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Barrie & JoJo Thomson

@feastsandfables

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INSTANTS

When you live on a small farm in a rural corner of France, you have to make the effort if you are going to enjoy the café/brunch lifestyle you love.

A perfect Sunday now includes a 25-min leisurely cycle to the station, a train to Poitiers, a stroll up the hill to the heart of the old town and …

… THE warmest welcome from Noryne and the loveliest brunch @linstant_coffee

The coffee is always good and we have whiled away time at this gorgeous café between trains and while bikes have been serviced. Coffee, a good book, notetaking … oh, and delicious cookies … are all on the menu.

But the Sunday Brunch Club reminded us of our own coffee shop / deli days. A gentle laid back atmosphere, a simple but beautifully executed menu, and all the time in the world for a second coffee (and a cookie ‘emporter’ - one for the road).

This little gem of a coffee shop would not be out of place in an exclusive Paris arrondissement … but we get to call it our ‘local’. Okay, so there is a bike ride and a train involved but it is SO worth it.

Sundays be like … taken in Poitiers (86) by @feastsandfables

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a day ago

S T A Y

The best sign of a great stay in a place you’ve been dreaming of getting to since you booked it in January is a paucity of photos. We popped in to meet Sam and Heather @lesmirabelles82 way back in March 2025, a chance to say hello to folk we’d ‘met’ on social media. We knew straight away we were with kindred spirits. At the time, we had a sneak peek inside ‘Les Néfliers’ as the stone floor was being laid and all the plans were coming together.

It is astonishing what the guys have created, a small house dream of a place. Original features abound but this is relaxed modern living too. You can tell Heather is a chef - well, the welcome meal we enjoyed and the amazing ‘festin’ we’d booked in for told us that - but the kitchen is perfectly equipped for two foodies on the road. We feasted all weekend.

The terrace is a sun trap, and when it all gets a bit too hot to handle, slide into the most beautiful pool.

We kicked back totally, raiding the gîte bookshelf and relishing the tranquility.

For the record, we cycled nearly 300 kms to be there. Worth every single pedal stroke.

A harder working couple you’d be hard pressed to meet, but all with the elegance of swans on the surface. Sam and Heather have a way of making time pause for their guests. We literally had to drag ourselves away. taken in Espinas by @feastsandfables

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7 days ago

LOTS

Things there have been plenty of over the past week and a bit:

Bike routes | Bottles | Pastries | Signs | Smiles | Bikes by @feastsandfables

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13 days ago

FUELLING

Multi day adventures … ALL about the fuelling.

Happy to share the 🍷 with the best bikepacking companion @dipsanddooks by @feastsandfables

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20 days ago

GRANNY’ING

Grandparenting is always another level of ‘special’. Licence to make up nonsense rhymes, silly games and daft songs, a chance to run around waving our arms in the air, swings (and roundabouts), loads of learning … fresh air and museums, snacks and feasts … smiles and serious faces … postcards and treasure maps … the crumble would have been much more of a success if the blackberries didn’t make it so bothersomely purple; who’d have known! There were some dinosaurs, but not us! Olivia and Finley climbed some walls, but we stayed grounded.

Memories made. Magical moments with @thethomsonfamily_cambridge by @feastsandfables

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a month ago

Off to do some grandparenting.

The best thing we can do for Olivia and Finley is be present. So we won’t be hanging around here for a couple of weeks.

See you on or around 1 September. by @feastsandfables

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a month ago

O U T

Pottered to Poitiers with my love.
Early start, hopping from shady spot to shady corner … the best cinnamon buns outside Scandinavia at the very lovely @kokken.poitiers … wonderful patience and a very generous bike build @la.cyclerie.cafe to help @dipsanddooks with bike sizing … a leisurely lunch @lecarredarts (my second in less than a week … usually, I don’t get out much!) … found a beautiful park we hadn’t discovered before and remembered to look up at the architecture.

Fun, feasts and frolics with my gorgeous JoJo. Life is better together 💛 by @feastsandfables

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2 months ago

M E E T

JoJo has been away, hiking the Tour du Mont Blanc. No surprises, I missed her so much … two weeks is a long time for us as we’re always hanging out together.

So I decided to spring a little surprise with a meet up at the railway station in Poitiers rather than our little local gare.

But the way trains work in rural France meant I needed to be in town for the day. What a joy; a lovely hint towards our possible next stage of life … a little town somewhere, railway station, all the services, small businesses like @la.cyclerie.cafe where we can build connections, a gorgeous café like @linstant_coffee where we can be greeted with great coffee and a warm familiarity, a fabulous neighbourhood restaurant or two, like Restaurant Carre d’Art, places to linger with a notebook or a great read. Gorgeous shops like @legrandmagasinpoitiers to top up our stock of @whitemausu

I finished my book in the shade, the slowest of slow reads with @footnotes.and.tangents (filling my notebooks with examples of great writing, while people watching to get ideas for characters in my own short stories).

And then the surprise … standing at the opposite end of the platform to JoJo’s carriage from Paris Montparnasse. Waiting until the platform was announced for our local service, strolling up and deploying some random French to make @dipsanddooks jump out of her skin. Mission accomplished!

