Hello September, Bonjour Septembre #helloseptember #bonjourseptembre #sunnysundaymorning #hellosunday #normandie #normandy #ruralfrance #ourorchard

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We’ve been a little busy today so please forgive me for later than usual warm welcomes to our lovely guests this week - Roseanne & Ian in Gite Molière, Jan, Mark and Greg in Gite Renoir and cuz Les and the lovely Christine in Gite St. Exupéry We hope you all have a wonderful week.

It was au revoir to Nic, Rich, Grace and family today. Thank you Grace for your lovely message in our Guestbook 💞 As always we absolutely loved having you here to stay and we’re over the moon that you’re coming back again next year. And Loulou and Cider loved having cuddles with you by the pool yesterday. 🐶💗🐶

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A sunny Friday afternoon and Rob is out on the sit on mower cutting the grass in the paddock and orchard and picking some of our organic fruit fresh off the trees for our guests to enjoy. Dappled sunlight under the trees (or, ‘sous les pommiers’ as they say here) and clear blue skies turned Rob into Bayleaf the Gardener and I wasn’t sure if it was Cider or Loulou that turned into Dill the Dog 😂🐶🐶 Anyway here’s something I learned today - while most types of fruit reach their peak on the tree, European pears need to be picked before ripening. If left on the tree, pears ripen from the inside out and, by the time you think they are ripe, they may be mushy inside and that doesn’t sound yummy does it. With 4 types of apples and 2 types of pears we really ought to think about making our own cider!!!!

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Our Shüber service was off duty tonight so our Roöber taxi service took Nic, Rich and Grace to our local village for dinner at the lovely little local Italian. Then we got a surprise invite out to the other lovely restaurant in the village - Le Trot Brasserie. I think these may have been the best Moules Frites I’ve had this year. Goodnight from Le Pressoir

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How fab is this... Nic, Rich and Grace are here this week and Nic’s Mum sent us over these delicious Welsh goodies for us. Diolch Carol, that is so lovely of you, we wish you were here too so we could thank you in person. I have to say this is my absolute favourite Strawberry jam, I remember it very well from when Carol brought some last time she was here. It’s just yummy! And Rob is more than a little partial to Welsh Cakes and Bara Brith so we are both ‘hapus iawn’ (I hope I have that correct) 😁🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

Rob says “Arr!” just like Pirates do and I’m saying whatever Unicorns say 🦄 How sweet is this.... Gorgeous little Sophie made Rob and I these fabulous sparkly and feathery masks with our names on them, he’s a pirate and I’m a unicorn (naturally!!!) We LOVE them 🦄💗 Thank you Sophie xxx

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Smile, say cheese! We certainly did smile when our lovely guests Jen, Jacques, Sarah and Sophie gave us this most thoughtful gift. It’s a beautifully personalised, carved cheese board and knives and we’re so touched that they had it made especially for us. And then how serendipitous that our other lovely guests Catelijne, Henri and Thorsten had brought us some delicious Dutch cheeses. Parfait 💗🧀 And yes, I will be eating and drinking the props 😋

Happy Long Weekend lovely people Hope you’re enjoying the sunshine too ☀️ Thanks to Zara for being such a lovely model 💞 #longweekend #augustbankholidayweekend #augustbankholiday #sunnyweekend #normandy #normandie #pooldays

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Au revoirs and bonjours We’re really sad to see Jeanette & Ian, Jen, Jacques, Sarah & Sophie and Catelijne, Henri and Thorsten leave this morning. We’ve had such fun the last two weeks and thank all so much for your lovely messages in our Guestbooks. Then it’s a family bonjour to Nic, Rich & Grace, Val, Megan & Eleri and Rebecca, Sion & Tom. The Unicorn and Falmingo are joined by Dragons this week 😊☀️

