Easter Gifts

A selection of handmade textile gift items at l'Audemoire.

Over the past few weeks I've been sending out flyers to all the local gîte owners to publicise my guided nature walks and workshops. Mostly they just go off in the post and I won't hear anything more, but sometimes a gîte owner will get in touch with me with a question or an idea, or just to network.

Nelly showing me some of their wares.

Nelly Coustham from l'Audemoire was one of the latter. She sent me an invitation to her open day, where she and a couple of friends were going to be selling their hand stitched decorative items. They make bears, photo frames, embroideries, lampshades and other little textile fripperies, and are having another open day to sell gifts with an Easter theme this weekend (9 & 10 April) from 10am to 6pm at 22 rue du Bourg, Montreuil en Touraine. Nelly and her friends Raymonde Singer and Elisabeth Derolez would be delighted to see you there. They will also be at the Ferrière-Larçon Christmas market later in the year, and can be contacted by email at any time.

One the husbands makes these very nice bird
and insect nest boxes.

While I was visiting l'Audemoire, Nelly invited me up to see her guest rooms. They are spacious and very tastefully decorated in pale neutral colours. Audemoire is deep in the Touraine countryside, very quiet and tranquil. As Nelly said, the only traffic noise is the occasional tractor passing. They are also just down the road from an excellent ferme auberge where we dined on home produced pork and cherries with Ladybird a couple of years ago.

Susan