Day One

What an amazing first day house hunting. We haven’t actually seen any houses yet but have had a great day, so here’s what’s happened.
I sped up the M4 at 3.30am to met Kev who was flying in from Lagos, landing at 5.20am. We had originally thought we would get the 2.30pm flight but decided at the last minute to get the 7.50am flight. Everything just slotted into place, Kev arrived on time, we got allocated seats and the flight was on time. We arrived to grey sky but a much warmer temperature than freezing London. We had arranged to pick up the car at 6pm and was told in the UK that it would cost over 300 euros to get the car earlier, but with a few bats of the eyelids it only cots us an extra 30 Euros. The drive to our first Chambre d’hote was beautiful, country lanes with amazing views of undulating hills and hillside villages.
Our sat nav announcer Timothy (think male version of Joana Lumley) tried to take us on a detour and kept telling us we needed to turn around frequently but he eventually shut up and we found our destination and WOW what an amazing place. Gramont it situated on a hill top and is built around a beautiful chateau which is now part of the French equivalent of the National Trust. This tiny hamlet is a picture perfect collection of stunning buildings, it has its own Honey museum and Auberge.

Click here to visit their website
After a few hours rest we set off for a drive around the surrounding area which even in the rain was stunning. We had booked dinner in the Auberge for 7.30pm but after glancing down for our bedroom window were summoned by the owners down for drinks. Well a great night started with a glass or three of the local fizz and Introduced us to an interesting collection of guests, two builders from the UK and a couple from Norway who were here to check out their wedding venue and to have a menu tasting. I have to say our hosts Vikki and David were so lovely and welcoming, as soon as we entered their house a glass of bubbly was trust into our hands ( our kind of people) how did they now that’s how we love to start the night? After some lovely chit chat we were take to dinner in the Auberge, we felt like gate crashes as the lovely bride and groom Linea and Erik be were having their wedding dinner menu tasting dinner. What a fab night the food was stunning the bridal couple so sweet and really lovely and the hosts amazing. This has been an amazing start to our house hunting week and I can only hope it’s the start of a fabulous French adventure.
I’ll let you know tomorrow.
Night night……..