Tour De Grounds

We set off to Steve and Sues about 9.45am but I had told the sat nav to avoid Toll roads and it said it would take us 6 hours. I tried again but this time without avoiding them and it changed to 4 hours. Even I’m not that tight! Long journey but quite a pretty run and we stopped for a light lunch at a transport café where we had the dish of the day (pasta and chicken curry). We stumbled across Steve’s house by accident, recognizing the place from some photo’s he had sent me and pulled into their drive. I had originally thought that their drive was to the right of their house but when I drove down it, it took us to the village. We arrived to find the pair of them hard at work in the mill.

We had a tour around their grounds which took quite a while, through forest and by their stream and along the viaduct. The house and Mill was built in the 17th century by the stream and the viaduct was built so that the water could be diverted to drive the water wheel and turn the mill stone. They have already renovated the farm house where they live and have now started to convert the old mill into a 3 double and one twin bed Gitte with 2 bathrooms upstairs and a games room and workshop downstairs. This is a real renovation project that makes ours look like a walk in the park. Steve seems to be doing most of the internal stud work while Sue seems to do all the big jobs like turning the forested jungle into a garden. She has even turned her hand inside where she has done all the plastering. Considering the amount of work they are doing everything themselves, electrics, plumbing, floors, windows, walls, even the 200mm square oak lintels above the new windows.

Steve and Sue had warned us before we arrived that excess rainfall had caused their retaining wall to collapse only a few weeks earlier but luckily insurance will pay for it to be restored. Zebedee, their lovely dog, followed us everywhere around his extensive grounds that he uses as a play ground. Steve threw a rock into the

stream and he was off to retrieve it. Once he had it out, he played and wrestled with it for ages. I hope this film comes out this time and I don’t screw it up like last time.


The day was finished off with a meal at one of their favorite restaurants where we all chose from a 3 course meal menu for 18 euros. Claire adventurously started with snails whilst the rest of us had langoustines. Three of us had the steak but Steve went for the duck then we all had their favorite profritter rolls. This place Le Villa Pondi was fabulous with excellent service, you have to try it!