CHASSIGNOLLES...

One night at the Auberge de Chassignolles  in a tiny, beautiful village in Auvergne, on the way to Ardeche. The weather en route from Paris was inclement to say the least, and we were starving by the time we unfolded ourselves from the car after a 7? 8? hour drive, complete with a running out of petrol in the middle of nowhere in driving rain/fog as it started to get dark nightmare scenario.

We were greeted with smiles, a proffered umbrella, a simple, perfect room. A reviving meal quite swiftly appeared: radishes, butter/salt and sardines to start - a bottle of Catherine and Pierre Breton's Nuits d'Ivresse (translation: drunken nights!) finally chosen after a lot of indecision. Beets with soft cheese, half a chicken with vegetables from the garden followed - and a break in the rain was our chance to do a quick tour of Chassignolles at dusk - actually maybe that was after the salad course and before the cheese (St. Nectaire, Bleu d'Auvergne and Cantal I think - we were in their 'hood) or between the cheese and dessert of raspberry tart.

The breakfast was as inviting as any I've seen. Homemade yoghurt, fruit, freshly squeezed juice, eggs, bread, homemade jams, coffee, tiny pots of flowers on the table.

Very reviving in between all the driving.

GIVERNY...

When I was in Paris last weekend we took a day trip to somewhere I've long wanted to see: Giverny. My grandmother (yes the teapot one) had a beautiful, large framed print of Monet's Japanese Bridge, that I remember not quite understanding wasn't the original painting until I was old enough to realise that this was unlikely. So to see the actual bridge that I grew up looking at in the painting print was a dream.

I seriously didn't know quite what a major tourist destination the home and gardens that belonged to Monet and inspired his paintings were. We thought that by arriving late in the day we'd beat the crowds, but wow, we were wrong. Apparently Giverny ranks up there with Versailles as a day trip for Paris visitors (and it's a fraction of the size) - I had no idea...

The planting of the gardens was beautiful - peonies, tulips, irises and roses out in full force. It was a bit hard to move around - you just had to follow the herd and shuffle forward when you could. When we got to the waterlily pond it was difficult to imagine Monet painting the scene in the serene, calm environment that inspired him for so long - and difficult to take a photo that didn't include two hundred other people also madly taking photos from every angle in the frame. At one point a lady took a photo up my nose. Such was the frenzy. I mention this not to complain, but to give the full experience. I don't think there's a time of day you can go that would not be so busy though. Maybe during winter, but then you'd miss the flowers in bloom and the wisteria which absolutely covers the Japanese Bridge. I somehow managed to take a photo of it that doesn't betray quite how many people were standing on it also taking pictures. I started to wish that brightly coloured gore-tex anoraks and DSLRs were banned and that everyone had been issued with faded linen artists' smocks and panama hats on entry and made to take photos only with vintage or very small cameras; they'd blend in a bit more... In this setting, hell was definitely other people. But if you can't beat them, style them.

Anyway! It was lovely really! I was very inspired by the planting in the gardens near the house. Long beds full of colour and so many different flowers.

Monet's breakfast room

NORMANDY...

It seems I haven't photographed any of the picturesque things I did this month. Lack of available light might be to blame, so I'm craving the sweet light of the Normandy coast on a quick overnight trip there in November. Taken on a disposable camera.

p.s. The cat and dog were best friends...

TWO THINGS I LIKE...

That nature is into monogramming as much as I am, and that this photo of a field of cows in Normandy was taken on my phone, by randomly sticking my arm out of a moving car window.

I like a lot of other things too...

HIER, TOUS MES ENNUIS SEMBLAIENT SI LOIN*...

Yesterday, three friends and I went out for lunch in France and I Instagrammed our day for your pleasure (and mine). We drove to Wimereaux, fifteen minutes on the motorway from Calais, (if you're in a rush to make it for lunch as we were) to a hotel that had a (camera shy) resident cat manning the reception. At the restaurant there we ordered (from a human) a carafe of rosé, fish soup, beef tartare and the biggest bowl of the best frites I've ever tasted. Then we walked round the corner to the beach, paddled a bit and lay in the sun for an hour or so until we got too hot; then stocked up on French pharmacie essentials, brebis yoghurt and paté. The only downside was having to get back on the train to England. 

{*I just Google Translated the title - please correct me if you have a better translation}

HERE'S SOMETHING I MADE EARLIER...

I'm just zooming in quickly to show you a few pages of the blurb book I made to say thank you to our kind and generous hosts in France earlier this year. I think a book like this is the answer to "what the hell do you give people who live in a place like that because they lack for nothing?" It also helps that their place is so beautiful you can't help but walk around snapping photos 24 hours a day.

I had to take some pictures of the book as I only ordered one copy, believing that there was sure to be some kind of ridiculous rookie layout error that I would have to go back and correct, then order another. But it turned out perfectly - even more amazing since I did it pre-Mac on my ancient dinosaur PC. I had a good time making it and liked using blurb. Apple has a similar doodad for making photo books with text (anyone used it?) but I'm not sure if the quality's as good as blurb - the pages of this are glossy, high quality - I think I could get addicted to making books like this. This one is going off today to be given to its recipients - I'm fully hoping for a bit of grateful weeping, wonderment, that kind of thing...

{my photos ©}

THE DOORS, THE WINDOWS...

Loads more of my France photos here. I'm still there (in spirit)...

In Noyers.

VIDE GRENIER...

Even in deepest rural Burgundy I managed to go into a shopping frenzy (apart from the obligatory wine degustations). Vide Grenier translates literally as empty attic and all through the summer French villages take it in turn to hold their own attic clearing days, usually on a Sunday - kind of like their version of a car boot sale, only with rusty farm implements ready to be turned into cool outdoor lamps or sculpture, piles of starched vintage linens, and enamel jugs and tins of the kind Au Petit Bonheur La Chance sells in Paris for 50 euro. Now we know where they buy them.

Some of the vide grenier vendors seemed to be professionals and I don't know how it works, if you're allowed to set up a stall if you don't live in the village. Their stuff was more expensive, but generally, the actual people from the village were selling some really charming things for a euro, two euros. Well, they are French, of course their attics are full of charming, stylish oddments.

I was in male company, so felt under pressure not to conform to stereotype and clear the entire village of Yrouerre out of its unwanted junk. It was really tempting as we had a car and I had visions of starting my own antiques business. I am showing you this photo as only you will understand why I needed to buy an old aquamarine alarm clock and a rusty, beautifully designed *furniture polish* oops, edit, household cleaning fluid tin.

I also bought some espadrilles (5 euro at the ATAC supermarket in Chaource for those interested in such details) so my entire shopping frenzy cost a total of nine euros.
Um, not including wine.

FRANCE...

I kept getting annoyed with myself because my photos couldn't do it justice. The best light was at about 10.15pm - as it was midsummer; but my camera couldn't capture that. Some of the most magical things we saw were as we drove along - seen, then gone. In the end I stopped taking my camera out because fumbling for it and trying to get a shot was interfering with my eyes taking everything in.

It was about 10.15pm when we arrived on Thursday and as we wound along through a forest we saw orange slugs and a fox cub looked right at us. Through small stone villages then winding through wheat and rape fields, the sky was shaded from pink to lilac, still light enough to see every detail. Two cats lurked at the edge of a field, miles away from the nearest farm and a little rabbit hopped along.