This is it!

Christmas revels at Le Camélia

Well, it was touch and go - you know how it is - oh I have plenty of time to do this that and the other - Oh my God, they're arriving tomorrow! The only thing that we hadn't finished was the external flue to the log burner - quite important for people staying in December but it was sooo expensive to buy the necessary double lined stuff and not enough time to buy and build a chimney. In the end I borrowed several heaters and prayed that the electricity bill wouldn't bankrupt me - that remains to be seen. We had both my sons with us from 18th to 28th Dec after which my older son left to meet up with friends in Paris for New Year and the younger one stayed to 2nd and then both departed to the warmer climes of Saudi. I think they had a good time, made the most of being able to have a drink and eat all things porcine so we had bacon butties, sausages, ham, spare ribs, roast pork, to name but a few. Anyway the real purpose of this posting is to announce for all the world to see, (and gasp in admiration) that Le Camélia is officially finished - well - apart from the paving outside which is a spring job. So here are photos to prove it:

Le Camelia Update

No time to enjoy the view from the kitchen window, the farmer still has all that dead brush to clear....

Or the view from the upstairs grenier window ...

Ian's been hard at it and here's the proof:

Outside ......

Started the repointing

And inside ......

So won't be long before it's all finished. We are now taking bookings for Le Camelia from next April and all bookings taken before 2009 will be at 2008 prices. Watch this space for more regular updates on the project.

And in September ....

We attended the wonderful annual Rendezvous sur Erdre in Nantes which is always held on the last/1st weekend of August/September and once again it didn't disappoint. Great atmosphere, lovely crowds, fantastic music of all genres although it's supposed to be jazz & blues in the main. Once again I was spellbound by the South American dancers (Kapowera) doing their thing and this time there was a lad of no more than 7 or 8 with them so they must start pretty young to get that agile. We had a great time and will definitely go again next year.

The following weekend there was a garden festival in a park in Nantes, wonderful place and wall to wall stalls of plants for sale. Not a good place for a plantaholic with no money.... Of course I did indulge my vice and bought some more 'necessary' plants and even Ian succumbed to some lovely heuchera for his shady spot by the patio in Coeur de Chene. I loved their bug sculptures made of wood, I wish I had the imagination to make my own.

I had a new pet for a very brief time, it was a lovely huge moth who answered to the name of Monty. Unfortunately only 24 hours after we met he was dead. I later had him identified as a Convolvulous tiger moth, apparently quite common on the med and north Africa - he was so cute..

Well we had a miserable July & August as did most of Europe, but from September onwards it's been pretty good and almost made up for it. My bookings have increased yet again but with the miserable £ v € rate we haven't gained much at all. Of course it hasn't helped that every available euro has gone into building materials for Le Camelia but I have been very fortunate in inheriting a lot of lovely furniture from a very good friend in the UK who is revamping her home. Ian and I made the speedy trip over to collect it with the horse box (a very very useful vehicle indeed) and came back loaded to the gunnels. Well summer is truly over now and the days are ever shorter, I've joined a French conversation group in Redon this year which runs 2 morning sessions on Tuesdays (then straight on to Patchwork) and Fridays. I'm hopeful that it will get me talking with more confidence although I & a few others feel it would be better if we could have a morning for those like us who still take time to utter our sentences as at the moment we are drowned out by the more confident speakers.

July update

At the end of June, my son and his wife arrived to visit. They were here just in time to see the Tour de France come through Guemene. On the 7th July we waited by the bridge and were really surprised to see the extent of the entourage that precedes the actual race. Incredible looking cars and floats entertained us for a couple of hours until the cyclists zipped past in seconds and it was all over.

At the end of July we decided to have a mini break and drove to Amboise, I'd booked a B&B in the town thinking that it would be lovely to be able to stroll around in the evening, have a meal and not worry about an extra glass of wine and driving back to some place in the sticks. The weather was fantastic, and we were charmed by the tiny little chambre d'hote wedged between two other building opposite the castle walls. Perfect we thought. After looking around Amboise castle (I had no idea that Leonardo da Avinci was buried there), I was even more delighted to find that there was an evening market being set up. Our room was on the 1st floor seen here with the windows open. The market was in the road between us and the castle walls, we thoroughly enjoyed it and had our evening meal al fresco at one of the stalls.

