Fairwell La Fosse

Well, we made it back to sunny Norfolk. After a long long drive back from France......

As we drove away from the ferry terminal in Newhaven in the UK, the traffic stopped & was bumper to bumper for miles & miles. 'Welcome back to Britain', where there are the same number of people as there are in France but half as much room.

On a lighter note....the staircase is finished!!!! Ta daaaa

Here is a picture of me looking like I've actually done some work...in my beautiful new/old smocked linen blouse that we bought at a Brocante sale in Saumur. (Sometimes these pictures blow up if you click on them and sometimes they don't, for no apparent reason....give it a try)

We had such a nice time in La Fosse & people were so welcoming, we'll be back for more as soon as we can. On the day before we left, Liz's neighbour's came over in their fabulous wrap around French aprons & presented us with a bottle of wine, a bottle of home made cider vinegar & a jar of home made plum jam. It's amazing how humanity transcends language.

Here are some random photos of our last day when we went on a drive up the Loire to a place called Montsoreau. The Chateau there overlooks a quiet stretch of the River Loire, near the confluence of the Loire and Vienne rivers and at the base of a cliff. The river here is classified as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO and is peaceful & beautiful. The Montsoreau chateau was done up incredibly tastefully. There were no four poster beds & Louis 14th chairs, only a beautiful light & sound display of beautifully made model boats sailing along on a bed of moiréd steel mesh. There was hardly anyone else there and the eerie sounds of terns & lapping water lulled you into a calm & meditative state.

After a sumptuous lunch of crepes...We went to Fontevraud where we saw this amazing building which looks like a princesses tower but is actually the kitchens of the Abbey there. We also discovered that Richard the lion heart's grave is at this very Abbey

We finally got to see the church that Liz had told us about near La Fosse that had wonderful topiary yew trees. Comical & tactile. A lovely summer's evening with hardly any noise & raked sandy paths.
The strange grumpy-cheese-crab-cake that we bought to see what it actually was. Why would you actually burn the outside of a cake.
So farewell to La Fosse and La belle France. Thankyou for a wonderful time.