Marans - a nearby town that is 10km from the coast and yet carries a name that means "sea place" hmmmm...

 And yet when you stroll along the river you can see every sign of how this could have been a prosperous port that lost its right to trade in 1598 with the Edict of Nantes. At least that is what we figured out reading an orientation board in the town.

There is also an attractice looking market hall that hold markets on  a couple of mornings a week. Along with a fair selection of cafes and bars it looks a real propspect for a more thorough visit in the spring and summer.

M&A were not at the house when we got back but they have left a mysterious note about a visit from the fire brigade that we will have to learn more about on their return!

It is New Year's Eve and we are preparing for a long weekend

 There is a Friday morning market in the car park by the Marie in Marsilly so we thought we'd try to ssource all our needs from the local producers. The market was a bit short of stalls, no greengrocer for example and the fish stall had nothing od interets to us.
However we got two very nice local free range chickens, some good looking duck breats and a decent beef fillet joint so we should be OK once we have some vegetables.

We also popped to the boulangerie for the essential breakfast pastries!

We need to have the log fire burning in the late afternoon and evenings....

 .....so we have moved the desk upstairs to the small bedroom and so we can move the sofa further away from the fire.

 We seem to be getting through the logs at a pace

But now we won't have to fight about who sits and roasts directly in front of the fire.

Nous arrivons

Hello from Nantilly.
We were the third car on to the ferry and the third car off the ferry, pretty much to schedule at 8.00am this morning. We split the 4 hours and 55 minutes of driving from the ferry port at Le harve to Marsilly between us and with a couple of pit stops made the journey in five and a half hours. We pulled up outside the front door at 13.30.
Trouble free journey; the temperature never got lower than -1c and peaked at +4c. Roads all clear and there was no sign that there had ever been any snow once we got about half way to La Rochelle.We had packed a "picnic" to make a lunch during the journey but everything went so smoothly we ended up having the "picnic" on the kitchen table in number huit.
It was around 2.5c when we got here but the newly installed electric heaters had done their job and the ambient temperature in the downstairs was 14c. One slightly negative side effect of the radiator installation is that the place is covered in a fine dust from the work - so a nice bit of dusting to do.
On another topic altogether I learned a new acronym today CRAFT - it is a bit like a "senior moment" - Can't Remember A Fecking Thing.

The next two posts are photo's we took in October when we went to see the start of the Velux single handed round the world race start

We are having two electric radiators installed....

...possibly in by Christmas. One will be under the window in the salon area and the second will be a vertical one - a bit like this picture in the corner of the kitchen by the entrance to the larder / utility room. The idea is that when the oil runs out we will have the oil burner and its tank taken away. We are hoping that the electric radiators, combined with the fire will be enough.

A warm and wonderful day to end our four day weekend

Very lazy morning and that was followed by lunch at Relais de la Poste but then we went for an hour long tramp along the coast and back through the fields. Looks like the carrelets are gradually being rebuilt. Still lots of work going on along the shore in the wake of the storm. Flight home around 6.00pm.

Thinking of the New Year

The Velux House and views of the Velux 5 Oceans Race Village

Just back from Viviers.......

.....herself had the moules and I had the Saumon. They are staying open until mid Novmber and then will close until April 1st next year.
Friday's flight was the 10.50 morning flight which gives a sense of a pretty full day on arriving.The house was in good shape and not too cold, we plugged in a couple of electric heaters and headed in to La Rochelle. A nice lunch in the sun by the old port and then onto the Velux village. The excitement about the Velux 5 Ocean Race is building up and we spent a couple of hours mooching about the race village looking at the yachts and herself chatting up one of the skippers.
Tomorrow is the start and we are going to go down and join in the celebrations. Maintenant une verre du vin blanc je pense.

It is tough out here....

Now in Key Biscayne

Drove up from Key West yesterday and managed to play 11 holes of golf at Crandon PArk Golf before being rained of by the beginings of a tropical rain storm. It is now 7.15am and it has rained all night and is expected to rain all day. At the same time it is 28c.

