France - Episode 3

Our villas were very nice. There were 3 buildings: the main house, the Owl cottage (which had wheelchair access, and the Chestnut cottage which we stayed in. The other half of our cottage was another cottage which slept 8 and had another English family staying in it. The place is owned by Dia & Sue, a Scottish couple.

The main house was covered in ivy and was absolutely beautiful. Both of our cottages had 2 bedrooms and 1 bathroom.

Upon arrival the first thing we did was take a swim. the pool was above ground quite a ways so we couldn't leave the children alone because they kept wanting to get up on the edge and it was a rather long fall off the side. The water was cold when you first got in but you warmed up pretty quickly.

We dried off, warmed up, unpacked, and went into Periers (a small town 6 kilometers away) for dinner at a place called Les Snekkja, a local restaurant. Didn't look like much from the outside but we had a fabulous meal. The children ate galettes (whole meal crepes) filled with cheese and ham, although we ordered just cheese filling. Seb ate for England but Abigail started a habit of the trip and just ate the frites (french fries).

Helen, Sean, Marc and I had a salade has a starter which was divine. I had tagliatelle with smoked salmon, mushrooms and cream which was delicious. Marc & Helen split a goat cheese tart and a pork steak with pepper sauce between them. Sean had a beef steak which he said was a bit tough. The rest of us were in culinary heaven. Dessert were crepes all round with cream, chocolate & ice cream.

This was simple French food. It was fresh and delicious.

I have to say at this point that Helen was having a serious life changing moment during this holiday. As long as I have known Helen (over 8 years now), she has not been able to smell. At all. Which is very strange to me. I'm a very smelly person. No, i don't smell badly. I just smell everything. I love lotions & potions that smell great. I love perfumes and the smell of food cooking. I've often asked her if this didn't also affect her sense of taste. She has always denied that it hasn't.

A few days before we went away Helen at last saw a ear, nose & throat specialist after living with this plugged up sinuses condition fro 35 years. He prescribed some steroids and nose drops and her life has changed. The first few days of our holiday she walked around telling us everything she smelled. And then it dawned on her she did have a diminished sense of taste. And what a wonderful place to be when you get it all back.

Helen was overwhelmed at the smells of the French supermarket. I mean, the smell of the cheeses can really knock a person over even when you are accustomed to it. But to smell it for the very first time. I thought she was going to have a seizure.

We stayed up late both Saturday and Sunday nights sitting out in the nippy weather to catch the Perseid meteor shower. When we saw our first shooting star Sean exclaimed that this was probably the very first time that he had ever seen a shooting star. And was a great shower it was. Some of the meteors were very bright and left long trails streaking across the dark night sky. There were no clouds and no moon so it was excellent viewing conditions.

We finished off 5 bottles of wine, had cricks in our necks from looking upwards and were frozen to the bone but both nights were fabulous times spent with fabulous friends filled with laughter!