France Exploration 11-13.02.22

So up and at it with a short drive retracing our steps from yesterday to Chef Boutonné, where we had identified a very lovely looking boulangerie. Teresa opted for a pain au rasin and myself the much heavier and substantial looking blah blah blah au pomme. A big fat croisant full of apple - perfect!
We then headed east to the village of Jousse which had even less in it than Romagne did yesterday - we found one boulangerie and that was it.
We were early and so took a flying visit south to Mauprévoir where we grabbed some supplies for the day before returning to Jousse.
We met with the agent for the two properties we were to see - Paul, who had an uncanny likeness to Jasper Carrott.
Property number 1 was in La Valette and consisted of a longere type property which looked very presentable from the outside but within a very tight lane, with adjacent properties and no garden. A property across the road was also included. Once inside Teresa and I were obviously thinking the same thing . . . Nope!
The place was tiny and the upstairs was in the eaves and so even I had to duck. This place was more expensive than the spralling rooms off rooms property from yesterday. Paul quickly realised our thoughts and so we were out, property locked up and then off to property number 2.
Number 2 was located at Château Garnier which by its name already had Teresa feeling better about this. We had not intended to see this property until a few days before leaving when Paul had suggested it and so we were not expecting it to be what we were looking for.
We couldn’t have been more wrong!!
We found a reasonable sized 3-4 bedroom detached old stone farm house which was part refurbed with good sized rooms.
Also with it came a large barn, an open sided barn, a smaller house which needed renovating, attached to a third barn. The main house also had two adjoining out buildings which again could easily be converted. Just to finish it off approximately 1 hectare of land.
We remained at the property for about 1.5 hrs looking over all the different parts and discussing options with Paul.
So we left finally with mashed heads, both of us driving along in silence not knowing quite what to say to one another. We were both gobsmacked that somewhere we hadn’t meant to go and hadn’t thought would be any good had floored us!!
We drove south west to Civray where we stopped and hopped into a bar for lunch and a drink. However we had our timings completely wrong and so lunch wasn’t an option. After our drinks we entered Civray church which is famed for its interior decoration. We then walked the town viewing the mainly closed shops before getting back on the road to Ruffec.
In hindsight both of us were tired and so after driving into Ruffec we drove straight out the other side - deciding we wanted to get back to our lodging and some bread cheese and wine.
Back at La Petite Maison, we lit the wood burner, poured the wine, sliced up the bread and cheese. Our only movement thereafter was to take it in turns to add or move the logs in the wood burner.
A brilliant if not surprising and head mashing day - ever fallen in love with someone you shouldn’t have fallen in love with!!Read more