I was going to try to put photos of the house here so that new visitors would know what to expect...but now I can't find any recent ones! Still, here are a couple taken a couple of years ago to show that La Dancrerie is more homely and welcoming than ever. I will add some internal pics once I can find them...
Restricted as we are to school holidays, it has often turned out that we spend Christmas and Easter in Normandy. We even have our own Christmas Tree, up-rooted and then re-planted each year in the garden, which has so far done us proud. Now that we have a woodburning stove in the salon there is somewhere cosy for Father Christmas to leave his sacks, and that room stays wonderfully warm throughout the holidays.
This is us having reached the top of a very big hill on Boxing Day, and recovering with hot mulled wine from a flask, and Christmas Cake. Scrummy!
We have had so many fun times in Normandy that I felt I might as well just throw them together in a little pot pourri of experiences over which we can reminisce. Begging your indulgence:
Rosie and Max making dinner
Windy Ferry 
Making flutes from reeds
Papa fixing up Emma's Tow-rope (favourite job!)
Happy Halloween !
Lots of lovely French countryside 
I seem to have found only pictures of us at the beach in the winter, but at least it proves we are there come rain or shine.
We kept watching people skudding along the beaches at low tide in horse- or wind-drawn buggies and it looked great fun. Luckily, Martin received a Blokart for his birthday and we have all had exhilirating rides at speed (though Vicki and Max needed extra sandbags to stop the thing turning over!).
Every year we try to make some improvements at La Dancrerie, and usually manage to have some fun whilst we are at it. After Christmas 2003 the Bells stayed long enough to help demolish an unsafe stone outhouse with us. Amazing how quickly one can make a mess with so many helpers!We were also working on the inside, painting and cleaning up, and by the following summer we could finally afford some carpets for all those bare boards: boy did that make a difference! Now the house seems cosy even in the middle of winter.
We have also gradually tackled the garden. There was a lot of plastic and rotten wooden fencing to pull down, and endless weeds, so we had plenty of bonfires in the first few years. Most recently we have opened up the back of the lean-to at the back, so that we can enjoy eating out looking at the lovely view, and BBQ under cover if necessary
We also ended up having to re-roof the old piggery and stables, which cost us money rather than time. Still, a good job done, and they were able to re-use most of the heavy old tiles. All of the barns have now been swept clean of the layers of old manure and straw, and we can use them for games and shelter. I can just picture the piggery as a summer kitchen, opened up to give those lovely views across the fields...maybe one day !
For now, the stables are home to darts and our much-travelled Fooseball table (bought in Oregon from a colleague of Martin's who was emigrating to Australia, kept in Hampshire and now in Normandy).
There is a flat spot at the bottom of our land where the birches rustle in the wind and the nettles can be flattened to form the perfect camping spot. We have laid out a fire ring and Emma is loaded up in the summer holidays with our camping gear, to spend a few days at one with nature. We can just about remember how to make wellie sticks and draining racks, and how to cook marshmallows and s'mores, and it is a lovely excuse to chat around the campfire in the evening (though Rosie didn't appreciate the night a cow came and drooled copiously in her shoes outside the tent!) 
Max tests our new bridge, and Sean and Matt join the camp (with Emma)
Rosie and cigar (No, not really!)
Abbie and Ella
Bells Christmas 2003
Dianne, Carey and plaster-clad lad
On our first trip to St Sauveur le Vicomte we ate at Le Rideau Cramoisi amongst the novel artwork and smoky fug, and got to know the proud owner of another Landrover (parked here outside the cafe before it changed hands), Coco. Coco showed Martin some of the local greenlanes and they exchanged eager man-talk about the relative merits of long or short wheelbases and other strange code.
The River Douve runs close to the border of our land, and is a tranquil spot for picnics and enjoying the weather. In the summer we move the big floaty kayak down there so that we can muck around at leisure, and the children often enjoy swimming in the river more than a trip to the beach.
Diving off the sunken log
Stranded children in the flooded Douve
Of course we have had plenty of time for fun in between work! The fields around the house are lovely for walks, and we have harvested nuts from the woods at the bottom and glorious blackberries from the hedgerows. Spring brings the joy of bluebells and we are always keen to get back to see Normandy after spending February half term in Hampshire (where the bluebells are also beautiful nearby). 
