Diary Of A Film School - in Rural France

Monday 24 Mar 2008

A success story or two

Photo: barry. For once I am happy to inform you all of a couple of success stories that we have had at The Salignac Foundation. Last month we had a disabled dancer from France, who incidentally lives in London, for a course in filmmaking, editing and dance. Christian is a highly intelligent man and a very quick learner which was great for us and we very quickly got down to business, taking a piece that Fiona had originally choreographed some twenty years ago for The Edinburgh Festival. With some changes and Christian's input we managed to put a dance piece together with Fiona as the performer and Christian as director we managed to shoot it all in one day! I think that is a first for us.

Photo: la lettre. Fortunately the weather was kind with very flat lighting making life a bit easier for me as I was acting as director of photography for this shoot. Coming to the edit we also managed to put it all together within a couple of days, one version Christian edited it and another I did it my way. The only fly in the ointment was the camera that he had just bought was all electronic, no tape involved and it was the first time that I had seen or used such kit which caused us a few headaches as we tried to figure out how we downloaded the footage! Christian had forgotten to bring some of the connecting cables with him and despite trawling through my store of cables none of them would fit any of the sockets on the camera. However, with a bit of a workaround we eventually managed to do it, it did cause us a bit of head scratching 'though! I have managed to finally edit all, with music, and have uploaded it to a site called vineo.com which provides a better quality than you tube. The title of the piece is called La Lettre under the dance category.

Photo: cover dvd salignac. The second success story involves a couple that came out to us on a filming course last summer. Graham and Liz run an arts shop in Lincolnshire at the Forge Arts Centre, located in an old forge in Hackthorn, and decided to do a sort of travelogue type film about Salignac. After running through the technical bits on the first day and a bit of sightseeing in the area they set of to do some filming, with me in tow as a technical advisor! As they were also here on holiday I sort of left them on there own for part of the week, only viewing and commenting on the rushes that they had shot at the end of each day. I was impressed with the quality that they were achieving, with one or two reservations of course. At the end of the week they had shot quite a lot of footage but not enough time was available for any editing, this however was not a problem as Graham had his own editing system back home. Imagine my surprise when the other day a DVD arrived with his completed 12 minute video and even more surprised when I viewed it. While obviously not perfect it was remarkably good for two people that did not have a background in filmmaking, to say the least I was well chuffed at what they had achieved with my assistance. I immediately e-mailed them to ask for a few more copies to give to our mayor and the local tourist office and I am pleased to say that the reaction to the copies I have given out have been very warmly received. I think a big pat on my back is really due!

Re-opening of the cafe

With the new managers installed, the local cafe opened it's doors in mid February and although the bar area has not changed very much, the restaurant area has changed quite considerably with new tables, decor and fittings etc. and it looks very pleasant. Gone are the pizzas and in has come more of restaurant style of catering without it being "posh" if you know what I mean. Fiona and I have yet to have a meal there yet as I believe that one shouldn't go into a place too soon after it opens, let it settle down for a few weeks to really see what it is all about. Maybe in the next few weeks we will venture in and see what it is really like. Thierry, the manager, has kept the bar prices the same but there is the inevitable price hike in the restaurant but that is fair enough as his wife was the second chef at a local very highly rated restaurant. They are certainly a very pleasant couple and seem to run the place in a very relaxed but highly efficient manner, which we are very glad to see after the somewhat haphazard way it was run before. I am glad to say that the place is much warmer than it used to be but that has maybe to do with new doors that have been fitted and also the doors are kept closed when smokers go outside, unlike the other cafe where the front and rear doors are left open for the smokers to go in and out, even though it has an equally pleasant atmosphere. Mind you with the sudden cold snap over the Easter weekend that seems to have come to Europe, anywhere that is warm has got to be good!

Rural France, I love it!

A success stor ... | Pat Byrne

Saturday 2 Feb 2008

2008!

