Sunday, January 24, 2010
Angel Traders Visits toulouse
Day 1 Road trip to Toulouse
Hello again
We started out trip at 7.20am car fully loaded together with homemade pasties from the night before. By 9am four of the pasties had gone. Bloody lovely!!. Anyway at 10am we had a text from Nico our little producer of the finest wines in Bordeaux. He wanted to know if we wanted to stop off in Bordeaux to sample the 2009 wines that were currently maturing. Why not we thought although 10.30 was a little ealy for us to sample wine. 10.30 for us is normally hot chocolate and biscuit time!!.
When we arrived we didn't reconise him he had gone from boy to man!!. He had cute fuzzy hair and had grown a beard. My car door opened and I heard Melanie say "Hello your looking hairy" How rude was that? I couldn't beleive my ears.
He took us to the tasting room and placed two small bottles on the table "Oh we said they are so nice are they little pressies for us?" he gave us a funny look and dissapeared. While we were hoping he had gone to get some more for us to take on our journey we started to take some photo's. Well in he came with two large bottles one white and one rose. perfect we thought one for me and one for Melanie. How wrong we were he wanted the bigger bottles in the photographs. No pressies for us how mean was that!!!.
Nico then took us to the vineyard and gave us a lession in pruning. It was really nice that Nico took some time out to show us about as he makes most of the work himeself on the vineyard from planting to pr
uning to bottling to labelling to selling and we are really proud to have him at our events.We continued our journey to Toulouse and decided to find where the Feb venue was going to be before finding a hotel.
Our meeting was a 4pm and as we drove through the gates of Domaine de Preissac we felt success oozing all over. Another magical place!!.
With acres of parkland a fairytale chateau and an events hall that you could only dream of.
We went to the main reception and met Giles from Angloinfo.com who had kindly offered to join us to help finalize things.
We were shown the venue and wow what a venue it is. If you haven't already booked then you would be mad to miss it.
Afterwards feeling very exhausted we headed back to our hotel for something to eat and an early night.
With acres of parkland a fairytale chateau and an events hall that you could only dream of.
We went to the main reception and met Giles from Angloinfo.com who had kindly offered to join us to help finalize things.
We were shown the venue and wow what a venue it is. If you haven't already booked then you would be mad to miss it.
Afterwards feeling very exhausted we headed back to our hotel for something to eat and an early night.
Angel Traders day 2
Leaving our hotel at about 10 we headed to the Lot where we had a meeting to talk about a possible April venue.
We had our meeting and we to lunch in a local Restaurant. While eating dinner we received a call from Amanda Kiff our Franco-British Chamber of Commerce friend. We discussed many things and she invited us to watch Brive rugby team in action after the Business fair on Saturday. Hey are we lucky or what!!. What a great trip we were having and we still had three days to go.
After our fab lunch we headed to the gite we had booked in Brantome.
Our wonderful hosts Richard and Julia Dawson were waiting for us. This amazing gite was perfect in every way. Full of character and charm a fire roaring in the corner, fresh flowers on the coffee table and cupboards full of everything you could possibly want even bubble bath was supplied!!. We got our bags and settled in for the evening. We watched Eastenders and went to bed. Just as I was getting into bed I could hear a funny noise from the fridge. I shouted " Is that you Melanie?" Yes she said as she munched away at the cheese and chocolate!!.
We had our meeting and we to lunch in a local Restaurant. While eating dinner we received a call from Amanda Kiff our Franco-British Chamber of Commerce friend. We discussed many things and she invited us to watch Brive rugby team in action after the Business fair on Saturday. Hey are we lucky or what!!. What a great trip we were having and we still had three days to go.
After our fab lunch we headed to the gite we had booked in Brantome.
Our wonderful hosts Richard and Julia Dawson were waiting for us. This amazing gite was perfect in every way. Full of character and charm a fire roaring in the corner, fresh flowers on the coffee table and cupboards full of everything you could possibly want even bubble bath was supplied!!. We got our bags and settled in for the evening. We watched Eastenders and went to bed. Just as I was getting into bed I could hear a funny noise from the fridge. I shouted " Is that you Melanie?" Yes she said as she munched away at the cheese and chocolate!!.
