…..well, coffee actually

Landivy is a sleepy village in Northern France. There’s no getting round that impression, certainly to a casual tourist. Luckily we aren’t tourists but explorers and locals to boot. So, when we heard about a tea room opening there it piqued our interest. Lets face it, anywhere we can sit down and put on a kilo or two is interesting to us…..

The tea room (or salon de the in French) is called Le Patis and it’s run by two lovely guys, Jon and Jason. It was the week of Susie’s birthday celebrations (yes, a week because a day just isn’t long enough) so I said I’d treat her to a high tea. Introduced into England in 1840 by Anna, the seventh Duchess of Bedford, afternoon tea (which evolved with savoury sandwich additions into high tea) began because she felt hungry about four in the afternoon. Dinner was usually served at eight o’clock in the evening so she asked for a tray of tea, bread and butter and cake be brought to her room in the late afternoon. This became a habit and she invited friends, thus it became fashionable.

Anyway, we arrived at our appointed hour, despite a lengthy diversion for road works and were welcomed warmly. The tea room is bijoux but it’s interior quirky and interesting. Our choice of tea or coffee was taken and soon we were feasting on sandwiches, home baked scones with jam and clotted cream and home made cakes. It was honestly the best high tea we’ve had since coming to France, which is saying something considering we’ve been here twenty years..

There was a long chat with Jon and Jason after we’d stuffed ourselves (Susie took home some cakes she couldn’t eat and scones we bought to have later) and we promised to return for a second round. Our stomachs only allowed us a weeks break and we had high tea again this week. It seems like https://www.facebook.com/LePatisLandivy will become a regular port of call for us. We won’t have to be dragged there kicking and screaming, that’s for sure.