A little holiday in the Charente-Maritime

I had a lovely few days at the end of October with my old college mates Lesley, Bar and Mandy visiting La Verderie. The sun shone and we managed to sit outside for a few hours nearly every day.

lunch in St Jean d'Angely

Burie

Burie

the lovely coffee shop in Saintes

We started the weekend with a lovely lunch of moules frites in St Jean d'Angely on thursday, a coffee and a wander around Burie on Friday and plenty of retail therapy in Saintes at the weekend.

Puck, our visiting French bulldog discovered that Lesley was a soft touch and finally made it up on to the sofa, after being turfed off by Culli she resorted to sitting on top of BeBop for a bit of warmth and comfort.

Kaleidoscope knitting and crochet workshop 2013

The second day of the workshop went well, all the group are well into their projects and spent the morning working on them. After lunch we went to La Verderie for tea and time for everyone to have a mooch through my dwindling yarn stock and see the current exhibition in the gallery. Then we went round the corner to Egreteau our local Cognac producer for a tour of the distillery and a tasting session of Pineau and Cognac. Pappy the owner is constantly amazed at how Culli manages to appear with all these different women every few weeks!

Andy doing the prewash!

the hardier ones of the group have braved the pool

one of next door's beautiful chickens

tea at La Verderie

Egreteau distillery

Toril with her purchases, modelling the skirt she made on the workshop last year

pork tagine for supper

La Rochelle Aquarium

We have just had all the family to stay for a week, exhausting but great fun. On the last day we went to the Aquarium in La Rochelle, beautifully laid out with some amazing fish and the kids loved it, but you can't help feeling sorry for those fish endlessly swimming around in circles.......
Today is the start of our big knitting and crochet workshop here with tutors Jane Crowfoot and Debbie Abrahams and Culli is just off to La Rochelle to pick up the first guest! Look out for daily reports
www.knittingholidaysinfrance.com
www.accommodationcharente-maritime.com

Pet Friendly Chambres d'Hotes

We still have a few free nights for B and B guests in August.
La Verderie is situated 12km from the A10, a perfect stopping off point if you are heading for the South of France and pet dogs are very welcome! Visit the website here or email Sue to check availability.

A weekend in the Charente-Maritime

Friends Kate and Louise came to spend a few days with us at La Verderie and we were lucky enough to have some sunshine! Friday morning we had a visit to Cognac, a wander around the shops, stopping to buy some chocolates for Kate to take home.

 

 

In the afternoon we went for a tour around the countryside starting with a visit to the beautiful church at Aulnay. A wealth of inspiration for knitting designs with textured stonework and beautiful stained glass windows.

 

Then on to the donkey sanctuary. The Poitou donkeys are huge, standing at around 16 hands with enormous ears, dreadlocks and gentle, inquisitive faces. Kate wants to take one home as a companion for her horse Bob.

 

Then on for a tour of the gorgeous Chateau at Dompierre

 

 

Saturday morning was a trip into St Jean d'Angely market, then in the afternoon a long walk with BeBop to Egreteau our local Cognac distillery for a tasting session and a few purchases of Cognac and Pineau.

On Sunday we went to the brocante at Varaize, it is always a good one stretching through all the back streets of the village. I bought two mirrors and some plates, Louise bought a table and Kate bought a little settee.

 

In the afternoon we drove down to Royan and had lunch in the sunshine at the marina, then back home for apero's in the garden. A lovely weekend.