Chateaux hunting in the Charente

La Rochefoucauld Chateau

As 2026, and life in general, hurtles by at an ever-increasing pace, last weekend gave us a welcome pause and time to reconnect.

Gallerie 16, Chef Boutonne

Saturday morning saw me giving a brief talk about the history of the Château de Javarzay at a local art gallery, and while this may seem a little close to work, it actually mentally prepared me for this coming weekend’s opening of the château. My mind could retrieve the knowledge stored over winter, dust it off and make sure all was where it should be. 

Gallerie 16, Chef Boutonne

Gallerie 16, in the heart of Chef Boutonne, is a wonderful venue and so much more for the community than just an art gallery. As well as showcasing the works of local artists, the gallery, run by a dynamic woman who is as passionate as I am about promoting our area, holds regular events and talks in its delightful setting. It was an honour for me to be invited along to share my local knowledge with a welcoming and appreciative audience.

Opening weekend festivities at the Chateau de Javarzay, Chef-Boutonne

This year, the opening of the château tourist season will be vibrant as the colours and costumes of Venice and its carnival come to life. The opening weekend usually marks the start of my working year but not this year. My role at the Chef Boutonne council has evolved into a full-time position, splitting my time between the library and the château, as well as other communication tasks, including social media posts and event posters, working in a dynamic and supportive team of creative women. It really is a dream role for me.

Hedgerow blossoms in March

Sunday proved to be just as awakening. The weather was perfect for a bike ride, so we set off for a 50 km châteaux hunt, in the Charente. The frost and snow of early January, that were followed by storms and flooding in February, have given way to a lush and vibrant March. The wildflowers in the verges: cowslips, wild daffodils, aconites and snake’s head fritillaries, seem more prolific than ever this year, and the first hedgerow blossoms (that will hopefully give way to sloes in autumn) are stunning to look at and alive with bees. 

La Rochette

It was a delight to be out and about, butterflies trying to keep pace with me one minute, bird song breaking through my thoughts another. We paused in La Rochette to admire the turreted château and the Romanesque Church, with special mention going to its stone carvings and gilded altar. Our destination was La Rochefoucauld, which is home to a very impressive Renaissance château whose family have links with the Château de Javarzay. I hadn’t realised it would be open for visits, so that treat will have to wait for another day, but we did have time to explore the town and learn about its history thanks to the Terra Aventura geocaching app, and treat ourselves to a flan from a boulangerie - that was open on a Sunday afternoon, in rural France, in March. What a win!

The Romanesque church, La Rochette, Charente

While cycling has still featured to get to and from work this winter (when it’s not been stormy), our last 50 km day on the bikes was five months ago, when we were in the Creuse for a few days in October. While the weather isn’t entirely to blame for this, work and two trips back to England have played their part too, almost half a year without a cycling day trip adventure is crazy. I hadn’t appreciated how much I’d missed it, and it was a real tonic for the mind and body. Luckily, we have a few mini adventures in the pipeline this spring.

Advent postcards, Matha, Charente-Maritime

 

Advent postcard, Matha, Charente-Maritime

Advent day twenty-one

Today’s cycling advent-ures postcard is from Matha in the Charente-Maritime, where we spent an interesting few hours on the return from our cycle tour to Saintes in July.

 

Matha isn’t too far from home, so is somewhere we have driven through many times over the years, and also passed through with the bikes but had never had the opportunity to discover it properly.  Thanks must again go to the Terra Aventura treasure hunt that had us exploring all manner of hidden gems. Our first discovery was the artworks and sculptures in the international peace garden. Enclosed within a walled park, the Peace Garden is home to works of art donated to Matha from all over the world, on a theme of peace and human rights. It was thought provoking, calming and inspiring, and somewhere I will return to.

 

We then discovered the church of St Barthelemy de St Herie with its mismatch of architectural styles. Having just been on an historical architecture training day for work, it was so cool (for me at least) to see both the Romanesque and Gothic styles living side by side in harmony for centuries, and now with the addition of contemporary stained-glass windows dating from 2002.

 

The icing on the cake for me however was stumbling upon the park with the Renaissance towers, that are the only remains of the Château de Matha. Much like at Javarzay, only a small part of the original château remains, but what a Renaissance beauty it is. Imagine my delight when I discovered it is linked to the fabulous Jacquette de Montbron, heroine from yesterday’s postcard from Bourdeilles. She was heir to the château, but history is unclear as to whether she also had a hand in the design as she had at Bourdeilles. She is definitely a woman whose story I want to learn more about.