Photo: barry. For some obscure reason I have not realised that we are at the beginning of February. Another year on and quite a time since I last updated this column. I just don't know where the time goes, must be my age I reckon! However, here goes with some updates with what has been happening in sleepy Salignac. Very unusually we had a student arrive on the 2nd of Jan for a film/dance course but unfortunately they decided to leave after just one day of workshops with Fiona and I. We are always curious when this happens as to why on earth travel to here and then give up after 24 hours is it something to do with us? The location is not nice? Is our training not inspiring? Who knows what hidden agenda lies behind it all. Fortunately this is a very rare occurrence, it has only happened to us about 3 or 4 times in the last 8 years but it does leave us feeling a bit flat and deflated thinking that we have not done the job properly. My take on it is that if they wanted to do a several days, or the complete five days, then they express dissatisfaction afterwards (which I may add that no one has done) then that would be understandable. All great mystery to me!

However, on to the good news, I got my car back from the garage the following week and it seems to be running fine, although there are still one or two little things still to be done to it but nothing too dramatic, but it is funny after it has been away for so long that I could not remember where reverse was! Still what do you expect when I am running a nineteen year old car, I really do think that I should get something a bit more up to date but I like it and it seems to quite like me despite it's odd quirks. The wonders of Italian design!

Plumbing problems, Again!

Over Christmas and New Year our upstairs toilet started leaking once more, the tap in the bathroom basin started to drip and of course it all happened when everyone was on holiday, naturally! I just do not understand why French plumbing is always so fickle, with me at least and it always happens when you can't get any assistance, is it because that I have a degree in electronics but not in plumbing? Is this some sort of conspiracy? I am convinced of this, as I now have to shell out for a new toilet and new taps, of which none of the local suppliers have in stock at the moment. " Not the time of the year" apparently...God knows what the right time of the year is. One would assume that toilets and taps were always required irrespective of the time of year but then what the hell do I know, it is France after all. I just end up totally mystified. I just am thankful that we have two toilets, three sinks, a shower, a bidet and copious amounts of hot water in the house. Well at least at the moment!

Photo: no smoking. On the village front the news is that our local cafe is closed until mid February as the new managers take over and do some renovations which include some comfy chairs and a re-vamp of the restaurant, I just wonder if they are not going too upmarket (i.e. price rises) but it will have to be an improvement over the last manager's somewhat chaotic style of running the place (or not as the case may be). We have been going to the other cafe in the meantime, which is only 100 yards along the road, which has been a very pleasant change as Francois is always very warm and welcoming whenever we go in, it also happens to be much warmer despite the fact that since the complete smoking ban is now in force throughout France, the doors are kept open in order to let the smokers out to have a drink (and a smoke) on the outside of the bar. This makes me laugh as one sits inside there are usually 5 or 6 people outside at the tables puffing away looking into the bar. All very surreal! I suppose that this will all settle down during the year and people get used to it all, I know that as a smoker of small cigars I do not have the least temptation to venture outside and, although I am not a big smoker, it will at least cut down on my consumption but I have noticed that some of our friends have broken off in mid conversation to shoot outside in order to light up! Having said this I do notice that even though the ban has only been since Jan 1st the lack of smell and general cleanliness is very noticeable and that surely must be a bonus. While writing this I am reminded about a gentleman who was a music hall entertainer in the mid 1920's, deciding to change his stage name he looked at the stage doors and saw a no smoking notice written across the two doors and when one was opened it showed up as nosmo king. Henceforth he became Nosmo King!
All very true.

Luckily the weather here has been very kind as, we have had no snow (as yet) this year and only a few days of frosty stuff. In fact the last week or so we have had the sun shining through the windows in the morning with beautiful blue skies overhead. What a great difference to the last couple of years. It does make such a difference to the way one feels at this time of the year. The only trouble is that it shows up all the little stains and dirt on the walls...time to think about a spring clean!

Rural France. I love it!

