Wendy's Blog

English Tea Garden in the Auvergne

We are about to open an English Tea Garden "Jardin de Thé Anglais" this Easter at "Le Boucharel" Champagnac le Vieux in the Haute Loire department of the Auvergne.

It will compliment our existing Chambre and Table d'hotes business and we are hoping to attract not only holidaymakers, but also local French people from the neighbouring hamlets. We will be open from 7th April until 31st October, as who knows, we may also attract a few local "mushroomers" from the Forest in the Autumn.

We will be open on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays 10.00 - 12.00 and 14.00 - 16.00. Saturdays and Sundays 14.00 - 16.00. We will be closed on Thursdays, Fridays and the mornings of Saturday and Sunday to allow time for all the housework and cleaning and shopping required for the Chambre d'hotes!

If you are in the area, why not try our tea and scones with homemade jams.

We are 3 kms from the local swimming lake and 860M up in the Regional Park of the Livradois Forest, lovely area with panoramic views of the mountains, forest and countryside.

Winter in the Auvergne

We have had a very warm winter in the Auvergne this year compared to the previous two winters. In October and November we were sitting in the garden drinking coffee with blue skies and sunshine. December was also fairly warm. We had three days of snow in January, which stayed in the forest for over a week, so very picturesque with soft white snow on forest conifers and blue skies and sunshine above, lovely for walking and photography. Whilst being able to return to our warm chambre d'hotes with wood burner and hot chocolate/wine.

We went over to Super Besse, our nearest ski resort, to have our first go ever of ski-ing! We managed to stay on our feet sometimes, but also spent quite a bit of time on the ground trying to stand up again!

As February is the real ski-ing season, we are expecting more snow before the end of the month, so might have a go at ski de fond (cross country ski-ing) next time!

Well end of February and Spring has arrived, time to start work in the garden again.

21st March brought back the snow, which has lasted on the ground at our altitude of 860M for a week. It is now disappearing fast and the days are warm again. 18c and sunshine today so once again back to the garden, although I need to finish painting the kitchen ceiling first!

Mushrooming in the Livradois-Forez, Auvergne.

Since our move to France in November 2004 life has been very hetic. We now have our Chambre et Table d'hotes at Le Boucharel, Champagnac le Vieux, 12 kms from the small market town of Brioude, up and running and have just finished our first summer season.

We have learnt many things along the way, one of the main things being the length of time it takes to wash and iron bedding when guests only stay one night and are followed by new guests the next night! We are now looking into buying one of those new steam irons with a separate stand, but are not yet fully convinced if they will be any better.

We also learnt that our Bank does not take cash on Thursdays and were told to return another day to deposit it!

Our first winter of 2004, was the coldest winter in the Auvergne for 40 years and we had snow for 3 months. Not what we had expected, but lovely blue skies and sunshine, no wind and very pleasant to enjoy a coffee in our porch whilst enjoying the view of the snowclad garden, as well of course enjoying many walks in the snow. This year we hope to have time to try cross-country ski-ing.

We had a new postbox fitted outside the front gate. One day when we collected the post we found a parcel inside the postbox, which was almost the same size as the outer postbox. As there was no way this parcel could have fitted throught the slot into the postbox, it took us a couple of minutes to realise that although you have the key to your own postbox, obviously the postman has a master key!

We have been on a few walks in the forest which surrounds our small hamlet, the last one lasting 4 hours (it should have taken 3) as it would appear two walks must have crossed each other. We were following the yellow marker lines on the trees and must have followed the wrong tree!

We grow most of our own vegetables and have various fruit trees in the garden, so I have started to make jams, jellies, soups and crumbles. One of our trees is a Mirabelle, which I had not heard of before our move to France and the jam from this is delicious.

The other people in our small hamlet are French and we all get on very well together, considering that my husband and I only had school level French when we arrived. They could not be more friendly and helpful and we have even managed a few jokes. They tell all their friends and family about our Chambre et Table D'hotes and a lot of French networking is done by word of mouth.

There are not many English in our part of the Auvergne our main guests being French or Dutch, but we think that once the Auvergne is discovered by the English they will be in for a very pleasant surprise. The scenery is truly amazing, wildlife in the forests abounds, fishing is abundant in the many rivers, there are many walks, romanesque churches, chateaux, cycling, swimming lakes and horse riding. As well as they usual summer fetes and of course the Mushrooms!

November 2006 - Autumn has arrived and the changing colours in the forest are amazing. Excellent weather for walking. A red squirrel ran across our path in the forest this morning.

I am now in process of preparing for Christmas. Mince Pies etc. I already have Xmas Cake and Clotted Cream supplied by friends who have a second home in the area.

We are going to invite the french neighbours for Mince Pies, clotted cream and mulled wine on Boxing Day, so this should be interesting!

We are open all year for holidays, short breaks and house hunting.