Nantilly Notes On Tour

Off to sun ourselves in 27c of heat and to watch the thunder storms go by. We are just about at the southern most point of the US. When I say "just about" I mean yards away.

Oh for a left handed cork screw

Forensic engineers were called today to an address in Nantilly - south west France - to try and determine the cause of failure of a critical engineering component of No 8. As the photograph shows the item was split asunder whilst being utilsed to open a bottle of Sancerre. Professor Doctor Ihaven Ta'Qulue is reported as saying, when asked for the cause of failure "Je ne sais pas" and then muttered some thing about a gauche and trop utilise.....

Well the firewood is all gathered....

hmmm it seems to me that it was on the feast of Stephen, when the snow lay all about, that firewood was gathered, so what are we doing it now for when it is the feast of St Alfreda and a sparkling 24degree C?
Seasoning is the answer - oh how confusing.

Ile D'Oleron

Until yesterday, and despite all the years we have visited this area before we bought the house, we had never been to Ile D' Oleron and now that we have we will certainly visit again.
It was after 10.00am when we set off, a bit later than we'd intended as we thought that a sunny Sunday, in peak holiday season, could make things a bit busy to get across the bridge to the Ile.
And we were right, the trip from Marsilly to St Agnant (Aerodrome de Rochefort) took 35 minutes and then it took us another 35 minutes to get across the bridge. We had noted the journey time to St Agnant as the Aerdrome there is supposed to be redeveloped as the new La Rochelle Airport and Laleu that is only ten minutes from Nantilly to be demoted or even closed. Some say 2012, some say 2015, but Sheila's new friend from the flight over says 2020 so who knows.

Once on the island we pulled off the main road and headed for Le Chateau - the first place on the island - a town called Le Chateau and not a castle, and what a good spot. A busy harbour area and adjacent shops and bars that in part have taken over fishermen's huts and so blend pretty in well. One such spot provided us with a very welcome cup of coffee, although it was too late for le petit dejuener it was far to early for lunch.

We took the back / coast roads to move on to Boyardville and as we guessed it provided great views into the bay of Fort Boyard - one of the many defence built in this area in the 17th, 18th and early 19th century to defend the miliatary shipyards and arsenal at Rochefort. There was a citadel in Le Chateau that dated back to the 1630 that was still in use up to mid 1945 when 90% of it was reduced to rubble in a 40 minute allied air bombardment as part of the liberation of France.

The island is a very popular family holiday destination and Boyardville was certainly buzzing with holiday makers enjoying the quayside cafe's and ice cream shops as well as the boat trips and jet ski hire. Still too early for luch we settled on an ice cream each - I am making mango and passion fruit as my staple ice cream choice.

We headed out of the town and into the coastal forest and with the help of the guide book found some parking at the end of a long narrow road that gave access over the dunes to the beach and there we stayed for the rest of the afternoon. Comfortable in our flashy Zandra Rhodes designed camping-armchairs we whiled away the time by reading and people watching and the tide rolled out and then came back in.

It was gone 5.00pm when we returned ot the car and made our way back to Nantilly. It took us about 45 minutes to unwind ourselves back down the island to the bridge but once there the return journey was much quicker.

The evening cooled off quite a lot be we still managed to barbeque and dine al fresco.
All in all a lovely Sunday. Here on Monday morning we are waiting for two cubic metres of firewood to be delivered and then will have the task of shifting it from the road to the back of the garage. This is planning ahead as we don't expect to use that wood until the winter of 2011/12.
A bientot

July sighs to a warm and sunny close

So Ann and Michael depart and twenty four hours later Sheila and Peter return. One hardly dare mention that we are sitting in the yard listening to Test Match Special via the internet and the "new" wireless speakers. How very ex-pat!
Met a delightful chap on the 'plane - more anon. Feeling a little guilty since we are enjoying the beers that M&A left in the fridge and noting how much cleaner the place is than when they arrived or indeed when we werer here at the begining of July.
Planning a barbeque this evening.