2008! ... | Pat Byrne

Monday 3 Dec 2007

The Winter Blues

Photo: barry. As I sit here in front of the keyboard on a rather grey Friday afternoon with the fog and drizzle drifting about over the valley below us I cannot help of thinking of an e-mail that my brother sent me a couple of weeks ago. He was happily telling me that he, and my sister in law, was leaving for six months in Muscat where my niece and her husband live. It turns out that he has bought, or rented, a flat out there in order that they can spend six months in The Gulf every winter time, now my brother is not one to boast and it does seem sensible for them to do that, getting away from middle England for that time of year and I suppose that I would do the same if I was retired, but even though we live some thousand miles south there is a sort of envy on my part. We live in a beautiful part of the world and although the weather is rather gloomy today it is normally bright sunshine, cool but not cold, with no bracing easterly winds blowing everything, and everybody, about. I suppose that just because December is coming in it is a normal feeling this time of year it seems to effect me more as I get older, the shops, the cafe and the streets seem to be so much quieter and as for the early darkness...don't start me! I don't know why I am complaining as we have warm house, several pussy cats and it is peaceful and quiet, maybe it has something to do with the fact that work is not so plentiful, I don't feel like going out to much these days and I have also had a couple of weeks of sleeping badly which has put me in a thoroughly bad mood. There are still plenty of things to do, of course, fixing another leak in the toilet, getting the car sorted once again! Getting our advertising arranged for next year, battling with all the junk e-mails that seem to come down at this time of year and of course paying the inevitable bills! All so tedious! Anyway enough doom and gloom for today.

2 Wheels on his Wagon!

Just after writing the above rant, Fiona and I decided to go up to the cafe for a little glass of wine, or two! Shortly after our arrival in breezed our friend Alain full of the joys of life and quite a few beers by my guess. In the course of his monologue it transpired that he is going to buy a moped and was going down to Biarritz in order to continue to do some work with his boss who has just moved there. Now all this came as some surprise to us as Alain has been banned from driving some four times by now but it was explained to us that that you do not need a driving license for a small moped of less than 50cc and has a maximum speed of 45kph. In between the telling of this story I noticed that Alain was wearing a brown pseudo flying jacket and I immediately thought of the classic Shultz cartoon of Snoopy being a WW1 air ace with a flying scarf behind him and my imagination immediately ran wild with a vision of Alain putt-putting down the road over several days heading for Biarritz down on the Spanish border! Not only that but my imagination went completely into overdrive when I remembered that Alain is at present living in his caravan, after a fall out with his mother, and of course I wondered if he was going to tow the caravan with the moped. Don't laugh at this as he towed the caravan earlier this year some 20kms with a lawn mower! Coming back down to earth I realised that the monologue had changed onto a completely different subject and I began to wonder if I had heard all this properly and it was only later that evening that I asked Fiona if I had heard it correctly. "Oh yes" she said. Knowing Alain and his occasional flights of fancy when he has had a few beers I hold my judgement on this one but my imagination remains with this image definitely in my mind!

Miscellany.

I write this at nine am because I still have the problem of sleeping properly for some reason but I have decided to just ignore it and get up when I cannot sleep and to Hell with the consequences. I don't know if this is correct or not but I am willing to take the consequences and see how it goes. It does give me the opportunity to get on with other things that need done, including getting this article finished! Because it was Sunday yesterday we ran out of gas for our cooker, despite the fact that we have several gas canisters but I constantly forget to get them refilled so that we have a spare one. No matter when it they are replaced the gas always runs out on a Sunday! However, with the new cooker being a hybrid with electricity for one of the rings and an electric oven/grill so we are not stuck this time. This at least means that we don't have to get the camping gas burner out! I have just taken a break from finishing this piece and went upstairs to try and fix a dripping tap in the bathroom, which has been getting slowly worse over the last few days. I have done a temporary repair until I get a new washer later today. This was effected by using a British 1 penny coin in order to stop the water dripping from the tap, unfortunately it means the water is not flowing into the basin just for the moment but at least it is not draining the hot water from the tank. I hope that Fiona will forgive me when she gets up but it was getting on my nerves with the constant dripping!