So good to be reunited. Tales to swap, plans to cook up. Life is better together. Always and forever. 💛 taken in LE CARRé D'ARTs by @feastsandfables

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2 months ago

R A I N

After a Summer that has endured since forever, but truly only since some distant moment in May - characterised by drought, an absence of any meaningful downpours - the land in our agricultural belt of the Vienne is various shades of brown. Soil shows through. It crumbles, the top layers blown bare by the sharply violent winds that howl across our flatlands. The surface is scoured, exposing entrances to tunnels, gateways into labyrinths where shrews and hunt worms before returning to play in otherwise inaccessible spaces in the loft of our old farmhouse. Faded yellows, tan-coloured crops trimmed low, earth brown, various shades of beige. As I pedal down to the local railway station with a friend, the air hangs heavy, clinging, oppressive. The Summer has promised, at various moments, downpours to break the claustrophobic heat … but the promises proved empty, rain clouds passing us by somewhere (gestures loosely to the south) ‘over there’. Until today … a low grumble, the sky seeming to complain to itself of troubles as yet unspecified. The Gods of Thunder gathering themselves, hitching up their robes to sweep through their halls. The crack makes me start, a clap of thunder applauding itself with the surprise it affected. Pleased with itself, it rolls the sounds around its mouth before roaring, rain falling like spittle. Sudden, violent, momentary. Loud drops on a roof light turning to a sheet of water approaching from the east, left to right through the kitchen window. Shades of brown turn deeper, parched soil gasping at the drops, like a cold beer in black and white in that movie ‘Ice Cold in Alex’ … thirst quenched? No, it is but a short interlude, the glass snatched away after a tantalising first sip. Oh for a prolonged dousing, fresh shoots of green summoned through that cracked earth.

But not today, not today. by @feastsandfables

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2 months ago

HOME ALONE

Tomorrow, my intrepid @dipsanddooks starts her big 2026 adventure, 10 days hiking the Tour de Mont Blanc.

Super proud of the way she has battled injuries and setbacks to get herself fit for the challenge. Excited to follow along, cheering her on from basecamp.

She’ll be arriving in Chamonix today before the hills beckon.

#tourdemontblanc by @feastsandfables

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2 months ago

DAY FOUR

Pierrefitte-Nestalas | Sassis | Col du Luz-Ardiden | Luz-Saint-Sauveur

40.48 kms | 1242 metres | 2 hrs 39 mins

The cumulative effects of heat and hills had me questioning my own plans for Day 4 (of 4). But I settled on the ride to the ski station at Luz-Ardiden and I am glad I did.

More hairpins than the celebrated Alpe d’Huez, hard work but easy to settle into, scenic and less of a procession of cyclists than some of the more feted local climbs.

It was super-humid for the first 6-8 kms, ranging from averages of 6% to 9%. Above Grust, there’s a cheeky kilometre averaging 10% and because you are above the tree line it is exposed in the sunshine. Hot hot 🥵

I managed to slip into a decent cadence, not as fast as some but as I keep muttering to myself in bad French, “lente ou vite, c’est le meme col” … ‘slow or fast, it is the same hill’!

Out of the ski season there is nothing to tempt a rider to linger, save for the photo opportunities looking down on the switchbacks.

So down the hill I went, at pace.

I was sad to hand the bike back to the totally excellent @ardiden_velos Such a great chance to try out a @bianchi_france (what a treat!).

Joined by @dipsanddooks for lunch at La Terrasse in Luz Saint Sauveur; chicken, chips and tales from the road.

What a way to wrap up four magical days among the hills in the Pyrenees. We’ll be back, for sure. taken in Pierrefitte-Nestalas, Midi-Pyrenees, France by @feastsandfables

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2 months ago

DAY THREE

Pierrefitte-Nestalas | Saint Savin | Sireix | Estaing | Col des Bordères | Arrens | Col des Bordères | Lac d’Estaing | Sireix | Pierrefitte-Nestalas

51.87 kms | 1303 metres | 3 hrs 14 mins

Two days of climbing saw me wake feeling drained - maybe the heat and humidity plays a part too. I had planned something longer (and higher) but decided to have ‘un jour de repose’, a rest day.

I thought Col des Bordères would be easier than the big name climbs. Not so much! I guess Col des Tentes and Tourmalet are ski stations so the roads approaching them are bigger, the spaces around them wider.

I took the road to Saint Savin, a 3.5 kms uphill ‘warm up’. My legs weren’t really feeling great, not helped by my GPS telling me the big climb was already underway and would be going on for another 20+ kilometres.

I stopped at the pretty church in Sireix for a refuel and to shake my legs out. On towards Estaing, always uphill, mostly with a mountain stream babbling in my ear, always tree lined so shaded (good) but a little claustrophobic (bad, and tight for cars passing). The ramps felt a little steeper, dragging as my legs tried to find a consistent tempo. A welcome breeze offered relief after two days of heat … in Estaing I made a note to head to the lake on my return trip (thinking it was a couple of kms up a flat road - more of that in a minute).

The final steeper section up to Bordères from Estaing was a drag - then suddenly, when I least expected it, the summit. I couldn’t resist the downhill into Arrens. Much tighter than the descents I’ve been relishing so more caution. Excellent coffee and local fruit juice at the excellent Maison de Val d’Azun (warm welcome too).

Then back up Col des Bordères. Steeper from the Arrens side. Then downhill all the way, thought I. Well, without the side road to Lac d’Estaing maybe it would have been. Not flat and NOT 2 kms. Earned a coke and a crêpe!

Then downhill, still more cautiously than I like. Overall, it turns out a 50-kilometre ‘rest’ day is good for the soul! taken in Arrens Marsous by @feastsandfables

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2 months ago