Sunday on Ile de Re

....and of course by the time we got there the sun was out and we could have spent the whole afternoon on the beach. In fact by the time we reached the roundabout with the N237 just 4km from the house, the clouds had gone and there was promise of sunshine.
Once over the bridge (summer time toll 16.50 euro - can you believe?) we drove to the end of the island to the lighthouse and had a mouch around the precints butd id not join the line of people waiting to climb to the top of the 19th century light. From there we pottered down to St Martin and after enjoying a strol, with fabulous ice creams and a sit with a cup of coffee in a quayside cafe, we stayed on to have our early dinner in Le Skipper. Fabulous weather the whole time, although by the time we finished dinner and the sun was low in the sky, and the breeze had gottten up, we had cooled off enough to get back in the car and pootle back to Nantilly.
A lovely day.

Bright and early on Monday morning

Well not too early.
Sunday was an odd day in that it seemed to have three parts. Part one was a long start to the morning with lots of lazy pottering about and a coffee in the Tabac at the end of Rue De Nantilly. This was a "first" for all of us and the place was a hive of activity. It was about 11.30 and in addition to six or eight folk drinking coffee or a glass of rose or even pastis, there was a constant stream of people buying scratch cards, playing Rapido and betting on the horses.
We bought a french sunday newspaper and managed to pick the bones but mostly from the stories we knew somthing aout anyway.
Part two of the day bascially involved Michael and Peter watching the F1 grand prix from Germany - I say watching - it might also have involved some snoring!
Part three began with light rain in Nantilly about 3.00pm and the four of us went off to Iles de Re. The original plan had been to take the deckchairs and hang about by the shore and then have an early dinner before returning to Nantilly. With the rain we decided to leave the deck chairs at home and respond to the weather situation on the island - all of five miles away.....more soon......

Sunset over a damaged carrelet

Lovely weather.....

...if you like it warm!

We have had two lazy days that have recharged the batteries. Friday night was moule marinere down at Viviers on the cliff top and tonight is going to be barbque in the back yard. Peter and Michael spent some time on the practise putting green proving to themselves that they neeed a lot of practise.

The carrelets are being rebuilt

The cereal harvest is well and truly in....

And the sunflowers are begining to blossom. If that is what they do. Another fantstically hot day and even better Michael is cooking the dinner

Mirror, mirror on the wall......

Friday July 16th and the four of us converge on Rue de Nantilly within an hour of one another - Michael and Ann after a five hundred mile drive and six hour ferry drive, and Peter & Sheila after seven hours of train and plane and hanging about the airport.
A few errands had to be undertaken and in between those and watching the Open Golf Michael and I mounted the new mirror on the back wall of the Salon.
There has been a couple of light showers but right now the sun is cracking the stones.

Marsilly 2010

July Weekend One

Here for the first of a series of weekends throughout July - that is to say if things go according to plan.
Absolutely glorious weather and sharing it with Mary Connor who came over with Sheila in the car, overnight on Wednesday. Most of yesterday was spent on the Ile de Re and required the deployment of factor 50 sun blocker.

A four day wekend - I think I coud get used to this.

For once we were not subjected to the toot-der- toot of the Ryanair "on time arrival" fanfare. However it was not very late and having collected a value priced Citroen C3 Picasso from Alamo we were picking up some essential supplies in Carrefour by 2.00pm.
Looking to book the rental car our usual suppliers (Hertz and Avis) wanted about twice what we paid on our last trip. So I just googled "car rental" and came up with a booking with Alamo via ebookers.com at the same sort of rate we'd last paid and ended up with a bigger vehicle, which proved very useful come Saturday.
Our plan was to play nine holes of golf at 4.00pm but Anika's left arm problem made this very unwise so we decided to leave it.

