Tu Reviendras au Gaillon!

normandygite — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 23:49:48 +0000

We’ve put together a slideshow of images to try to give a feeling of what it’s like at Le Gaillon. We spent ages trying to find an appropriate piece of music to have in the background, without success, and even when we did find some music which we all liked there was always the problem of copyright.

Then, out of the blue, our friend Henry sent us a sample of his new song that he wants Paul to play bass on his new album – and it was perfect, just what we were looking for! I asked him if we could use it on the website and having spent many happy times there he was delighted to be asked, and even renamed it “Tu reviendras au Gaillon”! (translation: “You’ll return to Le Gaillon”)

Thiepval Memorial

normandygite — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 22:21:53 +0000

Today we finally visited the Theipval memorial to the missing of the Somme in the first world war. It’s only 1.5 hours drive to the North-East of us, but for some reason we’ve never gotten around to visiting it before now.

We couldn’t have picked a worse day for our visit – it was bitterly cold with a biting wind and the steps of the memorial were covered in sheet ice. But maybe that made it all the more poignant when you think of what the troops had to endure in those trenches in the winter.

The memorial is covered with over 72,000 names – these just being the names of the troops killed in the battle of the Somme whose bodies were never recovered so they have no graves…

The list of names is arranged in alphabetical order within rank within regiment. So the photo below shows not all the Smiths, just the private Smiths from one regiment…

As well as the memorial, there are 300 French graves (all simply marked ”Inconnu”) and 300 British graves (all marked ”A Soldier of the Great War”).

Katie was very moved…

Hungry cows on New Year’s Day?

normandygite — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 20:17:29 +0000

Happy New Year everybody! We had a great one last night – went to bed very, very late – and got up very, very late too!

I think the farmer must also have got up late this morning, because when Paul and Katie finally surfaced and went out to get croissants, the cows were very curious to see what was going on and came over to crowd around the fence to have a look. I guess they were hoping we were going to feed them!

Photo of cows taken from the kitchen window…

Chateau de Cleres, Normandy

normandygite — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 19:44:25 +0000

We had planned to go to Bocasse, a theme park for children, but when we arrived we were dismayed to find out that as from 1st September it only opens at weekends!

Luckily, the Chateau de Cleres is in the same village, so we went there instead, and what a lovely place it turned out to be! Beautiful grounds and lots of wildlife roaming free – deer, peacocks, flamingos, monkeys (in a cage), and many others.

We will definitely be going back and taking our friends…

Blackberry Picking in the Normandy Countryside

normandygite — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 14:41:13 +0000

Lovely (free!) dessert recipe…

Take a bowl, walk to the end of our lane, and turn left onto the road.
Fill the bowl with blackberries plucked from the bushes lining the road.
Stroll home (trying not to eat them all on the way!)
Put blackberries in a small saucepan, sprinkle with a generous helping of sugar, and heat gently until soft.
Spoon into bowls and serve with a dollop of creme fraiche!

Mmmm…. Bon Appetit!

Forges-les-Eaux – Club Med and the Casino

normandygite — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 10:52:10 +0000

Went for a stroll around the lake near the Casino and Club Med.

It’s the closest casino to Paris: only 110km from the capital. “In this corner of Normandy where Parisians come to to have a rest from Paris, the gaming tables never empty, the shrieks of the players never cease” wrote Voltaire nearly 300 years ago.

Nowadays, little has changed: The Grand Casino of Forges-les-Eaux is one of the top ten gaming casinos in France.

Layout of upstairs sleeping area

normandygite — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 15:00:25 +0000

People have been asking us about the open-plan upstairs sleeping arrangements. It’s so difficult to describe, so we thought the best thing to do would be to post some photos here in an attempt to explain….

This is the main bedroom, with its gorgeous views out of the window. When we stay at the house, we always use this room (the children sleep in the triple bedroom at the other end of the house). This photo is taken from the middle of the house, looking towards the bed. You can just make out the pine wardrobe on the left.

And these two photos are taken from the bed, looking back towards the pine wardrobe and the middle of the house. As you can see, we do have a screen which can be used to help privacy.

Now we are in the triple bedroom at the other end of the house. These are two views looking towards the sleigh bed (note that they were taken on different days and just to confuse we have moved the dolls house and the rug! But in the second picture you can see the end of the sleigh bed to the left).

This next one is taken from the sleigh bed and looks back in towards the centre of the house. You can see the bannisters at the top of the stairs, behind which is the large central room which we use for reading and playing games (blind man’s bluff is a firm favourite!). Then looking further back you can just make out the main bedroom at the far end of the house…

Notice that this bed has a pull-out “truckle” underneath which incorporates a fully-sprung single mattress, so when pulled out, this room in effect has three single beds.

Musee des Maquettes, Forges les Eaux

normandygite — Sun, 03 Jun 2007 09:09:28 +0000

Went to the model museum in Forges in the little park behind the town hall. It was really sweet – over 100 scale models of Normandy life in a bygone age, all made by a local man, Mr Guillot, after he retired in 1979. He bequeathed his collection to the local Age Concern club and their volunteers run the museum which is open every afternoon except on Mondays.

Not quite Disneyland, but rather charming nevertheless.

(PS – Spot Action Man and Barbie as you have never seen them before!)

Visitors from the USA!

normandygite — Sat, 22 Jul 2006 21:28:09 +0000

We’ve just had a lovely family staying, they are from the US but they are currently living in England and they are keeping a blog of their own experiences during their time in Europe.

I was a little apprehensive about what they would think of our little farmhouse out in the middle of nowhere in rural France, but when I read their blog this morning I was thrilled to read that they had a good time, and they even included a link back to our website so I guess I can heave a sigh of relief that they had enjoyed themselves. I am always fretting about our guests and hoping that everything is hunky dory, to the extent that I feel I have to apologise if the weather is not gloriously sunny every day as I feel personally responsible even for the weather!!!

You can read about their week in France, along with their amusing opinions on life in Europe, by clicking here.

Painting the Dining Room Ceiling

normandygite — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 17:19:46 +0000

The house has lovely old beams thoughout. For some reason, someone in the distant past decided that it would be a “good idea” to paint the ones in the kitchen and dining room in a gloopy chocolate brown gloss paint… They went even one better in the dining room – not only did they paint the beams, but also the ceiling in between! This made the dining room always seem a little oppressive - it felt as though the ceiling was pressing down on you :-(

We would love to be able to strip off this paint and resurrect the beams to the original wood - but it would be a nightmare job. So instead, Paul and David went out to the house for a weekend and painted over the chocolate brown in the dining room with white paint. It was a backbreaking job, which took them the whole weekend. But I think it was worth it. it seems so much airier and fresher now. The photos below don’t really do it justice (and we’ve since painted just the beams a pale bluey-green which looks fab!). Will post some better photos next time.