Teddy Talk: Creating, Collecting, Connecting

Remember, I stopped part one when riding on our bicycles along the Loir river and stopping near the ancient paper fabric.
Talking about that ancient paper fabric, it was transformed into an holiday house for rent.

Lets go a little further!

Oh, can you see that beautiful house? It was probably the house of the owners of the paper fabric. I wish it was ours! But we would have needed some people to do the house cleaning for us!!!!

A dream house...

Lets go a little further and have a look at this one! no need to scratch your eyes, your eyes are fine! These are troglodyte houses (humm, I should say what is left of them). There are still troglodyte houses in very good shape (and still inhabited) in many places in that part of France. I think a part of that dream house just upper in my post is troglodyte too.

Such houses are so clever. When you need more space, you just need to dig more into the limestone rock. 

Lets go a little further. Ah, such a beautiful river, the Loir...

Hey, here is another interesting old house. This one is not in such a good shape, but still...

And look at this beautiful plant! A river of purple!

Well, we are now joining a bigger road. Finnished, the dreaming ride. These were 4 beautiful kilometers.

But, there is something else of interest after 200 extra meters! See in Part Three of my report!

Beary hugs,
Sophie.

Ooooh, Gemma, thank you so much for sharing your beautiful pictures from your holidays in Australia.
It looks like you enjoyed yourself a lot...

I do hope I can go to Australia too. There are some TTers I burn to meet there. Plus I have always wanted to visit Australia. 

Beary hugs,
Sophie.

OMG, what a showking idea! I still cannot believe it...    

My boyfriend did a quick search on internet and got to find more news concerning that "artist".
He read that this man published excuses about it and decided not to do it again.
In addition, during that horrible show in 2007, the poor dog did not have a long agony as he died the first night and was already in very bad condition from the beginning.

Consequently, signing the petition and sending it to more people would not be on any use.

I still wonder how people can see art in there...

Beary hugs,
Sophie.

Doing the happy dance with you, Kim!
Enjoy yourself at the fair!

:dance:  :dance:  :dance:  :dance:  :dance:  :dance:  :dance:  :dance:

Beary hugs,
Sophie.

Right Catherine, I need to tell you there is a problem. I am in love for this rabbit and she is already adopted.
So I fear you will have to make me one (her sister, for example!        ).

More seriously, do you think about making more? If yes, let me know, I am serious when I tell I would love to have one!

Beary hugs,
Sophie.

PS : Even my boyfriend who usually hates rabbits said she was pretty!!!!

I promised you i would share the photos I would take while discovering the countryside around our new village.
So here we go...
I'd better tell you I have no clue how many parts i will make!

Right.
Here begins the story.

Once upon a time, a young couple of people living in a tiny flat at the periphery of a big town (Le Mans-France). With time going, they began to think their flat was two small and decided they would love to buy a house in the countryside.
They searched and were not long to find THE house. This house happens to be in a very small village with only 324 inhabitants. This village has got the funniest name : La Chapelle Aux Choux. That would translate into : Cabbage chapel.  :crackup:  :crackup:  :crackup: Why such a name? That is an old story, but to make things short, there used to be in the past lands of cabbages near the chapel that were given for free to poor people.
This village is deep in the countryside and near a river called The Loir.

At the end of the afternoon, we took our bicycles and went for a ride on the small road following the Loir during a few kilometers.

There we are on a small red bridge just exiting our village (we look backwards).

Here is a view from the bridge.

And then we follow the road that goes alongside a hill and The Loir.

First interesting thing to see is an old paper fabric :

Guess why i took that last photo???? birdhouse!!!!

Well, not to annoy you, but it is too late to go further as I need to go to bed.
So more to come asap.

Beary hugs,
Sophie.

  Great visitor, that owl!
I am so glad you managed to get great photos of him!
Now you have an owl you can play Harry Potter! Time to find a wand and a broom!

Thansk for sharing!

Beary hugs,
Sophie.

This puppy is definitely a great souvenir!!!!

Why not naming her Snowbell as this is precisely the period of the year of full blooming for snowbells (at least here in France...).

Beary hugs,
Sophie.

Pouah, yoke......       

My cat behaves better (as far as I know)... 

Beary hugs,
Sophie.

     
I would be lost if I lost my yahoo e-mail, which is my main one, which I have had for many years...

Lets cross our fingers it will not happen, Debbie!

Beary hugs,
Sophie.

:dance:  :dance:  :dance:  :dance:  :dance:

Congratulations, Marion!
I love those photos of your adorable bears...             

Beary hugs,
Sophie.

Congratulations, Clare!

Zack is absolutely beautiful!
I hope you will be the happiest mom...

Beary hugs,
Sophie.

We surely love very much our house.

We love the house itself and we love the little village we live in and our neighbours are lovely. In addition, the landscapes around the village are beautiful, so what to expect more???? The only thing is there is no shop in the village and we need to drive 6 km to reach the closest town with shops, which is not too far after all. 

Thank you very much for your nice comments about our house.  :hug:
Of course, this is far to be a big house, but it is still bigger than the tiny flat we were living in before.
not really everything is in its place, in fact... but most things are.
Some things are supposed to be moving to the attic, but the attic first needs a floor. The attic is "very big" (about 30 m2) but the only problem is that we can stand inside only in its middle lane, because of the shape of the roof. So it may be used only as a storage place. We have a lot of stuff to store, stuff which is currently invading our tiny dressing and outdoor pighouses!
A chance we have been living together for only a few years!!!    :crackup:

Oh, i forgot to say that the tiles in the house are all as old as the house (a little over one century). We really love a lot the ones in the living-room and may never change them! They are in pretty good shape. 

Beary hugs,
Sophie.