 

 

The tree of the year

The tree of the year 2021

August 

 

As our third canicule (heatwave) of 2022 gets going with temperatures of 35º as I write this, it has struck me that not only has the beginning of August often been significant for us over the years, but its weather can be unpredictably changeable too. One year ago, we helped Ed and Pearl move into their new flat and the first photos of them on their balcony shows them in long trousers and jumpers, dodging the rain – something we got quite used to doing last August.

 

Two years ago, we were in the Pyrenees having conquered the Col d’Aubisque and the Col du Tourmalet, among other iconic mountain passes, on our Bromptons in temperatures that reached the high 30’s. Our next stop was the Pays Basques, where the cols might be lower, the mountain profiles less jagged, but the gradients of the climbs are killers – although we can’t wait to return.

 

Three years ago, we were in London celebrating all things bike, including enjoying the Brompton factory tour, the London Freecycle and completing the Ride London 46 sportive (46 miles or 80 km). In a sea of lycra and high-end road bikes, we did it on our Bromptons, with huge smiles on our faces and I was wearing a dress.

 

Four years ago, Ed had just completed the Ride London 46, raising money for the mental health charity MIND on the coldest, wettest August day you could imagine.

 

Five years ago, we were into the final preparations for our Tour de Rêves four-hundred-and-fifty-kilometre charity bike ride around the Deux-Sèvres department raising money for a children’s make a wish association.

 

Probably the most significant event was eighteen years ago, when we were just days away from packing the cars and moving our lives to France – although how has it been 18 years, I have no idea. Our arrival in France coincided with the end of a heatwave and the beginning of a wet and stormy few weeks.

The V93 between Melle and Celles-sur-Belle

holiDAYS out and about

 

Memories and good times are not always about the big events in life or the long-distance adventures, or even the impressive mountains we climb, sometimes it’s the simple things that put a big smile on my face. This summer, rather than going away for a holiday we are making the most of our holiDAYS out and about, mostly involving the bikes.

 

This week’s first adventure might have only been a twenty-one-kilometre bike ride from the local market town of Melle, but with some clever planning it was still a fabulous day out. We set off along the old railway line voie verte (green way) that is now part of the V93 cycle route, that crosses the southern end of the Deux-Sèvres department. It has been a favourite route for us for more years than I care to remember and comes into its own on a hot summer day.

 

We took our time to enjoy the cool, shady path, where trees and ferns line the sides of the old railway cutting, and it feels like you are in a green tunnel, before you emerge back out into sunshine and fields of sunflowers all around. It is only eight kilometres to Celles-sur-Belle, but rather than follow it all the way, we dropped down at a bridge to make an exciting detour. 

The tree of the year 2021

The tree of the year 

Last year, a local chestnut tree was voted l’arbre d’année (tree of the year) and cycling to see it was on my summer wish list. Sitting at a crossroads of quiet, rural lanes this chestnut tree, named "La talle à teurtons" which roughly translates from the old French dialect as the people’s tree, is thought to be at least six hundred years old. It is mostly hollow on the inside, with patterns on the gnarly bark that were mesmerising and had to be touched, traced and hugged. Over the years it has held a reputation as a meeting point, where lovers could conceal themselves within its trunk, although we saw no evidence of any secret trysts. It was difficult to drag ourselves away from such magnificence, but there were other local treasures awaiting us.

Lavoir de Villiers in Melle

Melle 

Back onto the V93, we stopped at a shady bench by a spring and enjoyed a homemade flapjack, before heading back to Melle, arriving via one of the most impressive lavoir (wash houses) in the area. 

Lavoir de Villiers Melle

The oval pool surrounded by a cobbled path, reflects the stonework of the temple-like structure with high arched windows. The traditional lavoir roof was designed to encourage air flow while allowing some protection from the elements for the women doing their weekly washing.

Les Rêves du Monde, Melle

 

Our first point of call in Melle was the church of St Pierre, one of three impressive Romanesque churches in the town. Every two years Melle puts on a contemporary art festival that this year has the theme of Les Rêves du Monde (the dreams of the world). Outside the church, we found our first art display, a collection of wooden bricks that children of all ages can use to build their dreams. Having built a mini tower, while Adrian looked on, we set off to the marketplace, admiring the super cycling facilities outside the office du tourisme – lockable bike parking, with power for charging batteries and a fully equipped tool station with air pump.

