Day 7, Verteuil

A lovely day today exploring the local area. Obviously our hosts know it very well as they have been here 20+ years and they know a lot of the locals so have lots of stories to tell.

We started the day with a trip out to Angouleme to visit a very unique bring and buy shop. It was an Aladdin’s cave of all sorts of bits and bobs from trinkets to wardrobes. Sharon was like a kid in a sweet shop. Across the road from there was a typical little French bar where we went and had a little tipple whilst sat in the sun. It was about an hour away and before we left I marked where we lived in to Eddies Sat Nav to give him a fighting chance should he ever come in the car again. As we left Angouleme I got him to test it as we were in the car with them. Mmm, adequate at best, whilst it knew where we lived, it couldn’t differentiate between real roads and farm tracks. Thank you Google Maps !! We did arrive back ok.

We had a spot of lunch again quite typically French, bread, cold meats, pate, and the rest of them had that green stuff aka salad!! John and Margaret had been out and when they returned we sat out in the sun and shared a bottle of bolly and cakes. All very pleasant. Later on in the afternoon we went to Verteuil. What a lovely little town, not very far away but stunningly beautiful. We went to Reggies, an old world bar that was hundreds of years old and steeped in character. Sebastian was the owner and he knew John & Mags. He sells lots of drinks from water to the most expensive champers and cognac’s. Sharon and I went for a little wander around the town to the Chateau and the mill. They still bake bread in the mill and James Martin was there recently and said it was the best brioche he had ever tasted but the Miller wouldn’t give him his secret !! We bought some of it and JB is cooking me some spangly breakfast in the morning which includes it !! On the way back we stopped at the side of the road for a couple of pics in the sunflower fields just for a bit of fun.

Finally to finish the day, we were invited to Trevor & Jeanette’s for dinner. Again a lovely evening, temperature wise and company wise. We were introduced to their grandchildren who live in California and a couple who also have a place out here called Mark and Leslie along with their daughter Brook who live in Cromer in Norfolk. They were all lovely people and we had such a laugh. JB was on form and was hilarious, it was such a good night. Jeanette & Trevor did us a lovely meal, a buffet with lots of things to chose from and as they used to run a fish and chip shop business we had chips as a side which were bang on.

We landed back just after midnight and the skies were so clear, there were thousands of stars and we even saw a few satellites. The perfect end to a perfect day.Read more