Its catch up time again

Its over two months since our last BLOG post, my oh my I am sure serious bloggers would rush for a cliff edge at such lax blogging!

Our son Daniel, after a busy year as a primary school teacher he takes some time to chill in our house garden!

With the mercury eventually hitting 55c in early August we needed to relax!

My rather miserable excuse is that our BLOG reflects life here in central France, relaxed and slow, but as with all things its time to bring you news both for those planning to stay in the gite and friends alike.

The publicity 'caravan' included all manner of weird and wonderful transportations!

 

We were pleased to be able to watch the 'Tour de France' which passed close once again, as you know the GB team once again stood a good chance so we were out with friends to support the team



And they arrive at last - in less than a minute they are gone but its worth the wait!

 

The flower beds are now well established

Les Deux Platanes garden. Over the past few years the garden of the holiday cottage has been renovated and as with all gardens it takes a few years for plants to get established - our many guests in 2013 have enjoyed the plants and the structural improvements.

The second terrace in the garden is a cosy corner that catches the evening sun and provides a cool place to enjoy that excellent local wine!

 

One view of private garden for the cottage and shade from the two plane trees.

The village Mechoui

August is the time we organise the Mechoui ( The roast sheep barbecue). Its an annual event with the vast majority of locals attending. This year our cottage guests also attended and even more amazing they managed to survive the days eating and drinking.

The sheep slowly roasting from early morning.
 

Preparations getting underway at the neighbours farm

An Englishman playing petanque! It'll never catch on!

Darkness falls - and we start eating again!

Any excuse for a party

If there is one thing we have learnt in our many years of visiting France is that the French certainly know how to have a good time.

Imagine the scenario:

A small town (let's say Martizay, a few miles from Les Deux Platanes) decide they want to throw a party. The local Comite des fetes gets together and asks 'what can we have as a theme for the party?' Someone says 'Sausages!!' Pourquoi pas? It's as good a reason as any.

So, they galvanise the locals, they hire in the tents, benches, tables and other requirements for cooking. Then they find a friendly traiteur to provide a variety of sausages and some chips. They get the local café to supply beer (on tap of course), wine and soft drinks. They hire a couple of bands (in this case a percussion band and the local 11 piece dance band (they don't do things by halves and somebody from the band probably lives in the town which helps) Hey presto you have the Fete de saucisses! 

We had to go to support their efforts. They had several types of sausage: normal, merguez (spicy north African), boudin and andouillette. The price for sausage and a generous portion of very nice chips: 3,50 euros. The bottle of wine was 8 euros, so in all we spent the princely sum of 20 euros all night. The entertainment was free! We had a great time dancing in the open air (I am getting really good at the Madison!)

There wasn't a food hygiene certificate in sight, the H & S man doesn't seem to exist - were there any complaints that things were not 'done' properly? Not at all in fact the hygiene standards were extremely high! Everyone had a good time - and no-one appeared the worse for drink either. We left at 11.30 and the party was still going strong. It is this type of community effort we enjoy so much. Long may it continue!

Its a good year for the roses...

(apologies to Elvis Costello)

The wet spring has  brought unexpected rewards in some beautiful roses in the gardens of Les Deux Platanes.

We have a selection of climbers and bush roses, and all are currently at their best. I am sure you will enjoy the photos:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The annual festival of roses has just finished at Chedigny near Loches, not too far from the gite. The whole village has cultivated a variety of roses which are shown to their best at the end of May. I think we could give them a run for their money! I am really pleased with the roses this year.

 

We have just finished planting a number of shrubs around the field. Hopefully they will take well and begin to flower next year.  

 

 

The flowers that bloom in the spring tra-la!!

The spring may be cooler than normal but the flowers are blooming including those planted last year bringing some colour to the garden of Les Deux Platanes.

Rhododendrons and azaleas are lovely at the moment

The aquilegia (anconi in French) have such lovely colours

The entrance to the cottage has been receiving a makeover this spring with some new paintwork and new woodwork so its all looking very nice for all our cottage guests this summer.

All looking very tidy and ready for the summer of 2013

One of our recent guests was a keen photographer and managed to collect a range of photos of animal guests visiting the garden.

Now this hedgehog looks interested in posing for the camera!

A lizard creeps along a wall to catch a spot of sunshine.

