My Week in Review to the 9th September

Dave, Dave and Gilly at Melle 

I am linking up with The Sunday Post hosted by Kimberly at The Caffeinated Reviewer.

I'm also linking up again with What Are You Reading at The Book Date:
Yesterday I finished Gentlemen Of The Road by Michael Chabon, a fun adventure story set in the Viking era. I've just started The Locked Room by Sjowall and Wahloo which is my 9th read of this Swedish crime series (although only actually the 8th book in the series because I am totally incapable of reading books in order!)

We had guests on our Chef Boutonne riverbank for a few days this week - hello to Gilly and Dave! It was fun to show them around our little corner of France, but this did mean almost three days with Absolutely No Internet! Consequently I am hopelessly behind on commenting and don't have an Around The Blogosphere section today. I'll double up next week - promise!

Gloria Zein sculpture in Melle bandstand 

We had a lovely afternoon in Melle starting with lunch at The Secret Garden. I had their delicious Tofu and Quinoa salad and everyone else's meals were appreciated too. After lunch we walked along the riverbank from Sompt and I picked enough ripe blackberries for a crumble!

Sompt riverbank 

Friday saw us all exploring Ruffec including a visit to my favourite shop there, the amazing second-hand emporium, Emmaus. I picked up a couple of interesting looking books for 50c each - german novel April In Paris by Michael Wallner and a biography of Pink Floyd's Syd Barrett. I must make more of an effort with my reading in French though. Emmaus have hundreds of French language books and only one bookcase of English language ones. After keeping the rest of our party waiting while I browsed, we then visited the Plan d'Eau at Villefagnon. The French Plan d'Eau is a wonderful idea - artificial lakes to walk and cycle around with sandy beaches to swim from, and separate areas for fishing. The Daves and Gilly both swam while I lounged on the beach in the sun with a book! Bliss!

Illustrated bench in Ruffec depicting the Plan d'Eau 

Giveaways closing soon:
11th Sept: Gone To Ground by Rachael Amphlett audiobook and mug (Dab Of Darkness blog)
13th Sept: Signed copy of Barnabas Tew and the Case of the Nine Worlds by Columbkill Noonan

Posts on my blogs this week were:
My Week in Review to the 2nd September
Wrap-Up: August Authorfest and Bookish Bingo
#WorldReads - Five Books From Poland

Animal Farm by George Orwell
Curtain Call by C H Clepitt + #Giveaway
Jaclyn and the Beanstalk by Mary Ting + Excerpt + #Giveaway
Barnabas Tew and the Case of the Nine Worlds by Columbkill Noonan + #Giveaway
The Cleansweep Counterstrike by Chuck Waldron + #Giveaway
Sleeping Through War by Jackie Carreira
The Craft Room by Dave Holwill

Around the blogosphere:
Oops! Emptiness here.
Please Comment your own post links!

Have a great week :-)