King of the Castle










I am sure I bragged about it to you in the run up to Christmas - and the Chateau was as good as we hoped. It was a real authentic castle - first recorded at the beginning of the 1400s. It had everything you would want from your castle - turrets with spiral staircases, tapestries, suit of armour, swords, four-poster beds, cold drafts, big fire place, and a secret room.

Chateau de la Cressonniere

It did take us a while to get there - a full day's driving, especially with some genius's theory that it would take us over 4 hours to drive to Dover (where we caught the ferry) - but it was worth it. It wasn't the warmest, but once we had the fire roaring and the red wine flowing, that wasn't a problem. We had a great time not doing much - with plenty of snacks and wine and games to play, we didn't need to. We eventually got out for a few walks around the countryside, though there wasn't much around, we were right in the middle of French farming countryside and not much else. Anna did a great job with the Christmas feast, and a couple of nights playing drinking games provided us with plenty of laughs.

The only drama came with our return home when our ferry was cancelled because of bad weather - and then the ferry we did manage to get on was delayed outside Dover port for a few hours because of gale force winds. But it couldn't dampen our spirits after such a great week.









Too hard to describe how good the Chateau was, you'll just have to click here and let the pictures do the talking.

Happy Festivus...
...for the rest of us!

And for those of you not versed in the celebration of Festivus, see here, and I look forward to hearing about your 'Feats of Strength'.

Phileas Fogg

Well, winter has finally hit us. After being very mild up until a week ago, temperatures finally dropped into single figures, and along with it came some serious fog. You've probably got some news on it, but here are a couple of pics from around Putney.

Web Album

I've been busy over the weekend and have set up a Web Album to add more pics from our travels and doings. Have added a link at the bottom of each post, but there are also other pics as well if you care to check 'em out. There is also be a link in the right-hand column.

Click Here

Oxo Tower

It was the last week before Rae & Tom left London on their return to NZ (via Africa and Australia) and they had always wanted to have dinner at Oxo Tower. Not ones to turn down an invitation - Brad, Sharon, Anna and I joined them on the Thursday night before they left. You could not fault the venue, the views are fantastic (that pic is actually taken with my mobile phone). The cooking probably wasn't quite of the standard you would expect at the prices, but the dishes were an interesting mix of ingredients and flavours. So what did me have....

Me
- Starter: Slow roast partridge, quince and autumn truffle, chesnut dressing
- Main: Roast sea bass, celeriac, saffron and vanilla, oscietra cavier
- Dessert: Raspberry panna cotta

Anna
- Starter: King scallops, roast chorizo, Oloroso caramel
- Main: Venison loin au poivre, sweet potato, tamarillo, grand veneur sauce
- Desert: Passionfruit souffle

Washed down with a couple of fine bottles of French champagne chosen by Tom - with a baileys coffee to finish. A good night out in all and a more civilised send off for Rae & Tom than eventuated that Saturday night.