The last day in Île de Ré, "Nokia reuniting colleagues" the end of the Cousinade, home to La Teillée, RIP Bruce and our road trip back to Madrid, EU no longer on UK passports, lady in red and other stories.

Sunday 18th August, 2019

4 generations of the Lieven family at Île de Ré last Sunday at Aunty Olga's house

Good morning everyone,

It's hard to think that last Sunday it was the final day of our big cousinade in Île de Ré, that beautiful island on the south west coast of France that I promise to go back to one day. It's just so heavenly.

Everyone woke up really late that morning, except for me. I woke up to rain. In fact it would pour it down all morning. I had no rain clothes whatsoever, no umbrella or coat and so I ventured out into the market street with just my yellow hoodie. First things first of course and I went to buy a rain coat and an umbrella. I bought them at the same shop where I had bought some clothes the day before. I had actually spied there a typical striped one that all of the island people seemed to be wearing that morning. You could get it in blue, white, red or yellow. I went for blue as I think it's the more traditional type. It's very French and I love it.

With my lovely new coat on and protected from the rain I went to post my father's post card which of course would arrive in Madrid after we got back, and then went to have breakfast. I could have had it at the big house "Paix" with everyone else but no one would serve fresh croissants and that day was my chance to have a really typical French breakfast, my favourite in the world. Here it is; café au lait, baguette with butter and Bonne Maman strawberry jam, fresh orange juice and of course the proverbial croissant.

My petit dejeuner at a café in Les Portes en Ré last Sunday

That morning we were all free to do what we wanted apart from those responsible for that day's lunch which was my cousin Masha and her girls. By the way, to distinguish us, they call me "baby Masha". I was called that at home as a child too to distinguish myself from my mother's youngest sister also called Masha.  Thus all the younger generation here call me that hahaha.

Suzy and the boys were fast asleep as they had been out late that night. Thus it was the perfect moment to go and see a long lost Nokia colleague, Xavier who, very coincidentally, happened to be on the island when I was there. His parents have a lovely old fishing house at the next village to ours in Ars-en-Ré, just 8km or so from Les-Portes-en-Ré where we were staying. I hadn't seen him since I left Nokia in 2005. At the time, he was Nokia's Director of Communication for France and I was Nokia's Director of Communication for Spain. Today he works for Microsoft after the latter bought Nokia quite a few years ago now.

I drove in pouring rain and could hardly see beyond my nose but I got there. We were to meet in Place de d'église at a lovely little French café called Tour du Sénéchal. His house turned out to be just behind it. He told me his parents had bought it in the 70's. My cousins' families had bought some of theirs in the 50's when the island was not as popular as it is now and when houses went for a song. Today you can get nothing for less than about 450.000 euros and that would be a tiny house. Imagine what the big ones cost; millions of course.

We were very close colleagues when we were at Nokia as we were part of the European Communications team and as we drank our coffee we reminisced about the "golden days" with Nokia when we had the most fabulous meetings at amazing locations; in my case in Shanghai and in both our cases in Marrakesh and of course many in Finland. We spoke about those happy days and about many of our colleagues and we did so with much affection. We were a lovely team and we worked well together. Nokia had a slogan which you all know and is "Nokia Connecting People" but inside the company we used to add two others. One was "Nokia disconnecting families" as we worked so hard and the other was one which fitted our reunion that day; "Nokia reuniting colleagues". There was nothing nicer for us when we worked for that great Finnish company in its hay day than the people we worked with and it is the people, like Xavier and me, that make companies.

Later Xavier took me to his house to meet his wife and parents and children, although I only met his youngest "Priscille" as all the others were sleeping - they had been out the  night before like our "children". I had to speak French and I was pleased with myself that I was able to do so quite fluently. I'm sure if I stayed in France and was surrounded by only French speakers, my French would improve by leaps and bounds. It was getting late and I had to be "home" at my Aunt Olga's huge big house on time for lunch, so after taking a few photos, courtesy of Xavier's daughter, we parted with a great big hug. It was great to see Xavier, my ex colleague but also my friend, after so many years and it was also great to see him looking so well. He said the same about me.