After a stroll along the Loire we decided that in order to get an early start to see Chaumont-sur-loire the next day, it was time to go to bed and sleep. Famous last words - what hadn't occured to either of us is that being so central had a price to pay - the stall holders started packing up at midnight, enjoyed a van door slamming competition until at least 1.30am and no sooner had I started dozing off, some lovely lads decided to have a street party. This was at top volume with singing, shouting and trumpet playing until 3am. By this time Ian had stomped off with the duvet and curled up on the bathroom floor where he slept all night. I suffered on, and finally managed to get to sleep but (you couldn't make it up) was very cruelly and rudely awakened at 6.30am by a pressurised steam cleaning van going up and down outside. It stopped at 9am by which time I'd given up and got up. The B&B owner assured us that the next night would be 'tres tranquil' and people at Chaumont must have thought us very odd as we napped at regular intervals under every available tree. It's a wonderful place and the reason we picked it to visit was the annual international garden festival: www.domaine-chaumont.fr I have to say though that it's probably better to go as soon as the gardens open as by the end of July they were looking very past their best. I don't think they get much TLC once they're put in which is a great pity. While in the gift shop, Ian met a neighbour of his from Soulvache which just shows what a small world it really is. Not only that but they were also staying near Amboise and had booked to see the evening sound and light show that day just as we had. In fact we were only a row away from each other. Somehow we managed to stay awake long enough to have a lovely meal and see the show. It was lovely, a historical re-enactment of the chateaux's past with period costume and music. Of course it wasn't quite 'tres tranquil' as we heard people's goodbyes until nearly 1am after we returned to our B&B and guess what....... they hadn'd quite finished cleaning the street after the market so were back at 6.30 the next morning. As the weather was still lovely, we decided to go to nearby Chenonceau on the way home, www.chenonceau.com and really enjoyed it there. A beautiful place with so much history, however we didn't really do it justice as we were so tired by then and the weather had turned saultry and close. In fact we had the mother of all rain storms hit us on the motorway just outside Angers and luckily we were near a turnoff so we parked up and waited for it to pass. Even though the visibility was dreadful, we could still hear people driving past like lunatics. As mother always said "drive like lightening, crash like thunder" wise woman.

We returned in one piece in time to bid farewell to some lovely Irish guests who had booked la glycine for the whole of July no less, I could do with bookings like that next year - hint hint.

May update

Sorry, sorry, sorry – a Samual Pepys I’ll never be, so much for writing my memoirs one day. Time just flies by and it’s October already so I’ll just write about the highlights – the ones I remember that is.

We finally managed to go to the Puy du Fou in May, they were doing a 30th birthday promotion and I got the tickets at half price. What a wonderful place, so much to see you need to get there early. Unfortunately we got there around 11am so missed the performace of the 3 muskateers and in seeing the others, also missed the Donjon spectacle but what we did manage to see was fantastic. The colloseum was great fun with an ‘evil emperor’ wanting to put Christians to death and duly booed by the delighted crowds. The stone age village attacked by Vikings was saved by the re-appearance of a dead bishop, there was a definate theme here, a christian country and proud of it with no thought for political correctness to be seen. The villages had amazing attention to detail, we were told that they were all made with reclaimed stone from ruins of authentic villages and we couldn’t see the joins. The gardens were magnificent, not a piece of litter anywhere, totally delightful to stroll through and come upon unexpected treats like controlling fountains to music in the middle of a lake. Our own personal favourite however was the bird show, I’d never seen anything like it with vultures swooping inches over the spectators heads as well as other birds of prey. Fantastic. Unfortunately we couldn’t see the night show as it was too early in the year but apparently it’s well worth the effort and all the men, women & children taking part are recruited from the local area and Puy du Fou pay them back by providing facilities for learning dance, riding, arts for the children. All in all a place well worth visiting, visit their website to see for yourselves: http://www.puydufou.com/ . That night I’d booked a Chambre d’hote in Tiffauges, a town about 15 km away. We managed to get lost so it took a while to find it and even when we arrived in Tiffauges I had to phone the owner to find the house. Turned out their website photo was taken from the garden (www.linternaute.com/hotel/chambre-d-hote/tiffauges/6782/le-petit-chateau.html) and it looked nothing like that from the street. However, there was nothing disappointing about the place, the hosts were truly charming and showed us around their home. They’d bought the Maison d’maitre a year ago and only just opened for business after a lot of work, apparently it was the local Gendarmarie until then. After a lovely meal in a restaurant overlooking Blue beard’s castle that evening, we slept well and the following morning after a substantial breakfast were given a tour of the extenisive gardens which contains an old tunnel to the Castle but which unfortunately has now collapsed. They also showed us the cells used by the gendarmes and I wouldn’t have liked a night in those. Useful for guests that don’t pay their bill though. Definitely a place I’d recommend for a lovely stop-over or holiday. Blue beards castle was a delight with workshops for children, a shadow puppet show, a cavern occupied by a mad scientist whose assistant looked (and acted) remarkably like Mr Bean while trying to turn base metal to gold and a great demonstration of various weapons of war as well as foot soldiers and knights in armour on horseback. All in all a great place to visit. http://www.chateau-barbe-bleue.vendee.fr/

Still too wet......

