It has been a long time!

Well, were can I start seeing as I have let this blog lapse for a number of reasons.
So, without listing all what I have been up to since my last posting, and having found my way back in but being a bit rusty, I will just say,,, I am going to endeavour to continue my blog again and start afresh. Watch this space..... I am off to check on my chooks.......!

The English Riviera!

Whilst in Blighty for the festive season, we went to visit one of my brother in laws and his wife and their 3 children. They run a hotel right on the seafront of one of the sunniest places in Britain ‘ so it is reported'. Eastbourne! I love it there but put me by the sea, in the sea, on the sand or pebbles and I am a very contented Guernsey girl. It was great to catch up with them on their 2 days off between Christmas coaches ( crimbo packages start in October!) and see the refurbishments they have made since our last visit. Me and himself spent 2 months there pre opening helping them bring the hotel back to life after they bought it in 2005 and it was an interesting time indeed. I won’t go into how our car at the time‘Kevin the Peugeot 205’ got crushed by the local council and we made the local rag in a write up because of said disaster, illegally done I may add. The crushing not the article!

We went to a traditional English pub decorated to the max with festive attire to which many folks come every year just to see what works of art have been created for the customers. We stayed in Room 1 which has since be revamped and much improved since our working and rest time there. This hotel is not all pretentious and arty farty and does not come at fancy pancy prices for a designer breakfast sausage and organic toms . It is a traditional and friendly hotel in a fabulous location. The service and standards would take some beating . I love staying there and it was utter bliss having a cuppa in hotel boudoir whilst watching t.v and partaking of a proper bathroom ensuite. If only we had more time and could have stayed another night.

Anyway if you find yourself in Eastbourne, look them up. The welcome is warm and fun and views fantastic. It is a short walk into Eastbourne centre. Have some fish and chips, a 99 on the pier and relax at the MARINE PARADE HOTEL with Jerome and Carol - hosts fantastique!

I hope to be back there verrrry soon!

From little Bangers...........

BIG ONES grow.........
I was quite proud of the progress!!!

My first sausage making lesson!

Whilst in the UK during Christmas, my brother in law invited me for a sausage making experience in one of the best equipped kitchens I know. It should be as his wife is a very established cookery writer, food stylist and has produced many a wonderful book with a myriad of tantalising on the tastebuds recipes. I received a couple of her new books this trip. Chef School and from her Hamlyn range, Tapas and Cake. Give her a Google!. She could have been in the eye of the media many years ago before all these celeb chefs hit our screens but chose to remain behind the camera and the pages of her books and magazine articles.

The b. in law, knowing how I love a pure decent banger, set to with me and I created my own melange of flavours.
This is a pic of my first attempt, next update will be a photo of the progress!

Pork, sage and lemon then Lamb, mint, ginger and moroccan spices ( a splash of St Emillion red wine)were the flavours chosen for this experience.
The machine was acting up so it was a 2 person operation and it required some physical effort more on the brother in laws part!.
I am looking forward to trying them out though the tasters we cooked before going for the big squeeze into the skins seemed pretty tasty to me and I have it on good authority from someone who knows that the pork and lemon were a big hit!

I will pursuing this home made method as then at least I know exactly what is going into them!
So much for my thoughts on giving up pork or lamb.!

Pretty in White

A picturesque scene chez nous but not so pretty when the drive iced up and the car would not move!

Lots of catching up to do!

I have not been blogging for ages. I miss it. I have had my head down work work working and now got a bath installed and sleeping in a bed upstairs or should I say, up the ladder!
Troublesome boiler but underfloor heating and rads are working. Hooray!
Making apple and walnut chutney from our trees for gifts for the family at Christmas. I am very excited as sis in law who is a cookery writer has given me 2 more of her new books!
Dragging myself back out into the garden after the wet weather and attacking yet more brambles.
Painting windows and more walls!
I don't know where the days go to!
I promise to do a better update soon!

Happy New Year to everyone!

What weather!

Rain wind, rain, wind rain. That about sums up the weather at the moment here in Brittany. I got off lightly when I moved here last year. Everyone telling me the weather would be wet and the wellies hardly got much of an outing but this year is different. I am very bored of it and hibernation is the key. The animals are sensible. Or if I was a cat I could cuddle up on the sofa like these two of my 3 contented moggies! That is after they have done the morning hunt routine and brought in a mouse or shrew and munched and crunched through it. Yuk!

