Monday, 30 September 2024
Driveway no more
Saturday, 28 September 2024
Goodbye to Maggie and Margaret
Tuesday, 24 September 2024
Saint-Émilion
Jenn and Russ suggested that we all visit Saint-Émilion on our way to Bordeaux Airport. It’s about an hour west of their house. We drove through lots of wine countryside on the way, vineyards everywhere! James noticed that we would be passing very close to La Clarière, the vineyard belonging to Laithwaites wine distributors. It has self-catering accommodation which is often advertised by Laithwaites, and it looks beautiful in their brochures. Jenn and Russ obligingly drove us there and it turned out to be an excellent experience for all of us. We were given an exclusive tour (because there was nobody else there!) by the charming and knowledgeable Brigitte. She showed us the vineyards and let us taste the different types of grapes, which were hanging heavy on the vines because they are going to start harvesting them on Monday. Tony Laithwaite himself will be arriving on Monday to supervise! Brigitte then showed us the different types of barrels and containers used to ferment the wine, explained the process, and we had a tasting session of four types of wine. Brigitte was great fun and we all enjoyed ourselves.
We were only 7 km from Saint-Émilion so we drove there for a very late lunch in one of the many wine-tasting restaurants. Saint-Émilion is absolutely stunning. It’s a medieval city surrounded by vineyards, 35 km east of Bordeaux. Saint-Émilion is one of the principal red wine areas of Bordeaux, and has lots of cafés, restaurants, wine shops and beautiful Romanesque churches with cloisters, all along its steep and narrow streets. We walked all around the tiny city, taking in the quaint and picturesque views, and later had coffee and crêpes sitting in a gorgeous square beside a cathedral which was partly built right into the stone of the hill.
Russ and Jenn then very kindly drove us right to the airport, where we said our farewells. What a fantastic holiday it has been.
Monday, 23 September 2024
Château de Duras
We had dinner in nearby Seyches in a very traditional French restaurant called Le Vieux Porche. The meal starts with an old-fashioned tureen of hearty potage placed on the table, followed by a limited choice of starters, mains, then cheese or desserts. The food is absolutely delicious and very filling! It is also extremely reasonably priced; 17 euros per person for a four course meal including a carafe of red wine. I already want to go back there!
Sunday, 22 September 2024
Dordogne road trip
In our way to Bergerac Russ stopped the car near Tremolat at a viewpoint which overlooked a huge curve in the River Dordogne. Gorgeous. Our last stop was the pretty town of Bergerac. One of the first things we saw as we walked into the historic centre was a statue of a man with a very large nose - yes it was famous local boy Cyrano de Bergerac! We had arrived just at the point in the afternoon when all the restaurants were shut, but as we wandered around looking at the medieval buildings and the river, Jennifer noticed a wine tasting place in an old convent, which served platters of local charcuterie and cheeses served with wee toasts. So in we went and looked at the wines and had a couple of platters of food. It was a beautiful setting and we had a great chat.
Back at the house, Jenn and I went for a swim in the pool and Jenn rescued a frog which was trying to climb out. After a tasty dinner made by Jenn and Russ we sat outside and looked at the stars.
Saturday, 21 September 2024
An afternoon by the pool
I had such a good sleep and woke refreshed in the morning to another sunny day. There was a tractor ploughing the field next to the house, followed by a host of white egrets. After breakfast en plein air, Rob and his wife Lisa arrived round to install a heater for the swimming pool. It doesn’t really need heated just now but this will extend the use of the pool into October and November. This took a while, and Russ and James were willing apprentices and helped to get it all set up. The next step is to get an electrician to finish connecting it to the electricity supply. Meanwhile Jenn and I went for a swim in the pool which was extremely pleasant. Jenn and Russ have an automatic pool cleaning device which trundles around the bottom and sides of the pool very efficiently to clean up any debris; the make is Dolphin so they call it Dolph! At one point I was standing in the shallow end and Dolph approached me and nibbled on my foot!
Jenn and Russ’s attractive traditional house is very near the tiny village of Puysserampion which is in the Lot-et-Garonne department near the border with Dordogne. They are also near lots of other villages such as Seyches, Duras and Miramont-de-Guyenne. They are also near Eymet in Dordogne. Their large grassy garden has lots of trees including walnut trees and fig trees. It is idyllic and it was lovely to be able to swim outdoors and then dry off beside the pool in late September.