It's like nothing's changed, still pouring with rain as I type although another month has passed since my last update. In that time I've been to England, visiting my mother on Mother's day and meeting up with old friends. Only slight hiccup to an otherwise smooth journey was the return, I was to fly from Southampton on 10th March but that was the day that the weather went particularly appalling in the south and after having spent most of the evening and early hours listening to dire forecasts and working myself up into a state of panic with visions of road crashes, train derailments and planes spiraling out of control (I know I have a vivid imagination) I ended up staying put in Bognor and flying out on the 12th instead. As it happened my original flight was only delayed by 2 hours but then the real problem for me was getting to the airport in one piece.

In my absence Ian had belted along on full steam, finishing the upstairs shower room, complete with tiled shower cubicle, boxed in pipe work and other nice touches. Since then he has put up the dividing walls, installed doors, and is now plastering throughout. The shower room

does still need finishing off with paint, wood stain, WC seat,

curtain and a varnished floor but I'll be on that job soon.

A lovely touch is the new landing newel posts, balusters and handrail which Ian's made out of old oak beams from a barn thrown out by our neighbouring farmer. Only cost us a couple of bottles of plonk and look a treat. Of course they've been sanded, treated and will be varnished but already add a lot of character.

While out carbooting in Redon the Sunday after my return, we just decided to visit Vannes again on the spur of the moment. It's a place we never tire of and we had a lovely afternoon there. I was particlarly impressed with the renovated washhouse building by the city walls, the craftmanship and attention to detail in the roof tiling is just breathtaking, the ridge tiling is also lovely with the ridges built up beautifully (don't know the technical name for it) between each tile. A gorgeous place, well worth visiting.

Whilst in England, I was browsing through my friend's gardening magazines and came across an article about a new rose which completely entranced me - it's not often I see something and think 'I've got to have it' but that's exactly what I thought this time. I tracked down the growers (http://www.jonestherose.co.uk/) and ordered their catalogue - bad move, they had so many wonderful roses that I ended up ordering 8! The one I fell in love with was Wild Rover, a lot prettier than the actor it was named for: Geoffrey Hughs. The others, equally spectacular are: Tenacious & Crazy for you; 3 climbers: Mme Alfred Carrier & Summer Wine for climbing over the roadside hedge and giving the back bedrooms a lovely view and scent and for the new barn porch, Times Past, a soft old fashioned rose with a gorgeous perfume. I also ordered 2 ground cover roses Hertfordshire and Pheasant. I really must stop buying plants even if these were much cheaper than in France, I was also pleasantly surprised at the reasonable P&P.

Well, Ian's off to the UK on the 31st for a well deserved rest, meeting up with his daughter and jetting to Italy for a couple of weeks. He returns on the 21st and then we have to take stock of our finances to see if we can actually finish the barn for this summer, bookings are being affected by the dreadfully low £ but I'm keeping fingers crossed that we get some more in the next month.

Too wet to garden so.....

A handsome chuck at the lockkeepers cottage Our wonderful sunsets

Pots a plenty

Boats and restaurants in Blain

Incredible patterns made by wild mussels

No more leaks

New floor

As we’ve had such wonderful weather, the time seemed right to sort out a leaky roof. We’ve had water coming in between our roof and the barn roof; it’s such a strange configuration as on the roadside the barn roof is higher than ours but lower on the garden side. It was impossible to make it a continuous roofline and every time we have driving rain, there’s a leak. Ian shinned up there with all the grace and agility of a mountain goat (no, I’m not joking) and took down a tile width of slates form our roof, built up a ridge to place soakers against and then retiled to them. He also repointed all around the chimney and on the barn side up against the new ridge. Hopefully that will do the job because if it doesn’t we have no idea where it’s coming from.

On the following Sunday, we didn’t go the Loire valley route after all, instead we found ourselves heading for the coast once more, this time we travelled further west towards the golf de Morbihan, the other side of La Roche Bernard and explored Damgan and St Gildas de Rhuys. Unfortunately we started quite late so it’s definitely an area we shall go back to as Port Navalo is also well worth a visit and we didn’t get that far. I’ve also since been told that there are locks at Damgan, which we somehow managed to miss.

We’ve also been to see a few films in ‘Version Original’ in Redon’s lovely cinema complex, but we’ve learnt not to take what is advertised on their website too seriously. Zodiac was allegedly being shown in English but when we got there, we found it was actually in French. Not wanting to just go home, I searched the timetable for another ‘VO’ film and finding one that I hadn’t noticed on the Anglo info website before we decided to go for it. A lesson learnt – VO could be any original language, the film was in Chinese! At that stage we gave up and threw ourselves at the mercy of the cinema manager who very kindly gave us vouchers to use another time.

