La Maison du Petit Jacques

27/02/2023

Very excited (and darned nervous) to see ourselves on Channel 4’s A New Life In The Sun this afternoon. 🫣

22/02/2023

East, West, Home is best! We’ve just returned from a 10-day trip to visit my parents in California. It was wonderful to see friends and family, especially after three years, but we have to say…there’s no place like home!

And we’d love to welcome you to our home, where we’ve converted our B&B to a guest cottage. You can catch all the details this Monday, 27 of February, at 4pm on Channel 4’s

And a huge thank you to for looking after our home and menagerie whilst we were away! ❤️🙏

06/09/2022

Zipping into autumn already?! Where did summer 2022 go? Well, when we weren’t discovering the wonderful, family-friendly activities just 30 minutes from our doorstep (pictured: one of the children’s zip lines at Abbaye de Fontdouce, inflatable amusement park at Île de Grenouillette) we were finishing converting our B&B to a gite. Biggest project: the pool, namely Alastair tiling in 41C heat (106F!) to finish just in time for our guests’ arrival. As you can see from the last video, someone else loved having the pool done! 🤣

18/06/2022

To anyone who has tried to contact us via our [email protected] email address, we sincerely apologise as there has been a problem with our email server and we were unaware till just now.

Please feel free to contact us via Facebook messenger or phone as we get our email technical problems solved!

Thank you!
Renée and Alastair

25/05/2022

Our welcome team is ready for you! We are happy to announce our new website is now live for bookings as we re-open 1st July after having closed the B&B at the end of last year.

We now have a lovely 4-bedroom, self-catering guest cottage ready for weekly rentals in July/August and stays of 3+ days in other months.

While we were blessed with amazing guests these past two years, we found that running a B&B left us no time as a family - which was one of the biggest drivers behind our move to France. We hope you’ll check out Version 2.0 of La Maison du Petit Jacques on our new website…and in person!!

03/10/2021

After a busy summer season with our B&B, we finally closed our doors and headed for the beach!

Our summer was super-charged not only with wonderful guests, but also with a bountiful harvest from our garden and orchard, resulting in half a dozen plum tarts, plenty of jams for next year’s guests, and about a hundred variations of zucchini bread! 🤣. Somehow, despite all those baked goods, James managed to keep his bikini body 🕶🩲😂

18/07/2021

Despite terrible April frosts which wiped out our peaches and cherries, our purple plum tree keeps on giving. This is the second plum tart I’ve made this week. (I’ve also made two batches of plum jam, but the French butter is so good I just can’t resist a homemade short crust pastry!). Next up: the mountain of courgettes (that’s zucchini to us Americans) to turn into baked goods before they become the size of baseball/cricket bats. Any and all recipes appreciated!

20/05/2021

Officially mat Pilates certified and soon to be reformer certified! In addition to group and private yoga lessons, we now offer private mat Pilates and, starting in June, 1-to-1 reformer sessions. When we purchased La Maison, we always hoped it would be a retreat for rest and wellness, as well as a perfect location for French food and wine enthusiasts. For those looking for a yoga, Pilates, and/or cycling getaway, please keep us in mind! 😊

28/02/2021

And in case you wanted to see that yolk again! 🤣

28/02/2021

Prodding the egg for doneness...

28/02/2021

Adding the eggs...

28/02/2021

We’ve had so many comments on Alastair’s perfectly poached eggs (which he credits to watching Delia Smith) that I thought I’d share this series of video clips and following tips:
1) pre-crack your eggs into separate bowls or ramekins to save time/limit disasters
2) get a good vortex going with your boiled water before putting the eggs in, but don’t continue stirring once in
3) prod your eggs to test if they’re done
4) Voilà! The perfect poached egg 👍 🥚😋

25/02/2021

It took the indefatigable three days to prune our linden trees. You’d never guess he had a fear of heights as he wielded a chainsaw suspended 12m above the ground! And although Rusty has been doing his best to chew fallen branches, we’re a bit overwhelmed trying to figure out how to un-bury ourselves from all the debris. Perhaps 2021 sees us opening a luxury wigwam resort, holding a ‘Burning Man’ festival, or just running an industrial-sized wood chipper till Christmas.

For all those who asked if Al was available to trim their trees, he says he’s retired and that we will be hiring someone the next time they need a trim! 😂

23/02/2021

Guess who’s got his head in the clouds...or, rather, our trees? One of the lovely features of our front garden is our ‘lane’ of linden trees, but they were in dire need of a haircut! Rather than paying the quoted 200€/tree (we’ve got a dozen to trim) for a professional tree trimmer, once again rises to the occasion.

Armed with a temperamental telescopic lift and unwilling chainsaw, he’s the man for the job. And apparently I’m the woman for the debris clear-up! 🤣

12/02/2021

Happy Chinese New Year! While there are several traditional new year’s meals, (noodles for long life, whole fish for prosperity) for my grandmother (pictured on her wedding day) this holiday was a day to make dumplings. Lots of dumplings. I loved watching her roll the dough and pinch the dumplings shut. At 85 years old, she was still so dextrous, and her dumplings were always perfect. After they were boiled, she would pick the biggest, juiciest ones for me and my sister to eat. I didn’t know how lucky I was then.

Here in France, I struggled to find the right ingredients (all purpose flour; I subbed T65; unseasoned pork mince, I had to settle for preseasoned; bok choy rather than Napa cabbage), but am still so happy to keep tradition alive. And very happy that James enjoyed his first Chinese New Year, complete with extra noodles in his hair!

