Apologies To The Few

How many times am I going to start my postings with an apology of sorts? The short answer is I don't know, but I do apologise for leaving it so long since my last post, hopefully I can get back on track and bring you all the news from here in the Vendee. In my defence things have conspired against me when it comes to posting, and this is only a quick post to let the few of you out there who were bothering to read it know that I haven't forgotten you and to hopefully whet your appetite with a taste of things to come.

Firstly the reasons I've not been posting. Where to begin, well to start the weather here has been fantastic and who wants to spend their time on the computer when they can be out soaking up the rays by the pool. Today the sky is completely clear and the sun is already beating down relentlessly the clouds that the Bradleys brought with them have left with them and no matter that the weather was not brilliant for the weekend that they were here, it was truly great to see them. I'll tackle the weekend in another posting. The only reason I'm posting this today is that Marie-Jo the kind lady that cleans for me is here, I like to spend time with her so that she has a bigger experience than just cleaning and it seems to work because even though she is full to bursting with work she still finds the time to fit me in. Then there's the hectic social life, some of which I will post about, that has kept me away from the computer. Then there's the fact that Trevor's telephone and internet have been down for some time, another thing I'll be posting about, and as I've promised him first posting of all the travelogues and restaurant reviews I've not been able to post any of those. Then there's the visitors, I've got a dear friend and her family just coming to the end of a two week stay, so that's kept me off the computer. Worst of all a young friend of mine contracted a serious illness and in the space of a month has been hospitalised and has tragically passed away, nothing prepares you for the loss of someone so young and writing on the internet has seemed totally unimportant compared to that. There are probably other reasons that I haven't been posting but that's enough of them to be going on with.

Now I'll just give you a little taster of the things I' hope to be posting about in the near future. there will be descriptions of some great social evenings and social events that I've attended, including an evening with La Belle Isabelle, and winning a kid at the local feast on my birthday. There will be travelogues of St Giles Croix de Vie, my favourite coastal resort in the Vendee, another part of the jigsaw that is the Marais Poitevin, L'Aguillion and La Faute. Finally there will be restaurant reviews of amongst others L'Auberge de l'Abbaye at Maillezais where they manage to serve 150 lunch covers and still produce high quality food.

So I hope you'll bear with me, my guests leave on Friday and this beautiful weather can't last forever, can it?