Showing posts with label liege. Show all posts
Showing posts with label liege. Show all posts

Tuesday, 16 August 2011

LIMBOURG - BELGIUM


We have just returned from visiting relatives in France and Belgium. We drove from Somerset to the channel tunnel and stayed overnight with my parents in France. The next day we drove on to southern Belgium to stay with my cousins. On one of our days there, we went to Limbourg in the province of Liege, a medieval village high up on a hill.


We walked around the quiet streets and lanes, admiring some of the lovely houses on the way. I do like Belgian architecture (old buildings, not so keen on modern ones)
















I always associate cobbled streets with childhood holidays spent in Belgium with my Aunt and Grandmother. As a child, I mainly recall seeing them in Belgium and also when visiting Maastricht in the Netherlands. I was fascinated by the sound made when a car drove over them.


Popular colour that day!


Private house. I am not sure if the towers were there before the house was built or if they were built all at the same time.


Very pretty cottage right by the church




Gates leading to someone's secret garden. It was a lovely garden and although I was very tempted to lean over and photograph it, I thought better of it.




After a walk around the village, we were glad to sit down and have a drink and some food.
To avoid the wasps, we sat inside. Service was slow, they had been busier than expected and the owner had to go out to re-stock on salad. We considered leaving but decided to give it a little longer. Eventually, our food arrived, we all agreed that it had been worth the wait. It was all home cooked and was excellent! We had apple and cinnamon pancakes. Most of the people sitting outside were plagued by wasps. All of a sudden, several people picked up their plates and rushed indoors. It was quite a funny sight but not quite so funny when some of the wasps followed them indoors....Despite the slow service on that occasion, I would still recommend having food there.


My next blog post will be about our trip to Maatricht in the Netherlands. One of my favourite cities.

Thank you for the great response to the Italian post, it is interesting to read about your favourite places.

A bientôt!

Isabelle X

Thursday, 20 August 2009

LOUNGE - Work in progress!



I have not been to a boot fair or any kind of fair for several weeks and why? Well, because apart from going away on holiday recently, our spare time has been spent working on the house. Yes, it is still ongoing! There is so much to be done (the entire house & garden) and with just Alan and I doing the work it's taking longer than we would like but it is gradually & slowly advancing.

Due to a 'happy' accident in our lounge, the carpet has gone and next week we begin the task of painting the floorboards white. The walls, tongue & groove and all wood work will also be painted. Above the fireplace will be wallpapered.
Miss P has already said: " I hope it's not all going to be white! Can we have purple floorboards?" At that point you can already imagine my face, purple...eeek!

We began some of the work at the weekend. Here is a sneak peek.

Work in progress...

This room (the lounge) was redecorated about 10 or 12 years ago before I moved in. When I moved in, which was about 5 years ago. I didn't make any changes as it was not necessary then. Over the past year we have started making various changes and have begun the process of redecorating the whole house. (I have really enjoyed choosing the colour scheme, fabrics, furniture, finishing touches etc... for each room, don't we all ladies!)

We have just emptied a dresser in the lounge, the contents of which is in the carrier bags which I am in the process of sorting out. At the weekend, we replaced the dresser with a bookcase as we desperately needed storage for our books, most of them being mine...
We have thrown out an armchair & temporarily replaced it with the pine settle shown in the picture, this used to be on the landing. Eventually, we will be getting a new armchair and sofa.


I absolutely love these curtains. Petronella by Liberty


The sofa, with plenty of cushions, you can never have too many!
My first crochet purchase (before I could crochet)


Lamp & bookcase next to the sofa.
Ooh I had fun arranging the books and decorative things in the bookcase!



Close up of one of the shelves in the bookcase.
Painting by Phillipa Stanton (5FT INF). I love the mix of oil paint and 1950's newspaper cuttings used to make this painting.

The evenings are cosy in the lounge

This barrel belonged to my Belgian Grandmother, I use it as a side table.







Will keep you posted on progress. Alan is taking some time off next week so we should get quite a bit done then.

To anyone who has painted their wooden floorboards and has cats & children: Do you have any useful advice & tips on how to get the job done well please?

Thank you

A bientôt!

Isabelle x