tales of a year gone by

A couple of years ago I started a kind of twice yearly newsletter to fill in our friends and family on what we're up to here Aux Jardins des Thevenets, timmering away at our old lady , slowly but surely getting her back to her former splendour. With our Bed and Breakfast that took off at a fast rate, this fell a bit by the wayside! So I thought this is quite a good idea, and way ,to share with all as I am rather motivated with this blog business! (All your fault Pam!!)

2009 - where shall I start??

In January I organised a small trip to Venise to celebrate O's 50th birthday and it was GLORIOUS! Venise in the winter, misty, mysterious, cosy - so many things! We stayed in a divine newly renovated palace 'Ruzzini Palace Hotel' on the Campo Santa Maria Formosa. Thanks to some friends we had the wonderful chance to go to a concert at La Fenice! and of course then there's the incredible Rialto market!! (But that will be another post as I am busy working on a Market one for you all!)

O did a small website with some of our pics of this marvelous trip! -

http://www.chaulieu.net/LOVenise/Site/LOvenise.html

I have been a very lucky and privileged girl this year - 3 of my friends from school days came to visit in March! Ilse, all the way from Bahrain, Lynette and Toni from South Africa. We've known each other for more than 33 years. First we had a wonderful time together in Paris and then we came down to our campagne. Visiting, eating and drinking away merrily!

The girls on top of the Puy de Dôme, a volcanic mountain here in the Auvergne

In April, well we had to start work and earn money with our rooms and thanks to a beautiful article we had in a Dutch Glossy, we had more than 30 weeks filled up with delicious Dutch guests! Dank uw wel!!

O also attacked the outside of the Pigeonnier in all earnest and thanks to 2 friends from the village, Jean-Yves and Philippe, did a beautiful job on the lime plastering!

It was open to the public during the patrimonial weekend we normally have once a year here in France and O had an article in our local newspaper!

http://www.lamontagne.fr/editions_locales/vichy/meme_plus_peur_du_vertige_pour_rendre_un_pigeonnier_au_patrimoine@CARGNjFdJSsHExsGBRU-.html

Then the next couple of months just wooshed past in such a flash of activity and cooking and lovely guests and great moments and and and that I have a kind of blank and too much to write about.

But it bought us to the end of the summer when we took off a couple of days to go and chill on the lovely little island off the west coast of France, Ile d'Yeu! (http://www.ile-yeu.fr/) Great fish and long bicycle rides and just doing nothing but eating and reading and relaxing.

Thus we were ready and prepared for the fall where we had our first group with PAM!! 

The Gypsy Chef!

I allready did a post on that and you can go and have a look at 'Pam and the Groovy Gang' and have a peek at her Blog as well  - http://thegypsychef.blogspot.com/ (all her fault if I stared blogging!!)

And more guests and then a well deserved break in South Africa for me whilst Olivier stayed at here Aux Jardins des Thevenets (without guests)

And of course a year cannot just fly past with all just being hunkey dorey n'est pas? (Or as the french loves saying ': La vie n'est pas un long fleuve tranquille' - Life is not a long tranquil river)          Last photo of Fluffy
One of the sad moments of this year was the departure to cat paradise of our wonderful Fluffy who has been a fantastic companion for over 9 years! He will always be my number one fluffpot! So regal and beautiful!!

And now we're just tinkering along, doing some repairs and Olivier is welding and sawing like a master craftsman on his Eiffel-like structure that will be the base of the bathroom and staircase in the Dove House!
Watch this space for more!!!

So in a nutshell I gave you a bit of an overview of 2009. 
Thank you to all of you for the support and love and encouragement. Without you, our task will just seem even more daunting.


Life is about sharing and here's to sharing lots more with you in 2010!
Bisous
Lynn