After 5 weeks in England we finally made our way back home. We used our favourite Channel crossing – Portsmouth to St Malo overnight, departing at 8.15pm – which usually has a large ferry on it with a nice restaurant. Sadly, I suspect due to the usual excuse of the last 2 years, they put on a smaller one with a cafeteria. Not exactly fine dining! They also didn’t have any Commodore Cabins on that boat – the Armorique – so no breakfast in the cabin either.
So we decided not to get up to go to the dreaded cafeteria for a second time and instead drove off the boat and straight round the corner to the parking for St Malo old town, where we found a café serving a very nice coffee / croissant / baguette combo, with fresh squeezed orange juice. Parfait!
After a walk round the ramparts, we were suitable refreshed and ready for the drive to Azay-le-Brulé, our stopover destination near Niort. We booked a place called Les Demeures de Vallette – sort of a chateau, but no turrets, so for me not a chateau but a very big manor house (you can hear me twittering on about this constantly during Escape to the Chateau DIY ! 😊 )
A lovely spot with and interesting combination of old and new in the very French style of renovation. Mixed into this was some very interesting modern artwork and a book of the same in the salon which suggests the owner is the artist.
Our favourite part about this stay was the lovely Horse Chestnut lined avenue – not a made up road, although it probably was the way into the property in the past – now carpeted with leaves and beautiful burnished conkers.
The next day we were back in Pech Pinet, and a certain Furry Purry was very pleased to see us indeed! 😉