France

We have just returned from a fabulous holiday in the South of France. We stayed overnight in Orleans and then in Montpellier. We love these stop overs as it gives us chance to see a bit of the country and try the local restaurants. We arrived in Lamalou-les-Bains Saturday 8th and found the house really easily - it's always a worry what the place will actually be like (we book independantly) but it was lovely.Lamalou-les-Bains is a small town in the hills behind Beziers. It's a lively town with open air free concerts happening every few days. There are also many markets, fruit and veg, books, craft, bric-a-brac, so there was plenty going on. It only took 5 minutes to walk into the town centre which was great for an evening stroll to the bars.

We took DS and DD on two boat trips, one along the Canal du Midi and one a little way out to sea in a glass bottomed boat to see the rock beds. We visited a fabulous cave with some amazing features, went back to a vinyard we'd stayed on before and of course purchased a few botttles of wine. We also toured the mountains behind us and found some great river beaches and pools. It's an area of France we love and will go back again.

Our last night there we went out for a meal in town, I had mussels which are my favourites and these had been cooked, garlic and herb crumb crust added, and then baked. They tasted wonderful but wow quite a lot of garlic.

I read two book whilst away - both by Joanne Harris, "Blackberry Wine" and "Chocolat" (my favourite). I am half way through her new book "Lollipop Shoes". I did do some stitching but nothing very much.


Before we went away I took part in a Redwork or Monochromatic Exchange and I stitched a needleroll for Sally. and I received a beautiful cushion from Laura.









It was a great exchange - thanks to everyone involved. I have some bits and bobs to finish off and another exchange piece to do for September. I'm not stitching anything big at the moment so it feels a bit weird. My stitching basket is still full of things to do though - hee hee.