Nokia reuniting colleagues in Ars-en-Ré last Sunday - Xavier and I meeting for the first time in 15 years.

Xavier then walked me back to the harbour where I had parked my car and we said goodbye again and went our own ways, remarking that we must meet again; hopefully in Madrid if Xavier gets to come here for a Microsoft meeting some day.

I didn't go straight back as I wanted to visit the market I had been told was a very good one. But first I took a look at the lovely little harbour, imagining I had a house of my own on the island. Wouldn't that be nice?

The little harbour at Ars-en-Ré last Sunday

By then the rain had stopped and the sun would come out later. I ambled towards the market where everyone was buying fresh produce. I wanted something to take home and a present for little Elliot to take to Olivia. I found a beautiful white ceramic bowl with big blue spots which I loved and snapped up immediately. Eladio and I have a tradition of buying beautiful salad sized bowls on our trips and this would be one more to add to  the collection. Every time we use them, we remember the places we have travelled to. So this lovely blue and white one will remind me always of my stay at Île de Ré. I came across a beautiful baby stall where I bought some very original little presents for Elliot, my first presents to him. Everything was hand made and I got a bib, a comforter, a tooth biter and a little embroidered bag with  cotton mouth wipes which I hoped Olivia would like.

From the market I walked back to my car and drove home to Les-Portes-en-Ré to find everyone at home doing their own thing. Masha and the girls were putting the last touches to the Russian lunch they were preparing and everyone else was milling around, most of them with a glass of wine in hand hahaha. There was an awful lot of wine drunk at the cousinade I can tell you.

We all sat down to a table heaving with Russian fare, including a meat loaf with runner beans and rice. At the start there was  a fruit cake literally made only of fruit for one of Masha's girls, Sophie, whose birthday it had been on the 5th August when she turned 28 .  She was plied with presents from her family too.

Sophie's fruit birthday cakes 

After lunch we all went into the garden to have coffee, tea and some delicious Anton Berg chocolates Masha had brought. My Aunty Valya, who her great grandchildren call "Koka", was enjoying being surrounded by her family.  It was the perfect moment to catch her on camera with the four generations of women from the Lieven family together with her. Next year, if Oli comes with Elliot, we could do a photo of 5 generations. That's the one I have chosen for this week's feature photo. But we took others such as this one with Suzy and her great aunt, smoking together!

Suzy with her great aunt (Aunty Valya or Koka to her great grandchildren) on the last day in Les-Portes-en-Ré

The big cousinade was soon to finish and it went off with a bang. Masha's girls, Marie, Anne, Sophie and Elisabeth, had arranged to do a Russian traditional welcoming or honouring drinking ceremony for some of the people. This was the first time Suzy was to experience it and she just loved it. A man kneels down in front of a woman and offers her a drink which she has to down in one go. This is accompanied by chanting songs and laughter of course.  I was in for  a surprise too when the cooks were honoured with the same tradition. I had seen the ceremony before but had never had it performed on me. I have to say I loved it and welled up with a very strong feeling of my Russian roots.

The Russian drinking and honouring ceremony 

That symbolised the end of the big cousinade after which we had a group photo taken as we do every year. I would love to reproduce it here but this year I'm afraid I wasn't the one to take it and whoever did hasn't got round to sending us a copy yet.

Then it was time to get ready to go and when Suzy and I had packed we said goodbye to everyone. Zuka and Sasha her son went off in their cars with my aunt and the children and Suzy, Katty and I drove back in my Mini which for some reason everyone seemed to love, probably because of my Union Jack side windows hahaha.

