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La Bucherie

La Bucherie

A 1791 farmhouse and a blog about it.

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About La Bucherie

I'm Peter. Hi!  I'm to blame for this. Also a lot of other things. Sorry. This website is vaguely about a 1791 stone house in southern Normandy. And food. And rain. And probably some fermented things. And certainly a garden that is—shall we say—verdant.

Sometimes, the web, huh?

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Digging in…

  • Diary (11)
  • The Garden (9)
  • The House (9)
  • The Kitchen (4)
  • The Life (10)

Category: Diary

  • October 29, 2023December 6, 2023
  • No Comments

No more updates here

  • Diary

The La Bu blog is finished. Thanks so much for reading.

Continue reading No more updates here
  • October 17, 2020July 25, 2021
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L’automne est arrivé

  • Diary

Last weekend to Cancale—a bit of respite from two weeks of working on the house. H and I bought a couple dozen oysters, and ate them on the sea wall, tossing the empty shells onto a beach shimmering with mother of pearl. Two glasses of […]

Continue reading L’automne est arrivé
  • June 21, 2020July 25, 2021
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La fin d’un temps

  • Diary

Two days on the Côtes-d’Armor—in Saint Malo, the wonderful fortified Corsair town, and textbook bit of Vaubanian excellence—amidst France coming out of le confinement. Masks are obligatoire in most places, at least for entering and exiting. Fascinating to see how quickly their use, and their […]

Continue reading La fin d’un temps
  • June 5, 2020July 25, 2021
  • 1 Comment

Holy, Hell. It’s June.

  • Diary

As of this afternoon, I’ve removed 14 snakes from what will become the master bedroom and study. It was, as I’m quick to point out should anyone ask, the master bedroom in the Before Times as well. This particular sort of snake—a nonvenomous constrictor—is the […]

Continue reading Holy, Hell. It’s June.
  • April 30, 2020July 25, 2021
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The last days of April

  • Diary

It’s gotten chilly again, a reminder that this is still springtime and still Normandy, even with our concerted efforts to boil the planet into a miasmic new Jurassic. Over the last few days heavy rain. The new roof is holding up, which I expected based […]

Continue reading The last days of April
  • April 3, 2020July 25, 2021
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Stones, stairs, and sorties

  • Diary

The sunlight, captured, and reflected back into the north-facing room where I sit, hints at what’s to come over the next few days—temperatures in the mid-teens to somewhere around 20. Blue skies as well, or so the sky oracles promise, which is sort of too […]

Continue reading Stones, stairs, and sorties
  • March 19, 2020July 25, 2021
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Early Days of the Refiguration

  • Diary

On Monday, as the rumors of martial law and curfews began to percolate through the disquietude of social media into mainstream assertions of what was coming, our roofers worked through the occasional gusts of wind and rain in an effort to finish the house by […]

Continue reading Early Days of the Refiguration
  • February 23, 2020July 25, 2021
  • 1 Comment

The hidden and the revealed

  • Diary

With renovations underway, a two-hundred-and-thirty-year-old structure is emerging as it was built—local stone, lime mortar, great oaken beams, and soaring ceilings better for storing bales of hay than housing humans. So too are the effects of time and weather. Much of the hidden mortar is […]

Continue reading The hidden and the revealed
  • April 3, 2019July 25, 2021
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Spring has come

  • Diary

Rain overnight, but by early morning there is a deep fog and the luxuriate sound of drops of water falling onto last Fall’s leaves and early Spring’s grasses. The field I know is across the lane is still some few hours from being entirely recognizable, […]

Continue reading Spring has come
  • March 20, 2019July 25, 2021
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A place in the world

  • Diary

The little town of Domfront, a few miles from the house, has a not too unusual silhouette for France, or really for most of post-feudal Europe. There’s a steeple—although a truly unusual one—as well as ruined castle, which aside from its surrounding gardens has nothing […]

Continue reading A place in the world

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About La Bucherie

I'm Peter. Hi!  I'm to blame for this. Also a lot of other things. Sorry. This website is vaguely about a 1791 stone house in southern Normandy. And food. And rain. And probably some fermented things. And certainly a garden that is—shall we say—verdant.

Sometimes, the web, huh?

Would you like to subscribe to Dispatches? It's an email update/newsletter thingy that drops new posts directly into your own warm and cosy email box.

We don’t spam! See our privacy page for more details. tl/dr: your data is safe with us, and we'll even delete it if you wish.

Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription.

Digging in…

  • Diary (11)
  • The Garden (9)
  • The House (9)
  • The Kitchen (4)
  • The Life (10)
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