Angel Traders day 3
Angel traders Day 3
We got up bright and breezy and headed for the market in Brantome. It was a bright beautiful day. Armed with more than 600 leaflets we plastered all of the cars in the car park and headed into the market. There was a lovely atmosphere and an annual Truffle events with traditional music. What fun we had. We collected th.jpg)
e keys for the church from the Mairie and headed back to the Gite for lunch.
At 4pm we went back to the church to prepare the hall ready for tomorrow. Oh yes we forgot to mention that Julia and Richard our hosts had invited us for apero's at 6pm.
We downed tools at 7pm and decided to finish the hall tomorrow nice and early.
We didn't just have apero's with Julia and Richard they had invited seven of their friends. How nice was that to include us. We had a fab evening and talked about anything and everything. Heading back to our gite at about midnight we went to bed knowing that we had a big day a head of us what with the business fair and not forgetting the Rugby evening!!. Good night.
We got up bright and breezy and headed for the market in Brantome. It was a bright beautiful day. Armed with more than 600 leaflets we plastered all of the cars in the car park and headed into the market. There was a lovely atmosphere and an annual Truffle events with traditional music. What fun we had. We collected th
.jpg)
e keys for the church from the Mairie and headed back to the Gite for lunch.At 4pm we went back to the church to prepare the hall ready for tomorrow. Oh yes we forgot to mention that Julia and Richard our hosts had invited us for apero's at 6pm.
We downed tools at 7pm and decided to finish the hall tomorrow nice and early.
We didn't just have apero's with Julia and Richard they had invited seven of their friends. How nice was that to include us. We had a fab evening and talked about anything and everything. Heading back to our gite at about midnight we went to bed knowing that we had a big day a head of us what with the business fair and not forgetting the Rugby evening!!. Good night.
Angel Traders day 4
Angel Traders day 4
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Alarms went off very early showers were taken and we were off to our first business fair of the decade.It was a very cold morning and the heaters in the church went on straight away. We finished the hall and dead on 8am yes John Sidwell from Big Dish Satellite arrived. You can always count on John to arrive on time and also to spread the word to all of hisclients about our fairs.
Tea Ern was on bacon was cooking and we were ready for another fair.
Within the first hour we welcomed more that 50 visitors. All of the exhibitors stands looked wonderful with all of the different coloured banners and boards. Smiling faces and great advice was on hand to everybody.By 4.30pm everybody had gone home and we tried to quickly cleared the hall ready for our evening of fun. Thank goodness for
Kirsten from the Connexion and Advertiser newspaper as she stayed and helped us clear away this really helped us to leave sooner rather than later. We had planned to leave at 5pm ready for the match at 7pm but we arrived after half time and our friend Amanda was waiting for us. We ran like mad and watched the last twenty minutes of the match. What an atmosphere. Amanda then invited us for an after match drink and to meet a few players. The thought of this evening was helping our tiredness disappear. I wonder why eh!!.
We met Amanda's husband Carl and chatted over a drink in the main hall. All tables were laid out ready for the after match meal. It was so exciting.Their we were enjoying our our drinks when suddenly a magnificent smell came flowing through the hall. It was the smell of freshly scrubbed ruby players. What an experience that was. For all those girls out there we recommend it. That's if your lucky enough to experience it. Lol. The smell was getting closer and guess what?. Standing so tall was was number 18 Christian Short. He came over to say hello to Amanda Kiff and also to us. We had the pleasure of meeting Christian in November at an evening that Amanda Kiff had organised. Amanda Kiff and Melanie posed for a picture while I was behind the camera. Amanda disappeared for a bit and when she came back she told us that we were staying for the after match dinner. Yes it's true we stayed for dinner. We were taken to a table where a very famous French rugby player was sitting with his family. At this point we were both thinking why didn't we have anytime to put some makeup on. This was potentia.jpg)
lly the place Melanie could meet Mr Right and believe me their were plenty of potential Mr Rights!!.The food was great and while Melanie Sat with Amanda Kiff I sat with Carl and we were totally and I mean totally mesmerised by the people around us. We were breathing Brive deeply.
