Our first month: cheers… and au revoir!
A New Life In Lille
by Graham Welch
3y ago
Full tables and plentiful bookings… it’s fair to say that the first month of our cheese and wine bar has gone brilliantly. Better than we could have hoped for, in fact. We opened Planches et Plonk at 6pm on 30 July. We thought it would all be very low key, but no, there was a queue outside the door to come in and see what the place was like. You can find pictures from that first night on our Facebook and Instagram pages. To be frank, we were mobbed, so friends pitched in to help us keep up with demand. We learned some valuable lessons that first night and were able to manage by ourselves from ..read more
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Counting down: to opening up
A New Life In Lille
by Graham Welch
3y ago
There are just five days to go until we open our cheese and wine bar – and make real the dream we’ve been working towards these past few years. Our arrival brought the village to a standstill. We had to get special permission from the mairie to bring our removal lorry up the medieval high street. Since then, getting ready to open has been a rollercoaster of emotions. We nominated this Thursday, 30 July, as our opening date and have done our best to hit it. There have been days when we’ve thought we were being unrealistic about what we could achieve in the time, but it all seems to be coming t ..read more
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Au revoir Lille: bonjour Belvès
A New Life In Lille
by Graham Welch
4y ago
This weekend is our last in Lille. On Monday, we leave this northern star and head for rural Dordogne – where we plan to open our cheese-and-wine bar and B&B in just five weeks’ time. Belvès, here we come! That’s where we’ll open Planches et Plonk. (Follow us on Instagram or Facebook if you’d like to see the last of the renovations and our grand opening.) This afternoon, the removal company we’re using will drop off boxes and they’ll be back tomorrow to start packing up our flat. What they don’t know – yet – is that we’ve been busy in recent weeks and months buying things to take with us ..read more
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Windows: a waiting game
A New Life In Lille
by Graham Welch
4y ago
No building work is allowed in central Belvès during the summer season. So time is very much against us as we wait for the folding doors that will replace the shop window in our soon-to-be cheese and wine bar. The mairie wants the village to looks its best for visitors each summer – it is one of France’s plus beaux villages, after all. That’s why no building work may take place between mid-June and mid-September each year. Our new folding doors were due to be installed in May, but production has, of course, been delayed by the coronavirus and lockdown. This is what the building looked like whe ..read more
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Automatically sunshine: blogger award
A New Life In Lille
by A new life in Lille
4y ago
If the Sunshine Blogger Award is about bringing kindness and positivity into the lives of readers, count me in. That was my reaction when Joyce Hopewell of the Eyes in the Back of my Head blog nominated me. If you’re not familiar with the award, you have to answer 11 questions if you’re nominated and link back to the person who nominated you. So, here are Joyce’s questions of me, and my answers. What motivated you to start writing your blog? I started the blog at a time when the idea of starting a new life in France and was little more than a seed in my mind. I’d fallen back in love with ..read more
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Knife skills: life skills
A New Life In Lille
by A new life in Lille
4y ago
Even before I became aware of an etiquette to cutting cheese, I knew there was a right way and a wrong way. Anyone who would cut the ‘nose’ off a blue cheese, for example, was dead to me. As a well-brought-up Englishman, I would say nothing whenever this happened. Looks, of course, could have killed. It was only when I moved to France that I realised I wasn’t alone. People cut cheese in a way that seems fairer – and possibly not just because they fear the icy glare of an anglais. French food magazines and books often seem to carry features for the uninitiated on how to cut cheese. One book I b ..read more
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Cover up: preparations continue
A New Life In Lille
by A new life in Lille
4y ago
Despite these difficult times, preparations for our new business continue. This week, Damon has been reupholstering chairs for the bar. We’ve had to abandon our planned opening date of mid-June. It’s clear that this target is now way too ambitious, given the coronavirus lockdown. However, work is continuing on the property – only much more slowly than before. Instead of six workmen being in there at any one time, there’s just one. The plasterer is among those to have been in recently. He’s been getting the plasterboard ready – the pink plasterboard is fire-proof, in case you’re wondering why s ..read more
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Le KO: est OK
A New Life In Lille
by A new life in Lille
4y ago
Chaos is OK. Well, that’s what I’m telling myself, as our home in Lille fills with more and more things to take down to Belvès at some point… I’m finding the enforced confinement bearable but the mounting piles of stuff for the new business are starting seriously to reduce our living space. Take what is my home office – or, perhaps more accurately, what was my home office. There’s now just a little path between the door and my desk. In it, we have piled up: Five armchairs A sofa Three tables Two standard lamps A lampshade A bathroom sink A steamer trunk Ten cushions A meat slicer A profession ..read more
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Top 10: things to do in Lille
A New Life In Lille
by A new life in Lille
4y ago
The March issue of Living France magazine hits the shops today – and in it is an interview with me about Lille. I thought I’d use it as a chance to share my top ten things to do in this great northern French city. La braderie Nothing quite prepares you for the craziness of the braderie in Lille. The annual antiques fair cum flea market stretches over a whopping 100km of roads throughout the city on the first weekend of September each year. The braderie has been a feature of the city’s calendar since the 11th century. These days, more than 2 million people visit the city to try to bag a bargai ..read more
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All is revealed: Planches et Plonk
A New Life In Lille
by A new life in Lille
4y ago
Finally, I can share the name we’ve picked for our cheese-and-wine bar in Belvès: Planches & Plonk. It came to us in a flash of inspiration and it feels like a great fit. We’re using the French et for that ampersand, so it’s said Planches et Plonk. The timing is perfect, as we’re down in Belvès this weekend and can put up some posters in the shop window. That way, the villagers can follow our progress, if they want to. They’ll be able to do that via the Facebook and Instagram profiles we launched this week. (Please do check them out and ‘like’ us if you want to keep up with our progress ..read more
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