Monday morning and the rain comes....

Having heard the rain through the night it was a pleasant surprise to wake to a bright sunny morning - however it did not last long as the rain returned and there is a threat of thunderstorms. So we are likely to tootle about the house doing a bit of preparation for our return tomorrow and look for a break in the weather this afternoon.

Yesterday was a decent enough day but a little short on sunshine. The highlight of the day was a trip out to Port des Minimes where we could see the work being done to expand the complex from 3,600 berths to 4,800. We then took a walk along the cliff top towards the south and got a bit of fresh air in our lungs and a bit of exercise for our legs.

Saturday was a trip out to visit the town of Cognac. It is about 60 miles from Nantilly, so very accessible and yet we had not been there before. Checking the weather it seemed like a good idea to head south for a better, warmer day. That part of the plan was not realised as we could tell no difference in the weather to that we had left behind.  Obviously we arrived just as all the shops closed for the three hour lunch break which they still do even though it was Saturday. On top of that, it not yet being "the season", the visits to the Cognac houses were also closed for lunch. Cognac has a handsome centre, with the main shopping streets now pedestrianised, making for pleasant strolling. On a sunny day in the summer it may well be worth a revisit but it does amount to a three hour round trip and Saints, Royan and Rochefort are closer and probably have as much to offer.

New gardeners seem to be taking over the backyard

Friends of 8 rue de Nantilly have responded to the observation that les gnomes have gone missing by sending in photos as evidence of them being seen at the address. The first snap seems to show then hard at work on the sage bush. This was very encouraging as the pruning back of this plant is on the do list for our holiday and a task we have been postponing.

However on checking, first thing this morning, the sage bush is un-pruned and les gnomes nowhere to be seen.

The second photo also locates them in the backyard and hanging around the remains of the other sage bush. This is the bush that was severely hit by the frosty weather of 2011 and was hard pruned to see if it had any life left in it. Again I checked for signs of les gnomes - nothing but there is a bit of life showing on the bush. Hmmm I wonder if there is a connection?

I can't believe it is Friday and we have been here a full week.We will have to make full use of our last four full days.

With the prospect of sunshine we headed for Ile de Re

WE had heard a rumour that the gnomes had good for an Easter Weekend break and had not returned so we thought we had better go in search.....

But wherever we visited there was no trace, we will have to call in the Gendarmerie.

Last August seems a long time ago

The Thursday night ferry from Portsmouth to St Malo was it's usual busy self with lots of family and school groups creating a great buzz. Although delayed in departing it was an on time disembarkation in France that meant we had cleared the Border Control and were free of the port by 08.50 on Friday morning.
We made good time on surprisingly busy roads and were sat down at the kitchen table of No 8 rue de Nantilly by 12.30.

We weren't 100% sure of what business would be open over the Easter Weekend so we did some basic menu planning and made sure that we had sufficient supplies should we want to stay put. This took us to our local shopping district and our first discovery of the trip. Our lovely "new" Ecofrais supermarche from last year has undergone a re-branding; it is now a "U Express". Ecofrais and U Express are all part of the same brand family (Hyper U, Super U, etc) that was adopted by Co-op Atlantique when it moved away from the "Carrefour" association last year. Ecofrais boasted about its "local, sustainable, organic" qualities. U Express - hard to say??? I'd hazard a guess at "convenience" coupled with own brands - but the problem with the idea of convenience is that they have carried over the customer service style of Ecofrais of never having anyone at the checkout until a queue of four has built and someone goes looking for an assistant.

Also in the centre is a new shop selling nice, but mostly pointless, stuff to adorn one's house. As the picture shows it has taken the unit between Toto Pizza and the Florist. What is just out of the picture is that the two units to the right of the florist are also being fitted out. Perhaps by summer we will know what they will be.

The second discovery of the trip is that house building is popping up in every conceivable corner of Marsilly. It clearly has become a place for the local Charentais to live when they need to be handy for La Rochelle but don't want to pay the higher prices in the Communes closer to la ville.

On Saturday we made a point of going in to La Rochelle and today we wandered out ot visit Fouras and Chatelaillion-Plage just to remind ourselves what lovely spots they are. Typically, we have not yet adjusted to the rhythm of life here so were bowled up just after the markets had closed and during the lunchtime closure of everything, except places serving lunch. By the time we thought about lunch (in ChP) - the out of season lunch places had all closed. Still we wont't fade away.