We love to go for a drive on the weekend, often with no particular destination in mind, but with a coffee stop always factored in. We do it regularly in Brisbane, rarely in Summer, but frequently during Autumn and Winter. Bright, clear skies and cool temperatures make for a lovely day out. Here in France, we did just that yesterday. It’s early Summer, but while quite warm, there is no humidity, so our venture out was very pleasant.

Rosie and Huw, the owners of our Airbnb accomodation here in Montmorillon, are delightful and have gone out of their way to make us feel welcomed. They’ve invited us to their home, introduced us to their friends and shared dinner with us, under the stars at a local restaurant, ‘la Grillade’. As a result, we’ve been invited to lunch on Wednesday at their friends house (Hazel and Iain) who live not far away, in Hains. It will be a great way to end our fabulous holiday here in Montmorillon.

Whoops, I’ve done it again! As is often the case with me, I’ve taken the longer, more circuitous route when telling a story (unlike Jeff, who is a bullet point type of guy) so I’d better get back on course…

During our dinner ‘under the stars’ (and which was also in the shadow of the 11th century l’église Notre Dame, but again, I digress..!)  Rosie had suggested a beautiful drive that we might like to do. So we did.. yesterday. It involved a Château, greedy fish, a picnic on the lawns of a mill house, a squirrel and a tour of another Château, which just happened to have been previously owned by Eleanor de Aquitaine.

In Bourg Archambault, a tiny commune only 20 minutes from Montmorillon, we saw the beautiful 15th century Château  – privately owned and still lived in by a single lady. It’s surrounded by a moat, which is filled with fish. A lot of fish. And all of them very hungry. We’d been advised to take bread to feed them, which we did and they were certainly extremely partial to a fresh baguette (and who can blame them?) to the point of craziness. It was absolute mayhem!! No dabbling my toes in there, I don’t think I’d have any left!

We then drove onto Brigueil le Chantre, a gorgeous little village. Rosie and Huw own the mill house here (le Moulin des Vaux). It’s another holiday rental, but because there were no occupants at the moment, they’d offered it to us, as they thought it was a lovely place for a picnic. They were right! It was the perfect place for our ‘jambon et fromage baguette et du vin rosé, sous l’arbres et à côté de la rivière’.

After another short drive of 20 minutes or so, we arrived at Lignac and it’s Château Guillaume. What a place! As I mentioned, it was the home of Eleanor de Aquitaine (previously Queen of France who, after the annulment of her marriage to Louis, then went onto become Queen of England when she married  Henry II….not a bad track record!), but the Château was ultimately dismantled under Richelieu. It was restored in 1878 and is just magnificent. It is currently lived in by descendants of the Countess of Beauchamp, who oversaw the original renovations. We had the tour guide to ourselves, she could not speak any English and so of course the tour was in French. A very good test for me and, thankfully, I was able to understand quite a bit.  I  even managed some basic questions. She was very friendly and spoke slowly, so it all helped. It was just another encouragement for me to continue to expand my vocabulary, as it makes travelling here so much more enjoyable and interactive. I love it.

And the squirrel? Nothing terribly exciting, except to say we saw one, but being from Australia where we don’t have them, I thought it well worth mentioning. It’s the first we’ve seen on this trip. He was very cute, though and not at all  like those my friend Narelle and I encountered a few years ago, in Hyde Park in London. I swear those squirrels were stalking me with intent. Every time I turned around, another one was on my heels, each with a very menacing look in his eyes!

 

 

Bisous