Dreamy Duras...

Five down and two more to go … we're talking holidays of course – our number one Achilles’ heel! The latest being France for Middle and Mini Mouse. As some of you will no doubt have seen on Instagram or Facebook we opted for a super chilled one, in a gorgeous chateau five minutes from the vibrant village of Duras in South West France. Dreamy place…

We flew Saturday afternoon, arriving at the airport late that evening, where we shuffled off to Hertz to pick up our hire wagon AKA Panda-pops for the week. All went swimmingly, until the darkness set in and we went from calm map reading mode to shrieking panic mode! Driving on the wrong side of the road, on country lanes you’re not familiar with, sister in tow, late at night is not all that fun it turns out! I also had a tendency to drive very close to the edge, or so I’m told – even though it looked perfectly fine from where I was sitting – so this is where the use of the word ‘DITCHHHHHHHHHH’ came into its own! Whenever this was shouted, I knew Mini Mouse was on the brink of death, which resulted in a sharp swerve!!! 

You’ll be pleased to hear, we pulled up to our sweet little farmhouse just after 10pm where we were greeted by a table of midnight feast goodies left by the housekeeper – sweet! Fresh crusty bread, salted REAL butter (our fav), parma ham AND a bottle of local white and red wine – just the ticket! 

First things first, a race around the farmhouse at breakneck speed to familiarise ourselves with our home for the week, which was perfect in every sense. A proper French family kitchen with beautiful sky-high beamed ceiling featuring bucket-like wine glasses sent from alcohol heaven, black and white family snaps graced the rustic stone walls, a games cupboard that put Hamleys to shame, a wrap-around garden with unspoilt views that went on for miles and the best part … NO NOISE – not a peep! We stayed up excitably chatting and drinking until gone 1am before hitting the hay for a long and restful sleep. 

We then woke up bright and early the next day ready to officially start our holiday – yay! It was like we had arrived all over again - take two of the whirlwind chateau tour but this time in daylight which was doubly as exciting - cue girly squeals of delight echoing all around...

We had agreed in advance, that we would eat and drink our bodyweight x100 over the course of the week but to counteract the overzealous greediness we would run every day and that we did, on both counts! We both actually love to run but find it so tricky fitting time in during the busy working week – not on holiday though! It’s so lovely, having so much free thinking and ‘doing’ time. It also meant we got to explore the surrounding area on foot, instead of trying to steal glances whilst driving, when I really should be fully concentrating on not falling down the ‘DITCHHHHHHHHHH’ !!! Here’s us jumping for joy one morning when our 2 hour-long run was done…

And here’s another red-faced selfie… 

And a shot of how the run back to the chateau normally went - fresh baguette under arm French-style...

Our favourite run had to be on market day in Duras! Every Monday, the charming little town holds a food market, packed out with stall after stall selling fresh fruit, veg, meats and to die for sweet treats! We got up early and ran as fast as our Mice toes could carry us to check out the delights on offer. I popped my HTC down the front of my running top (!!!) so I could snap details and rolling fields along the way...

We arrived and immediately fell in love. Cobbled streets filled with sunlight, terracotta pots bursting with ruby red hydrangeas, a castle and locals shouting French market talk - sounds so much better than eastenders shouting 'free for a paund' our way over in Bethnal Green! 

We happily taste tested the whole market and came away laden with lots of fresh fruit and veg to last the week…

Our number one purchase however has to be a brown paper bag stacked high with traditional canelés and madeleine’s. Mini Mouse actually spied this particular market stall a mile off. A lovely French man stood proud, for good reason, making these treats on-site. The madeleine’s were tasty BUT the canelés were on a whole other level. For those of you not familiar, canelés are a French pastry specialty of the Bordeaux region, made up of a soft spongy custard-like middle with a dark caramelised crust – my mouth is tingling just writing about them now! But the ones we purchased had a secret OMG ingredient – a dolcelatte core … rich, gooey caramel overflowed from the top of each bite – seriously mind-blowingly good! After our first taste, we turned into obsessive fat kids on a mission to hunt down more of these pastry delights – everywhere we went we has one eye on the road and the other on the lookout for patisseries! It was at this point that we added another word to our car vocabulary – ‘CAKKKKKKKKKKE’ for when we spied a potential vendor who might sell them…

After all that running, a post-exercise treat was in order aka one hell of a homemade brekkie! We liked to mix the menu up each day so some mornings we would opt for gorgeous fresh figs (picked from a beautiful fig tree in the garden - I mean come on, could this place get anymore perfect)...

Other mornings we would treat ourselves to scrambled eggs topped with Parma ham and grated parmesan which would ooze onto the fresh crusty bread below...

Or oh-so-yummy strawberry and coconut pancakes with a cuppa on the patio – heaven…

Fitness firmly placed to one side, we also did copious amounts of unfit things, ALL of which involved food and way too much booze...

Favourite boozed-fueled moments have to be our gin infused lemon and basil cooler afternoons – Mini Mouse shared the lip-smackingly good recipe on Friday here but here’re a few snaps of the concoction for you to drool over...

And Champagne sundowners with nibbles and tipsy chatter! On this particular evening, I may have ‘accidentally’ shaken the bottle a little before Mini Mouse popped the cork…

Kicking back in our bikinis, reading books in Matilda lightning style with killer country views to boot. Deliciously good! 

Some days we were so relaxed we were lounger-bound surviving on only...



It was the kind of holiday that when the evenings drew in, we threw on the comfiest of clothes, cooked up a storm and kicked back with gin, tonic and a twist of fresh orange closely followed by a bottle of local Duras wine! We proceeded to follow this ritual every evening as it was just too darn good to break. My number one night in has to be when we whipped up prawn saganaki (stonking recipe to follow next week) and then I went onto thrash mini mouse at backgammon - the small things!!! 

France : Duras part II will follow next week as I still have our beautiful trip to St Emilion to share with you all. Stay tuned.

In summary the main takeout from this super duper uber relaxing holiday has to be...

Can we go back ... like now?! 

*Special thanks go to the Bobroffs for loaning us their heavenly farmhouse for the week - kisses from us both xx