Melle cycling facilities

 

The kiosque, or bandstand, housed another art installation, the lattice work creating some stunning light and shadow patterns. We then followed the narrow streets of the old town ramparts, passed the summer beach at the Hôtel de Ménoc, which isn’t a hotel, but was a noble family home that in parts dates to the fourteenth century and is now an exhibition space. Our final destination was the St Hilaire church where the ornate stone carvings, especially of the knight on his horse are always worth a moment of careful inspection.

 

Eglise St Hilarie, Melle

We are incredibly lucky to have all this on our doorstep, but sometimes it is easy to forget that there is always something to see, we just have to make the time to slow down and enjoy what is around us.

 

Thank you for all your lovely comments on Ed and Pearl’s challenging week. I’m happy to report that their second week went without a hitch, and they packed in lots of days out before safely returning their first set of holiday makers to Poitiers. They are currently in a beautiful gîte situated in the middle of a forest in the Creuse. The trees are proving a cool and calm oasis from the heatwave raging outside of the forest - proof, if any were needed, that it is essential we plant more trees, everywhere.

  

Book review of The Painter's Girl by Helen Fripp

The Painter's Girl by Helen Fripp

The Painter’s Girl by Helen Fripp 

 

The Painter's Girl: Absolutely heartbreaking historical romance set in Paris by Helen Fripp

 

‘I want to paint you,’ he whispers. In his high-ceilinged studio filled with golden light she takes in the canvases propped against every wall, the paints like jewels. She thinks of the pictures she longs to paint, of her lost little girl playing in sunlit gardens. Will she ever see her daughter again?

Paris, 1860s. For Mimi Bisset, survival is everything on the cobbled streets of the Paris slums. She tries to forget the pain of losing her daughter Colette: born out of wedlock and forcibly given away to a rich family. But Mimi’s world turns upside down after a chance encounter with handsome artist Édouard Manet. Boldly posing for portraits on Manet’s chaise longue, Mimi feels a wild freedom – and as Manet teaches her how to layer the vivid paints on canvas herself, a passion grows between them that breaks all the rules…

At Manet’s side, Mimi is caught up in his world. They dance all night at Paris’s new can-can clubs and drink absinthe at masked balls. But one day, strolling by the Seine on her lover’s arm, Mimi catches a glimpse of familiar green eyes… it’s Colette, with a family who Manet knew all along.

Although she’s reeling that the man she loved kept such a secret from her, Mimi is filled with hope she’ll finally get her daughter back. But when a terrible rumour begins to circulate about Mimi, the only place she has to go is back to the slums. Destitute, hungry and alone, can Mimi clear her name? Or will her heart shatter all over again when she loses her daughter for a second, final time?

A completely gripping and heartbreaking read that will whisk you away to 19th-century Paris. Perfect for anyone who loves Marie Benedict, Chocolat and Dinah Jefferies.

The Painter's Girl by Helen Fripp Books-On-Tour

 

My review

What struck me most in this book was the colour, movement and vibrancy of 19^th century Paris that the author has created. The slums of Montmartre with ragpicker children and steamy laundries, contrast with the sparkle and spectacle of the circus and the hazy absinthe world of the artists. It all came alive through Mimi, a young woman who gives life everything she has got, which is nothing in terms of wealth or status, but everything in terms of steely determination to succeed. She wasn’t afraid to push the boundaries – her own and those imposed on her by society, and I couldn’t help but be drawn into her life and want her to achieve her dreams, despite the social inequalities of the time. 

 

Her friendship with Edouard Manet was as destructive as it was inspiring for them both. There was passion, but nothing could take away the sadness that drove Mimi, the desperation to succeed in order to get her daughter Colette back, and the impossibility of what she was asking of herself.

 

I know it’s fiction, but I finished this book really believing I’d had a glimpse into Paris of the Impressionists and felt a kinship with the Batignolles group that included Monet, Degas and Renoir, just as their day was dawning. I even found myself googling some of the works of art that made an appearance in the book and if I could, I’d be in Paris knocking on the door of the Musée d’Orsay, ready to feast my eyes on the real things. 