As we were feeling lazy, we drove to Blain for a walk along the Nantes Brest canal on the 17th. It’s a lovely place and very close by, we were amused by the lockkeepers garden, he always recycled stuff in his little patch by the canal but this time he appears to have bought a job lot of tiny ceramic plant pots. I have to say, it looked quite amazing, must have taken him hours to string them up in those patterns.

Last Monday Ian started laying down the new floor in the barn and it looks a treat now that it’s finished. Next step is the shower room in the pointy bit, it’s going to take a bit of rejigging as the shower will have to go into that corner as otherwise you’d walk into the shower cubicle wall when entering unlike downstairs where the door is in the middle of the dividing wall. Still it’s nothing that Ian ‘no problem’ can’t sort out. We also had a demolition day, the wall of the barn near the roadside was leaning more and more lately and cracks appeared to be getting bigger so before the hapless postman or some car got crushed, Ian took his life in his hands and took the wall down as far as the doorway. The stones will get recycled into the barn porch and maybe a retaining wall around the flower beds. In the meantime they lie where they fell - on the ground and not on someone's head.

Yesterday we went to the first car boots of the year (for us), we earmarked two to go to but another lesson learnt, even though it’s listed in the Vide Grenier booklet, if it says ‘bourse’ it’s actually a collectors market. So the one in Missilac wasn’t a car boot after all but the one in St Lymphard was. Didn’t find any great treasures or missing masterpieces so wandered down to La Baule for the obligatory stroll along the endless beach. But not before devouring a wonderful concoction of crepe, apples, chocolate and vanilla ice cream first. Diet? What diet? La Baule is a great place on Sundays, really lively and bustling with some shops open in the afternoon and heaving with the French having their post lunch promenade. It’s a sad state of affairs when the only French people who you know and bump into while out, all work in either the local supermarket or DIY stores. We must socialise more.

Another beautiful day

Now that I have a link from the homepage of my site, I hope more people will visit this blog and ‘read all about it’ - I think being at the very end of our renovations page people lost the will to live before they reached it.

Our Christmas and New Year jaunt seems to be very far beind us now, it was very nice but even nicer to come home. I was very disappointed that Paris didn’t have a proper firework display on New Year’s eve this year but even with 4,500 fully armed riot police on the streets (why?) looking like robocops, the atmosphere was wonderful. We never felt threatened, only incredulous when charged €20 for 2 glasses of white wine at a street café near the Eiffel tower. However, the waiter did empty the rest of the bottle in them when we protested.

On the development front, Ian has steamed on as usual. He’s insulated the roof, boarded and plastered it all. As if that was not enough for 1 month’s work, he’s also cleaned off and re-pointed all the exposed stonework. As there was only dirt between the slates and stones, he had to dig quite a lot out for the new pointing to adhere properly. He’s now working on the garden facing wall, putting in a lovely old oak shelf to run along the stairs and then will be finishing off the gernier window – also with an oak sill. The idea is to do as much messy work as possible before putting in the new floor, so I will be welding the paint brush before too long.

We’ve had some absulutely wonderful weather in the past month and spent days out whenever possible, we love going to the coast as it’s less than an hour away and there were times only the emptiness of the beaches reminded us it was January. We walked along the beach from La Turballe, splashing in our wellies – unfortuantely we were hit by a high rogue wave and ended up soaked. Luckily it was towards the end of the day so I sat in the car with my sodden jeans around my ankles praying we wouldn’t be stopped on the way home. Last Sunday we went to Pornichet and walked along the beach to La Baule, keeping well away from the waves this time, then drove a bit further along and walked along the Cote Sauvage. It is a wonderful area with a cycle/skating way wider than the one way road that runs alongside it. The view from the path is magnificent and there are steps leading down to areas of sandy beach nestling amongst the rocks around each bay. You really don’t need to come in summer to enjoy wonderful days out here, we even spotted a swimmer (there’s always one) in just his trunks having just had his constitional bracing swim.

As the French class has now moved to Tuesday afternoons, I have taken my courage in my hands and joined the Guemene Penfao choral group which meets on Thursdays. I’ve been told it’s an excellent way of improving your language ability as well as meeting new people. I have to say I was welcomed with open arms (they hadn’t heard me sing then) and I now find myself rehearsing for a ‘Spectacle Musical’ which is taking place in August. On top of that, the group reguarly sings at local old people’s homes, without any song sheets as the songs are all old and well known – hmm, not by me …..

Well today the sun’s shining and I’ve managed to do the weekly wash (riveting stuff) and if it’s nice tomorrow we may well go on another jaunt – this time along the Loire for a change – watch this space……

Cote sauvage - beautiful at any time of year

Spot the swimmer.....

Pornichet & La Baule miles of sandy beaches

The man never stops .....................