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 Heavy snow provided a back garden winter wonderland, a welcome couple of days off work, and a chance to invent snow margaritas. |
Inspired by Jamie Oliver's 30-Minute Meals, we made a fabulous Thai meal with Gordon and Neil in (just over) 30 minutes. |
 Shopping at the local Christmas market always puts us in holiday mood. We met friends Bryn and David there. |
 It was our turn to host the annual family Christmas meal and we turned it into a Mexican fiesta. |
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 During our after meal walk, we encountered this rather crazy group of rowers braving the very cold weather in very little clothing. |
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 We had a piñata in the back garden and churros for dessert, surely a reason to purchase that deep fat fryer. |
 Next stop, the Vendée, one of our favourite places to expierence Christmas. We drove through heavy snow getting there, but we made it. |
 This is a huge Christmas spectacle at Puy du Fou. I marvelled at the projected backdrops, shown above. At one point there were 80 actors (I counted) playing tambourine in a line across the stage. |
 Our special Christmas tree, with our collection of ornaments from around the world, Nick with Père Noël, and Rudolph, George's favourite. |
 Sights in the Puy du Fou gift shop |
 Nick at Puy du Fou, a poster for a show we missed, a market seller, and the source of our long searched for a Vendéen wooden heart, symbolizing the local people's allegiance to the king during the French revolution. Napoleon's armies put a bloody stop to all that, but the local pride remains. |
 Playing pool beforehand, we later heard a wonderful youth choir at the ancient Nieul-sur-l'Autise abbey. |
 Frolicking in Fontenay-le-Comte |
 The Fontenay market was moved to Friday from its usual Saturday because of the holiday. Here we bought organic pork and Turkish delight. |
 An ancient laundry site, a typical manger scene (with sheep on rooftop), and Nick beside an iron bridge designed by Gustav Eiffel. |
 Beside the deep, dark lake in Cheffois, inside it's little chapel, and the river in Vouvant |
 One of hundreds of crèche scenes in Vouvant's church, this one shows the bustling rural Vendée community. We never saw this many people out. |
 Detail from the Vendée crèche and some of our favourite ornaments; these are from New York, Dijon(?), and Naples. |
 The Mouilleron windmill(s), The Pétosse were-cat in the church that dates from 1003, and photographing our Christmas tree from outside. |
 The streets of Vovant at night, about as lively as they are during the daytime. |
 We had the seasonally crowded Plages des Dames on Noirmoutier all to ourselves for a winter picnic. Also shown are the château and a glasses ad. |
 The domain of the fabled Salt Boy, always worth a pigrimage. We waited for low tide to drive across the Gois, a natural causeway. |
 The market hall in La Rochelle |
 In La Rochelle, Nick bought a wonderful Eden Park duffel coat, we spotted these chocolate shoes, and observed the French love of firemen. |
 I lost my zoom lens after leaving it near this shot, but returned half an hour later to find it still there. Luck-ee. |
 A trip to Sauveterre beach, where Nick sympathized with a surfer whose board snapped. We also saw the Église de Saint-Nicolas-de-Brem, which dates from the 12th century. |
 Église de Saint-Nicolas-de-Brem. The statue is of St. Nick, surrounded by acrobats so our guidebook tells us. |
 Back to Vouvant for our final day, sipping hot chocolate and cider in the local café. We'll be back again one day! |
| georgenick.co.uk Click HERE to see our past Christmases and HERE to see our last summer trip to the Vendee  
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