 

This is a book for the dreamers, a reminder to never let that fire within you go out. There was passion, love and life in abundance, and like a great work of art, there was always some little detail on the pages to catch my eye. 

 

The Painter's Girl by Helen Fripp

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Author Helen Fripp

Author Bio

 

I love delving into the past and uncovering new stories, and in my writing, the tiniest historical detail can spark an idea for a whole chapter. My female characters rail against the social constraints to which they are subject and often achieve great success, but they are of course flawed and human, like the rest of us. It’s the motivations, flaws, loves and every-day lives of my characters that I love to bring life, against sweeping historical backdrops - and I will find any excuse to take off and research a captivating location or person for my next story.

 

I spent a lot of time in France as a child, have lived in Paris and spent a year with my family in a fishing village in South West France, so that’s where my books have ended up being set so far. Who knows where next!

 

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Book review of L'Origine by Lilianne Milgrom

 

L'Origine by Lilianne Milgrom

L’Origine: The Secret Life Of The World’s Most Erotic Masterpiece by Lilianne Milgrom

(historical fiction) Release date: July 28, 2020 at Little French Girl Press 255 pages

2020 Indie B.R.A.G. Medallion Award

***

Buy It Here

Amazon | Bookshop

*** See the book on Goodreads

SYNOPSIS

‘L’Origine‘ traces the extraordinary, clandestine odyssey of an iconic 19th century painting that shook up the author’s world and continues to scandalize all who set eyes upon it. Gustave Courbet’s portrait of a woman’s exposed torso and sex – audaciously entitled ‘L’Origine du monde’ (The Origin of the World) – was so shocking it was kept hidden for a century and a half, surviving revolution, Nazi plunder and the foibles of its eccentric owners. Today it draws millions of visitors to Paris’ Orsay Museum. Lilianne Milgrom brings a fresh, feminine perspective to an iconic work of art created specifically for the male gaze. ‘L’Origine‘ offers readers more than a riveting romp through history–it also reflects society’s complex attitude towards female nudity.

NB: this is a historical novel, no explicit scenes

MY REVIEW

The first part of this book is the personal journey of the author, an artist from Washington, who having reached the status of ‘woman of a certain age’, making her acutely aware of the aging process, feels she needs to do something about it. With her husband often working away from home and their children now adults, she runs to Paris, to paint. It is only when she arrives, and takes a look around the Musée d’Orsay, that she realises what it is she is going to paint; Gustave Courbet’s L’Origine du Monde. 

 

I’m no art expert, so I had to look it up, and can appreciate that in its day (1866) its explicitness of the female form, wouldn’t have been for all eyes. From her daily visits to the museum, in her new role as official copyist of this piece, Lilianne, studies its every brush stroke as she attempts to reproduce her own version, often under the scrutiny of the visiting public. She feels the power of the painting as she watches the varying reactions it produces and arrives at the end of her six weeks a different person.

 

The second part of the book is a work of historical fiction that adds the backstory from first sketch to finished work, and then from art lover, dealer and collector, as L’Origine quietly makes its almost secret journey. Lilianne takes us back to Courbet’s studio, his muse, his lovers and his life dedicated to pushing rules and boundaries. It is known that the first owner of this privately commissioned piece was a Turkish/Egyptian diplomat called Khalil-Bey, who spent his time in Paris during the 1860’s collecting fine art and gambling his family fortunes away, but it’s journey during the 20^th Century is less well-known. Lilianne has done her research to uncover its owners and their secrets up to when it was acquired by the Musée d’Orsay in 1995. 

 

As Lilianne cleverly dips in and out of European history, culture and the troubled periods, we follow those involved and get to rub shoulders with famous names in art and literature whose paths crossed with the painting or its many owners. We see the power it has over relationships and the trouble it causes, but also the pleasure it brings too. 

Her passion for this piece and its story soon had me fascinated, even though it was a work of art that I’d not previously heard of. I was intrigued by its owners, their society lifestyles and the changing attitudes to the painting. 

This book certainly paints a colourful picture of a special work of art and opened my eyes to periods of art, history and culture I was unaware of.