Happy families

I love this photo of our friends from the Languedoc taken at Larmor Plage. They came to visit early September and we certainly packed alot in very few days.
Oyster purchase and eating, little Mathilda loves them! Breton teeshirts are being sported down South, Lorient U pens visited, paddling as the photo shows and lots more besides.
Juliet is a Master of Wines and they brought a wonderful Languedoc supply for us. Ooooh.
It was far too quiet once Mathilda and ma and pa had left. She loves Abba songs and the sound of her 4 yr old little voice singing was much missed when they left. She was an utter delight. Come back soon Mathilda and sing "Dont go wasting your e- otions". Dont you just love it when children mix up the words. I do!

What have I been up to...

Goodness me, I have had NO time to do this blog and I miss it.

Where have I been,,, working working working working on the renovation! I am pooped!

A couple of weeks in Guernsey, went for my sisters birthday for 5 days and stayed nearly 2 weeks!

Had some friends make a flying visit for a weekend.

Much has progressed in that time chez nous.

A recyled boiler, ( see picture) now gives us our underfloor heating. Bliss and the mogs love it

Radiators in the boudoir, wow, first time in 6 yrs I have had heating proper

A completed dressing room.

2 new floors laid upstairs, one to go, bed removed from the downstairs camp and dining table in.

Microwave and toaster located from storage and tumble dryer ( much needed) brought inside.

Painted bedroom , hallway and bathrooom

Some insulation has been laid in the loft space

Window installed in the loft.

Ceilings painted.
Enough of that for now. I am off to brave the gusty Morbihan to get some much needed shopping and makes lots of soup to keep up the energy for the week to come!

This week we hope to have an upstairs loo, very exciting. Hubby has rescued a toilet from the barn left by the previous owners. He loves the shape, hmmmmm! Is Swiss according to a search on the net and the boiler is German. It is fun to recycle. Which reminds me I must turn the compost!

Where have I been??

I have been off the map with my blog as just been mad mad busy with renovations, yep yours truly jet washing the front of the house ( been inundated with offers of photo shoots from the glossies, ha ha!) guests to stay, taking visits to check up on my family.
A proper update will come up soon. My brain is a little tired as I type this at 01.15 a.m! A bientot!

Les Vieux Metiers

Each year in a village not far from here a one day fete is put together to help the modern world understand how things were done in days gone by.

It was fascinating!

Watching logs being cut without modern machinery

Butter being churned in a box

Wool being spun on wheels

Cider being made through the old pressing system. Delicious free tasters!

Mattress fillings being.. well not sure what he was doing really.

Breton Cob horses showing their strength.

Numerous items of machinery being used for numerous tasks.
Oxen pulling carts and so much more.
The weather was perfect. So much effort for just one day. It was great so see so many children there too seeing that life existed quite efficiently without all the gizmos of today and it certainly made me appreciate modern facilities too!

Sunflowers - Tournesol

Planted in April and this is the result. Yes the sun does shine in Brittany so hence these cheery flowers are almost double my height and I am 5ft 3"!

Abbaye de Bon Repos

As night fell on the borders of Morbihan and Cotes d'Amor, a scene was set, an audience waited patiently for an annual performance for which I believe they were not to be disappointed with.

Each year there is an open air illuminated production in the wonderful Abbey grounds. This year told of how the Abbey came to be built and the historical events surrounding its life from 4000 BC and how it fell into ruin.

What a fabulous production and the moon just happened to rise moon above the setting which added to the ambience. Some of us even thought this was too much of a coincidence and in light of the fact the technical side of things was so spot on, we thought it may have been a projection!


400 cast/1200 costumes/40 horses/30 or so hunting hounds

Light projections onto the Abbaye were perfectly positioned to fit the Abbaye outline

Fire eaters - rather them than me.

I was quite amazed at how this produced. So much so it really is hard to explain. I suggest you look at the website to get a better idea of what it entails. The producer must be one of the best as how to co ordinate adults, children and animals with safety issues of fire and rehearse this slick production bearing in mind it is all done in the dark with only limited floodlight and natural fire light for the cast to see their way. The music was wonderful and I am looking to see where I can get a disc of the eerie, calming, inspiring, emotive and stimulating sounds.