So off we went and crossed the island and the bridge to La Rochelle, more or less traffic free thankfully. We were home by about 8 pm when guess what? It was time for an "aperitif" - i.e. more wine drinking.  I call my cousin's house "home" as that is what it feels like to me. So, yes it was nice to be home again. It was to be the last night of our stay in La Teillée for Suzy and I with our Lieven cousins and the end of the smaller cousinade; my favourite actually. Sam started playing the guitar and Katty and Suzy sang and you know what? It made me cry as all I could think was how much I wanted to have my mother and her sister, my Aunty Masha, with us because they loved singing. At that moment I missed them so much that I welled up again and couldn't stop crying with emotion.

The singing session on our last night in La Teillée

I felt better when Ruby and Sasha started telling jokes to cheer me up. My favourite was this one. "What do you call a Mexican without a car? Carlos" hahaha. We sat down to a great dinner of bangers and mash and roast red peppers. It was followed by ice cream - pistachio flavour in my case and in Suzy's - and the remains of the giant meringue I had bought last week at the market in Lezay.

We chatted outside on Zuka's terrace after dinner for some time. At about half past twelve I just had to call it a day and go upstairs to sleep.

Monday morning came and it was to be our last day in La Teillée as we were leaving  for Madrid but not until after Suzy's lessons and lunch. 

Monday was 12th August, the "glorious 12th" and would have been the birthday of Zuka's husband Bruce who died some 16 years ago aged just 59. Zuka had been keeping his ashes for an appropriate time to bury them at La Teillée although she may move them to be with her when she goes if the house is ever sold. That was the morning she chose to bury her beloved husband while both her children, Katty and Sasha were there with their children. I joined the small and intimate ceremony but unfortunately Suzy couldn't be there because of her lessons. My Aunty Valya was driven the very short way to the burying place, beneath a beautiful holly tree. Chairs were taken for my Aunt and Sam to sit on  -he would play a guitar piece during the ceremony - as well as champagne and glasses along with, of course, Bruce's box.

Bruce's box

Under the trees and some rain we all had a glass of champagne to toast the life of Bruce, a wonderful man, husband and father who I knew very well, in fact since before he married my cousin. He was a Yorkshireman and successful business man whose work took him all over the world, mainly in the Middle East. He had looked forward to retiring at La Teillée, his dream house, but it was not to be. His death, just before his retirement, was very cruel. Both he and Zuka had looked forward to their retirement together and suddenly Zuka found herself a relatively young widow and has had to fend for herself since then. She does a great job of it but misses him every day as does his family. Zuka made a lovely little speech and so did Katty. Here is Zuka taking the box out of the car just before the ceremony.

Zuka with Bruce's ashes on Monday morning

I was happy to be there to give them some comfort and to salute the wonderful man Bruce was. If you read my father's book you will find out just how they met and it was by chance but entirely thanks to my mother.

Later I went to the supermarket in Lusignan to get some food for our journey back. Katty, Ruby and Sam joined me on what would be our last excursion together. We came home to have lunch, cooked by Sasha - barbecued steak with salad. By then Suzy's lessons were over and at about 3 pm we all sat down to eat our last meal together. 

Then the time to go came, the time we dreaded. We really wanted to stay but had obligations at home; not to mention we knew we should be with Olivia who could give birth any day between now and the beginning of September. It was with a very heavy heart and some tears that we all hugged each other. Then Suzy and I got into my very full mini. As we drove out of the gates, there was my Aunty Valya who had walked from the terrace - a long walk for her with her stick - to wave us off. Then the children came running up for last minute kisses. Zuka was on the road to say a final goodbye and Katty had walked further up the road to surprise us. As we drove slowly, Ruby ran behind the car not wanting us to leave. We didn't want to leave either. They gave us the most beautiful sendoff it touched our hearts and when we got to the end of the village, both of us welled up. We just couldn't help it.