Lilianne Milgrom

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Lilianne Milgrom Paris-born Lilianne Milgrom is an award-winning international artist, writer on the arts and author. Her art can be found in both private and institutional collections around the world and her articles have been published in Huffington Post, Daily Art Magazine, Ceramics Now and Bonjour Paris. Her 5-star, bestselling novel ‘L’Origine‘ is the result of ten years of research and was accepted into the Historical Novel Society. Lilianne lives in Washington DC with her husband. Follow the author on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram Join her mailing list

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Book review of Loving Modigliani by Linda Lappin

 

Loving Modigliani by Linda Lappin

Linda Lappin

on Tour January 7-20 with  

Loving Modigliani: The Afterlife Of Jeanne Hébuterne

(literary fiction/historical fiction/fantasy) Release date: December 15, 2020 at Serving House Books 343 pages Goodreads

Buy It Here: Amazon

SYNOPSIS

Amedeo Modigliani, embittered and unrecognized genius, dies of meningitis on a cold January day in Montparnasse in 1920. Jeanne Hébuterne, his young wife and muse, follows 48 hours later, falling backwards through a window. Now a ghost, Jeanne drifts about the studio she shared with Modigliani—for she was not only his favorite model, but also an artist whose works were later shut away from public view after her demise. Enraged, she watches as her belongings are removed from the studio and her identity as an artist seemingly effaced for posterity, carried off in a suitcase by her brother. She then sets off to rejoin Modigliani in the underworld. Thus begins Loving Modigliani, retelling the story of Jeanne Hébuterne’s fate as a woman and an artist through three timelines and three precious objects stolen from the studio: a notebook, a bangle, and a self-portrait of Jeanne depicted together with Modi and their daughter. Decades later, a young art history student will discover Jeanne’s diary and rescue her artwork from oblivion, after a search leading from Paris to Nice, Rome, and Venice, where Jeanne’s own quest will find its joyful reward.

MY REVIEW

We are with nineteen-year-old Jeanne Hébuterne as she falls to her death, just days after her lover, the artist Modigliani, dies. It is a brutal death and together with her trapped spirit we witness the horror on her family’s faces as they see her crumpled, broken body in the courtyard of their Parisian apartment. 

 

As Jeanne comes to terms with what she has done, we are with her as she takes her first steps in the afterlife, desperate to do all she can to be reunited with her beloved Modi. With the help of unexpected new friends, she travels through portals that take her between a seemingly parallel Paris for the dead, the underworld, and even give her a glimpse into the future she missed. Death for Jeanne is like a dream where you never quite seem to get where you need to be, and where increasingly bizarre situations crop up to delay your progress. 

 

This is a book of many parts, each one as intriguing as the other. No sooner had I got settled into the afterlife, when we are transported back to Paris, in the 1980’s, where an art student writing her thesis is introduced to a mysterious elderly lady. Annie is one of the last people alive to have met Modi and Jeanne, but time is running out for her and she has secrets she needs to share, before it is too late.

 

When Jeanne’s diaries turn up unexpectedly, decades after her death, the next part of this book takes us back into Montparnasse and the Parisian art scene during the First World War. The parties, the deceit, the poverty, the passion. We follow the young Jeanne as she begins to break away from the safety of her bourgeois family and find her independence with the artists she so admires.

 

Each different part of this book captivated me and swept me up in the mystery of Jeanne’s life, and the final part, which was probably the most unexpected, brought everything together just perfectly and left me with a smile on my face.

 

With Jeanne’s life and death being such an enigma, this isn’t the first fiction book I have read about her, and it certainly left me wanting to know more about Jeanne, Modi, his art, and their daughter. I couldn’t have picked a better book to begin a new year of reading. 

 

Linda Lappin

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Linda Lappin has published four novels: The Etruscan (Wynkin de Worde, 2004); Katherine’s Wish, dealing with the life of Katherine Mansfield (Wordcraft, 2008), shortlisted for Foreward Book of the Year and iPPY gold medal winner in historical fiction; Signatures in Stone: A Bomarzo Mystery, winner of the Daphne DuMaurier Award from RWA for the best mystery novel of 2013; and Loving Modigliani: The Afterlife of Jeanne Hébuterne. She is also the author of The Soul of Place: Ideas and Exercises for Conjuring the Genius Loci, winner in 2015 of the gold medal in creativity in the Nautilus Book Awards. She lives in Rome. Visit the author’s website and her blog. Follow the author on Facebook, and Twitter Join her mailing list

***

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Poitiers Insolite

Floral display Parc de Blossac, Poitiers

Poitiers Insolite (Unusual)

We recently found ourselves in Poitiers with an afternoon to spare. As we had the bikes with us, and for once it wasn’t raining, a bimble to some of our favourite places, with a few new sights too, seemed to be the perfect idea.

