Absolutely Nothing To Write Home About – Le Clos De La Prairie
Posted: July 4, 2011 Filed under: Absolutely Nothing To Write Home About Leave a commentThe ability to both eat and enjoy a five course dinner accompanied by two children under the age of 3, is somewhat of a rarity but I can happily tell you that I’ve found somewhere you can do just that.
We’re on our family holiday to France. Something we do every year and something we look forward to more and more now that the boys are becoming real people – if you know what I mean. We like to drive. All the way from Oxfordshire to the South of France. Well I say we, what I really mean is I like to drive as I hate to fly. Will do anything in my power to avoid it. So off we go, car laden with more clothes and belongings than I ever realised we owned, through the tunnel (not my favourite part) et voila, France. With 2 little ones in tow, you have no choice but to break up the journey and after the traditional numerous stop offs in London to off load things like the dog and pick up things like forgotten Mac chargers, we were never going to make it much past Calais. Where to stay always provides us with a bone of contention. I just want the children to sleep so that I can sleep and my husband wants to drink a bottle of rose, enjoy a fabulous meal and then go to sleep. These things rarely go in tandem – until NOW!
Le Clos De La Prairie is the most wonderful hotel and restaurant about an hour from Calais in the small village of Gouy Saint André. It has been open as a restaurant for the past 6 or so years and more recently added an 8 bedroom “hotel” wing which could not be a more perfect addition in a more idyllic setting. The architecture in this part of France shows itself through low long barn like buildings of which Le Clos has 4, one used as the owners’ home, another which forms the restaurant and kitchens, a more modern version which houses the accommodation and finally a beautiful old stable building decorated with pink hydrangeas. It’s a little bit like Daylesford but without the pretension.
The rooms have been done both tastefully and cleverly. Farrow and Ball grey covers the walls, mushroom linen tied with white muslin hang the length of the floor to ceiling windows and crisp white bed linen is softened with french eiderdowns and cushions. It’s exactly what you would hope to find with everything you need. The bathroom was big and modern and beautifully finished with an open, stone tiled shower and lots of towels – very important I’m sure you’ll agree.
We stayed in the family room – a long room with the bathroom in the middle and double bed with french windows at one end, plus cot for the little one, and a single child’s bed at the other end. Far enough away to feel spacious but not too far to feel separated. It was the first time my not quite 3 year old has slept in a bed and probably one of the best night’s sleep he’s ever had.
So, on to the main event which was dinner. We chose to sit outside – the smart choice when dining with children – and had the garden and terrace to ourselves for the entire evening, the other diners opting to eat in the restaurant. Perhaps the sight of two small boys put them off the alfresco option, who knows. I’m not going to write about each course crumb by crumb, I’m not a critic and it will just end up being long winded and dull. I’ll let a few photographs speak for themselves.
Needless to say it was one of the most enjoyable dinners we’ve had since becoming parents and we went to sleep very happy indeed. Where else can you enjoy crab and langoustines whilst being entertained by your one year old with a bread basket on his head, your 3 year old picking daisies and all in the company of the hotel family dog wearing nothing but a baby grow.
Tel. : 03 21 90 39 58 – leclosdelaprairie@orange.fr
Absolutely Nothing To Write Home About – radio silence
Posted: July 4, 2011 Filed under: Absolutely Nothing To Write Home About Leave a commentAfter 2 whole days of radio silence we’re back. Well almost.
For now here’s a round up of yet another wonderful week doing Absolutely Nothing….
Lots more to come.
Absolutely Nothing To Eat – Hoxton Burgers
Absolutely Nothing To Dance To – Electric Dreams
Absolutely Nothing To Read – Little Brown Pen
Absolutely Nothing To Wear – Tallulah and Hope Summer Sale
Absolutely Nothing To Wear – Fashion Confusion and the Maxi Dress
Absolutely Nothing To Watch – Californication
Absolutely Worth Smiling About – In Appreciation Of Pink Peonies
Absolutely Nothing To Smile About – Peonies
Absolutely Nothing to Eat : The Best Burger in East London
Posted: July 1, 2011 Filed under: Absolutely Nothing To Eat Leave a commentI don’t have anything particularly against American food. Frankly some days there’s nothing better than a big fat juicy burger, fries and a milkshake. But you know, not every day. Not all the time. But maybe it’s just me, maybe this is what people want to eat ALL THE TIME. I only wonder as it’s struck me that around the small enclave of Hoxton Square it seems that it’s all you can eat ( I do appreciate that this is a rather localised, East London rant, what can I tell you, I never leave).
First up, we have the original Diner on Curtain Road. A Sunday afternoon essential for all strange hair-cutted locals and their hang-overs having a languid de-brief over the previous nights Russian bar activity. Or you could pick something similar up at BarMusicHall a mere skip and a jump away. OR you could go retro and hit the Square itself – hey knock yourself out with a fat burger at Bar and Kitchen or chicken burger at Ziggy’s on the corner. You want more Americana? Heck – don’t forget The Breakfast Club. Surely, that’s enough though eh? Surely that’s more than ENOUGH AMERICAN FOOD OUTLETS IN ONE SMALL SQUARE? Apparently not. Recently opened, a Byron burger. Then whack bam next to it on the opposite corner? The Red Dog Saloon. Offering all manner of pulled pork sandwiches and fries and who knows what else.
