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Day 2 of my Blogging... It is 13th December 08, only 12 days to Christmas.

A little more about here.

As I wrote before, I run a B&B in France. The name is La Tranchardiere - well the name of the little hamlet is so a little history:- The property we have was farm workers cottages. The main farmhouse was originally a small 'chateau'. It is a stone built building with one large ground floor room with an enormous fireplace and upstairs (accessed by an outside stone staircase) is another large room. I suppose the original floor space was around 25 sq metres. There is also a small 'outbuilding' attached that was used as a cave (cellar for storage) A house was later attached to the 'petit chateau' to create a larger property and that was again later extended. This property is right on the river (Sevre Nantaise) and has in the past been prone to flooding. I have found this hamlet on an old map dated 1752 so we go way back.

Back to our house. It is called a longere which is a long low building that was originally (we think) two properties. The house was originally one room deep with small doorways going from room to room. Attached to the back of the house was an 'ecurie' (stabling or cowshed) which had doorways knocked through and turned into a kitchen and games room. The original stairs in the house went up to the grenier which is a loft for storage of grain etc... Looking at the house the left hand side is separated from the rest by a thick stone wall. This room and above are our living space, the room downstairs goes into the kitchen and turning right in the kitchen takes you through past my large pantry into the B&B lounge. From the lounge there is entry to the hallway with two bedrooms either side and our soon to be apartment upstairs in what was the family suite in the grenier. Both the bedrooms have their own sanitary facilities and also the suite upstairs.

Behind our house is another barn which was converted to a lovely house some years ago. It is owned by a very kind and gentle frenchman called Gilles. He has become a good friend since we have moved here.

Both Gilles house and ours are set back and uphill from the river so we have no risk of flooding. A large flood meadow is in front of us and when the river is overflowing it is absolutely beautiful to see looking like a large lake. We are very fortunate as we know that there will be no building in front of us. At least the French have got it right when it comes to managing flood meadows and rivers, not like the English!!!!