We had a long drive ahead of us - 900 kilometres which we did in 9 hours including stops. I had my own private concert nearly the whole of the way as Suzy sang to her play list which I have to say was a little loud at times. The Spanish border was the approximate half way mark. We had paid at 5 different tolls to get there and there would be 2 more in Spain. We only stopped to get a bit of petrol in France before crossing the border at 1.68 euros per litre. We later filled up in Spain at 1.38 euros per litre. That's quite a big difference.

I had bought sandwiches and fruit but Suzy wasn't hungry. So I ate my sandwich in the car. Google Maps played a trick on us after San Sebastián and instead of putting us on the Vitoria Burgos motorway, it took us off the motorway and along a very mountainous road to Vitoria. This was to add at least 25 minutes to the journey which was supposed to end at 1.30 a.m. However Suzy would speed up and we made it by 1.20. The mountain road in the dark was a bit of an unwanted adventure. I could hardly believe we drove along the Urkiola mountain pass, one I remember well from my cycling sponsorship days.

The last hour or so to Madrid became very uphill figuratively speaking and I dozed off just for half an hour. I didn't want to sleep so as to keep Suzy company but I couldn't help it.  We were home, as I said, at 1.20 to find a quiet and dark house. We had lots of luggage and bags to unload. The dogs greeted us in the kitchen as we put food away. Pippa was ecstatic as was I to see her. 

Eladio woke up when I walked into our bedroom and I gave him a kiss goodnight. I was in bed by 2 and slept until 7 in the morning but would feel dozy much of the following day.

On Tuesday morning, the first thing I did after breakfast was to greet my father and take him a printed version of my last blog post all about the cousinade. He was thrilled to see me and told me he had been looking forward to seeing me and that he had thought about me while I was away. He's not often that sentimental and I loved his words and told him so when I hugged him.

While I was away, as you know, his new passport had arrived, the one he needed for his bank account in Spain to remain open. It had come along with his old passport and Eladio pointed out to me that the new one, although still burgundy, no longer has the words European Union on it. I was gutted and thought it totally wrong as the UK hasn't actually left the EU yet. In fact I was furious at the pettiness of it. This is just not on as the UK is still officially in the EU!!  

The old passport with the European Union on it.

The new passport with the words European Union gone!

But the country is acting as if it had already happened. Just last week the UK pulled out of Inter rail, another nail in the Brexit coffin. It was first introduced in 1972 when I remember my brother George using it for just 25 pounds. The following year I followed suit and it cost me 32 pounds to travel around Europe for a month.   Later this week I also read that the Erasmus programme is a big question mark for 2020 and of course will end very soon. The British who voted to leave have shot themselves and everyone else in the foot.  Those of us who don't want to leave and those who like I live in the EU but couldn't vote in the Referendum, have been stripped of our EU citizenship without a thought of the consequences. We weren't even taken into account, the same as the Irish border was never taken into account.  It makes my blood boil. 

The house was full of guests, an English family from Wells; Helen, her husband Max and two daughters, Olive and Catherine and younger son Jake. They were a lovely family. Bless them they had read my father's book of which there is a copy in all the guests' rooms. They had enjoyed our house and pool so much that they stayed here most of the time. That day they chilled out all day by the pool to enjoy it before they left on Wednesday morning.

I did some quick shopping with Eladio so as to have food for lunch but would do the proper food shopping the next day as I just wasn't up to it.  Suzy had her lessons so couldn't join us for lunch which we had with my father. Later I had a siesta, a much needed one, but only slept for about 1 hour.

The afternoon was spent in the garden on the pink sunbeds reading. Suzy joined us and I had to have this photo of her with Pippa.  Lovely aren't they?

Suzy in the garden with Pippa

We spent the rest of the afternoon there enjoying the quiet and also the weather. It was warm but not hot which was bliss.  That, though, was just a respite as it would get much hotter as the week went by. 

Suzy had a date out that night - the mother of her bosom  friend Copi, Celeste, was to celebrate her birthday in the company of Copi who had come from Vitoria for the occasion to surprise her mother, along with other friends, including Oli and Miguel. We were not to see Oli until the next day.

