It was possibly one of the best B&Bs we've known, and we've been to a few. If you're going to the town, I couldn't recommend it too highly.
The family were discreet and lovely, and the rooms, both the bedroom where we slept and the enormous breakfast room, were full of charm, and interesting objects and furniture in the case of the latter. the breakfasts were enormous, so we often filled our pockets with brioche and croissants for later - with permission of course!
We soon made ourselves at home...
(you can just see Mol in the corner of the pic, by the door, thinking 'I'll have that bloody Welsh springer if he comes any closer...')
And the very comfy bed, and cool limestone floor, were much appreciated after a hard morning foot slogging around the town (all dignity abandoned, Tom will curse me for this, Mol won't care).
It was completely enclosed in an enormous space, full of trees and established garden and birdsong, including a cuckoo, though very near to the centre of the town, with at least three different houses within it, two of which belonged to the family, plenty of parking space, and a secure gate with a code, so we almost exclusively left the car there and walked everywhere, saving ourselves petrol and parking fees. We had our own little space to sit on the terrace, where we could take in the Friday night boule game and generally enjoy the life of the place, without feeling either intruded or intruding on.
Three other dogs lived on the premises, including the aforementioned Welsh springer, and a wonderful old man yellow labrador with a great broad smile and an attitude that went beyond benign, who, by some inexcusable oversight, neither of us took a photograph of. Mme Chedeville always asked if Molly had slept well and been comfortable before thinking to ask us the same question, thereby endearing herself to us greatly.
But one of the best things about it for me was that it seemed to be situated in some kind of salvage yard,
(there are som box elder leaves in the one above...)
cum ecclesiastical heritage site, cum former cemetery.
The camera and I were in paradise!
I don't know why, but I never got around to asking Mme Chedeville the history of the place, and why they had a load of gravestones and other bits of church archaeology in their garden. Perhaps I felt it would take away some of the magic and mystery...
18 comments:
What a great yard, so many lovely things, and I know how much you hate a stack of tiles :)
Sounds like you all had a good trip. I've never heard of gravesyones being recycled before
Wonderful salvage! I particularly like the spring flowers set next to stone leaves and buds.
Wonderful B&B, must remember it if we ever go there! And what great photo ops for you, Lucy, right up your alley, as we say.
love the photo of Tom n Molly
I'm with Rosie.
Love the mysteries, too.
Perhaps if you'd asked Mme Chedeville you might have added to the mystery.
As often as not, questions don't lead to answers but to yet more questions; especially with something as old as the subject of this post.
And yes, I am beginning to get a vague idea that you are partial to Chartres.
No bad thing.
You have pushed me to put it on my list of 'places to visit'
Your camera and you certainly were in paradise, weren't you? Beautiful pictures, each one a study.
Now that's my kind of yard! Great photos.
The grounds -- how very strange! And wonderful, too. Do keep the mystery.
Thanks people! It did occur we might have been lodging in an old graveyard but somehow it didn't bother me! No 'Poltergiest' moments anyway...
I liked the verdure creeping all over it too.
Tom said I was a rotten sod.
It's already been established you're a great photographer and here's one of the reasons. You have an inexhaustible talent for lighting (the perfect verb, I think) on great subjects. Or perhaps not. As one whose metaphorical eye is glaucous and red-rimmed, I ask myself whether these subjects are available to all of us and it's only those with the Cartier-Bresson gene who "see" them. I have the uncomfortable feeling I would have looked out on that yard and noticed only junk. So, we already have the Prague Polymath; we may we now add the Breton Metamorphoser. Too cumbersome; give me time
Though most of your commentators have understandably concentrated on the junk yard, I am sure that Tom (and Molly) will foregive me for saying how much I liked the photograph of both of them recovering from siteseeing. An opportunity you could not have missed.
Sounds like your trip was fabulous and this B&B looks great!! And as always your photos are wonderful!!
I think that I will put Chartres on the list -- just to visit this B & B. (So glad that you shared the picture of Tom and Molly . . . all worn out from walking.)
"The camera and I were in paradise!"
And it shows, Lucy! Each photo tells a wonderful story in and of itself...a joy to peruse, again and again.
:)
What a wonderful place. Thankyou for sharing it all with us. Mol looks supremely happy.
The Breton Bresson?
Thanks again.
Yes, T & M line up so nicely, with the stripes of the bed and all, and at least Tom's socks didn't have holes in.
Mol gets absolutely tired out with town walking, but I think she enjoys it, gets to come into restaurants and be fed the odd chip, lots of lamp posts and interesting corners....
I suppose capturing them thus could have been described as a Cartier Bresson 'decisive moment'. Generally, though I love the epithet BB, I think perhaps I rely on photography that is not too dependent on decisive moments; I like things that have been around for a while, and aren't going anywhere soon!
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