Hehehehehehe, you waited for them, didn't you?
So here are some photos of the inside of my house now we are settled in.
We will keep making changes inside, but this is a good start...

So, please, come through the kitchen door to enter.

Not too bad, isn't it?

Enough for the kitchen. Now follow me in the living room. Stop at the door and take time to see everything!

I really love this buffet (unless you say sideboard?) we found in a second hand shop.

Next to it you can see the chimney mantle.

The door you can see leeds to the bathroom (which I did not photograph as there is nothing interesting to show you there).

Facing the chimney mantle : the sofa (not a comfy one, but changing it in far to be our priority number one).

The patchworks were handmade by a lovely French lady.

Right, now we must go back to the kitchen to reach the stairs to go upstairs.

Just upstairs, there was enough space to install my cabinet. Inside and on its top, I installed as many Cheeky bears as I could (from my Merrythought collection). 

Lets have a look inside the bedroom. There, we still have some work to do : note the floor : there is a part missing we hided the best we could time to fix it. Malko removed the boxing of the chimney tube as well as the tube. He already filled the hole in the ceiling. Luckily, we had something to hide the wall too before we rearrange it!!!

On the bed, you can see our kitty, who loves to have her nap there.

And to finnish the visit, come in the working studio!

I now have a sewing space!!!! We may had a wooden table inside (one of the shelves would move inside the bedroom).

Facing, we put our desks :

Guess which one is mine? (see where are the bears...).

We have lots of plans for our house, but we have just moved in and there is no emergency...

Oh, to the people who did not know it : I collect bears and Malko collects clocks.

To finnish, here is a photo of our kitty on one of her favourite places :

I hope you enjoyed the visit.

When I can, I will go and take some photos of the landscapes in the surroundings. They are beautiful.

Beary hugs,
Sophie.

Hey, Anita, i hope you will have a lovely time with him!
Just be yourself and always be honnest (hummm, I guess you will  ).
Do not wear clothes you are not used too.

Have fun!

Beary hugs,
Sophie.

Well, good news, dear friends!
Internet and phone are now fixed (they got fixed yesterday in the morning while I was at work).
Christine, phone and internet can be installed very quickly if you choose France Telecom, but with other providers, it can sometimes take longer...

I will keep you all tuned about my new life in the countryside!

Beary hugs,
Sophie.

Right, I have finnished my teaching for today. My pupils were okay.

Before I go back home, I can give you a moment...

Concerning Internet and phone, we have no idea when this will be fixed. A technician was supposed to come yesterday morning, but he never came and did not dare calling us on our cell phone to tell us he would not come...   
I don't know yet were they are from. They seem to be in their fourties or possibly early fifties. They have two cats.
There is a lovely couple of retired people two. In the other house next to us, there is a family but I am not sure if we will come to get friends with them as we did not have opportunities to chat with them so far.
Facing us, there is another family with to young boys and two small dogs who love to bark each time someones walks neir their house!!!

Our cat joined us in the house one week ago. She seems to enjoy her new place. So far she loves to stay upstairs: probably because it is warmer and because there is a wooden floor!!!!
She has not been long to notice she was allowed to stand along the windows (as the walls are thick, there is space to jump on and stay). She is happy to hear a lot of birds (much more than in our flat).
Talking about birds, a couple of sparrows is nesting into one of our chimneys, and I think another one is nesting under the roof as well as a familly of starlings...

I will have to take photos of my house now we are installed to show you...

It takes me about one hour to go to work from my home. These are small roads but the landscape is beautiful; there is a huge forest to cross partially.

I'd better go now.
It is raining outside.

Beary hugs,
Sophie.

Hi dear friends!
Just a short post to let you all know we have moved into our new house.
Everything is fine.
We have no internet nor phone installed yet at home so I write from my work place...
I will give you more details when we have internet at home.
So please no worries about me!

Beary hugs,
Sophie.

I cannot wait to know how my bears did as well as the other ones from the other artists from the international trader table.
Melissa e-mailed us telling she would put details about the show etc on her website by the end of the day. So i guess we just have to be more patient, hehehehehehe.       

Melissa said she was very happy about that show and that she already had a great feedback from visitors.

Beary hugs,
Sophie.

Just brilliant!

I love that dragon! He his fantastic!

I would love to know what fabrics you used to make him too...

Beary hugs,
Sophie.

Some of my bears will be there too.
They are arrived in Sydney and must look forward to go to the fair!

Please, give them a luck if you meet them!!!

Beary hugs,
Sophie.

hi, in Paris, you can go to the shop called : Pain d'Epice.
You will find there lots of stuff for doll houses plus teddy bear making supplies.

The address is : Pain d'Epice
29 passage Jouffroy
75009 Paris.

For more addresses, please browse that link :
http://www.oursement-votre.com/adresses.mv
Be careful, not all of them are in Paris : you must read carefully each address to check out the town!

Beary hugs,
Sophie.

Acacia has found a loving family and lives in Normandy (France).

:dance:  :dance:  :dance:  :dance:  :dance:

Beary hugs,
Sophie.

Praliné was not adopted during my show...

Yesterday evening we were invited by some friends for dinner.
Each couple bought a part of the dinner.
In addition to our part of dinner I decided to bring my available bears, as I knew my friends enjoy seing my new critters.
And I was wise: as soon as Christine saw Praliné, she fell in love for him and decided to adopt him.

So Praliné has now a new loving familly in Le Mans.

:dance:  :dance:  :dance:  :dance:  :dance:

Beary hugs,
Sophie.

Aaaaaaah, Gemma, Bunty is soooooo adorable!
I love the colours you chose. They are perfect.

No doubt bunty will be loved in her new familly!

Beary hugs,
Sophie.