Today is a banner day for ‘news’ here at Lhomont. As I set out on my walk around midday (after cooking tomato, avocado and Emmental omelets for lunch), virtually the entire tribe of cross-the-street neighbors came over to greet me.
Upon returning to the mill house, I noticed fishermen had taken their places along the La Sane Vive, the river that runs under the moulin. Shortly afterwards, two carloads of locals arrived and set up their grand pique-nique nearby, as well. A really big day for Lhomont… meantime I am preparing to do Tagliatele with fresh tomatoes for dinner. Such excitement…
A feature here at Moulin de Lhomont is one of the mill’s original gear shafts, which has been left in place as a dining room curio. It occurs to me that we have actually been staying inside a big French machine, and one that can lay a very early claim to ‘green’ efficiency (and this isn’t even the first time we’ve stayed in a big European machine).
Some photovoltaic panels spotted on a centuries-old roof in Granges sur Baume, were identified by friend Peter Bostock as polycrystaline cells (Peter’s firm, Solaicx, has perfected a process for making the more-efficient monocrystaline cells), share the ‘green’ tag and possibly point to the future of power here in pleine compagne. Meanwhile, speaking of French machines, I’ve been wrestling with an Alcatel ADSL modem, trying to get past a forgotten WiFi password, to no avail…