I was fascinated how it all came together. Hats off to the team, it was truly brilliant and my husband felt it one of the best pieces of theatre he has ever seen. I tend to agree and I have seen plenty.

If you are ever this way in August, and this appeals to all ages, I recommend this as a total MUST SEE but take a blanket. It starts at 1030 at night or thereabouts and at 1 a.m it can get a bit chilly on the extremities!

The proceeds of this production go into the funds for restoration. And very rightly so!

Brittany Birthday

Some dear friends and ex neighbours from the village where we lived in the Minervois came to visit to see the 'project' and happened to be here for my birthday. A great present indeed.


They decided to camp in the hangar. Offers to stay indoors were kindly refused incase visits to the salle de bain were required in the night via the ladder and after much vino this may have proved a little dangerous!

We whizzed them around Lorient, Larmor Plage, Auray, Carnac and Vannes. The weather stayed dry thankfully and we had a couple of bbqs, attempted hula hooping and swing ball, volleyball over the washing line and attempted to catch fish in the Blavet with wine in hand of course and, played 'their version' of rummy into the early hours. A full on couple of days.

My birthday gift was this 5 litre vrac of wine from Pouzols cave, the neighouring village to where we were. They thought I maybe missing the local hooch. 95 cents a litre.!! The white disc you can see was a gift from the bar owner of the village. Alka Seltzer!

I did make sure they tasted wine from this region but realise we did not even have a drop of cider!

It was too short a visit really and was so sorry to see them leave but they will be back for longer next time. Maybe more than 5 litres will be required!!

Leave of absence

Life has been mad mad busy so le blog has gone by the wayside for a while.....

Roof repairs

I had a ??? birthday with visitors from the South camping in the hangar

Family visits - installed in gites near Pontivy.

Back repairs... too much work on the garden!

Sun deprivation,, the weather has been just dire. This rainbow was a welcomed colourful sight though one day! Somewhere over it there maybe sun?????!!!!!

Monsieur Hugo - looks a bit strained!

Recently spending 6 days in my island of beauty, Sarnia Cherie I thought about Victor Hugo and his connections with the island. Here is a bit of info about him. Did you know...................

Guernsey’s living history book begins with Neolithic Man and a burial mound called the Les Fouillages possibly the oldest manmade structure in Europe.

The islands formed part of Normandy from 933, forging a link between Britain and France that survives locally in Norman Law, surnames and Guernesaise, the local language. Guernsey sided with England in 1204 when King John lost Normandy to Phillippe Augustus of France. There was a castle built called Castle Cornet to repel a French invasion. In the summer the midday gun is fired. A cannon but no balls!
In light of he is French, lived in the island of my birth, that a Britains Got Talent contenstant chose a wonderful song from the musical created from his work written in the islands, here is a little info on this talented and interesting man……………………

Victor Hugo left France in 1851 for an exile that would last 19 years. Following a short period of time in Jersey, Victor Hugo went to Guernsey and was instantly captivated by the island. Anyone who has visited will know why!
During his fifteen years on the island he wrote some of his most famous works. Here he completed many of his masterpieces, including La Légende des siècles, Les Misérables, William Shakespeare, Les Chansons des rues et des bois, Les Travailleurs de la mer and L’Homme qui rit.
Victor Hugo's home, for most of his exile in Guernsey, was Hauteville House, which remains today as it was left.
On 16 May 1856, thanks to the success of his Contemplations, Victor Hugo bought Hauteville House in Guernsey, a large white building with a garden overlooking the sea. An enthusiastic collector of secondhand furniture and bric-à-brac, he brought back a profusion of chests, sideboards, carpets, mirrors, crockery, figurines and other objects from his excursions around the island. He put his boundless imagination to work on the house, spending months overseeing a major conversion on a medieval pattern, which gave this unique building an inner force and mystery. Hugo lived in Hauteville House until 1870, when he returned to France after the fall of the Second Empire, but he stayed at Hauteville again for a year in 1872-73, for a week in 1875 and for four months in 1878.

Et voila! A little bit of French history linked to my birth home.

Finally moved in!!!

Yes, we are in the project! First couple of days sans loo and hot water but had the fridge up and running and used a makeshift tap out of the wall and a bowl to function with! . Ham sandwich for dinner and a glass of rose! All rather dusty and make shift but it is home! Shower and loo now working hidden behind what appears to be a salubrious brown curtain!