10/02/2021

It’s the last day for us to appear on A New Life in the Sun. Thank you to all for your support! 2020 was a challenging but exciting year for us. We hope to welcome you to our B&B (and, fingers crossed, our gite, if DIYer Alastair Thompson can finish the renovations...) in 2021 and beyond! ❤️🇫🇷 👶🏻

09/02/2021

And here we go for Day 2 - tune in to today’s episode of A New Life in the Sun to catch a bit more of our journey to opening our B&B and starting our new life in France!

08/02/2021

We're very excited to be featured in today's episode of A New Life in the Sun and hope you enjoy seeing a bit of our journey from new homeowners to Bed & Breakfast owners!

07/02/2021

We are excited (and slightly terrified!) to appear in tomorrow's episode of 'A New Life in the Sun', following our move from London to rural France to open our B&B and yoga studio. If you have access to UK television, please tune in to Channel 4 (or catch on demand). Kudos to all the other businesses who started their new lives in the sun in this pandemic year!

Well that's all for this week! But don't worry, we still have 2 sunshine filled weeks left of Series 6 🙌☀️

If our brilliant Brits have got you feeling inspired and you're about to embark on your own adventure in the sun - we want to hear from you!

11/09/2020

I wish I could say my potager was a resounding success this year, but I humbly admit I have a long way to go as a vegetable gardener.

I mistakenly ordered local dirt (rock-hard clay 😣) rather than potting soil for the beautiful raised beds built; snails ate my pak choi; moths ate my kale; my spinach shriveled; and my onions never got past the size of marbles. And despite sowing two rows of carrots, only one grew...but what a carrot!!

Despite my failures, I loved being outdoors, trying to make things grow. And if there’s one thing this year has reminded us, it’s to celebrate the small victories. So here’s to our carrot! (It died a good death tonight in our risotto.)

29/08/2020

We were incredibly blessed to have a busy tourist season in July and August — especially as in May we wondered if we’d be able to open at all due to Covid lockdowns. So after weeks of early mornings for making guest breakfasts and late nights for me ironing guest bed linens, we took a much-needed family outing to the beautiful villages of Taillebourg and Port d’Envaux, just 25 minutes away from us by car. Perfect spots for fishing, kayaking, pedal boating and swimming in the Charente... and for playing on the slide and having a drink with Dad!

06/07/2020

Just five minutes’ walk from La Maison du Petit Jacques in either direction brings you to the most glorious fields of sunflowers. I can see why Van Gogh was so entranced by these rustic and yet majestic flowers. In several of his letters, Van Gogh wrote that they symbolized gratitude. To me, they symbolize abundance — an abundance of what this beautiful countryside can offer. May we have an abundance of gratitude for Mother Nature and life’s simple pleasures.

22/06/2020

Just an hour’s drive away from us is the Cote Sauvage, a beautiful stretch of sandy beaches on the Atlantic Coast. As we pretty much had the beach to ourselves, we didn’t have to practice much social distancing! We love discovering new corners of our region, whether visiting food markets, wondering at Roman ruins, or walking through fields of poppies and sunflowers. But I think you can see why we keep returning to the Cote Sauvage on a day off...

19/06/2020

It has been a busy two weeks for us: we welcomed our first and second sets of guests, taught a dozen yoga classes, harvested fruit from our garden for homemade jam, and celebrated Al’s birthday today with our neighbours.

Things didn’t go quite as expected for our March opening, and we know these are still uncertain times for so many. We are grateful to be able to open our doors, and that we are still able to celebrate and find joy in small things, like walking along the river in the lovely nearby town of St Savinien...or introducing carrot cake to our French friends as well as our Petit Jacques!

12/05/2020

Our first guests have arrived and boy, are they hungry! We are excited to be hosting four four-legged mothers-to-be in our back field. While loved the idea of trimming the grass by tractor, he also realised we not only have a huge back yard, we have a big front yard, too!And with plenty to do around the house and other buildings, we need every bit of extra time.

So now the hungry horses have our field, and we have an even lovelier view —especially from the yoga studio. Even the chickens seem intrigued by their new neigh-bours! 🐴

21/04/2020

Lockdown breakfast: homemade buttered rolls with chives from our herb garden and backyard chicken scrambled eggs. Petit Jacques tested and approved!

04/04/2020

Here in France, ‘lockdown’ limits us to 1 hour of outdoor exercise within a 1km radius of our home. Luckily for ‘petit Jacques’, that means 2 hours of exercise if Dad takes him cycling and I take him for a jog or walk. And luckily for us, the scenery around us is beautiful — as is our garden for an impromptu picnic lunch! When this is all over, we cannot wait to show you guests our home and neighborhood.

29/03/2020

Living in the heart of an agricultural region, we’ve been hearing the sound of tractors all week as our neighbors tend their vineyards and fields. Well, we’ve got our own tractor, too, which had been dormant in the barn until we got some help from Alastair Robinson. Coupled with the persistence of my other half and lots of YouTube videos, it’s now up and running! Our ‘petit Jacques’ has a bit of growing to do till he can reach the pedals; till then, hubby’s in charge of mowing the back yard...

17/03/2020

Our rooms are ready for guests, including the yoga studio -- now we just need to wait out a global pandemic!

We couldn't have chosen a worse time to open a Bed & Breakfast, but we're hunkering down in our comfortable bunker, adding finishing touches to rooms, and starting to tend to the garden.

When the global lockdown is over, we will welcome your lovely faces with open arms whenever you're able to visit.

At the moment, though, even our own 'Petit Jacques' is self-isolating.