Thank you Robert for the photos we were pleased you enjoyed your week and maybe we will see you again in your motorhome in the future?

We had a bit of a trip out on Monday as it was a bank holiday here. A lady we met had told us about a distiller up on the Cher between Chenonceaux and Montrichard, so we thought we would try to find him. We did - at Chissay-en-Touraine. He distils fruit into eau-de-vie and also crèmes. We tasted one or two finally deciding on crème de peche. It will be lovely with peach desserts, or even in a kir. Can't wait to try it! The distiller has offered a free visit to his workshop for anyone staying in the cottage. He offers tours in the afternoons, and he speaks English. A morning visit to Chenonceaux, followed by lunch, then a short trip along the river to his place for the 3pm tour would make a nice day out.
His website is : http://www.distillerie-girardot.fr

Zoo de Beauval

We promised a blog about our recent visit to the Zoo Park de Beauval at St Aignan, so here it is.

We have never visited this attraction in all the years we have visited and lived here, but we know it is a very popular place during the holidays - in fact all year round, so we decided to arrive as soon as possible after opening time. I ordered our tickets on line which was no cheaper, but meant we didn't need to queue. Sure enough, even at 9.10, there were already a lot of cars in the car park and camping cars and coaches in the designated areas.

The zoo itself is a delight to visit. Even though it was very busy, once we got past the entrance, we were able to wander at our leisure and see all the animals.

We spent a nice morning, strolling around the compounds then left for lunch which we had already prepared for a picnic. We were given a stamp on our arms which allowed us to return to the park.

We have no hesitation in recommending the zoo as a place to visit. The pandas were especially cute and played to the crowd!

Spring is here

Unlike 2012 the 2013 weather has been off to a rather slow start this year although the birds seem to be out in force this year bringing some colourful and interesting visitors to the garden of Les Deux Platanes!

A Hoopoe spotted on the grass at Les Deux Platanes with its long beak and beautiful plumage.

Recent guests to the cottage spotted a Hoopoe in the garden searching for some tasty morsel. His distinctive call (hoop-hoop-hoop) is one of the sounds around Le Breuil. The Cookoo has been singing regularly and the green woodpecker has been around occasionally.

The spring flowers are now out in abundance with the flowering cherry putting on a lovely display.

 

The cottage framed with flowering cherry

 

The apple blossom is magnificent this year so we should see a good crop later in the year.

 

 The wine fairs are now in full swing with many local towns providing opportunities to taste the 2012 and earlier vintages. One of the growers on our wine tour route has won a silver medal for his white wine at the international Sauvignon Blanc competition held recently.

Guests were provided with a gazebo - click on any picture for a larger image.

It may be a cool spring but it's central France, so 'cool' is always comparative. The garden of Les Deux Platanes was provided with a gazebo to provide some shade from the cool spring wind during a barbecue.

On a different note, this weekend we are having a 'Dam Busters' commemoration to remember the 70th anniversary of this famous raid during WW2. Friends are coming for a showing of the film, followed by a 1940's style tea.

warm spring weather!

Spring is certainly in the air, late March and the first day of April have been reasonably warm and dry we even managed to sit outside for lunch a few days ago so maybe it’s a sign of things to come?

Maureen has all her flowering plants developing in the greenhouse, must be at least 200, so the cottage garden should look very nice once again for all our guests. Madam Monique has the larger flowering plants stored in her greenhouse for the winter and I am sure they will have had a lot of TLC should it be required. Maureen has also been busy weeding all the flower beds and we have just taken delivery of 15, 80 litre bags of bio compost from the local gardeners co-operative to give the soil a boost in preparation for the new planting.

Last summer in central France was warm and dry, we are always amazed at the difference in the weather when we are only 360 miles south of Dover!

Next week we have arranged to join a group of friends to have an evening meal at our local ‘Michelin’ restaurant.  Can I dispel any ideas that we eat at Michelin restaurants on a regular basis….although this one is simply amazing value. A guest at les Deux Platanes in 2012 was a catering consultant and they had a meal at this Michelin restaurant, he told me afterwards that the price paid was 30% of a similar meal at a Michelin Restaurant in the south of England. So if you are planning a stay at Les Deux Platanes, you could give yourselves a treat and reserve at a table at L’Promenade.

Our flowering cherry tree is just about to bloom, look out for a photo on this BLOG soon!