Normandy Farmhouse: Easter HOls

Well I am ashamed of myself. An entire year.

Our family has grown older (the eldest about to turn 21 in a couple of weeks), Martin has started a new job, La Dancrerie has been painted and repaired and above all welcomed us and our friends for cosy, relaxed holidays as the seasons turn and turn again.

We are just back from an Easter vacation en france, having delayed our ferry so that Max could play in a crucial rugby league match (they are very close to finishing top of Division 1) and returning in time for Ben to get back to his part-time service with Domino's pizza and Max and Vicki to revise for impending exams.

We arrived once more in glorious sunshine, having lunch on the back terrace within minutes of arrival.

It was a delight to have the whole family together, and we took advantage by taking a trip to Paris, sending the children off in pairs to explore and meet back at our rented apartement for an evening meal. We took in all sorts of interesting places between us, and now have a selection of pictures from which to compose a diary of our brief stay.

Back at la Dancrerie we welcomed the Lynch family for the weekend before they stayed for the following week, and had a great time down at the lake with Emma the Landrover, dragging out a dead tree from the pond, grabbing freshly-dug badger-balls for a clay-modelling session, and enjoying the daffodils and bluebells.

Rosie and Katy with their clay models

It being a Spring tide, we took off down to the beach and spent a couple of hours playing rounders and (after breaking the homemade rounders bat) footers, and after a welcome picnic poked around at low tide amongst the rocks to find crabs and lobsters and cuttlefish, bringing home what we could for a veritable feast that evening (the large crabs are, I feel obliged to admit, from Super-U)

The finished crab starter, scrummy!

The Christmas tree we bought for our first Christmas at the farmhouse is now strong and too big to move, seen here as we enjoyed bananas and coffee around a bonfire in the paddock on our last night together:

So au revoir once more to our special place in France We are delighted to have weathered the past two years without having to sell up, and hope that we will carry on enjoying your hospitality for many years to come.

Me, oh my, can it really be two years since I popped in here?

We have, of course, spent many happy days in Normandy in the interim, most recently over a very late Easter in April, when the weather was hot and sunny and we idled our days away after a busy time at home.

The exterior woodwork desperately needs another coat of paint, the lake is drying up and needs a new overflow, damp is coming down the chimney and the clever 'Ventilation Mechanique Controllee' system which airs the house in our absence and provides air-extraction for bathrooms and kitchen seems to be playing up. Plus ca change...

Yet we had the most idyllic holidays this month, and our recent guests all seem to have had a lovely time. The Normandy peace and rural calm works its magic and we come home refreshed. So a couple of pictures to bring you up to date, and a hearty encouragement to any of you who feel the urge to come and visit.