Our house Signéville, Champagne Ardenne, France.

Our little house in Signeville (Haute Marne, Champagne Ardenne) is rather cute and a little like the child we never had.  If you say otherwise (ie it’s not so cute)  you might be faced with some pretty fierce looks from Andy and I.  We’ll defend our wee place until … well forever. 

Apart from being so damn cute, it’s opposite the village church.   Now there’s a story that comes with the bells of this church.  We have a rather wealthy Parisian neighbour and according to our other neighbours (although we do not speak French we understood implicitly) …

When Monsieur Chateau (and believe me his Chateau is spectacular) is in residence from Paris the Church bells finish at 7pm  When Monsieur Chateau is back in his Parisian Chateau  the church bells finish at the usual time of 10pm.  Why??? Well I guess he has some clout but it does have the village up in arms a little.  They say ‘why live here if you do not respect the tradition of the church bell?’….. why indeed.

I admit I was very circumspect about this bell.  We’ve travelled a fair bit and having experienced some rather disturbing bells hailing their glories every 15 minutes all though the night and sometimes doubled up with the ensemble (i.e. instead of 12 at midnight it was 24…a particular village in Spain we’d never stay again!!)... I spent rather fair chunk of time ensuring our BnB/villa or whatever wasn’t near one of these blasted things.  How bloody hilarious that the place we wanted to buy was in fact smack bang next to one.

Oh the relief.  For a start it’s our bell.   Ours.  All ours. It’s off from 10pm to 6am (or if the priest sleeps in 7am which even with our one stay has already happened.)  BTW he’s a good old chap.  Spends his time gardening.  Nobody visits the church.  There are no services that we have observed (although we will be there 24^th December so maybe mass….we’ll pop over it looks like it might happen).  We aren’t religious but the history of religion is imperative. 

You see, in my opinion it’s all the tradition rather than the religion.  Our town has less than 60 inhabitants and they rather like a kip on a Sunday morning it would seem.  Fair play to them but I support our neighbor wanting that bell to be untouched.   After that what is left in these tiny rural villages?  A tweet that the bell rang?  God forbid!!!

We have the backdrop of the beautiful church lit at night.  What a complete delight.  Never say never……I would never have chosen to stay next to let along own a place next to a bell and here am I extolling the virtues of just that.  We get the best of everything with that bell….the beauty of the church, the lighting, the history and above all else the story of Monsieur Chateau and his influence over this teeny weeny village in Champagne Ardenne. 

Our first night, gooey baked cheese, bread, apple, fig confit.  It was a big day of shopping and cleaning.  After a shower this gooey baked camembert was food of the gods!! (and wine of course).

Second night, duck and braised fennel

We brought our slow cooker and made rabbit stew.  YUM!

Our house looking from the bottom of the section

With the church in the background.  The building to the foreground left is our 17th century barn to renovate.  It's a glorious building and we'd love to do it if euros allow. 

Looking over the valley from the top part of our section.  We have a lovely piece of land with various areas to build a couple of amazing courtyards when we do the landscaping in the future.

Apple cakes with apples from our tree!!

Looking from our terrace

One of the locals

Hand dived scallops, cod cheek, home made pasta, lardons and sauce.  From the Chaumont market that morning.

The roads nearby have little pockets of forests.  It's a beautiful part of France

Getting set up.  Note my new kitchen mixer.  I have a great little kitchen.

Andy did in fact sweep that morning.  But those leaves in Autumn fall like they are melting from the trees.  We were so lucky with the weather.  This lunch was warmed duck liver mousse with bread.  Food doesn't get better.

Looking from our house, the church at night.

And from the bottom part of the section at night.

Our bedroom.  It's a lovely little bedroom.  We haven't set up the spare room as yet.

Our bathroom.  It's nicer than it looks and there's a large shower which is unusual in France.

Our french guard teddies.  Francios and Francine (Francine likes her music hence the head gear.)

All shuttered up, fridge off, cleaned and goodbye little house until we return at Christmas.