La belle vie!

After a very long and seemingly longer drive in our blue tin can, we reached the idyllic French farmhouse in the Charentes region.  Adrian thought only my cottage could be located in the middle of nowhere, but France also has some centrally located middle of nowheres.  It didn't really matter where we were, as the kids were thrilled to have a pool.  Funny enough, no pictures of the pool ever materialized.

Chez Besson

What is the French countryside without an outdoor summer kitchen, some stinky cheese and wine?

 A big caveman fire with some meat - ok, zucchini - er- courgettes? 

You know, we could smelt iron in this fire for after dinner fun.

Waiting for the smelting operation, or at least dinner

Dinner was looking pretty good!

A. was more interested in the illicit beverages and has taken to bubbles quite keenly.

Hey, what do you think happens if I pour this grease onto the fire?

Day Trip!

Checking out an ancient underground church.

Look Mom!  I'm a monkey!

I might run away and join the circus.

Good thing we had E before Adrian tried this.

La Rochelle

The beautiful town of La Rochelle, where my Mother's ancestry originated.

Hey, we can't get there from here!  

Bordeaux

We took a day trip to Bordeaux and visited a couple of Chateaux.  I could have spent an entire vacation in Bordeaux!  I might just have to drum up some friends to go on a wine tour!

Châteaux Lestage & Château Fonréaud.  

We had a lovely tour and tastings at the Chateaux from Caroline Chanfreau-Philippon.  Her wines are rich and balanced and even well priced for Bordeaux!

Authentic French friend along for the ride

Lovely lunch companions at the lovely Bordeaux restaurant, Le Boule d'Or.  Did I mention that we like to eat?  Ah, why we keep going back to France....

Garden tour at Chateau Clarke

Tasting room at Chateau Clarke

The renowned Chateau Longoa Leoville-Barton

The vineyards

The smell of oak and ageing wine was pretty heady.

I wasn't spitting this tasting!

Typical fishing huts line the banks of the Garrone.  They kind of have a tropical Asian look to the stilts.  Just need a few palm trees in the background.  However, they're probably filled with crusty old men waiting for the river to freeze for some ice fishing like in Canada.

A quick stop in  Rouen to check out the beautiful cathedral

Beautiful flower display in the pedestrian mall

Family vacation picture.  Well, its not us actually, because we somehow escaped the camera lens.  But here's a picture of the Foremans.

The holidays aren't over until E conks out

Pie eyed on Pye's Head

After much cajoling and negotiating, E convinced me in booking  flights to Nova Scotia to visit Grandmaman and Grampy.  She was ecstatic with the news and could hardly wait til the plane took off.  How many more sleeps?

We're on the plane!!! We're going to the cottage!  I'm happy as a clam....

.....but maybe not an oyster

Blue skies!!  

We were greeted on Pye's Head with good weather almost every day.  Amazing!  Maybe this centrally located cottage in the middle of nowhere really is cottage country after all?

E and Grampy in the red kayak

The cottage looking Maritime "weathered" and in need of a lick of paint

Bountiful bounty

Lots to do and mostly lots to eat during our holidays.  We even had steamed pudding twice!  With lots of steam!  The long family history and hype of this special dessert made by my great grandmother, Nanny Pye, lives on and is sure to pass to the next generation.  It might well be a fairly plain cake with sultana raisins and a brown sugar lime sauce, but for those lucky of us to get a sliver of the real deal, made on the wood stove so many years ago, it is heritage.  Part of its exclusivity was that there was always a bigger crowd than could feed a small cake, so slivered rations with not quite enough "steam" sauce as one would like, always tasted like more.  

I think we also got our share of fresh mussels, halibut and smoked salmon - even a hodge podge.  (We saved you some, Darren).  yummy!!!

Corn boil on the beach

Guess the Polident is working eh,  Uncle Bob?

Don't mess with my Government beer!

Too much Liscomb Lager will make you stagger.

Family....

       the aunties...

The dysfunctional relatives....

Can you say "chicken bonezzzzz!"

The Matriarch meters out the dosage

Little Pam and Big Pam selfie

Cousins...

... with bunny ears

... and two heads

 

 Pirate Party

Scary pirates!  

"Off with your head!"

"I have a  moustache and I'm not afraid to use it".

Pirate games - walk the rope to the other ship

"Ahoy Matey!! Didn't expect pirates ashore did you?"

"Aye, aye, there must be gold here!  Lemme dig!!

"Treasure!!!

Pirate refreshments

Beautiful sunsets

I asked E if she had a good vacation and she said, "no, I had an amazing vacation".  We had a lovely time relaxing and enjoying the seaside with relatives.  We got to eat, swim, water-ski, kayak, do crafts, beach comb and just hang out.  Thank you to my parents who always work hard to make it a special time for us and thank you to the aunts, uncles and cousins who made it a fun family time.

The fish that got away.