I don’t know whose idea this all was. Why we can’t have more of a happy mixture in the area (yes, yes I know there are like a million Thai and Vietnameses on Kingsland Road, but we LIKE them). I don’t know. I mean everyone loves a homogenised high street chain restaurant, non? If it’s good enough for Islington then surely we can suck it up? Everyone must just love eating American food ALL THE TIME. Or perhaps it is some sinister plot to rid the good people of Hoxton of their skinny jeans by making it impossible for them to fit them. We just don’t know.
But if you would like to eat something other than American food in the Hoxton area, may one recommend these establishments:
Fifteen: the original youth project from Mr Oliver. It’s still great. And you get to feel nicely smug about supporting the kidz.
The Princess: Lovely British gastropub, super charming staff and super yummy fare. Do rock up for a roast. It’s also a divine haven from the hen night hell of Old Street on a Saturday night.
Hoxton Apprentice: The only corner of the Square un-Yanked. Delicious and good for the community.
The Rivington Grill: The best fry up breakie in town.
Charlie Wrights International Wine Bar: I jest not. Rock up for the bargainous and delicious Thai food, then stay well into the small hours for a classic Hoxton night out with all kinds of local ‘sights.’ Double dare you.
Absolutely Nothing To Dance To – Electric Dreams
Posted: July 1, 2011 Filed under: Absolutely Nothing To Listen To 1 CommentLast night, whilst making “mix tapes” for our impending family road trip to France, I learned a few things I didn’t know about my husband.
1. That he knows all the words to Together In Electric Dreams
2. That he knows the dance to accompany the words to Together In Electric Dreams – stand with legs slightly apart, toes firmly on the floor and do small heel lifts with coordinating arm raises and the occasional finger click. And a little head shaking from time to time seems to work too.
3. He once owned the t-shirt worn by Phil Oakley in the video to Together In Electric Dreams, which reads “You Have Been Judged”. Nice.
Needless to say it has been crowned as our holiday anthem. Best song ever.
Absolutely Nothing To Read – Little Brown Pen
Posted: June 30, 2011 Filed under: Absolutely Nothing To Read Leave a commentI have been spending way too much time on someone else’ blog recently. Little Brown Pen is the most fabulous collection of photographs and musings from Nichole a copywriter and photographer based, I presume, in Paris.
The posts vary from recipes to window displays to favourite cheeses and what to have for lunch, but the predominant theme – and the one I’m completely hooked on – are her colour focused photographs collated under the title “Paris Color Project“. They really are very special indeed.
Obviously I’m not the only one who has been inspired to fall in love with grey grafitti and chipped turquoise paint and bundles of bright red flowers and you can now buy some of the photographs in postcard and print size through her online shop, plus Chronicle Books are publishing a selection in September 2012.
If you haven’t seen the blog already then you must, it’s lovely, but do put aside some free time as it’s wonderfully addictive.
A few of my favourite photographs. There are so very many to choose from.
Tallulah and Hope – Summer Sale
Posted: June 30, 2011 Filed under: Absolutely Nothing To Wear Leave a commentMy favourite kaftan brand in the whole world is having a serious Summer Sale.
The sale starts on Saturday 2nd July so put it in your diary and get online before it all disappears in a fabulous flash of silk!
Click HERE to go straight to the T&H website
Fashion Confusion – the maxi dress
Posted: June 29, 2011 Filed under: Absolutely Nothing To Wear Leave a commentI’m on my way back from London. Sitting in a cool, empty train carriage after a hot, chaotic few hours in the big smoke. I went for work, to meet with magazine editors who were young enough to be my children. Well almost. It felt very much like that. They were fresh faced and well rested and “sooo stressed” and I was the slightly past it, ex magazine person who actually said the words “I worked here almost 12 years ago”. Not something I needed reminding of.
Anyway, that’s not what I wanted to write about. It was the in between meetings bit, the part where I was pushing my way down Oxford street trying to talk myself in to the merits of taking the tube and trying desperately not to raise my arm and hail a taxi – I lost, my arm won. It was then that I had a good look around me and took in what everyone was wearing. And I don’t know whether I’m any kind of authority to say this – I’m not – but everyone was such a mess. The only person I saw who looked remotely neat and well dressed and enviable was my friend Jenny in her short denim shorts and red gingham shirt with legs stretching as far as the eye could see. Jen, you rock.
The main problem was this…..there were way too many badly fitting maxi dresses. I fell out of love with the maxi dress a long time ago when I worked for a brand, who’s name I won’t mention, who were, if you like, one of the first high street brands to bring the maxi dress to the masses and to this day I’m not sure that was a good thing. I often look at long, slender ladies with envy as they float around in their floral maxis and although something inside me is telling me I should love it, I don’t. They look like little girls or ladies who are trying to be little girls and I just don’t think it’s a good look if you’re aged over 12. An evening maxi is a different matter all together. Long for the right occasion is fabulous, long for the day time when you can’t see your feet or it’s showing a little too much cleavage and slightly burnt shoulders, is not fabulous. It’s frightening and dare I say it, rather lazy – albeit fashionably lazy.
