, and an application that made them look "old".

Meet & Greet

The evening started at the village community hall with Jeannine greeting all visitors, and where drinks and little bites to eat were served.



In the beginning, it was quiet and empty, but someone has to be first, right?



The kitchen of the community hall was ready and stacked with the food for the evening.



A look in the freezer section and we even saw three deers, which were not meant for the party, but from a hunter who had shot them earlier.



Jeannine did her hostess thing to perfection, greeting each guest individually and spending some time with them.













Everyone loves Jeannine, and they showed it.



The party was animated by a great guitarist who played many songs to liven the mood.

I've had to change the commenting system on this site. I was using the one that came with the software package, but everyday I got a couple of 100's of spam, so I decided to let the professional handle it...

From now on, comments are handled by Facebook. If you don't have a Facebook account, you can still comment by signing in on one of their partner account (like Yahoo or Hotmail and others, more to come).

It means less work for me, but unfortunately, it means all previous comments are lost. Sorry...

We had received from our good friends Christophe & Sylvie, for our wedding anniversary, an invite to eat at one of the best restaurants in Normandy, the "Le Bec au Cauchois" headed by top chef Pierre Caillet.

We used the invite for my pre-birthday dinner, and headed up to the restaurant (close to Valmont) on Saturday. To our surprise, the invite included that the meal would be held in the kitchen of the restaurant itself!


Here you can see Trish sitting at the table. You can't get any closer to a restaurant kitchen unless you do the cooking yourself. The chef, Pierre, came and welcomed us, and said we could ask any question at any time about what he and his staff were doing, and about the ingredients. You couldn't ask for more...


This is the view from our table. There's only one, and it sits two people.


After some hors-d'oeuvre (filled pastries), we had a mouth-watering water crescent and cheese pre-starter.


From our table you could see all the cooks and helpers busy preparing meals for a sold-out restaurant.


Trish & I had a "cube" of Foie Gras filled with apple (Cubisme de Foie Gras confit aux Pommes, Gelée au Pommeau), on a bed of apple gelatine. The Foie was excellent, and the presentation second to none.


After that we got a "Royale d'Huitre de St Vaast, Ecume de Granny et Noisettes fraiches", which is an oyster, with on top, a very light and delicious apple foam.


Since we are in the kitchen, the chef allowed us to taste many of the dishes. This, though not its normally presentation, since it's "only" a taste, is lobster on a bed of vegetables (I can't remember which kind). Fantastic taste.


All the time, we were busy observing the chefs preparing many meals, one after the other. Pots and pans were on many stoves, getting ready for the next meal.


You could clearly see all the hard and precise work needed to bring the many meals on time to the tables.


The meals made colorful photos...


At all times, there were some 3 to 4 out of the 6 chefs and assistants working in the well designed and modern kitchen.


This was my main course, "Lievre a la Royale, Racine au Jus et Poire Naschi", a hare stewed in its jus and foie gras and pears. It had an incredible game-like taste, and the pears set off the taste nicely. On the left you see crushed truffles. Scrumptious and superb.


Desert was an Chocolate Eclair with nuts (the three things on top are honey roasted nuts). A prefect desert for a perfect meal.

We had a fantastic time, since you get to see a lot of the preparation, and our taste buds had a field day. It's a restaurant you definitely have to go to if you're ever in France, even if you have to make a long detour (they do have several rooms for you to stay in).

Trish and I had never had a true Thanksgiving Dinner before, and since Daniel & Ximena where in France in between their trip from Chile to the United Arab Emirates, and Carl & Judy Chaffee had offered to come over from their house in Burgundy to cook a real American Thanksgiving turkey, all we could do was offer our house for the feast.

Carl had flown in from the USA a few days beforehand with a real American turkey hidden in his suitcase.



In the afternoon of Saturday 26 November, the dinner table was set, including pilgrim hats and even an Indian hair-band, including feathers.



Judy had spent the Friday and Saturday cooking all sorts of American dishes for the dinner.



Late in the afternoon, everything was falling into place, and the house smelled strongly of turkey and other good food.



The turkey had been in the over for hours beforehand, with continuous basting.



The table was ready, the candles lit.



