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.
Monday, 18 October 2010
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.
Sunday, 17 October 2010
Saturday, 16 October 2010
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.
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.
Sunday, 3 October 2010
Wednesday, 29 September 2010
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.
Sunday, 26 September 2010
Nantilly Notes On Tour
Tuesday, 3 August 2010
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.....
Monday, 2 August 2010
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.
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
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
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