Rural France. I love it!

(c)Barry Paton. December 2007.

The Winter Blu ... | Pat Byrne

"A Washing Machine and a White Corset"

July 2006. Written by Fiona Alderman.

I am writing this monthly diary piece, because, Barry, unfortunately has had another tumble and is unable to sit at the old keyboard for too long. Due to moving an extremely heavy washing machine, he fell backwards onto our hard stone floor and crushed/ double fractured several of his vertebrae's. Ouch! The French emergency services were called, and I have to say they seem always to consist of very handsome men, and he was transported very speedily to hospital. Having been through this before, we knew what to expect? However there is always a "wild card " This being in the nature of Barry's fellow room mate. He would never lie still in his bed, twisting and turning all the time to get out of it and invariably unhooking his medical drips and setting off the room's alarm. He was eventually put into a strait jacket, which was even worse. Barry had little or no sleep during this time and was quite concerned about his own safety. Eventually he said in his own inimitable fashion " Merde, je m'en vais " in English", "To hell with this I am off!" one particular nurse, whom I disliked because of her uncaring manner, was not happy with this at all and we were treated to a great deal of French disdain. Barry is recovering slowly but has had to wear a white hard plastic corset, which makes him very uncomfortable as well as being extremely hot. The heat has been unbearable the last month or so, often in the late 30 degrees.

What I have experienced, both with our French friends and neighbours, is the extent of kindness and offers of help. Because I don't drive, there has been even more probably. Even now it continues with their concern for us. People rally round to help in these situations without question. Maybe we have lost this in the big city life?

"Fossils and Old Trees"

One day, whilst on a little walk with a friend around the village, we found a discarded box with lots of goodies that had just been abandoned outside a house. Looking into it we saw a quite attractive stone with fish printed onto it. Nothing special. However, this has turned out to have some kind of significance. Experts have told us that it is a genuine fossil. There has been a quite astonishing flurry of excitement between museums and collectors all vying for first place to have it? It has gone to a Perigeux expert where it will remain probably for further analysis. My friend is to be interviewed and has already been asked to take a conference on this very stone! What to say? We found it absolutely by luck, not realising what it was and that is of course how the famous Lascaux Caves (near us in Montignac) were originally found. Two small boys were retrieving their dog from a cave and came across the most amazing treasures.

I would have never have believed I would be doing a guided tour (in French) of a 400 year old chestnut tree!

This is part of a local tourist attraction, which organises activities every summer, in which life and work in the olden days are explained and demonstrated. The tree weighs 40 tons, is 5 metres high with a diameter of 2/ half metres. An artist was asked to sculpt it. He dug out the interior (Wow, you can imagine that) to enable a spiral staircase with 35 steps to be built .It is called L'Arbre De Vie. I.e. The Tree of Life. The staircase represents the spiral of life and depicts the history of Salignac. The ascent is a journey through time towards modernity. You reach the balcony where there is a marvellous view of the chateau. Children love it of course but it is not possible to be a large size as it is very narrow inside. I worry every time I see someone a little bit big!

Until next time from rural France.

Barry's Post Script

As I am know able to sit at the keyboard for short spells I thought that I would add a thank you to Fiona for filling you in with all my troubles and woes. Two months after the accident things are beginning to ease up even though it is still difficult to get comfortable! Thank god I don't have to wear the corset anymore, though. However, depending on which surgeon I saw in the hospital, and there were three of them, I was told that it could take from 4 weeks to three months to heal. Take your choice! Apart from Fiona's job we now have a son of a friend staying with us for some weeks, as he is an apprentice at the local boulangerie/patisserie, this involves him getting up to work in the middle of the night returning about nine in the morning. Some life but he loves it. At least we get free bread every morning!

Rural France? I love it.

