A mountain of brightly coloured macaroons. Well, I am now back home, had the parents and my gorgeous sister over for tea and it's time to start revving myself up for a busy week. I wanted to show you some more of my time in France with my good friends Sue and John Culligan. Sue and John live i n an old stone farmhouse in the heart of the Charente-Maritime in t he tiny hamlet of Le Verderie, close to Brizambourg. It's all very rural and lovely. A great place to rest and also to have a great time. Sue and I went to college together many moons ago, so we know each other VERY well. Sue and John run a chambre d'hotes and Sue is the owner of Knitting Holidays in France www.knittingholidaysinfrance.com and is the pattern editor of Knitting Magazine. She is also the author of several books. I have such clever friends. After several days of dog walks and fantastic food (and much lounging about) we all spent the last day in Bordeaux, about two hours South from Le Verd

The Abbaye at St-Jean D'angely Happy New New to you all, I hope you had a relaxing time over the Festive Season??? I expect a lot of you will be returning to work for a rest! I am in the  middle of my annual New Year trip away to visit friends either France or Spain. This year it is France. We arrived in France at Bordeaux airport on New Years Eve and had to wait for a couple of hours for my friends to collect us so we took a train into Bordeaux for a poodle about. We didn't see a lot of the city but what we did see was very beautiful. There were several Art Deco buildings in the street next to the station. The Cafe Du Levant had a very splendid frontage with lots of gold tile work and Art Deco statuary.    A beautiful Art Deco building. We had flown quite early and were getting hungry so we succumbed to an early lunch of Moules et Fritte. Heaven!  Heaven on a dish.   We had a reasonably riotous News Year Eve with my friend John playing in a local band