Monchel-sur-Canche

As you may well have gathered from a flurry of excited holiday-related posts, this week I hopped over to France for a few days to spend some time with my Auntie & cousins in their beautiful holiday house in Monchel-sur-Canche, northern France. This tiny rural town plays host to a trout farm and at its last count had a population of just 53. Surrounded by nothing but farming fields it's a complete & utter idyl. Once the sun's gone down you can here nothing but the crickets - I felt a million miles from my life in London.

Not warm enough for a swimsuit, but a paddle was essential regardless

My Aunt & Uncle have had the house for 8 years now but this is the first time I've managed to go and stay - now I know what I've been missing all these years, I can only hope it's not another 8 years before I'm there again - we only stayed for four nights, but you'd be surprised how many adventures & escapades we managed to fit into such a small trip - trout fishing, sightseeing, barbecuing, north-sea paddling, not forgetting our own little Jubilee celebration en France - you name it, we did it. 

I'll be writing up some real gems in detail later on, but for now here's a few snaps from our travels. If you don't mind, I'm off to sleep through my huge cheese & wine hangover from the trip!

Lovely cotes du rhone, fresh macarons & vin blanc, Chicken Fricassée, Moules Frites

There were some tense penalty shoot-outs in the garden

Baby goats at the neighbouring farm, & "Becky" the newt from the garden pond 

We spent our evenings snuggled in front of the log-burner watching The Sopranos