An Englishman in Le Lavandou (3)

On Sunday morning the four of us motored to La Londe to visit the market. Now French markets are always interesting - look at the saucisson and spices stalls in the photos! We then wandered into Le Lavandou and Photo 3 shows one of the gardens on the sea front.

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After eating lunch at André's JP, Tine & I went for a walk along the coast to the east. Last time I was here I twisted my ankle badly, luckily history didn't repeat itself! The coastal walk is beautiful with good views of sea-birds on the rocks before you get to the next bay (St Clair, I think).

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The last photo shows palm trees on the main beach at Le Lavandou. By now the sky was clear blue. Then back to say au-revoir to André and into the car to motor up to Carcassonne to stop overnight before continuing to Vendée. You realise just how big France is when JP told us we'd done nearly 2,000 km since Thursday!

An Englishman in Le Lavandou (2)

André is looking well in the first photo having had his aperitif (Ricard, bien sûr) and with a glass of the rosé we purchased at Aix in front of him!

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Sadly the weather didn't improve in the afternoon but we still managed a stroll along the front to La Favière a small port next to Le Lavandou. It was good to see Jean-Pierre and Catherine relaxed (and dreaming of a new boat, JP?) We HAD to have a beer of course and what better place than by a 'terrain de boules', something we don't really see in La Tranche oddly.

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In the evening we watched England beat France in the 6 Nations Tournament (isn't that twice since we moved here?!!) and Photo 4 shows you the evidence! André also enjoyed the match as you can see.

An Englishman in Le Lavandou (1)

I know, we're always holidaying as SOME of you keep telling us! Can you blame us?!

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Last weekend we took the opportunity to travel with Catherine to meet Jean-Pierre near Aix-en-Provence then onto Le Lavandou to see Tonton André and stop in his apartment overlooking the Med. Whilst JP was in business meetings we visited a local vineyard (Château Virant) where they also process olive oil. We bought 10 litres of rosé wine but found the oil quite expensive, although a wonderful flavour. Photo 1 shows a display of the olive oil products, and Photo 2 shows some of the immense vineyards surrounding the Domaine. The 3rd photo is actually an olive tree right outside the office where JP was working.

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It was good to find André well, although more or less confined to his apartment as he is less mobile these days. He certainly enjoyed the company of his son and his niece (plus their partners). After an aperitif with André we left him to get to bed to watch television and walked along the front to eat a very welcome pizza in the town.

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Next day was very grey - not what we expected! - but we went to Bormes-les-Mimosas and the trees were still in flower, as you can see in Photo 4. I love the last photo showing the entrance to a courtyard of a private house. We had a little walk round and saw oranges and lemons in gardens - it really is a beautiful town even under a grey sky!

Spring days

Just got in from a short bicycle ride to look at the high tide. Still quite a few people around despite a change in the weather. 2/3 of French kids are on holiday this week and it's good to seem them riding round on their bikes, etc. Yes, I think we've said goodbye to lunches outside for the time being...

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The first photo was taken last Sunday while it was still quite warm. As you can the main road up to the pavillon was busy, many shops, bars, ice cream parlours doing a good trade so early in the year. Friends of Matt are doing up one of the shops as a Pub to open around Easter. I'll keep you posted!

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The other two photos show part of the garden in front of the house. In Photo 2 you can see we have been influenced by the wonderful local roundabouts and sides of roads where different grasses have been used. Photo 3 is really not our land but we think it looks welcoming to neighbours and visitors.

Update

We walked down to the market mid-morning and saw that there were a few more stalls - those of you who know La Tranche would be staggered how small the market is though at this time of year! However more and more shops (and M's old bar!) are opening. The hibernation period is nearly over.

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It's local election time next month and YES I have a vote. They were out in force in the market with their leaflets. As JP is a member of one of the parties vying for election I don't think we have much choice. The other week we went to a meeting to hear his 'team'. Three hours later we returned home to eat. Politicians are the same the world over, methinks!

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Photos 1, 2, and 3 show some of our plantations - cabbage, caulie and onions & raddish. We bought some potatoes yesterday to go in next month, plus some strawberry plants - can't wait for those!

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The last photo was taken on Thursday to show that the sand IS being deposited again. I'm sure many of you will recognise l'Equipage and l'Equinoxe. Hopefully by summer the sand will be right up to the 'terrace' again.

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BFG update - if you remember my three aims on moving here were Biking, eating Fish and Gardening. Well, as Meatloaf said, "Two out of three ain't bad". Sadly I'm still not a fish fan - love them swimming around, but not on my plate. Having said that I HAVE eaten anything served to me. Trouble is everyone knows I don't really like fish so they don't serve it!! Let's see what happens when they read this post on the blog!!

