Advent postcards, Villemain Deux-Sèvres

Advent postcard, Villemain, Deux-Sèvres

Advent day sixteen

Today’s cycling advent-ures postcard is from the tiny village of Villemain, a mere three kilometres from our home. It is neatly tucked into the French countryside, so it’s not even somewhere you would drive through on your way to somewhere else. 

 

We will often set off on one of our quick ten-kilometre bike ride loops that take us through Villemain. Sometimes the route finishes with Villemain and then a whizzing downhill back home. Other times it starts with a gentle incline past goat and cow farms before a real leg and lung stretcher as we climb into the woods on the ridge.

 

If you do find yourself there, I think there are a few reasons to stop and take a moment. The first is the village war memorial. Rather than a sculptured rectangular memorial depicting the names of those lost, Villemain's is a statue of a French soldier painted in the palest blue uniform. Set on a plinth behind iron railings, it is always bedecked with flags for Victory in Europe Day on 8^th May and for Remembrance Day on 11^th November.

 

The second reason to stop is the Georgelet goat cheese farm. Any award-winning cheese farm whose cheeses are shipped all over France is worth a detour in my book, and they win gold medals most years at the national agricultural shows. They make a variety of the local speciality goat cheeses including Le Mothais sur Feuille which comes wrapped in a chestnut leaf and the pyramid shaped Chabichou de Poitou. Twice a week the farm shop is open, selling local produce as well as their cheese, but we can also stock up at the Saturday morning market in Chef-Boutonne, which is exactly what we did today, so that’s one bit of my Christmas shopping finished.