©Barry Paton & Fiona Alderman. July 2006

On the Road - May, 2004

Photo: Crew on location. Having been away filming on location recently has made me a little late in updating this diary. I was filming for a Channel 4 series in and around the Carcassonne area where, very sadly, the weather was not very good, the skies rather grey and dull and still with a biting wind. Not at all what you would expect from the South of France in May. Working with a very intense director was interesting, if hectic, as he had a different approach to what I normally expect. However, filming was completed successfully and the area is beautiful and one of my favourite parts of France with all the mediaeval villages, history of the Cathars and the Knights Templars.

It has been the second time that I have been filming in that area in the last couple of years though, sadly the hotel accommodation this time was not so salubrious. The hotel was set in an industrial zone near the airport with a lot of noise and no views apart from garden centres, DIY stores and hypermarkets. The phone did not work in the hotel room and I couldn't connect to the Internet, the restaurant was rather uninspiring so we ate elsewhere. Not very nice at all! I was very glad to get home to my own bed and the peace and quietness of Salignac. I really do miss the golden stone of the buildings here as well.

Much as I like filming on location it is very tiring with tight schedules, many people think that it is glamorous but it can be extremely tedious at times, especially if you are not actually doing anything while scenes have to be set up. I have, however, been booked for some filming in Paris next week, so I hope that the hotel is much better?.and soundproof!

When I returned home I found that Fiona has had quite a lot of (hopefully) fruitful enquiries and a couple for our Dance for Camera courses but very little happening on my ones. It does seem to be so slow this year in that direction. At least it gives me some time to do one or two essential things around the house. With the coming of the brighter weather, albeit slowly, I realise that all the windows need cleaned, our sejour could do with a lick of paint and the other mundane things that need done. Paying bills, buying new tyres for the car and all sorts of exciting things

Down to Earth

After all the nonsense of my 'inflationary' period recently, I am glad to say that I am now back on the road to recovery. I still need to see a specialist once we can get all our paperwork sorted out which is not the easiest thing in the world! With no two offices' opening hours being compatible it tends to make life a trifle complicated, to say the least!

This brings me back down to earth in the sense of having to get back to the keyboard in order to get some more publicity out on the World Wide Web. Although we get enquiries from all over the world, our bookings this year are substantially down for some reason, though I gather that this is a general trend in France this springtime. We have several friends who have holiday homes to let in the area and they say that the bookings for them are down as well.

However, now that I am feeling better, I can escape to the local café for my tea-time drink and chat with some of the locals. I have also received many kind offers of sympathy from a lot people after my last article?that, at least, means that this site is being read in the Salignac so the fame of the Glasgow West End spreads to this little corner of France. Battling with bureaucracy has become our major task recently and it is slowly paying off, although it has been a long struggle so far! I often wonder if it would be the same for a French person coming to live in Scotland - my guess is that it probably would.

With the weather being so changeable this year I was somewhat heartened by the appearance of flies in the house last week, normally a sign that the weather is improving, but sadly it is back to being cold and damp again. I don't like flies, incidentally, but they come with the weather and, as long as one is armed with a can of Raid fly spray, they are usually contained. Unfortunately the supermarket had a special offer of this product so we bought a large can and started spraying it about - it took a while for me to realise that it wasn't being as effective as it normally is until I read the can properly - It was for cockroaches, not flies, I must pay more attention next time. However it does mean that we shouldn't be troubled with cockroaches this year! Not that we ever have been!

Rural France? I love it.

2 confits &1 magret

As everyone surely knows, The Perigord is world famous not only for the wines but for its duck and goose foie gras. We are surrounded by it here and, while I like it very occasionally, it is very difficult to avoid these delicacies in any of the local eating-places. Rightly so, as it is one of the major tourist attractions for the area. It unfortunately involves the force-feeding of corn directly down the gullet of the poor animals and demonstrations of this technique are happily carried out at farms and fairs all around the area, what's more these demonstrations are extremely popular with visitors. In fact we have several local producers of the product in the village of Salignac and for 3 weeks in the year we have a fair held in the hamlet of 'Barry' just below the Chateau here. Incidentally, the name comes, not from me, but from a certain Madame du Barry (a slightly more illustrious person than I) though I am happy to live at the top of rue de Barry!

