The Little House in the ... Vineyard

The B&B ‘Le Manoir des Charmes’ in the village of Ay (Champagne) is a stately villa with a well-tended garden, adjacent a small vineyard. We had seen both from the terrace of our room, where we had hoped to spend the evening having our aperitif and picnic supper. However, the weather gods decided otherwise and sent in some large rain clouds.

The kitchen being off-limits, the landlady showed us to a small cabin it the back of the garden. From the outside it looked like an over-sized doll’s house. Inside, it was nice and cosy, with romantic decorations, comfortable chairs, a miniature fridge and some shelves holding cutlery and glasses.

The perfect place to have a romantic tête-à-tête picnic!

The landlady invited us to put our supplies in the fridge and added that we could use the cabin and the cutlery to have our supper. “You’ll have the place to yourselves,” she added, “All the other guests have gone into town.” “When you’re finished, just leave the dishes where they are; I’ll collect them in the morning.” We thanked her for her kindness and went to fetch our supplies from the car.

While we were having our meal in the ‘Little house in the vineyard’, we saw a car coming up the driveway. It stopped by the house and a man and a woman got out. They unloaded some luggage and disappeared into the house.

About an hour later – it had gotten quite dark by then – we suddenly heard a scratching noise at the door of the cabin. Could it be a dog? We were not aware of our hosts having one. Or a cat? A stray maybe! Or a rodent? Please, NO! Well if it was a rodent, it certainly was a big one, because, to our surprise we saw the door handle move. “Hello, is there anybody in there?” Ha, a talking rodent! The door opened and a large bald head appeared in the opening. It belonged to the gentleman whom we had seen arriving earlier that evening. “Excuse me,” he said “I was just taking a walk in the garden, when I heard voices. I was wondering where they came from. Sorry, if I’ve disturbed you. Have a nice evening.” Before we had a chance to say anything, he had closed the door. We saw him walking up the garden path and disappearing into the house.

(to be continued)

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