Montendre, France! For the beginning of my tour of Europe, I was working with Renaud to restore this massive house which was originally a Catholic school.  The town of Montendre was built around the perimeter of the house, and was a very small and "authentic" French town.

Montendre, France! The daily trip to the cellar to retrieve another bottle of wine.  Each night we would drink and discuss various topics ranging from politics to international affairs to philosophy...

The house in Montendre is just as expected, and has a large stone wall surrounding the property.  The property was forested like a jungle.  Directly outside of the wall is the city of Montendre, and much to my surprise, the house is centrally located.  I went for a short walk around Montendre looking for what the town might offer.  I found it to be much like Heerlen, except that the buildings were all the older stone type, and very traditional.  It's funny, but every young person in this town seems to either have a moped or a small motorcycle, and they seem quite unapproachable.  The town has 2500 people, and I think most of them know each other.

 6-1 Sun.          We worked on the house today, and accomplished quite a bit.  Also, I repaired the microwave oven.  It had some sort of heat shield/microwave spreader across the wave entrance that had degraded and was starting to conduct and make sparks.  I removed and scraped it clean.  I then reversed it so that the undamaged area of the material would be exposed to the brunt of the microwave stream.  This repair worked great!  For the house, our goal is to get the entrance completed before the arrival of Laurel.  I need to establish my summer plans, and decide about fall semester.

 6-2 Mon.          I went bike touring around the local area.  There are relatively few hills, and even the largest hills in this area are quite manageable.  This is a very beautiful area, and will be great for both biking and bike camping.  I guess I will have to go a ways to find any real hiking/backpacking areas though.  I made it from Montendre east to "Chez Thomas" and back with a bike that I should have adjusted prior to leaving.  Both brakes refused to stop rubbing, and the rear tire would tweak itself into the frame any time I would torque on the peddles, which I had to do quite often since the bike wouldn't shift into any lower gears.  Also, the seat was several inches too low, making it impossible for me to get any torque while sitting, and further forcing me to apply excessive torque by standing and peddling, which of course made the wheel rub against the frame.  I encountered and attempted to talk with a toothless farmer who was working his fields, but couldn't understand even one word he said -- it was like a foreign language!  (Yes, I know French actually is a foreign language, but this was different!).  The trip was nice and I got to see a nice slice of France.  Afterwards, I was pretty tired, and got a bit nauseated from exertion.  Renaud and I later went to the ATAK to get some groceries.  I plan to return to put my laptop up for sale.

 6-3 Tues.      We drove to Jonzac today for groceries and for Renaud to apply for his publisher's permit.  We also priced two laptops at a local store.  A 486-75,8-340 (active) was priced at 11300F.  In Jonzac, I purchased some 1990 Chateau Papille white wine for 21.50F.  The wine was very similar to what I get from Camas Winery in Moscow Idaho for $7.00.  I also found ten to fifteen varieties of Pinnacle, ranging in price from 40F to 100F, but didn't buy any at this point.  Afterwards I drank most of my wine, and we worked some on the swamp.

I also negotiated the purchase of a new axle for the bike at a local bike shop, and restored the bike to full health.  I've found in this town that people go out of their way if they either know you or know that you are with someone they know.  For instance, because I am not from this town I have to tell store owners that I am with the Fortuners, and then they accept me.  I'm drinking the remainder of my wine right now, and it's really good...