We have just returned from our favourite place in the world, the Charente Valley in Western France. I’ve always loved France, everything about it from the food, the people, the relaxed way of life in the countryside, of course the wine and especially the climate. We are about 8 miles from Cognac in a small town with the river running through it. 
As most of you who have glimpsed any bit of my ramblings on here know, I gain such inspiration from people and places, I think its being relaxed and content that brings that out in me but here is my happy place and we spent four luxuriously long weeks enjoying the sunshine, the freshest of food and the Dolce Vita (I know Italian not French but it really does sum it all up)
The very small but perfectly formed garden was the project for the few weeks, so Ian and I set about putting the finishing touches to it. We had designed the space to make the very best use with the least maintenance, although I love plants and I love green, this would be a place that needed to be super easy to just arrive and enjoy. The paving was carried out by our incredible team of pavers using cobbles in the central section to break up the hardscaping space and a very small grass area for the dogs and to soften the overall look. We planted an evergreen Magnolia, salvaged a couple of existing trees, a lilac and a Eunoymous. We also planted three Bay trees for height, an Olive tree for foliage and then several fruit trees, espaliered for space but ones that we couldn’t grow well in Ireland, a peach, an apricot and a fig. Lastly a vine, well we couldn’t not could we!
I also wanted to plant some herbs and vegetables, in this climate. We underplanted the Olive with as many herbs as I could get into the space, tarragon, parsley, sage, thyme, verbena, lemon thyme and some chillies. We planted salad leaves under the fruit trees and some courgettes and aubergines too. In several pot collections I planted tomatoes and basil and then in two pots right by the back doors mint, I’d never put this into a bed as it takes over but I love mint and we used it loads for everything from salads and with Charantais melon through to Hugo cocktails and Mojitos.
I love to cook so all this produce was just heaven and as we had a steady stream of family and friends for me to feed I was absolutely in my element. I’m a huge fan of French food but I adore cooking Middle Eastern food so we had an eclectic mix of the the two with some Italian inspo thrown in for good measure. The herbs were ideal for all of this, the tomatoes got used in abundance and we got to use the first couple of courgettes before we left. The small but perfectly formed aubergines had to be left for someone else to enjoy.
When I designed the Cognac sofa set it was with this place in mind and it just sat perfectly into the space and the comfort and the colour work perfectly but when it came to the dining table it needed to be a good size so the obvious choice was the Bali and with the Blue it had to be Raspberry cushions. The table worked perfectly as all the salads ands dishes needed a big table, I love it. I added two Anais loungers and the garden was almost complete. Outdoor kitchens and cooking is a must in this climate so we added an indigo small but perfectly formed Vlaze Adapt kitchen .
The kitchen we picked had the perfect combination for us, a L shaped unit with a corner for additional counter space for preparing, a Big Green Egg for cooking, slightly more control than with a classic barbeque and the luxury of an outdoor fridge for those all important wine and beer bottles. I will give you more indepth on the kitchen in my next post, it really does deserve a place all of its own, I really couldn’t recommend highly enough.
We did have plenty of jobs still to do in the garden but the mixture of good company, food and wine meant that the work was put on the back burner to enjoy fun in the sun. My wine of choice for this summer was a wonderful rosé from a lovely domaine on a wonderful family run estate in the Languedoc, Domaine Allegria called Dolce Farniente and my guests all loved it too. Being in this region we had to have the odd Cognac, my favourite way was to make a Cognac cocktail, my favourite being a Sidecar
50ml Cognac, 25ml Triple Sec, 25ml Lemon juice and crushed ice. Serve in chilled glasses with a lemon curl
Enjoy
I do hope you all had similarly enjoyable summers and make some special memories,
with much love, Joanna x
