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.