Eco-Gites of Lenault has won an award!

Posted by Rosie

After a slight panic of wondering if I would need to buy a new outfit and prepare an acceptance speech I realised this was a virtual award and I would not have to go shopping!  Liebster comes from German and means lovely and the idea is you answer some questions given to you by the person who awards you (in this case the lovely Phoebe who lives down in the south of France and blogs at Lou Messugo) and then you nominate more blogs to receive the Award and give them your 7 questions.

Here are my answers to the questions Phoebe set:

1. What was the inspiration for your blog name?

Nothing fancy or interesting here I am afraid - it is simply the name of our gite!  The reason there is an "s" on gites is that we had planned to make 2 gites. As yet that has not happened but we felt it was better to have it on our URLs for the web page and blog rather than having to change it later.

2. When you read other blogs what is the first thing you look at?

I look for blogs that are on subjects that I actually want to read about and inspire me.  I read quite a range then - travel, parenting, gardening, green issues, France, farming and smallholdings plus a few just because I like them or I know the author.

3. What is your earliest travel memory?

Not a huge expedition to the other side of the world but my first ever memory is in fact a travel memory.  My hard-working farming parents (think "no time for holidays") took my sister and I on a day trip to Hayling  Island and I remember going on a little fairground ride there.  My mum thought I had made up this memory until I told her in detail the colours of the trains and lay out of the ride.

4. Where did you experience your most memorable meal and what was it?

Possibly actually at home on our farm in The Cotswolds but cooked for us by a group of Argentinian polo grooms.  They were cooking for a large fund raising BBQ my parents were organising and cooked Asado - whole lambs marinated in a secret sauce and cooked very slowly round the embers of a hot fire until the meat falls off the bone.  It was simply delicious.  As for a meal NOT cooked at home I would say the fresh fish and potatoes cooked in seawater I had in Fueteventura.  We watched the restaurant owner go down to the harbour to buy the fish that had just been landed so it could not have been fresher.  And for potatoes cooked in salt water, I am drooling just thinking about them - little salty mouthfuls of absolute deliciousness :)

5. 1 month all expenses paid, where would you go?

How about a stop in one country from every continent.  Can I please have New Zealand, Botswana, Croatia, India, Peru and Canada?  I'd quite like to get off the tourist track if possible, maybe stay with a local family at each stop.

6. Name one thing about yourself that others find surprising.

I asked and the most frequent answer was that I have time to do everything ... ah well, you see, there are a lot of things I also DON'T do ;)

7. What advice would you give to someone starting out in blogging?

Go for it!  Write what you believe in  and write as if no-one was reading.  If however you want to create a large following you will have to work hard at it!

And I nominate JustME, Lost In Finistere, Colour It Green, Tales from Toriello, Casalinho and Worthing Wanderer.

My Questions:

1. How many blog posts have you published?
2. Where do you get your blogging inspiration from?
3. If you could only visit one more place where would it be and why?
4. Excluding your travel documents, some clean underwear and some sort of finances, what one item would you never be without when travelling?
5. If I say FRANCE to you what are the first 5 things that come into your mind?
6. Where was your first holiday?
7. Through your blog has anything unusual or surprising happened to you?