Le Rêche

Today's the day ……………………. to keep a diary

Do you remember the days when we could plan a holiday abroad - and actually go on it?  Such a thing has become more like a dim memory as the months have passed - but today I unexpectedly came upon something that brought the memories flooding back.

It was diary that I wrote back in 2002 when we went on holiday with friends Dorothy and Alan - to a house southeast of Bordeaux in France.  It wasn't so much a diary as a place to record snippets of information and all the new French words that I was acquiring, in the hope that I would remember them for longer.

It was the most wonderful holiday too - although it did not get off to an auspicious start.  The house that we were staying in (Le Rêche) belonged to friends of Dorothy and Alan.  It was a beautiful place - with enormous wooden shutters and extensive grounds.  The only problem was that no-one had been there for at least a year and so, before we could stay in it, we had to do a bit of maintenance work?!  I remember bats flying out when someone opened one of the upstairs shutters.  But it was all part of the fun - and we soon got it into shape.

Anyway, as you can see from the above, Will very kindly did some sketches for me in my diary as the days passed.  The one above was on the first page and shows the big wooden doors that led into the kitchen - and the (now clean) kitchen table.  The extra is something that we saw a lot of in that part of France.

Lots of memories in that little book …………………….