Our guests went out to dinner on their last night and Eladio and I had the place to ourselves. We enjoyed our quiet dinner on the terrace and then went up to bed. We watched a bit of New Amsterdam Hospital on Amazon Prime until we fell asleep.

I was up at 7 am on Tuesday feeling quite refreshed although if I think about it I did still feel tired after the return journey from France. It certainly took its toll on me. That morning, Eladio and I resumed our habit of an early morning walk with the dogs and they were raring to go. It was quite cool when we left but got quite warm when the sun came out.  I came home to find Suzy back from her night out and making her coffee. I joined her then had my shower. However, it was interrupted as our British guests from Wells were leaving earlier than I had thought. Both Suzy and I saw them off. They were very good guests and really nice people. Our next guests were not coming until the next day so joy of joys we had the house and pool to ourselves until then.

Eladio and I did the main food shopping and I came back to make a big lunch for us all as Oli and Miguel were coming. I made  broccoli and mushroom soup followed by "bitki" (Russian hamburgers) which we had with home made tomato sauce and potato puré. It was nice for once to be all together that day and I know it made my father happy.

We all went to have a siesta afterwards and I could hardly believe it was 6.30 pm when I woke up. I had slept 2.5h. It was obvious I needed the sleep. I joined the rest of the family in the garden where we chatted until it was time for dinner. Miguel and Oli stayed for dinner and it was another long family meal.

When I went upstairs afterwards I saw that Miguel and Oli had installed a cot in her room at home for little Elliot. Seeing it made his arrival feel real to me. I could hardly believe that in 3 weeks time or so he would be sleeping there. This is it.

Elliot's cot in Oli's bedroom at home 

Miguel and Oli are very prepared for his arrival and have been given nearly everything. They have also bought lots of things in preparation for his birth. They will have to have nearly double of everything, for their flat and for our house.  They were lucky that a lot of it has come from a friend of Olivia whose children have grown out of it and they are moving to Switzerland. This is just some of the stuff they have. The photo was taken in Elliot's little room in their flat.

Everything is ready for Elliot's arrival. This is just some of the stuff Oli and Miguel have acquired for him. 

They are much more prepared than I was when Suzy was about to be born. It's funny but when I was pregnant for the first time, I could hardly believe I was and didn't have much ready. I didn't even prepare a suitcase to be taken to the hospital and the poor mite had to be dressed in hospital clothes when she was born. In a way I am having the same feeling with Oli's pregnancy. Yes, I can see she is very pregnant but just won't believe it until my grandson is here. Only three weeks to go now. 

I slept quite well that night waking up at 7 a.m. on Thursday morning. Thursday was 15th August, a big holiday in Spain and in France by the way, The Virgin of the Assumption and also the midway mark of the August holidays, a very busy time.

We would have new guests that day coming to enjoy the "puente" (bank holiday weekend); 2 couples with a small child each who are Brazilian but live in Madrid and would be coming for 3 nights. I was rather dreading them as babies and small children can be a challenge. In my house rules I state we don't accept children under 5 but no one reads the rules. It meant we would have to keep poor little Pippa hidden all the time. Oli and Miguel fled until they went this morning as Oli hates our house being invaded by Airbnb guests.

We had a quiet morning  before their arrival. We went on our walk. After my ablutions, I decided to wear my new red dress from Les-Porte-en-Ré. I wore it with my Cuban bean necklace and matching bracelet and it looked like I was ready to go out but I wasn't. I just felt like wearing it. At one point in the morning I was sitting on our red sofa in our study with its red Jordanian cushions which we brought back from our holiday there in 2010. Eladio took a photo as everything was so red and you know what? I think he took one of the best photos of me in recent times, despite the wrinkles on my neck. I was the proverbial woman or lady in red in but in a red background. It's funny but both the red tones were exactly the same. Here I am in a photo I rather like.

