La Cite de L'Ecrit et des Metiers du Livre

 September is the time of the French la rentree - pommes for the teacher, pens/plumes, notebooks/cahiers, schoolbooks, you name it...

 Darling Biff insisted on taking myself and Karen Wheeler(his mum) to La Cite de L'Ecrit et des Metiers du Livre - sort of a prep trip for La Rentree.

 It's in the vielle ville of Montmorillon so a pedestrian steep walk up hill and down cobblestone allies was on the menu.

 With Biff leading the way our first stop was La Plume

 An adorable hole-in-the-wall calligraphie shop

 A plethora of plumes/pen points on offer

 And even plume-feather earings!

 Biff is rather bookish you know since his mom is an author of three books so he was in seventh heaven in this old bookish town

 Book shops right and left

 Everything very artsie

 Especially the cobalt bleu art shop

 In the street nearby a mini puce/flea

 What should you wear when visiting a small town in the Poitou-Charente? A flowered chinzt pinafore of course accompanied by a floppy straw hat.

 Biff and Karen take in the view on the vieux pont...

 Quite enchanting...

4:30 pm

C'est l'heure de gouter (snack time!)

InterMarche

 Everyone has their passions.

 Mine is visiting supermarkets as long as they are not in the US

 Rural France has amazingly huge and delightful supermarkets

 It's a great way to get a broad spectrum of what the local artisanal products are. Though you would do far better to buy at the weekly marche de producteurs. I didn't have the chance so I raced around the Intermarche shooting right and left. Honey/miel is made here in the Charantes.

 The nearby famed summer resort, L'ile de Re has salt beds much like Normandy

 Plus there is wonderful butter in the Charantes

 Throw great butter + salt together and what do you get?

 Caramel to-die-for in every form and manner.

Miam miam

 This is galette country much like the north with so much beurre to play fling about liberally.

 I'd have loved to try these galettes with prunes or pomme...

 Or these biscuits pleine de beurre.

 I didn't see any home grown macarons in this town of 5,000. But Biff found my single Arnaud Larhrer pistachio macaron lurking in my bag. The dog has refined taste. We had to pry his jaws open to retreive it. Miraculously it was unbroken! A gentle thief is dear Biff.

 Back to the delicious shelves of the Intermarche. Chevre/goat cheese is another local specialty in every form - logs, pyramids, raw, you name it.

 Outside you remember you are not in Paris, though I will be this afternoon.

 For more of Karen Wheeler's entertaining stories of living in the French hinterlands get a copy of Living France Magazine.

Everything you wanted to know about moving to France lies within.

A bientot PBers!

Tout Biff

 This is Biff PB readers,

just in case you haven't read previous tales of Monsieur Biff...

 Biff stars in Karen Wheeler's Tout Sweet

 Biff prances around town with Karen trying to keep up. Biff lives in central western France in the Poitou-Charante region famous for it's chevre/goat cheese.

 This is Biff's chateau.

 Biff relaxes on imported Laura Ashley pillows only.

 Biff's terrasse.

 Biff has quite the green paw you might say.

 He's also expert at rooting around in my bag plus stealing shoes. A dog of many talents no doubt.

 Biff only eats Lilly's Kitchen, proper dog food imported from the UK.

He has his own passport too.Who knew?

 The adults eat a Persian salad I've been making at the chateau. My cooking skills have kept a roof over my head in France so far.

 Biff does not drink but we have some deliciously light Cremente from Chateau du Petit Thouars.

 An after dinner stroll takes us on a visit to Maire Martine...

 She plays Madame le Maire D. in Karen's books and could not be more welcoming

Photo from Amazon

 Here is Karen, Biff's adult

 Biff thinks nothing of jumping onto the guest room bed and letting me know he owns the joint just in case I get ideas.

Biff will win your heart in all of Karen's three books.

The latest out is Tout Soul, which isn't just a dog story but full of passion, French pastures, French perfume..oh all the adventures of an English girl who has the nerve to pick herself up, move to a small French village and make a spendid life for herself. Totally engaging and tremendous fun.

Read the first chapter on Amazon if you don't believe me.

Cheers, Carolg in SW France

Travel Plans

 Sometimes the best laid plans of bears and men often go awry.

Back in April when a French pet portrait client invited me to house-sit her apartment on rue St-Dominique for 2  months I hesitated but everyone said,

"GO! DO IT!"

Then in June when I mentioned I'd be arriving 2 days later than planned, my apartment lender took a walk and never again responded to emails, phone messages, or prayers.

I was left with an AirFrance ticket that needed changing

 And no roof over my head in Paris.

 Fortunately I was able to rent again my tiny studio in the 11th for a few nights.

 Frenchie by Meg Zimbeck

Fortunately a darling PB reader invited me to Frenchie the first nite I arrive. wow

 And terrific food blogger Mardi Michels of eat. live. travel. write. has invited me to to a recipe testing class at La Cuisine Paris on Monday.

 There just happens to be an Hermes scarf sale starting Thursday that would be fun to browse just for kicks. You can read about a past sale on Mary Kay's blog.

 I'll be spending my euros at the other Herme thank you very much. The current 5 jardins collection is very colorful and nicely designed.

 Another affordable luxury is following the footsteps of both Chanel and Audrey Hepburn to Angelina.

I wonder if they have iced 'hot' chocolate?

 Fortunately over the Bastille Day holiday I'll have a very nice roof over my head in the Loire Vallee indeed.

 And I'll be communing with darling chateau pet, Dimitri.

 Then I'll head to western central France to commune with gorgeous Biff

 And his mistress, author Karen Wheeler of Tout Sweet, Tout Allure and Tout Soul. She has invited me to visit and report back on her bucolic life in the French country side. I can't wait.

 The good news is the rains have stopped and the sun has come out in Paris!!

 Bear is completely packed and raring to go as always.

Me, I'm behind the 8-ball as usual.

But at least things have probably worked out for the better.

Way better!