Back from France!

I was going to write a long post about our week in the cottage, but I have got something much better to write about! When we got home on the weekend, I found one of those red/white cards from the postman, telling me that he had tried to deliver a parcel. Guess what I did as soon as I could this morning? Went to collect it from the local sorting office, of course. I had an idea as to whom it might be from, and I was right, it was from Michela in Italy! She had told me a little while ago that she was sending me something, and I was sooooooooooo excited, because I had no idea what it could possibly be.

I was really glad that my son had driven me to the sorting office, because I could sit in the car with a silly grin on my face and fondle the package, trying to feel what could possibly be in there. He had that " oh, good grief, here we go again, she's gone doolally" look on his face all the way home. But come on, can you blame me? Just look at this, the package was even sealed with the prettiest tape, none of your common clear sellotape here, this was pretty and lacy looking!


And just have a look at what I found inside -


Now you can see from the photo that the prezzies remained unopened until I had read the card. In the card Michela expressed her doubts that I would read the card first, lol, HAH, you doubting Thomas, see? I did read the card first, and even after reading it, I still had no idea what I would find when I'd take the wrapping paper off. This is what I found -


Oh my, that tin is soooooooooo beautiful, I wish you could see it in real life. And best of all, it has a bit of history with it. Michela told me in her card that the tin was found by her grandmother, (correction, sorry, my mistake, its her mother, lol) in a Venetian attic. It was full of old coins apparently, which her mother kept, but she gave the tin to Michela. And that wonderful girl thought the tin would be perfect for me. Which of course it is. It will look just great in France. You are a pretty special person, Michela, thank you so much! The tin was filled with a selection of utterly yummy torroncino, and despite my best intentions of rationing myself, I have to confess that now there are only two left


Honestly, even ten minutes after eating one, your mouth is still watering just at the thought of them, perhaps you even have that teeny weeny little taste still left in your mouth. Dang, drooling again now.

One last photo of the beautiful tin, before I post a few pics of the cottage in France, just because I like it so much


The weather was pretty darned good when we arrived at the cottage on Saturday afternoon, 19C is not bad for late November, right? Blue sky, fluffety clouds, not much wind, it was great. Didn't last very long, lol, we did get some pretty wild storms during the week, but hey, when you are all snug in a stone cottage with an open fire making you feel all cosy and safe, who cares?


As soon as we open the garden gate, its this great big sigh, relax and be stunned by the view scenario. Every time. I can't ever get sick of this view -


The Fermette from the garden -


The Fermette from the gate -

And the back of the cottage seen from the little lane -


The dogs made themselves at home straight away, it seemed they remembered the place very well indeed.

Yep, we remember this place -

Ok, lets take a walk down the lane and snuffle about a bit, all those interesting French smells -

Gosh, travelling is exausting -

And while the dogs relax by, well, just relaxing, the men relax by................ drinking French beer!

I had plans for the week at the cottage, which involved, well, some work, lol, and although DH wasn't all that keen, he did admit it was a good idea. But more of that tomorrow. Until then, toodlepip xx