Le jardin enchanté at Chalencon

A venue, a destination. A charming place to have an ice cream. And all just ten minutes drive from home.

If you have ever lived in deepest rural wherever, you will understand just how thrilling this new development is.

But before I launch into gush, here is the Lesser Spotted Artur.  There used to be a clematis in this pot before he took it over.  But that’s a small price to pay. It’s in sore need of repairs and a repaint so he can have it. Any place he can find that makes him happy in this heat is fine by me.

He is hiding from house guests in both houses right now, and mooching about poised ready to run from small children with tail pulling intent.  But it’s so hard to resist.

Just look at that gently swishing tail. He appears deeply asleep, but I am sure he knows that after I take this picture I won’t be able to help myself. Just a little stroke of his head and a lunge at his tail.  Gently of course. True love. But he won’t like it. I might even get the Death Stare.

Now back to the ice cream.  The little perched village of Chalencon is my Go To destination for impressing the guests. It’s a 10th century perched village and all that.  Dripping with history. Perfectly neat.

There is so much to see that I might drift over to tomorrow’s post to show you my current hydrangea obsession and how village people manage to have gardens despite no outside space.

Today it was dripping with fast melting sorbets and ice creams.

This is a new little cafe in a tiny garden which you spot from the main square of the village. It takes a bit of guess work and plodding down the cobble side streets to locate it; but once inside the secret door you come across a perfect Ardèche location.

By that I mean laid back, slightly hippy, shabby, but earnest. And simple. They only serve ice creams, sorbets, syrups and herbal tea.  But everyone around here gets that mad clap-hands-with-delight glee when you know you are going to chose from the local ice cream and sorbet – Terre Adelice from down the road in Saint Sauveur de Montagut. Mostly organic and entirely scrumptious.

It’s the sort of tiny artisan company set up to make use of the abandoned silk mills that are now empty in so many of the riverside towns in this part of the world.  They are committed to taking most of their produce from the local area, and make them in small batches to keep the product as close to the homemade as possible.

And they taste a whole lot better than my homemade sorbets.

They now have good distribution too, which means you might even track them down in Paris and Aix en Provence. And the varieties of sorbets and ice creams are growing all the time.  Have a look on their website to save me having to type endless lists. (www.terre-adelice.eu)

They sell 140 varieties, 68 of them organic.

We tucked into a selection while escaping the heat and admiring the view. And the little garden.

And how do you protect some precious plants that are part of the main lawn and liable to be crushed? Stick a chair on it.