Work is non stop! Where our bed is located ( note kitchen bathroom bedroom and lounge all in one room!) we wake up to the view of the river and the cows in the field beyond.

We were lucky to have a friend come with all the whizzy equipment to chop down trees down the drive so they were cleared for France Tel coming to install the line. Will be taking us a while to chop them all up but how very lucky and fortunate he helped. Hoorah phone and internet. A climb by 2 ladders to access them and our clothes but no matter.

It is amazing what one takes for granted like turning on a tap and getting hot running water and being able to jump in a shower,

It is wonderful to listen to the bird song and look at the vista and it is really useful actually to be camped out here to get a better idea of where things will eventually be put.

I was very excited to retrieve the furbabes who had to be in a cattery for a couple of weeks. They are yearning to go out and will be doing so once a 2nd gate has been installed. However the male has managed to bag a bird which must have flown in from eaves!.

Aching muscles, hands to be scrubbed til they are sore, a list of jobs goes on and on but it is wonderful to watch progress. A magic wand maybe good sometimes but maybe less satisfying. Friends are planning to visit so looking forward to that.

So, enough of this blog for the day, I must get back to the list. More soon!

Wedding in the Minervois

Well it has been a mad time and I have been without regular internet access or time to update le Blog! 3 days back in Brittany after a trip to Guernsey then 10 hrs on the French railway system to head off for the Minervois to see my husband after 16 days of separation and to attend the wedding that I have watched develope and assisted with along the way.
It was perfect weather and a wonderful day and it went just all according to careful planning for the young and charming couple. Set in the grounds of Chateau Agel it was very romantic indeed. The bride was on red bull towards the end of the meal to maintain stamina for dancing at the fabulous disco!
The last guest was returned to their accommation at 0545 a.m. We have to admit defeat at 4 a.m!
The weather was wonderful and reliable but 120 degrees farenheit is rather exhausting to function in.
Luckily our friends have a lovely pool to cool off in. I caught up with as many people as limited time would allow. A fun but exhausting time that would set to continue on our return.......

Off to the Minervois

Whilst the timing is not ideal, it is also very good. I am off South on the French railway to a wedding which I have been involved with helping organise with various things throughout the year. Cannot wait to see it all come together and the lovely couple have a wonderful day. So excited for them!
A wedding fit for a Princess indeed it will be!

I plan to get some much needed fun and relaxation with friends, staying in the village of Mailhac where we used to live before dashing back here to move into the Hameau finally within 2 days. We have a deadline that cannot be shifted!
Who says that having no bathroom, stairs, bedroom blah blah blah is necessary to make a comfy home problem?!!

Will have no net access very soon so posts will be scant for a while!

Bon weekend, wish me luck ! I will be wishing the bride and groom luck. Ah, a good wedding is so good for the soul!

Cidre – a plenty in the North

I am occasionally trying the Breton cider which accompanies crepes and is traditionally served in ceramic bowls/cups. There are many local ciders here and they tend to have a smooth creamy taste in my limited tasting experience. Anyway it depends which one you try of course. I have been doing a bit of research on the production. Here is some info………………..

Until the mid-20th century, cider was the second most-consumed drink in France (after wine) but there was an increase in the popularity of beer and this then displaced cider's market share outside traditional cider-producing regions.

We have a cider press in one of our buildings. I think it was built inside as cannot see how they got it in through the tiny front door. This is a shame as would love to have it as a feature in the garden. ( will not be producing own cider yet) Not high on the list of things to do however.

Breton cider making employs the technique of keeving (from the French cuvée). In keeving, calcium chloride and a special enzyme are added to the pressed apple juice, causing protein in the juice to precipitate to the top for removal. This reduces the amount of protein available to the yeast, starving it and therefore causing the cider to finish fermenting while sugar is still available. The result is a sweeter drink at a lower alcohol level but still retaining the full flavour of the apples, without dilution.
I never knew that! Interesting , better informed yet?

Doux is a sweet cider, usually up to 3% in strength. 'Demi-Sec' is 3–5% and Cidre Brut is a strong dry cider of 5% alcohol and above. Most French ciders are sparkling

Here endeth the reading lesson on cidre for the moment. Get out there and try the tastebud test!. Breton and Normandy cider wins hands down over a Strongbow but the West Country, well I am not sure what they would have to say about French cider over their wonderful Scrumpy. There is room for more than one good cider in the world of course!