Happy Valentine's Day!

What a romantic - well I DID get some flowers for my valentine! Won't say who though!

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And what a beautiful day. Catherine came for lunch and we had barbecued sausages as the first two photographs show. Look carefully behind in the first photo and you can see our cabbages and caulies coming on a treat! For our starter we had shop-bought beetroot and home-grown lamb's lettuce - we're not exactly self-sufficient yet, but we're getting there!

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In the afternoon we decided to take our books to the beach as it was so warm in the garden. We quickly realised that the off-shore breeze was not as we wanted and went for a short cycle ride instead. The 3rd photograph was taken from the end of the former jetty, astonishingly two children in swimming gear paddling in the sea on 14th February!

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We continued along to the Poste de Secours and were pleased to see that the sand is coming back! Tine is standing on top of the concrete slab that appeared at the end of last year. You can hardly make out the slab now.

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Then back home, Tine doing some digging and me chopping and sawing logs for the fire - I'm becoming a 'dab hand'. Once the sun goes down the temperature soon drops and we appreciate the fire to warm our old bones!!

Spring has sprung...

Just a few photos to show you that we are enjoying a wonderfully warm spell, eating our lunch outside each day but still enjoying the log fire in the evening when the temperature drops quite swiftly.

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Mimosa trees are everywhere in La Tranche and their scent is heavenly. Our neighbour gave Tine some to put in a vase for us to enjoy inside as well. Our first La Tranche daffodil comes next, followed by catkins at the front of the house and (we think) plum-tree blossom at the back.

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After working in the garden yesterday we cycled to 'our' beach and were staggered by the number of people walking along the sand. It was almost like a seaside Lowry. Most people were wrapped up in jackets but we're hard, we were in t-shirts! It's half term here this week too. In France schools are 'zoned' so that 1/3 started their holiday last Friday, 1/3 next Friday and the rest the Friday after. Not a bad idea for the tourist industry and the roads!

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In town there's a sense that people are preparing for the season, shop doors open with sounds of work going on. It's great to have La Tranche to ourselves, but it will be good to share it with others before too long!

A couple of days in Brittany

Last Sunday we drove up to Theix to visit Claude and Danny, yet another set of cousins - there are loads more cousins to see yet! They live near Caen but have a holiday home just to the south of Vannes, near the Gulf of Morbihan. After lunch they took us for a drive around and the first photo is taken at Port Anna where we walked off our meal. It was rather wild at times but we were well covered.

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Next day the weather improved and our hosts took us to visit a couple of beautiful small towns, Le Gorvello and La Vraie Croix (Photo 2). This was on our way to meet Gill and her Mum for them to show us the house Gill has bought. It was great to see them again and we were very impressed with the house which is in a small town called Sulniac, to the South-East of Vannes. Gill hopes to complete in a few weeks which is very exciting - we've offered our services, of course!

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We went for lunch in a really good hotel/bar at Noyalo (€8.20 for a 2-course meal including copious wine) then back to Claude & Danny's for coffee. Later we toured another section of Morbihan, the last two photos taken at Larmor-Baden looking over the causeway at high tide towards the Ile de Berder. This is where Cécile and Arnaud have their 2nd home - what an idyllic spot.

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Next day the blue skies were replaced by grey skies and torrential rain. We stayed with the cousins for lunch, then motored back to Vendée in horrendous conditions. The bridge at Nantes had 'vent violent' (violent wind) warnings - not for sister Kate!!

Update on l'embarcadère

I'm sure my continued stories of the demolition of the jetty is boring some people, but here's a last look at what is left! For those of you who know La Tranche, l'embarcadère is an iconic symbol (did I really say that?!)

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Photo 1 was taken on a very foggy 23rd January where you can just make out the remains of the end of the jetty, where the Inter-Iles ferry used to pick up/drop off passengers. Next day the fog lifted and Photo 2 is taken from beyond the jetty looking back to the mainland. Under our feet was sticky clay, rather than sand - took a bit of cleaning afterwards! Photo 3 was taken on 27th January and you can clearly see the three 'pipes' which will remain for the new jetty. The weather was really gorgeous that day as you can see.

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Next you can see that they have been hard at work at the Poste de Secours. You can't believe the accuracy and delicacy of the men controlling these monsters. They have now covered these boulders with cement and I will check tomorrow where they're up to!

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Finally for today a photo taken on 25th January to show that we ate outside at lunchtime. Zoom in on Photo 4 and look at the date in the TV Guide (also note how far we're getting on with the garden!!)

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Sorry for missing yet another few days in the blog. Yes, we've been galavanting again - back to Brittany, but more next time...