Food and drink just kept coming and so did some of the rugby men. Each time they were saying hello to Amanda Melanie and I were up like a shot for Photo's. Andy Goode held our shoulders. we can tell you he was hot. If we were made of chocolate we would of melted in a second!!. Next was Gerome my god we must of been good girls to have enjoyed an evening like this!!.At 11.45pm we decided to head back to our Gite but as we stood up a man came over to Melanie and I and said " excuse me but can my friend be photographed with you?." why not we replied. We felt famous ourselves they guy who took the photo's was clicking away like the paparazzi. Afterwards he explained that the gentleman that we had our photo with was once a very famous French player and we have asked him to send us the photo's. How cool was that he wanted our picture!!!. We are so pleased we met Amanda and we are so into rugby now!!.
We got back
home at 1.20am knowing that no dream would be better than the evening that we had just had!!.
So until next time....
Alarms went off very early showers were taken and we were off to our first business fair of the decade.It was a very cold morning and the heaters in the church went on straight away. We finished the hall and dead on 8am yes John Sidwell from Big Dish Satellite arrived. You can always count on John to arrive on time and also to spread the word to all of hisclients about our fairs.Tea Ern was on bacon was cooking and we were ready for another fair.
Within the first hour we welcomed more that 50 visitors. All of the exhibitors stands looked wonderful with all of the different coloured banners and boards. Smiling faces and great advice was on hand to everybody.By 4.30pm everybody had gone home and we tried to quickly cleared the hall ready for our evening of fun. Thank goodness for
Kirsten from the Connexion and Advertiser newspaper as she stayed and helped us clear away this really helped us to leave sooner rather than later. We had planned to leave at 5pm ready for the match at 7pm but we arrived after half time and our friend Amanda was waiting for us. We ran like mad and watched the last twenty minutes of the match. What an atmosphere. Amanda then invited us for an after match drink and to meet a few players. The thought of this evening was helping our tiredness disappear. I wonder why eh!!.We met Amanda's husband Carl and chatted over a drink in the main hall. All tables were laid out ready for the after match meal. It was so exciting.Their we were enjoying our our drinks when suddenly a magnificent smell came flowing through the hall. It was the smell of freshly scrubbed ruby players. What an experience that was. For all those girls out there we recommend it. That's if your lucky enough to experience it. Lol. The smell was getting closer and guess what?. Standing so tall was was number 18 Christian Short. He came over to say hello to Amanda Kiff and also to us. We had the pleasure of meeting Christian in November at an evening that Amanda Kiff had organised. Amanda Kiff and Melanie posed for a picture while I was behind the camera. Amanda disappeared for a bit and when she came back she told us that we were staying for the after match dinner. Yes it's true we stayed for dinner. We were taken to a table where a very famous French rugby player was sitting with his family. At this point we were both thinking why didn't we have anytime to put some makeup on. This was potentia
.jpg)
lly the place Melanie could meet Mr Right and believe me their were plenty of potential Mr Rights!!.The food was great and while Melanie Sat with Amanda Kiff I sat with Carl and we were totally and I mean totally mesmerised by the people around us. We were breathing Brive deeply.Food and drink just kept coming and so did some of the rugby men. Each time they were saying hello to Amanda Melanie and I were up like a shot for Photo's. Andy Goode held our shoulders. we can tell you he was hot. If we were made of chocolate we would of melted in a second!!. Next was Gerome my god we must of been good girls to have enjoyed an evening like this!!.At 11.45pm we decided to head back to our Gite but as we stood up a man came over to Melanie and I and said " excuse me but can my friend be photographed with you?." why not we replied. We felt famous ourselves they guy who took the photo's was clicking away like the paparazzi. Afterwards he explained that the gentleman that we had our photo with was once a very famous French player and we have asked him to send us the photo's. How cool was that he wanted our picture!!!. We are so pleased we met Amanda and we are so into rugby now!!.
We got back
home at 1.20am knowing that no dream would be better than the evening that we had just had!!.So until next time....
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