We did a bit of a cycle, a round trip to Esnande down to the shore and back along to Port de Pelle and back into Marsilly and onto Nantilly. We stopped of at the village hall were the annual distribution of sacs de poubelle was taking place and stocked up - enough to keep us going for years we reckon. It was interesting that their records still had the Azzapardi family living in No 8 and it is two and half years since they left. No wonder the Azzapardi voting papers came to the house this year. The cycle ride did serve to convince me that the bike I am using is too small for me to be comfortable for anything other than a short ride.

Friday was not the warmest day to arrive back in Rue de Nantilly and it was quite early in the evening when we got the wood fire going.

With golf off the agenda for the wekend we decided to re-jig the weekend and promoted buying me a new bike to the top of the list. We had done a bit of research when we were last here and went straight to Decathlon armed with our limited french and all the necessary euro. In all it only took 15 minutes and we were packing the b-twin 7 into the luggage space of the Citroen and bringing the new bike back to Nantilly.

After a test ride around the village we planted the flowers into the pots to try and establish a bit of floral colour for later in the year. We also did a bit of a tidy up of the garage so as to clear the way for a delivery of firewood that we need to get in at the begining of summer.

We made another visit to Les Gourmets in Lagord for dinner, this time we weren't the only people in the dining room, there were three others. Both "salad de" starters were excellent and the puddings were fine indeed. Mixed success with the mains but not bad for a local and well worth another visit.

So far Sunday has been a bit influenced by the news that the UK airports in south east in England maybe about to close because of the volcanic ash......

Sunday May 2nd

The day started with a heavy rain shower but then improved into a sunny, blustery day and we avoided being anywhere near the rest of the day's showers. The Trip Out was down to Fouras and Chatelaillion-Plage. We took some photos - see below. Both places are lookng very well and clearly ready for the start of the season.

We nearly had lunch at Les Flots in C-P but decided to go for (not local) moule + frites in a beach side cafe. It was not a great choice but somehow it felt like being on holiday and so we finished off with a stroll on the promenade licking a glace italien each. As best as we can remember Les Flots has built an extension - see picture on left.

On the way back we swung through Esnande and visited the church. It looks like a fortress and it turns out the original church had been fortified as the ruling cleric of the time feared an invasion and wanted to create a stronhold and refuge. I am sure we will understand more about it once we improve our french.

Don't forget to click on the link below to the blog itself to see the slide show of the photos. You can also find them here

Photos from France 2010

May is here, here in May

Flew in from Stansted yesterday, arriving on time and quick off the plane and into the Avis car rental desk to collect a Toyota Yaris as our transport for the weekend. Since today (Saturday May 1st) is a public holiday we first made sure we could get food supplies adequate for our needs from the local shops, we could, so then went to play golf.


Golf de la Pree has been badly hit by the storm. They only have the front nine open and you book to go round twice if you want to play 18. They are applying a 30% discount to the normal tariff and honestly they need to as some of the open holes are in very poor condition. We think it will take a year or two for it to be fully restored. Our guess is that they will work through the summer and autumn to get the back nine in good order and then close the front nine and do the same in the spring of next year.

Dinner was at Viviers, in their new dining room, but no moule as it is not yet the season for local moule - we think it might start in June or July. The menu does not seem to have changed except they had a saumon special, perhaps because they had no moule.

This morning, local supplies from local shops, a walk in the sun around Marsilly and a baugette and cheese at number 8 for lunch. Lovely stuff.

