Good food and great pool in Rural France

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Some more R&R was the name of the game when we set out for a long weekend in Rural France. Scott and I headed to Standsted early Saturday morning for our first Ryan Air flight in a number of years. It is the only airline that touchs down where we were heading. Which was I'Abbaye du Palais hotel near the small town of Bourganeuf. We landed at Limoges airport and were zooming into the country side and a lovely sunny day within moments. It was green, green, green with lots of wooded areas - very pretty. Before arriving at the hotel we visited St Lenoards. It had a old church (listed) and the streets were lined with sweet old houses. We tried to order lunch but our complete lack of French meant we were unable to order anything so we moved on. The one really strange thing experienced in the town were the loud speakers broadcasting poplular music on the old town area, Franky Goes to Hollywood and then Rihanan is a town visited on the way back to the airport. The purpose of this is unclear and it was awfully weird. Delight would be a good describing word to explain how we felt on arrival. The property was streched over a large area and set between the ruins of a Abbey from the 12th and 16th centery. We stayed in the main house, and the entire place was decorated in the classical French trational style. They had horses and a donkey running around. A rather clever donkey that was able to pick the lock on their enclosure with his tounge (so the story goes) and also figure out how to lift the gate off its hinges. So was running around the property with a gate around its neck, hillerious - what a fine steed!

The following day we opted for relaxing pool side and feeding the animals. A day well spent! The food at the hotel was devine, the owners are expert cheifs so the meals in the evening were top-notch. Both nights we sat outside with the other guests and owners enjoying the warm spring evening, watching the sun go down over the hills. Monday morning, sadly we headed back to London for a splash of rain Bank Holiday Monday evening.
PHOTOS

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