French Crimbo with Cath and family

My sister Cath and her husband John had been relatively accessible when they'd lived in Suffolk but they found a beautiful smallholding in Normandy, moved in and invited us to spend Christmas with them.

Above: a (relatively) local Christmas light show celebrates the local labour.

So we packed up our car and headed for the Eurotunnel early in the morning a few days before the 25th. Eight and a bit hours later we arrived in Le Teilleul and put in an emergency call to John. Minutes later his car appeared up the road and we were able to follow him down the final leg to the their house.

Shan had been a trouper, having recently had an operation and still had the staples in her tummy, making long distance car travel not much short of excruciating. 

It was soon apparent that we were in for a series of feasts over the festive days, starting with a Michelin level restaurant at the Auberge de la Source in the nearby village of St Cyr du Bailleul ...

Above l-r, top to bottom: Cath and John; William and Shan, Kate and William. one of the Auberge's confections

The next feast was going to be confected by the family Davis/Wijnberg. In preparation for this we made a sortie to the nearby market town of Saint-Hilaire-du-Harcouët where there was a splendid array necessary ingredients. But first we had to fuel ourselves of sept croque-monsieurs for petit déjeuner. Following that repast I didn't stray very far from the vast array of cheeses in the market and the Châteauneuf-du-Pape in the town's marchand de vin. 

Lade with ingredients from Saint-Hilaire we repaired to Chateau Davis where our festive dinner war being prepared by the entire family. Alex was on starters and Will on mains. I seem to remember Cath and John were also involved; in what was probably a sous rôle. The food was outstanding and was so plentiful we required a country walk to get our bodies moving again.
So off we went in the late afternoon's last vestiges of December rays and were presented with the only evidence that Alex had been present. Camera-shy in extremis, he dodged the lens pretty successfully but couldn't quite get out of the way when I snuck up on him in an upside down position. The weather by that time was freezing so we ended off with a vigorous stroll and Alex and Kate clambering over some rocky outcrops as the sun went down. By this stage Shan was suffering more than somewhat from the staples and we retired with a light show promised for later.
​Above: Will puting the finishing touches
​ on the mains.

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Above l-r: Kate and Shan strolling in the gloaming; Kate watching Alex hanging about. 

Our final treat of our stay in Le Teilleul was an after dark visit to Saint-Mars-d'Égrenne where the locals put on a breathtaking Christmas light show.

Above: I'm afraid my pictures don't really do justice to the light show, there are so many more; you'll just have to go there some night around Christmas.