Friday 24 August 2012

A Weekend in France: The House

As we are fast approaching the last weekend of August, I realise I have not yet posted about the wonderful first weekend of this month:
My sister and I went to visit friends in France.

The background about these friends is explained in my Mum's latest guest post; W and B came to Europe now for a trip lasting several months, and one stage of the trip was a few weeks in the French countryside, where they rented a large house and had their children with their respective families come over for their holiday, and our whole family was invited to join them.
My parents didn't really feel up to it, but they were very happy about my sister and I going, and so we both took Friday afternoon and all of the Monday off and booked tickets for the plane from Stuttgart to Lyon (that's about an hour's flight).

I always travel lightly, and there is really not much that I need for a long weekend in summer, so that the bag I normally use for my gym stuff was enough, plus my handbag, and my beloved yellow zip-up was the only warmer item I took. 

Have you ever heard a sweeter name for a place than Saint Amour Bellevue? It literally means "Saint Love Beautiful View", and the small community in the Beaujolais region of course do what they can to play on that lovely name. Their website is here.

We were met in Lyon by W and his soon-to-be son-in-law, and although we had never met G before, there wasn't a moment of awkwardness between us or feeling like strangers. They drove us to Saint Amour, where the rest of the family were waiting for us at the beautiful house:

Because of the way the house is placed in the village, and there always being people who of course I am not going to show on my blog, I was unable to get a picture of the whole house. So, don't be fooled - this is only about a third of the length of the building. The house belongs to an old lady who grew up in it; eventually, it became too big for her and so she moved to a smaller place and now rents this out. You can find complete info and contact details about how to rent it here; there are also some very good pictures of the house (inside and out) on that website, so have a look even if you are not interested in going there.


The open plan living/dining area with the big old grandfather clock.


Our bedroom. I slept so well in that bed - it is very narrow compared to my own bed at home, but the mattress was really good for my back. Note the chocolate that our hosts had so kindly placed there for us :-)

This was the start of the Olympics in London, and on the plane, we were given this little sachet; it contained a London Underground map, a Walker's shortbread biscuit and an After Eight mint praliné. The snack that came with it was a turkey sandwich. We both liked the sachet, and it now houses my Kindle cable. 
The little Koala bear holding the Australian flag was a present from H, one of W and B's grandchildren, a girl of almost 5 years who was very sweet and well-behaved and became quite attached to us during our short visit.

This sign greets visitors upon entering the village. Kay, I was thinking of you when I took that picture!

The landscape around Saint Amour.

There will be more pictures and descriptions of what we did and saw over that weekend, but I think this post has become long enough for now!

15 comments:

  1. Sounds like a perfect weekend. Thanks for sharing. The place looks wonderful. I like that the city of Saint-Amour is twinned with Durbuy, in Belgium. That always seems such a nice friendly thing for a city to do. Enjoy the last days of summer, take care and God bless, xoxox

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    1. My hometown has several twin town partnerships, and they always seem to be doing stuff together, which is great for students at school (student exchange) and others.

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  2. Laughing as I type this, when I saw the photo of the sign with the lovely flowerpots all around in a heart shaped, I was already saying, "Oh, I love that" and then I read what you have typed underneath it!
    What a wonderful time it sounds like you had and in such a lovely spot.
    And hey guess what, I still use my Samsonite lugguge that my sister bought me in 1975 and it is YELLOW! :-)

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    1. Please, post a picture of your yellow vintage Samsonite!!! I am sure I'll love it! :-)

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    2. I will, if you promise not to laugh!

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    3. I won't - you know I love yellow, and anything from the 70s is considered "cool" these days anyway!

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  3. What a charming home in which to stay! Was your bed a twin bed? I recently bought a smaller bed for myself- a full-size bed. I love how roomy my bedroom looks now that the queen-size bed is gone. (gave it to a granddaughter)
    I love Walker's shortbread biscuits! I got a package of them as a gift from a parent my first year of teaching. so rich and delicious!

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    1. Yes, it was very charming, it had a truly lived-in feel and not like a neglected holiday home rented out to strangers and furnished with the cast-offs that had better gone in a skip.
      Our bedroom was with two single beds, you can see that in the upper of the two bedroom pictures. At home, I have what you'd probably call a queen-size bed, but there is still plenty of space in the room.

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  4. It looks delightful! I'm sure you had a wonderful time there.(And look forward to seeing and hearing more!)

    Once we had friends who lived in a place called Liebenhofen (near Gruenkraut near Ravensburg), but Saint-Amour is even better.

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    1. Liebenhofen sounds nice - and the area around Grünkraut is very nice, too, with Grünkraut being one of the most wealthy small towns in all of Germany. Why do I know this? Because I used to work almost 10 years at the publisher's who printed the weekly paper for Grünkraut :-)

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    2. My bil and his family lived in Grünkraut for years and years, but now moved to a smaller home in Hinzistobl since they are empty nesters. I love all that area which I've known since '84. Last time I was there was for my nephew's wedding in 2009. It's been too long!

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  5. I think, Meike, that you and I have discussed the easiness that marks out true friendships from the rest. What a wonderful example you have given. here.

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    1. We have indeed, Graham, and I am glad there are such friendships in my life I can report about!

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  6. What a great trip -- the perfect short vacation. Love the house and the surroundings.

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    1. Yes, it was perfect and felt much longer than "just" a weekend!

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