I digress. The reason that I mention all this is because over the Christmas season we were given several presents of foie gras, magret du canard and one tin of foie gras with truffles, another highly expensive delicacy. All this costs a fortune but it is just considered normal practice for present giving over the festive season and we appreciate the thought and kindness greatly.

Having had these pressies we decided to make use of them and despite my prior avoidance, I realised that I actually liked it, my taste buds have now become acclimatised to French life! However, I must be careful of overdoing it, as I seem to remember that is why I rarely chose to eat all this touristy food, as I was once a tourist in The Perigord! We still have several large tins left so, maybe tonight?????

French paperwork

After having being in Salignac for almost four years we are now well and truly caught up with French bureaucracy with a vengeance. Having to regularise all our paperwork is what we are all about at this moment. This in itself is not a great problem, we after all, are members of the EU so all this should be straightforward enough (freedom to work, travel etc within the community) - not here in France where they have more civil servants per square inch than in any other country! Our biggest problem started with mis-information, a classic case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing, especially as the law in France changed recently and even they don't know about it. That combined with the different opening hours that each and every office or department have tended to make us ever so slightly frustrated. For example, we have to visit several offices in which are located next to each other and we have to do this in a certain order (or so we are told) one is open from 9 am to 3pm (unknown in France to be open over lunch) the next office we have to visit closes at lunchtime, which is when we will have left the first office, and is not open in the afternoon at all. This is further complicated by the fact that we have to visit several different towns and it seems that we never have the right paperwork with us. The French bureaucrats do love to see lots of bits of paper and take great delight in asking for something that we think is unnecessary and, of course, we don't have with us! All this for a few rubber stamps.

Neighbours and things

The demand for property in Salignac has suddenly increased recently and the house next door to us has been let to a Welshman who is married to a Frenchwoman and they have two delightful children. It is nice to see, and hear, the house being lively and they seem charming people and our other new neighbours, across the courtyard, arrived at the same time. This is a French father and son who have asked us in for a meal once they get settled in so we are looking forward to that. Mr Dubois, our Mayor, in his annual 'state of the Commune' bulletin commented on how many new people and businesses are moving in to Salignac these days. He forgot, or declined, to mention that it is mostly due to his efforts to make Salignac a thriving community again. He has been incredibly helpful to us, recently we had a slight crisis and went to seek his assistance, a few phone calls by him to the right people sorted the problem immediately and he has asked us since how things are. What a man?far too good to be a politician. Mind you, it is election year?or am I just being cynical?

Once again it is time for Cecile and Lillian at the café to go on their annual ski-ing holiday for two weeks, which leaves us without the option of a quick saunter up the road of an evening to enjoy a drink and the banter that makes up café life here. While the other café (cum petrol station, betting shop and Tabac) is equally nice and welcoming, it is just different and we don't tend to go there so frequently for some reason. Not that we have a great deal of need to do so as our friend, Alain, frequently turns up at our door clutching a bottle of wine so that we sit round the table, glass in hand, with the fire roaring away while he gives us all the gossip that we don't hear from others while out and about in the supermarket or the shops. We were recently over for dinner at Fred and Lucy's, our friends who have bought and converted an old farm into great Gites and now about to become a cookery school. Fred is being rather nervous about his first customers, as the school part is not completely finished; all needs to be ready for the beginning of March. I don't envy him at all but I'm sure it will be ready for his customers then as they both work tirelessly towards that.

Elsewhere in the village, certainly since I first came here, I get the feeling that there is a certain air of optimism and expectancy around despite our bookings being much slower to start this year. Maybe, once we have all our paperwork problems solved, it will be better for us. By the way, we did have the duck last night and it was delicious!

Rural France? I love it.

Barry Paton © Feb 2004
barry.paton@worldonline.fr

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