At 7 PM, the guests arrived and were greeted with champagne. Daniel & Ximena, Aude & Benoit, Remy & Jutta, Alain & Isabelle, Carl & Judy and Trish and me.



Carl had made an appetizer of an andive leaf, with fresh crab and strong wasabi.





By 8 PM, the turkey was ready. It was delicious, soft and moist, with a great taste.



Carl played the daddy, and cut the turkey.



On the plate was sweet potato with marshmallow, mashed potatoes, buttered corn, cranberry with orange, cranberry jelly, stuffing, garlic carrots



For all guests, this was a first, and all enjoyed the meal enormously. It was very tasty and harmonious.



A lot of lively conversation was being held by all, while enjoying the bountiful and great meal.



Most people went for seconds, and believe it or not, but the turkey was totally stripped of all meat.






Dessert was pecan pie, pumpkin pie and vanilla ice cream.

The evening was a success, and everyone enjoyed the meal tremendously.

We decided that it was time to get a forest on our enormous and vast grounds. And with a forest, I mean 4 trees....

We were going to go from this.....:



.... to this:



... and from this.....:



... to this view...:



We went out and bought the first tree, the single tree pictured above, in April of this year, but the tree garden place refused to sell us the (expensive) tree, since it was too late in the season. He said to come back in November.

So we did come back, and bought 4. Our garden firm, came over two days to "install" the trees.



First the made a small hole, mapping out where the trees where going to be.



When the first two trees had arrived, the were brought in with a big tractor, since each tree weights 1,000 kgs...



The tree was gently positioned over the freshly dug hole..



.. and eventually lowered into the 1 meter deep hole..



... and then "pushed" into the right angle and spot..



... and then with the small JCB, the earth was piled onto the tree.



The process was repeated for each of the front trees









Very late in the afternoon, more early in the evening, the last 2 trees arrived...



Both were off-loaded.



... and in the dark, using only the tractor headlights, the last tree of the front group was planted.





Then, the following morning came the difficult tree, since it needed to be planted at the other side of the garden, in a narrow space, intersected by the stone footpath. The stone footpath is set on sand, so it was not going to be easy with a heavy tractor and heavy tree.

The placed several layers of wooden planks and thick rubber mats to spread the weight of the tractor.



The tractor hooked up the tree....



.. and very carefully drove it over the footpath...



.. all in very confined space...











The remainder of the earth was put back in the truck, and then emptied on the first batch of trees.



And this is the view of my office.

So now we have a forest in the Werner Mansion...

On Sunday 24th of July Trish & I had our 25th wedding anniversary (actually, the real date was one day later). And as is usual, we decided to throw a little party to celebrate the occasion.

Up to now, we had either our friend Davey come and cook for all of us, or we went to some place and celebrated our special occasion there, but Davey was not available, and since we had the Irish contingent from Trish's side of the family at our place on holiday, we decided to party at home.

Some 40 people were attending, so instead of cooking for days beforehand, and spending the day serving, cleaning and getting really tired, we hired a catering company.

If you're in the market for a catering company in Normandy, we can highly recommend Coudray. The food was excellent, the service professional and discrete and in total, a real pleasure.

Cristophe & Sylvie had loaned us 4 tents used for street fairs, and they came in very handy. Setup was done mostly by Brian assisted by John and Mike B, and took a few minutes.

Before the photos, you'll find a video taken by the security cameras (no Mr. Burglar, there are more cameras, so don't think you can find the angle to go for our house).




In the morning the catering truck rolled up with two lovely ladies off-loading and rearranging the furniture. The tents had been installed the night before.









The caterers supplied us with chairs, plates, cutlery, decoration and good humor. The whole setup looked great.


At midday the guest started arriving. Some 40 people with their kids, from all over the world. Drinks were served first, starting with champagne (of course)

















With all the nationalities, it became a guessing came which language you had to address a person when meeting up to talk. Fun game.

Lunch started and everyone took their seats.













The children's table and their adult supervisors..





There was plenty of food, so much so, we had leftovers for days afterwards.

The menu was:

Starters: Cold meat cuts, salmon on egg, avocado shrimp and salad
Main: Coq au Vin (for the kids hamburger and potato puree)
Dessert: Tarte Normande (apple tart)


After the meal, all of the kids went swimming (for hours).

