arrival in Verteuil (again!!) and jet lag (again....)

​2.45am and the jet lag has really kicked in.  2.45am and wide awake.  We have just scoffed down a packet of plain biscuits with cheese slices and a left over baguette with some absolutely beautiful cherry cognac jam that we picked up from La Régie while popping in for a coffee and rosé.  Now, just waiting for the effects of the remaining half of the serapax I took half an hour ago to force the onset of sleep - the first half being taking at 6pm yesterday evening, which seemed to work until ten minutes past midnight when I escaped the over-warmth of the internal heating upstairs and wandered down to the living room to take up camp on the sofa, trying to force the onset of sleep.
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No success … so an hour of face book.  Still no success, so a quick scan of work emails (while Sunday night here, it is well and truly all stations at hand in the office on Monday back home). Now joined by Don and a cup of tea later, along with some lychees bought at the Verteuil Christmas market an hour after our arrival from driving down from Paris yesterday, plus the aforementioned cognac jam, bread and cheese, I can sense a dampening of my attention, measured by the number of times I am having to go back and correct my spelling here.
 
The drive down from Paris was a trip immersed in low visibility fog for the entire 400km journey – the whole of the country must be blanketed in the dense soup.  We arrived early afternoon and after freshening up, wandered up the street to the annual Christmas market in the salles de fêtes of la mairie.  We dropped in to see Virginie and Benoît at La Demeure des Roses, always a pleasure to see and managed to secure an invitation to see the work they are doing on their property at Nanteil tomorrow.  We also saw Jan and Adam in the street, picked our first Christmas decorations at the market and popped into La Régie to sit by the fire for a while and met some occasional inhabitants of the village.
 
It was good to see that there are now three resident geese at the main weir along with a large gaggle of ducks (not sure what the colective noun for ducks is?).  Then, asleep on the couch by 6.30pm.  I’d pay €100 for a cure for jet lag!!

Enjoying the warmth of La Regié, Verteuil-sur-Charente