"Lady in red"

I dead headed the roses that morning and picked some of the better ones for the guest rooms. I also prepared a plate of fruit for each room.

Our guests arrived just as we were about to sit down to lunch and of course I had to welcome them and show them their rooms and the house. They immediately set about preparing a huge barbecue. We thus ate in the dining room with Pippa well hidden.

The guests enjoyed the pool all afternoon while we had our siesta and later read in the garden. It got quite hot that day with temperatures rising to 35ºc.  We would have had our dinner on the kitchen terrace but it was just too hot and also there were too many flies - there seem to be more of them than any other year and I'm not sure why. Thus we had dinner in the air conditioned dining room that night.

Friday was another quiet day with not much to report really. The house was full of the Brazilian families and it was a very hot day. Suzy left in the late afternoon to spend the night at Elenita's as the next day they were going on a trip to the mountains of Madrid with Oli and Miguel. I had some work to do that afternoon and while I was engrossed in it I got a sudden Airbnb reservation for a slot at the end of August for which I had a cancellation. I could only work out that my guests were from Israel as the name was in Hebrew script: אריאל ידוובסקי. Google translate didn't help at all in this case although it usually does. The person who booked told me that he or she did so after seeing such good reviews. I have had 5 star reviews all summer with some lovely comments from our guests, including the British family from Wells who wants to come back next year.

Being Friday night, Eladio and I went out for dinner. At the last moment we chose to go a new restaurant very nearby called "El Tinglao".  The food is excellent I have to admit and we should go more often. Eladio went for their so-called fish and chips and I had two first courses, a fancily cooked artichoke followed by the most divine foie. The dish is called "a dessert of foie" as it is literally ground to look like sand and it can be eaten by the spoonful.  This is it.

The foie at El Tinglao

I had lemon pie for "pudding" and it was superb. We came home to watch the final two episodes of New Amsterdam and were left wondering what we would watch next.

Saturday came. The girls went off to Lozoya, about an hour from Madrid where family of Elenita owns a house. I asked for photos and was rewarded with this one. It's funny to see all three girls wearing a similar white t-shirt.

The girls, Oli and Suzy with Elena and with Miguel in Lozoya yesterday

Suzy told me they were planning to go kayaking like we did in France. I was a bit worried about my pregnant daughter but neither Miguel nor her seemed to think it was at all dangerous so I can only hope they had a good time.  They did have a good time and later sent us photos of the 4 of them kayaking. I'm glad Oli was alright. They will be home for lunch today.

The girls and Miguel kayaking yesterday near Lozoya

After our walk with the dogs which had to be on the road and not on the fields because of the shooting - the glorious twelfth is on 15th August here - and after leaving lunch in the good hands of Lucy, Eladio and I went out on a few errands. One was pretty urgent. His HP computer of a few years was playing up. The keyboard doesn't work and we have tried everything. At the IT customer care section of El Corte Inglés we were told it would cost about 200 euros to repair but probably isn't worth it as the operating system is Windows 7 for which there will no longer be any updates from Microsoft next year. Gripes I thought, mine is Windows 7 too. We shall probably both have to buy a new PC now, not money we want to spend. There is always something isn't there? I later tried installing Windows 10 drivers in my PC and am still in the process. Fingers crossed folks.

Sunday came, the day our Brazilian guests would leave which means that we will have the house to ourselves. As I said the girls will be coming for lunch and hopefully we will all spend the afternoon by the pool together. We shall need it as today the temperatures will rise to about 36ºc again. We are thinking of going to Montrondo next week to escape the heat. Let's see if we do. No doubt you will hear whether we did or not in next week's post.

So that's it for now folks. I've come to the end of the stories of this week. Amazing to think this time last week we were still at the big cousinade in lovely Île de Ré. How time flies.

I shall leave you now to print this for my father and then go on our early morning walk with the dogs.

Till next week,
Cheers to you all,
Masha