Last year (2025), when Marc and I were actively looking at houses here in the Algarve as possible rentals for friends, we saw many places and met many interesting people. One of the couples we met, and have stayed in touch with, was a lovely couple, originally from France but who now live in Portugal, Josette and Thierry. We stayed in touch (Marc and Josette stayed in touch) and today they hosted myself, Marc, Debbie, and Fred at their lovely home for a patio “lunch”. What a truly wonderful time we had.
Thierry, Josette, Debbie, Fred, and Marc. (Fred wanted me to tell folks he is actually standing in a hole here, robbed him of a few inches)!!
Their home is tucked away in an area that I am very familiar with as it is very near the original rental I had when I first started coming to Portugal. They have been there for six years now and have basically made themselves almost self sufficient in that they grow all kinds of vegetables, fruit, they have four chickens, and they love to work the land, bottle and can things, and have ample space in which to do it. I returned home with a large bottle of Thierry’s home made orange jam!!
Such a feast………all four of us left there stuffed and waddling from all the fabulous food they had prepared and served. I managed to take a photo of a couple of things but eating took over from photography and I forgot a few things.
There was a homemade tapenade, cheeses, fruit salad, sangria, wine, and at the end, Thierry’s homemade alfarroba (carob) liquore!! Now you can appreciate why we waddled out of there.
Françoise, the cat, who was once feral but is now very tame, and her “brother”, León, whom we did not see, are certainly living the good life.
Both Marc and I love all these new connections we continue to make, and foster. We will look forward to a get together or two when we return to the Algarve in 2027, and of course, in the interim, thanks to technology, we can continue to stay in touch.
As I was pulling out of their driveway I noted this lovely shot just across the road.
Tomorrow is Marc’s birthday, which he is insisting he is not really interested in celebrating this year but….we will collect Debbie and Fred and the four of us will head off for a birthday lunch at a favourite place in the mountains. More on that tomorrow.
In closing, I love this shot. Two weeks ago when we drove by this was simply a fence but, somebody decided it needed to be “perked up” and so, they installed this……
Such kind, generous people. It was a lovely afternoon.