Floral snake, Poitiers

Our first stop was the Parc de Blossac where the winter floral displays were looking beautiful. With Toussaint (1^st November, All Saints Day) approaching, the florists of France are alive with chrysanthemums in the rich colours of autumn. We are not the only Brits in France to have received odd looks from our French neighbours as we’ve decorated our gardens with these beautiful displays - that the French reserve for the cemeteries and gardens of remembrance on All Saints Day. However, the municipal gardeners of Poitiers seem to have followed our lead as not only were the flower beds full of colourful chrysanthemums, but a floral snake sculpture has appeared just outside the Parc de Blossac too.

 

Travérsees \ Kimsooja contemporary art Poitiers

We then crossed the town centre, where there is currently a multi-location contemporary art exhibition in place, the Traversées \ Kimsooja. In my opinion, it is art, but not as I know it, but some of the pieces certainly got us talking about them! 

Palais du Justice, Poitiers

One benefit of the exhibition is that the old Palais du Justise (court house) that was once Eleanor of Aquitaine’s residence in the 12^th century and has been closed to the public for over 30 years, is now open. The grand hall, (salle des pas perdus – hall of the lost footsteps) with its impressive windows and fireplaces would certainly have been some place for a medieval banquet. 

 

River Clain, Poitiers

We then joined the river Clain to the north of the town, where quiet roads took us through residential areas. 

 

Hollyhocks in October

I was delighted to find hollyhocks still in bloom at the end of October.

 

Tour de France 2020, finish line in Poitiers

We then decided on a mission to find the newly installed signage that marks the finish line for when the Tour de France will arrive in Poitiers on 8^th July 2020. Cav, if you are reading this, it will be a slightly uphill sprint finish, on a wide section of the ring road, that I hope will have been resurfaced before you race here. I won’t be camping out just yet, but certainly plan to be there on the day.

 

Lanterne des Morts, Poitiers

With Toussaint so close, we took a detour through the cemetery, where as well as many family mausoleums and chrysanthemums we found a French military cemetery with a Lanterne des Morts as its centrepiece. Les Lanternes des Morts, or Lanterns of the Dead are a peculiar feature, found in only a handful of locations in our area of France. In fact, there are only 36 lanternes left in the whole of France that survived the Revolution (and the subsequent administrative destruction) and 11 of these are in the old region of Poitou-Charentes, with the remainder in the Aquitane. These needles of stone, built between the 11^th and 13^th centuries, sit near the church or in the cemetery and are a symbol of remembrance to those we have lost. At the top is a cross and an opening and at the bottom, a door where a lamp was placed. The lamp was lit at each death and only extinguished once the burial had taken place. They are always positioned so the opening looks towards the east and the direction of the sun rise, as a symbol of resurrection. I’ve been lucky enough to see a few of those that remain and find them fascinating. 

Next to the French cemetery was an area of German military crosses; the final resting place of 104 German soldiers who died as prisoners of war in Poitiers, during the First World War. We were both quite shocked to see so many crosses in a cemetery so far from the Front Line and battlefields.

 

Pierre-Levée, Poitiers

Our route back towards the cathedral took us past an ancient stone, or Pierre-Levée that has been classified as an historical monument since 1862. This large broken slab supported by three pillars is the remains of an ancient dolmen, a megalithic monument used as a burial chamber.

 

Traversées \ Kimsooja, Poitiers

Right outside Ed’s place is another art installation from the Traversées \ Kimsooja exhibition. This igloo-like frame is covered in life jackets and represents an emergency dwelling where protections at sea are turned into shelters on land. Designed by an architecture student who has helped with humanitarian work in Lesbos, Greece and invented the shelter based on the life vests found on the island’s beaches.

Our short 13km bike tour certainly took in the unusual and with megalithic stones, 12^th century palaces and First World War graves, to modern art depicting the current migration crisis, floral displays and a cycle race still eight months away, was probably as varied as it’s possible to get.

The blog has been more than quiet recently, but then as our lives hurtled towards the 31^st October Brexit deadline; neither my mood nor heart were in the right place. We now have another reprieve to 31^st January 2020, which although drags on the uncertainty we have lived with since June 2016, I would much rather leave with a fully formed plan in place than crash out with no deal.