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Good morning from Le Pressoir Our apples and pears aren’t quite ready yet so our little ‘Servez Vous’ trug is full of delicious plums for our guests this morning. Thank you to Lisa to bringing the plums, picked fresh from one of her trees. And I can vouch that they ARE delicious as I snuck one on the way to my mini photoshoot! (eating the props has stayed with me from my work as a stylist from my food photography days!!! 😂😋)

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Following on from my morning foraging and making elderberry cordial I got a designer I know (ha ha) 🤪 to design some labels for the bottles for our guests. I also made a rather scrummy (though I say it myself) Elderberry Kir Royal in one of the lovely vintage champagne coupes from Margi and Eric.... it’s a hard life 😋 Then a quick poolside photoshoot before delivering the bottles to our guests. And to make it an all round perfect Sunday, Jen & Jacques had an impromptu marshmallow toasting evening that they invited us and our other guests to. It made a lovely change for Rob and I to be guests at a marshmallow evening!! 😋👏🏼 Thank you both so much xx

Stunning. Thank you @cathy_chivers @cmonbris xxx

Winding down, Christmas is fading but making the most of final sparkles

Countdown to Christmas #21 We LOVE Christmas Feeling the Christmas love at Le Pressoir #countdowntochristmas

Countdown to Christmas #21 Orange Christmas White isn't the only colour at Christmas - even at Le Pressoir!!! I love buying the clementines in our shops right now with their bright orange colour and the deep green leaves still attached, they taste delicious and look so festive in the fruit bowl. And why not get some of the full size variety and make some decorations too - it's really easy to slice them, dry them in the oven and simply tie them with ribbon and some cinnamon sticks, and for a fun twist, cut your orange peel into different sized stars, skewer them on top of each other on a stick... and voila! - a mini orange christmas tree... cute, and it smells lovely too! #countdowntochristmas

Countdown to Christmas #14 Christmas Shop Windows The Christmas shop windows in France are really gorgeous, they overflow with style, beauty and the most delicious cakes in the world. Its so tempting to shop 'til you drop! Tonight I may call in to the Tea Shop that is the photo on the left in our countdown as they sell yummy treats at Christmas... and I'll be there anyway as I'm going to special Son et Lumière at the Cathedral tonight which is opposite the Tea Shop ;-) #countdowntochristmas #normandie

Countdown to Christmas #13 Winter Wolf (Le Loup) As the French say... "Le loup est un maître, un sage. Il revient après de nombreux hivers sur la voie sacrée en cherchant les voies de la sagesse pour partager de nouvelles connaissances avec la tribu . Le loup est à la fois le radical et le traditionnel dans le même souffle . Lorsqu'il marche avec vous, vous vous souvenez" Roughly translated - "The wolf is a master, a wise man. He returns after many winters on the sacred path by seeking ways of wisdom to share new knowledge with the tribe. The wolf is both radical and traditional in the same breath. When he walks with you, you remember" We love them and so today we brought some wolf magic into Le Pressoir with some new wolf fur throws and cushions (only faux fur of course because that gorgeous real fur looks so much better on him) They are so deliciously soft and we can't wait to snuggle up under them with our own little wolves Loulou and Cider. They also match our faux fur...

Countdown to Christmas #12 Turning Monday Blues into Icy Blues It might be Monday but we're not blue because we've trimmed the tree in icy shades of 'bleu', and thats a whole different thing! We love our Christmas baubles and we hope your tree makes you as happy as ours makes us - we'd love to see yours if you'd like to post a photo on our page - or tag us on Twitter - @lepressoirgites or on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/le_pressoir_gites #countdowntochristmas #normandie #normandy

Countdown to Christmas #11 Bringing the winter outdoors indoors Christmas brings out our inner 'Tree Hugger', we love Christmas trees in every way. I also love a White Christmas so what could be better than these beautiful white twigs that Rob bought me. I also made this branch tree from branches that have fallen in our lane, I collected pieces of diminishing lengths and then tied them together with garden string and hung white pom-poms and bark hearts from it, bringing the outdoors indoors! #countdowntochristmas #normandie #normandy #whitetwigs