The party started at 12:00 and finished at 21:00 (9 PM).

We all had a great time, and thank everyone for coming and joining in our celebration.

If you are wondering what Trish and I got for each other, here's the treasure list:

I got Trish:
- Personalized Champagne bottle and two silver, engraved, champagne glasses
- Newspaper book from the year we got married
- Two stars named after us (I did promise her the stars)

and Trish got me a beautiful statue of a couple holding hands..

We had received an invitation by the French Tennis Federation to visit the big French tennis event, Roland Garros. We were treated to the event as VIP, with a lunch at their VIP booth, guided tours and first class seats at the main event of the day, the semi-finals.

The invitation was for 12:30 but we arrived much earlier so we could soak up the atmosphere of this enormous tennis palace.

All the streets in Roland Garros are lined up with souvenir stands and other shops:


Here is Trish in her best Tennis spectator outfit:


Shops everywhere, selling souvenirs, food and tennis speciality items.


Several large tennis courts, plus many smaller ones. Everyone had at least one, cute, hostess waiting to see your ticket. Tickets were needed everywhere, even to leave the place.


This is court #1 (not the center court).


We stopped off at one of the smaller courts to see a match of wheelchair bound tennis players. It was most impressive to see. These are top athletes, and the speed they ride those wheelchairs is incredible.


We were both very impressed. I'd say even a good tennis player could not beat these folks in a wheelchair.


We then went to court #1 where they were playing a veteran's doubles game. Recognize this player?


John McEnroe may be a veteran, but he plays like a real pro, which is what he is. Spectacular and entertaining, the way tennis should be. They don't make them like this anymore... pity.

There were quite a lot of people watching the game....

McEnroe sure can move fast, and can still hit that ball hard...


It was a pleasure watching him, reminding us of the golden age of tennis...


After "lunch", we went to the center court for the main event. The semi-final between Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray. The courts were packed in the blistering sun.


You could see why Nadal was number 1. His speed was incredible, going for every ball...


The man moves at incredible speeds, and hits the most impossible shots. He never stopped to let a ball go by just because it was too far.


A lot of media was there. Photopress (at not just the tennis press, but also the paparazzi taking photos of the celebs watching the games) and TV.


Both sides of the court was full of them..


Nadal continued to amaze the crowds with his speed and strength..


He also had the biggest fans out there, many shouting out for him.


Andy Murray had a tough time. The first set lasted 2 hours, and Murray was able to hold off Nadal...


But eventually Nadal won in three straight sets. It took him slightly over 3 hours.


It was a nice day. We did not stay the whole match, but enjoyed the day immensely, despite the heat.

For some reason, the hopping town of Cany-Barville was celebrating an "American" day yesterday. The town was decorated with American flags, and in the town center, mostly vintage American cars and a dozen or so Harley-Davidson motorcycles were present.

During the day, people were able to admire the American made cars and motorcycles, and at mid-day, the vehicles did a parade around Cany.

At 15:00 the blues band Magnitoz did their blues songs for the crowd. Here are some photos I took, and I have been playing a bit with photo and filter effects, so bear with me..


The band was placed at a bad location, since cars were still entering and exiting the square, so not that many people could stand in front of the band to listen to their music, but you could hear them all-over the square.


The four man band played well, and people enjoyed their blues songs.


In the center of the main square, a series of old American made cars were on display, most in very good condition.


During the day, Harley-Davidson motorcycle were coming and going, and people were admiring the vehicles.


Some cars had their hoods open to people could inspect the enormous engines.




A dozen or so Harley-Davidson motorcycles were present as well.


They belonged to the HOG (Harley-Davidson Owners Group) Normandy Chapter.


During the whole afternoon, Magnitoz played their music.

All-in-all a nice sunny afternoon in Normandy.

Saturday evening we went with Isabelle and Alain Le Kim to see our friends, the Magnitoz blues band, play at Veules-les-Roses.

The venue was a rather small but cozy Bar/Tabac (Bar des Voyageurs) in the picturesque coastal town of Veules-les-Roses.


A four man combo played blues for the night. You can watch the short video below.


The bar was small, and it was packed ...


... but the atmosphere was excellent, with everyone clapping and dancing to the great blues music.


Here's the video: