{"id":646,"date":"2016-12-27T06:56:00","date_gmt":"2016-12-27T06:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rochellesroost.com\/index.php\/2016\/12\/27\/hanging-out-on-a-farm-in-normandy\/"},"modified":"2026-10-08T04:59:44","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T04:59:44","slug":"hanging-out-on-a-farm-in-normandy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochellesroost.com\/index.php\/2016\/12\/27\/hanging-out-on-a-farm-in-normandy\/","title":{"rendered":"Hanging Out on a Farm in Normandy"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\nNovember 28, 2016, Monday:<\/o:p><\/span><\/b><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\nHanging with Friends in Normandy:<\/o:p><\/span><\/b><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\n            <\/span>This was a totally relaxed day\u2014and
\none we badly needed after our ultra-hectic week in Israel when each day had
\nbeen spent galloping from one spot to the next. This was a day to savor the
\ncompany of close friends, to recharge our mental and psychological batteries in
\nthe peaceful quiet of the Normandy countryside, surrounded only by fields and
\nfarms. <\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\n            <\/span>We woke up very early as we did want
\nto meet the Lerouxel children\u2014Jean, Marius and Julia\u2014before they left for
\nschool as we would have left by the time they returned home in the evening.
\nAgain, we were really amazed at how big they\u2019ve grown. Julia was under two when
\nwe had last seen the family and spent time with them in Normandy. After they
\nhad eaten their breakfasts, we took some pictures with them and they left for
\nthe day with Florence driving them to school.<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\nJacques
\nhad bought lovely fresh croissants for us and together with French baguettes
\nand Florence\u2019s homemade apricot jam (she is a hobbyist jam-maker) and coffee,
\nwe had ourselves a terrific breakfast. After we had checked the train schedules
\nto plan our departure and arrival at our next venue (Lourdes), we were invited
\nby Jacques to accompany him to his smoked ham processing plant which is his
\nbusiness. The enterprise is called Jambons
\nd\u2019Antan<\/i> and we are quite familiar with it as we have visited it on every
\ntrip we have made to Normandy. <\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\n            <\/span>What surprised us is how big his
\nbusiness has grown since we were last there (about eight years ago). He has
\nexpanded hugely and now has much larger premises (designed by Florence who is
\nan architect) and has a much greater output. Jacques gave us a wonderful tour
\nof the plant and took us into his little theater where he showed us a film made
\nvery professionally on his products. It was quite fascinating indeed and we
\nenjoyed it. Next, Jacques took us to his office where I was able to use his
\ncomputer to get something urgent printed out. That chore done, we made our way
\nback to his home for lunch. <\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\nLunch
\nwas very much a repeat of the late night dinner we\u2019d had\u2014roast beef, some of
\nhis wonderful smoked ham, bread, cheese and apple cake for dessert. After
\nlunch, Jacques suggested a long walk around his farm and we readily complied.
\nHe showed us his walnut and hazelnut trees (there were still some last late
\nnuts on them which we picked up and enjoyed), his cider-making outfit (Normandy
\nis noted for its cider and its calvados), the wheat fields that he recently
\nsowed for the first time, the chicken coops from which Florence collects fresh
\neggs each morning. Indeed, Hotel Cocagne<\/i>
\nis a working farm and we were treated to the full works as we did the rounds. <\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\nNot
\nlong afterwards, Jacques loaded our bags into his car so that he could drop us
\noff to Lison station for our 6.18 train back to Paris from where we would take
\na red-eye train to Lourdes. We stopped en route at Florence\u2019s office in Marigny,
\nsaid goodbye to her and then drove off to Lison to catch our train. Our friends
\nwere very sorry that we had stayed for just one day and kept persuading us to
\nstay longer. But we really did want to cover quite a lot of French ground and
\nwe needed to get going.<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\nWe
\nreached Paris Gare de St. Lazare at 8.40 pm. From there, we took the Metro
\nagain to Gare Austerlitz where we made the decision that Llew would leave his
\nlarge suitcase in the Left Luggage Locker and that he would travel with a small
\novernight bag. Each time we returned to Paris, he would take the things he
\nwould need for his onward journey. It turned out to be the best decision we
\never made as he was able to move around with so much more freedom. <\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\nA
\nlittle later, we boarded our train (at 10. 45 pm) to Lourdes. It was supposed
\nto arrive at Toulouse at 6. 45 am, so we settled down in chair seats for the
\nnight.<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\nA demain\u2026.<\/o:p><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\n <\/o:p><\/span><\/b><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

November 28, 2016, Monday: Hanging with Friends in Normandy:             This was a totally relaxed day\u2014and one we badly needed after our ultra-hectic week in Israel when each day had been spent galloping from one spot to the next. This was a day to savor the company of close friends, to recharge our mental and… <\/p>\n

Read<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,1919],"tags":[681],"class_list":["post-646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-musings","category-france","tag-normandy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochellesroost.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochellesroost.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochellesroost.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochellesroost.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochellesroost.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=646"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochellesroost.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4857,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochellesroost.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646\/revisions\/4857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochellesroost.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochellesroost.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochellesroost.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}