A housesit in Beauvais-sur-Matha

Our lovely host returned home in the middle of Sunday afternoon, and we departed for LPR, a quick 2.5 hr trip with no stops planned intentionally, as we were well aware of the dimanche (Sunday) traditions - its family time, so nothing is open, not even the servo. We weren't far out of bed and from memory, didn't even light the fire when we returned.

We only had two days between sits, so kept life pretty simple. Our lawns had taken off in the fine sunny spring weather while we were away so we pushed the mower around for a couple of hours and then stem injected the last persistent blackberry vines, that had permeated the front fence. I'm pleased to report that our efforts of 2 years ago have been rewarded with a thick blanket of honeysuckle now covering 4 out of 5 panels of the fence. Can't wait for it to flower!

We departed early Wednesday morning for our next sit at a little village, Beauvais-sur-Matha, just a short 30 mins away from Les Petites Rivieres. The house, Villa Carmen, is in the middle of the village, (population 654) surrounded by stone walls and with several outbuildings, as was the order of the day, 200 years ago. Candice and her late husband, Greg, have lived here for 20 years, and in that time have developed the barn into a large 'party space' complete with a mezzanine floor, potentially planned for theatre performances. There's a small gite for the family to stay in, and out the back a large swimming pool, the perfect retreat on a hot summers day.

The walled gardens, both front and back are just glorious, the epitomy of an 'English' cottage garden, which makes sense as the owners are originally from London. They are just a picture of colour, with red and yellow roses covering the front garden arbour, pansies, carnations, white lilac, irises, cosmos, and wisteria as well as herbs, mint, parsley, oregano, thyme, rosemary, and chives, the later just popping up between the white stones in the courtyard beside the forget me nots. And then there's the perfume, sometimes quite overwhelming as we're sitting underneath a stunning peach coloured rose enjoying our GnT. We here for 8 days and were not complaining.Baca lagi