Back from a super trip

We perhaps cut it as bit fine in terms of leaving for the airport, waiting until 5.00pm for the 6.00pm flight. Well we have done that before but this time we were down by the old port in La Rochelle and not on Rue de Nantilly. Still we made it.
One small note - true to form one of the few shops we have in Marsilly was closed for its holidays during our stay - as the photo attests. This time it was the tabac

A new commercial centre for Marsilly

We have been tracking the housing development (La Motte Brulee) that is taking place in the big field behind La Poste and now we find that a new commercial centre is also planned. The picture shows the sign board that has been erected by La Poste about the development. The news dominates the March edition of M@rsilly Actu - which itself has been transformed into a new glossy format. If i understand it (the french) the buildings will be complete by the end of 2010 and will include a Boulangerie, Boucherie - charcuterie - traiteur, superette, salon de coiffure, Estheticiene, Flueriste, Agence Immobiliere and Pizzeria.....

I think I have read that businesses will be relocating so some of the list may be certain and some speculative. It seems that the local maire has been wanting to "recentre" the econonic actvities of the village and to increase the population. (The mind boggles.) It seems that the first part of the development began in 2003.

Well isn't that interesting?

Wonderful weather and a road trip to Rochefort

After a late start we decided against golf in favour of a visit to Rochefort. It is a lovely and interesting town. Before setting off I made sure the wee lads in the yard were repositioned.

The Arsenal and shipyard were pretty busy with school groups. The Ropery was closed because it was flooded in the storm and it will be May 1st before it is fully open.

Just when are the ides of March?

There were 181 people on Sunday on the plane over - so quite busy then, and many of them were plainly french returning from a short trip to London. We had a on time departure, early arrival and whistled through the arrivals so quick that the man from Hertz had not arrived at his desk. There was a line of four people waiting by the time he did pop up but fortunately we were at the front.

No 8 was fine and we dropped off our things and then scuttled about in search of cash and food. First stop was le distributeur in Esnande but it was boarded up and not available. We set off down the road that goes down to the shore where Les Viviers is but the road was closed and we followed a very minor road back to Marsilly. Nueil provided us with a cash machine and the Pizza place in Lagord with dinner and some wine. Along the way we checked out Zocolo - the Tex Mex place - and although the bar was open they were not doing food.

Back in Nantilly we lit the fire - a certain amount of rubble came down the chimney when we opened the vent so we might need to look at this. As the picture shows the wee lads in the yard got blown about a bit but no damage was done. Come Monday morning we discovered that one of the hand basins in the bathroom is leaking from the pipework that carries the water away from the basin so we will need to take a look at that.

Monday was at leisure with a trip to La Rochelle and a drive down the coast to Fouras. Lots of activity in terms of repairing storm damage but little sign of any significant problems in Fouras, the main beaches looked fine. The weather was glorous throughout. Back in Nantilly and we walked down to the port and along the cliff top. Every carrelet has been damaged, most of them very badly - none look useable. We did a Carrefour sweep on the way back from Fouras and set ourselves up for dining in.

All in all a very pleasant day.

Looking forward to Sunday

Peter and friend Peter are bound for Nantilly on Sunday afternoon. It will be good to see the place after the big storm. Our housekeeper has been to no8 and reported that there are no obvious problems and it looks like the only casualty was a ceramic sun ornament that used to be on the wall into the courtyard. Note to self - remmebr to take such things down at the end of summer.
We are going to be there through to Thursday evening and hope to get in a round of golf, although the last report was that the golf course only had nine holes open after the storm.

The hum of the dehumidifier can be heard quietly in the background......
Nantilly Gnome 1, "Well, what do you think happened? One minute they were here and the house was warm and busy and the next they were gone?"
Gnome 2, "Dunno - but it is freezing here, you'd think they could have let us sit out the winter in the garage"
Gnome 3, "Humans! Hey what are those two up to behind your back?.....

Well the dehumidfier is humming away and keeping the house company since S&P flew back to England last night. We heard they made it back because Stansted missed the worst of the weather yesterday. We must say it is quiet without them.

