In a French Country Garden….

emailing in the courtyard

Our cottage - Le Balcon

Stupidly we drove from our place in the mountains seven hours straight, no stops at all, to here in the south west of France in the region of the Dordogne. 

The Grubs

We were waiting for the kids to fall asleep and then planned to stop when they’d woken up.  But they didn’t sleep for 5 HOURS!!  So then we just thought we may as well keep going.  We could have stopped earlier, but we’d packed enough food and drink for the day and nobody needed a wee so we didn’t see a point!  The roads were good, no traffic, but with hindsight, it was dumb, as Maciek’s eyes were almost popping out of his head and he had a terrible headache once we arrived. 

We are staying at a place called Le Grezes, near the village of Tocane St Apres.  As Maciek said this place is lovely.  It’s a farmhouse and barn, a few hundred years old (now we’re in my neck of the woods – mountains shmountains!).  The cottage we are staying in used to be part of the stables attached to the barn and the whole place is full of French country charm and character.  The ceilings are slanted (and so are the floors – I placed my little round bottle of perfume on my very lady like dressing table only to watch it slide towards me!) and striped with original wood beams, and there’s a huge one in our bedroom over the door that leads to the balcony (even I have to duck!).   There is a grapevine winding around the balcony complete with unripe green grapes, and the pool is a few steps away.  There’s loads of space for the kids to run around amongst various fruit trees (to my horror Noah loves collecting the rotten apples that are strewn along the ground) and an area where we’ve being playing Boules in the evenings.  The lady that owns it is from the UK and has been here with her two sons for three years.  She’s lovely, and unlike other accommodation we’ve had, she has provided us with a kettle, a microwave AND a toaster!  Not to mention lots of other little luxuries like a wardrobe and bedside tables (matching set of course!) and a welcome pack of a baguette, jam, red wine and she also went to the trouble of putting some milk, bottled water, and orange juice in the fridge as well as tea and coffee in the kitchen, which was all EXTREMELY welcome after a 7 hour drive!

Milly's new bikini's

To date it is the best accommodation we’ve had (the last place had been decorated some 40 years ago and never been changed, and it was filthy – we had to buy the kids some crocs to wear inside as their feet were constantly black!)  We seem to be unable to find a balance though.  Whereas the last place was walking distance to a gorgeous village and many attractions, the actual accommodation was horrible, and I found myself counting down the ‘sleeps’ till we could leave!  And although this accommodation is awesome, it’s in the middle of nowhere so requires driving, even to the bakery in the morning.  Hopefully somewhere along the line we’ll get it right!  The nice thing is about this place is the peace and quiet.  Sitting outside in the evening, once the kids have stopped shouting and fighting in bed, it’s silent.  Except for that annoying donkey and the occasional mooooo……

The Chateux seen from the driveway