Perhaps it’s also important to add that my bugbear with the maxi dress is predominantly when they’re worn in the city. Where hemlines will only trail on the floor and get grubby or trip you up when running for buses or get tangled in escalators when racing for the sale bargains. If worn at all it should be on holiday. Oh and if you’re pregnant. That makes perfect sense.
The other thing which dampened the day a little happened during my pilgrimage to COS, which I love. It was absolutely packed. Cos is never packed. Cos is calm and quiet and neat and tidy and still the best kept high street secret. Oh please tell me it is. How did all these people find out about it. I don’t think they even knew what shop they were in, it was more like a frenzied grab what you can closing down sale than the calm, civilised Cos I so miss. Deeply upsetting.
So now, after a confusing day in London I’m racing home to the safety of the countryside where maxi dresses are much less frequent and no one, but no one has ever even heard of Cos.
Absolutely Nothing To Watch – Californication
Posted: June 29, 2011 Filed under: Absolutely Nothing To Watch 1 CommentI said in my review of the inspired ‘Bored To Death’ that there are very few TV series that pass me by. There are a few box-sets however that for one reason or another sit in their polythene wrappers gathering dust even when I’m in the Sunday hangover position complaining of having absolutely nothing to watch. These DVD’s, like the fat kid on the high board, just stand there taking up space, the longer I procrastinate about watching them the less likely I am to jump in.
Californication has sat on my DVD shelf taking up space longer than the clichéd can of kidney beans in the kitchen. I don’t really know why I never gave it a go. Maybe I needed time to let X-files crawl its way to the deep recesses of my memory before I could see Duchovni as anyone else other than Spooky Mulder. Maybe it was Natasha McElhone’s accent in Ronin I was trying to forget but for whatever reason Californication sat, unwatched and gathering dust…until last week.
There are dozens of films and shows about struggling writers. We write about what we know and every writer knows struggle. From the aforementioned ‘Bored To Death’ to my new favourite radio comedy ‘Ed Reardon’s Week’ and onto the countless others, there is a vast pile of hugely likable celluloid characters of the written word. There is, however, one who stands head and shoulders above the rest, a God amongst these literary legends and his name is Hank.
Hank Moody.
Hank’s life is complicated. The love of his life and baby-mama Karen is about to marry Bill (or dial-tone as Hank calls him, so named for his droning monotony). Becca their twelve year old rock-a-goth daughter is living with Mum and dial-tone leaving Hank on his own.
Hank is disillusioned and Hank can’t write. His last book, a deeply dark, soul-exposing cynically comical tome called ‘God Hates Us All’ was run through the Hollywood mill only to come out the other side as ‘A Crazy Little Thing Called Love’ starring Tom-Kat.
His agent and best friend Runkle, whilst waiting for Hank to tap the keys again, is trying to hold on to his job, spice things up with his firecracker wife, the ‘sexy smurf’ and stave off the advances of his beautifully pierced PA.
And Hank, well Hank just can’t stop drinking, partying and sleeping with every beautiful woman California has to offer. With his dry whit, charm and dishevelled good looks every woman he meets ends up throwing themselves at him. He moves from one to another, quite often in the same night, and still they all love him.
However sometimes it’s possible to sleep with the wrong woman and so starts the spiral that keeps the show moving forward and the viewer hooked.
It’s the ultimate, “oh just one more episode and then I’ll do some work”.
I’m four seasons down in a week and I still want more…
Californication is for want of a better phase. Fucking Brilliant.
And killer soundtrack!
Absolutely Worth Smiling About…in appreciation of pink peonies…
Posted: June 27, 2011 Filed under: Absolutely Nothing To Smile About 2 Comments
Absolutely Nothing To Smile About – Peonies
Posted: June 27, 2011 Filed under: Absolutely Nothing To Smile About Leave a commentSome friends came to lunch yesterday and brought with them the most beautiful bunch of pale and dark pink Peonies, which have made me very happy indeed, so I thought I’d write about them. I promise it’s not going to turn in to that kind of blog (a smug, look at me blog), but just let me have this one post.
Peonies played a starring role in my wedding bouquet and as much as I adore most flowers, there is something very special about them and for that I love them more than any other. I’m not quite sure what it is but they’re romantic and nostalgic and perfectly modern all in one stem.They cheer me up no matter what my mood and they make my house feel…..happy. Yes, I really did just write that.
So if you don’t have peonies in your sight, I strongly recommend that you go and find some. Florists and supermarkets are full of them at the moment and I guarantee they’ll make you smile.
And while I’m at it, these roses which I found poking through a neighbouring wall on our drive way are definitely worth a mention. I’m not responsible for growing them but I wish I was. They smell like roses should, sweet and delicious.
Happy, smug post about flowers is now over.
Absolutely Nothing To Wear 