Monday January 4th

Our last full day of this trip
We had a few domestic chores to get through but much so much so we went down to Chatelaillon - Plage and had a goody blowy stroll along the full length of the Boulevard de la Mer. Glorious winter sunshine, not too much wind and not very many folk around. We parked by the Casino on the main rue and walked through to the esplande, heading north to the very end (actually the begining) of the Boulevard, and beyond before turning around and walking the other end. There are at least three cafes / restaurants south of Les Flots although none look to be a patch on Les Flots. The one at the very end, Les Graines de Sable, does have a wooden deck on the beach which could be very nice in the season.

On the way back home we called in to the fish stall at the Le Clerc on the road to the hospital and bought irish moules for dinner tonight.

One of the chores was to get a new gas bottle as the one that powers the hob ran out the other day. We had our "spare" in stock so this was just a question of replacing the spare. It wiil be interesting to see how long this one lasts. As best as we can remeber the exhausted bottle was left by the Azzapardi's when we bought the house in December 2007.

Very cold again today - below freezing but we have not turned off the kitchen heater since we last got it going on Saturday afternoon so the downstairs has maintained a steady 20c throughout. Our flight back is scheduled to leave around 6.00pm so fingers crossed for it not being effected by the weather. we have rather a lot to do back in the UK.

Saturday January 2nd
Saturday morning was a trip to Rochefort where we strolled in the strong winter sun, wrapped with hats and gloves and scarves. We had to clear a hard frost from the car windows before we set off. we should try and remember to put the car in the garage tonight. It is about 40km from here and on an off season morning it was little more than a 35 minute drive.
Rochefort centre buzzed with locals doing their Saturday morning shopping and there was a decent street market on a road that intersected with the main shopping street. It looked as if it was a regular Saturday morning thing rather than anything seasonal.
On the square outside the Hotel de Ville an ice skating rink was in full swing and a rink side cafe was doing brisk business both inside and out. Elsewhere everything else was closing for lunch. Praise to provincial France that still believes a two and half hour lunch break on a Saturday is the best way to run a shop. I hope they don't hear of this in Dulwich.
A little bit of shopping for Sunday was needed on the way home and then back to tackle that kitchen heater. It was 14c in the kitchen when we came down this morning but after three goes we gave up trying to get the heater working and left for our trip to Rochefort. The most annoying thing is that when we got back and went through the same routine to light the thing, it fired up first time. A good thing too as the weather forecast indicates that it will only get colder throughout the rest of our stay.

Restaurant de la Paix, Chez Chocolat, Esnandes.
Lots to say on this, all quite positive. On the lunchtime we popped in and made the reservation the dining room was well populated with merry looking folk in groups of six and eight. The "winter" dining room would do about 24 covers and our corner table, laid for two, could easily have accommodated two more. I called it the winter dining room as we found out (on a trip to the loo) that there is a much larger dining room with big windows that overlooks a terrace, that overlooks the car park. In addition they have a pretty big function room. Another discovery was that in the vestaire of the main entrance (from the car park) there are two pinball machines and an arcade game.

Back in our pleasantly appointed dining room they where serving a restricted set of three menus as part of the Christmas and New year service. We knew this before we arrived as they had pointed it out to us when we made the reservation. We chose the 25euro (no choice) menu - the cheapest -this was smoked salmon, confit of duck, cheese, dessert but they happily accommodated Anika/Angela not eating duck with a fish alternative. It was certainly good enough to suggest a return visit, not least because it is only a five minute drive from Nantilly. We had made a reservation for 8.00pm but arrived about 7.45, this did not phase them and we went straight to our table. We found ourselves back in the car park just after 9pm. Ah did I mention - we were their only customers and a sign had appeared saying they would be closed for the next two weeks.

Sunday morning is 2c but feels like -2c and there is 60% chance of precipitation, thank goodness the Leeds v Manchester football match is on a TV channel we can get on the telly!

We did remember to put the car in the garage overnight. This turned out not to be too bright an idea as Peter managed to clip the front wing on the garage door post - such a small car and he was stone cold sober!

Rochefort Carousel

And not just bread - another home made pizza

Who needs pizza a porter around here?