A BUSY QUIET WEEK

Our first week of 2024 was meant to be a quiet one.

On New Year's Day we went to Chinon in search of a nice coffee and a walk in the sunshine.

We were disappointed on the coffee front.

Everywhere was closed except for two bars that were very busy.

We didn't venture inside.

We were not disappointed on the walk front.

Chinon is always a good town to stroll around, possibly even more so in winter when there are few tourists.

We brought with us the jigsaw puzzle started on Christmas Day.

It was very challenging.

I had swooped on a jigsaw board at half price during my last visit to the UK prior to Christmas.  I had spotted a young man walking through town with one under his arm and asked him where he got it.

We adopted a different approach to Christmas presents this year.

Maximum spend £7 on each person from charity shops or charities online.

It was a great success.  Jigsaw puzzles and books proved to be popular presents.

Yvonne is settling in well.  She barely gives Hugo a second glance now.

He would like to be more friendly but is, like a real gentleman, giving her some space.

On arriving back in France our Orange live box that serves the landline was not working.  We reported it to Orange and less than 24 hours later the engineer came to fix it.

Excellent service.

It was fixed within 30 minutes of his arrival.

The live box is upstairs and he took his boots off to go up and check all was ok.

He wasn't wearing any socks!

We called at the PreHisto bar for an apéritif before moving on for dinner.

One of the bars in the village has changed hands again and reopened as a pizza place just before Christmas.  The place has had a little redecoration but the lovely old floors and other features have been kept.

We felt duty bound to go and check it out.

When we first came to the village it was literally just a bar called the Jean Bart and didn't serve any food.

After the owner retired it carried on as the Jean Bart and the new couple running it started serving a few snacks.

They moved on and it became Lisa's where Lisa served excellent food.

Sadly it closed during the pandemic but soon reopened as Le Comptoir.

It was very successful, serving delicious pizzas and burgers, but the manager found the hours too restrictive and it closed again after a couple of years.

Last year someone took it on and turned it into a creperie, serving only galettes.

It didn't work.  We never ate there while she owned it.

Now that it's in new hands things are looking very promising.

We have had some lovely sunsets but it's turned very cold.

We took down our Christmas decorations only a day late.

Nick tackled a job that's been on the back burner for a while, fixing the draughts in the bathroom.

The boxing in where the roof meets the wall was not sealed well.

It is now and the bathroom is draught free.

We finally managed to complete the jigsaw puzzle.

For a quiet week it turned out to be quite busy!