France - August

Chateau Glen, Ste Radegonde

We arrived at Poitiers (August 22nd)  in the pouring rain for 3-days with Dee's parents, this time arriving from Stansted, Ryanair having now inconveniently stopped flying from the nearby Birmingham Airport.

The flight across was an interesting one having at one time skirted the outer edge of what looked to be a pretty large thunderstorm. Only lasting a short time but the turbulence was probably the worst I've experienced on a short haul flight.

The good thing about visiting Chateau Glen is not just the outstanding cuisine that we have the pleasure of sampling but the conversation and wine that always seems to flow and last until the early hours. I won't mention the constant beating I seem to suffer every time I meet Graham on the pool table.

This year the early summer rain torrents experienced in the area wiped out the cherry crop, so bang went my pre dinner walk munching cherries through the orchard. Mind you I still had an excellent choice of other crops such as plum, sweetcorn, pumpkin, courgettes and not to mention several varieties of tomato. Susan and Graham have also left a good part of the garden wild and so I spent some considerable time investigating what Butterflies I could find and came up with some gems, like this Silver-washed Fritillary.

Dee's parents are always good enough to lend us their second car and so getting around the locality is made an awful lot easier. On the Monday we decided to take the drive out to La Pinail, a nearby nature reserve we'd discovered on our last visit. The weather forecast for the day wasn't looking too good with prolonged periods of rain and quite a strong wind but we had a lovely visit with lots of Butterflies, the odd Lizard and some good bird species, we even managed to stay dry. After Pinail we took a drive around the locality and stopped at La Roche-Posay for a coffee and lunch. On the return journey to the house we managed to spot a Stone-Curlew, quite a bird rarity and only a few miles from the house, plus an almost white Common Buzzard, something I've never seen before!

Tuesday we set off mid-morning to Parc naturel regional de la Brenne. The Brenne is a patchwork of fishponds, heaths and red sandstone outcrops. Looking very natural, it's landscape has however been transformed by man, as early as the Middle Ages. Today with more than 2000 man made lakes, traditionally used for farm-fishing, the Brenne is of international importance for it's rich wildlife. The area has many hides and natural trails all waiting to be explored and we spent the remainder of the day visiting the hides and lakes.

We also enjoyed a glass of wine and lunch overlooking Etang (man-made lake) de la Gabriere in lovely sunshine before returning in the early evening.

Our flight back to the UK was uneventful but before leaving France we stopped off at Intermarche, a large supermarket at Poitiers to purchase a bottle of Pineau, one of Dee's favourites, which will go nicely with the various preserves her mum and dad had kindly provided us with. In fact were enjoying some marmalade (lemon & Lime) right now with our morning toast as I write this entry, delicious.