On the way for dinner Jenn and Russ took us to a quaint and tiny wee hamlet called Monteton which overlooks the River Dropt, a tributary of the Garonne. There were only about twenty houses and a large church; like many villages in the area it was originally medieval and had a covered marketplace. The views over the verdant valley were gorgeous. Then on we went to the larger and also beautiful village of Duras where we had drinks outside a café. James and Russell had bright pink raspberry flavoured beer which was being promoted as the “beer of the moment.” They thought that perhaps the café were trying to get rid of it! After a lovely dinner in a tiny restaurant we returned to the house for more drinks and chat.
Friday, 20 September 2024
La Maison de Jenn et Russ
Thursday, 19 September 2024
Cité de Vin
The bus also ran up one side of the river from the Pont de Pierre, crossed the modern Pont Jacques Chaban Delmas and came back down the other side of the river, so we saw some of the further out places, including the Cité de Vin, of which more shortly.
We had a light lunch back in the centre of town before strolling to the Musée des Beaux-Arts, a lovely Art Gallery with a few gems. A portrait of a young man, L'Homme à la main sur le cœur, 1632, by Frans Hals stood out for me; his face was so expressive and lifelike. La Danse des Noces by Jan Brueghel de Velours in about 1600 was fascinating; there was so much going on at that wedding! Another one I liked was Ophelia by Jules-Elie Delaunay painted in 1882, she has such a beautiful face. And there were lots more; we both enjoyed our visit and then sat outside in the gorgeous gardens which had an autumnal feel with quite a few crispy golden leaves on the ground. But it was still very hot and there were lots of clusters of pale blue Cape Leadwort flowers on large bushes around the park.
Our next destination was the Cité de Vin, a large modern museum of wine beside the river. We expertly jumped on a tram to get there. James had some doubts about whether it would be any good or just a tourist trap, but in fact it was fantastic. First we were sent to the extremely comprehensive museum of wine on the second floor, equipped with our audio headphones. It covered absolutely everything about wine, from the locations where the grapes are grown, to the types of grape, the wine-making process, how to quaff one’s wine correctly, and an impressive virtual display about the colours of wine. Then it was time for the real wine tasting on the top floor, where you could take your wine out to a balcony overlooking the city. Our tickets entitled us to a glass of wine each; needless to say this meant that James could choose two!
Back in the centre of town we had dinner sitting outside at a very busy but friendly restaurant called L’Ombrière, in another pretty square. The only disadvantage was that at some points we were surrounded by smokers! As it got dark the waiters switched on the outside lights and it was all rather beautiful. We passed the big clock tower again in our way back to the hotel, and noticed its sign, translated from the Latin;
J'appelle aux armes
J'annonce les jours
Je donne les heures
Je chasse l'orage
Je sonne les fêtes
Je crie a l’incendie
This particular bell was not the first on the site, it was erected in 1775, and like its predecessors it was the bearer of all good and bad tidings to the people of Bordeaux.
Wednesday, 18 September 2024
Bonjour Bordeaux
Tuesday, 17 September 2024
Degas at the Burrell
I visited Carolyn and her wee boys again on Monday; Harris is very sweet and funny and Arran is now ten weeks old, he is so fascinated by his older brother! And I had a very pleasant dinner and chat with Caroline N later on. Today Christine and I went to see the Degas exhibition at the Burrell Collection. We had lunch in the café first. The exhibit was very interesting, Burrell was the first serious collector in Scotland of Degas’ works. There were lots of paintings to look at; I liked the way that Degas captured the natural movement of the figures, especially the ballet dancers. We finished the afternoon back in the café with coffee and cake.
Friday, 13 September 2024
Lunching
Wednesday, 11 September 2024
Rebus
End of our summer in Ullapool
Back home we put in a washing only to find that the washing machine was broken. My hero James spent hours trying to get different ways to fix it with the help of various YouTube videos, and eventually he found the fault and got it working again. This made us very late to bed and we were exhausted.
Monday, 9 September 2024
Brambles from Inverlael
Sunday, 8 September 2024
Cape Wrath
When we arrived at the lighthouse we had a very simple lunch of sandwiches and oatcakes with coffee at the little café *, which restored us for a breezy walk around the headland. We could see lots more cliffs to the east, and a stunning sea arch just off the headland. After an hour we were loaded back onto the minibuses for our return journey, which somehow seemed quicker. There were a couple of Cape Wrath Trail walkers in the minibus, who had just finished their arduous eight day journey. Back across on the boat we went, and we decided to break our journey in Lochinver for dinner, only a short diversion from the direct route. We managed to get a table at Delilah’s and Heather and Ewan treated us to a delicious meal. By 9 p.m. we were back in the cottage after a long and satisfying day.