My Week in Review to the 3rd June

I'm writing this post two days early because we're actually away visiting a friend this weekend. He's off-grid so we'll have 48 hours camping in a small field with No Internet and, in fact, no electricity supply! How will I cope?! I'm taking a couple of paperbacks from when my Kindle dies!

I'm also going to be prepared and have an already-read paperback in my bag just in case we spot another book exchange. They're popping up seemingly every time I turn around in Deux Sevres! I missed out on Wednesday when we paused in St Mandé sur Bredoire - I spotted this amazing pretend double bass adorning a stone wall in the middle of the village. There didn't seem to be any reason for it to be where it was other than it was partly under cover and we wondered if this was a gathering point, perhaps with occasional live music? Having admired the sculpture and persuaded Dave to pose for scale, I turned to my right and There's A Whole Library!

And I had nothing with me to swap - but I know it's there now. Admittedly most of the books were French with a few in Dutch, but my French reading is slowly improving and they had a great selection of classics. I think I could tackle Jack London or Ernest Hemingway soon!
To give you an idea of my over-excitement at St Mandé, this is the Chef Boutonne little library:

We couldn't stay long in St Mandé because we were parked slightly precariously and the real destination for our trip was the town of St Jean d'Angely. This lovely olde worlde town has half-timbered buildings and a clock tower of which they are very proud. They also have several nice artisan shops, especially ceramics and I spent a while with my nose pressed to the window of Terres d'Angely. Fortunately the shop was closed of my credit card might have taken a hammering! We treated ourselves to a delicious crepes lunch at L'Ancre Marine (Dave can recommend the Lemon Meringue pancake and I loved the Tagada one). St Jean d'Angely is interesting to walk around. It was originally a Roman villa and we saw tall columns commemorating that history. There was a fun wall of steampunk street art too.

Around the blogosphere:
Lauren at Northern Plunder reviews Void Trip by Ryan O'Sullivan

Avalinah's Books reviews No Fourth River by Christine Clayfield

Aj at Read All The Things features Places that would make amazing book settings

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Artisan Rainbow	Literary Flits	Stephanie Jane