Jaunts, java and “jardinage”

We had a jaunt on jeudi to Niort, about 40 minutes away. We loved the market square and the covered market. The pedestrianised areas made getting around easy and so did the free bus service! We hopped on a little bus doing a circular route and got a free tour of the town.

Niort

We had a lovely lunch overlooking the ancient donjon or keep in the centre of town and, of course, I had to check out their coffee…

Talking of coffee, we had a surprise delivery this week of a brand new coffee machine for us to put in the apartment here at the château. You know how I love my java!

The week’s weather has been a bit mixed with temperatures ranging from 5ºC to 25ºC. On the hotter days we have been in the jardin, raking the leaves and tidying up the flower beds.

We’ve had some spectacular sunrises and taken advantage of the early evening sun to have a wander around the area. With the clocks going back this weekend, we should be in for some lighter mornings for a while.

This morning we tried the Saturday market in St Jean d’Angély for the first time. St Jean is about 20 minutes away and a lovely little market town next to the river. All our favourite vendors from Aulnay’s Sunday market were there with the benefit of a covered market for shelter from the colder weather.

I suppose we really should have visited Château de Javarzay (or Jalfrezi) this week as part of the J theme, but we are saving it for when we have visitors…

À bientôt, bisous.

PS I’m dedicating this blog post to all the people in my life whose names feature the letter J… you know who you are! There are about 9 of you who already subscribe to the blog – prizes for those of you who put a comment after this blog post goes live…