Our Advent Piglets

Most people get chocolate on the first day of Advent.  Not us - we got piglets!

Coco Chanel gave birth to 5 adorable piglets and both Mum and babies are doing well.  She is incredibly protective so we have only managed to snap a couple of photos from afar so far:

We think they are all boys but need to have another check just to be sure when Coco will allow us.

Last year she had 10 piglets, and eight the year before so we were  little surprised at the lower number this year and we did wonder if Boris Johnson (our boar) was not as fertile as he is now 8 years old but.  Whilst pig fertility does decrease with age it is actually probably the weather over the last year that had more to do with the smaller family.  We had a cold, wet spring followed by a hot, dry summer and autumn.  This was great for guests in the gite but not so good for grass production meaning Coco may not have been in as good a condition as a year with much more grass for her to eat. 

But 5 is still a great number and whilst 3 are already sold, the 2 remaining ones will hopefully provide us and guests with much amusement over the months to come.

If you fancy cuddling a small piglet very soon we have availability over Christmas (Dec 22nd - 28th) and then dates from Jan 2nd.  Now surely there can't be too many gites in Normandy that offer piglet cuddling as part of your holiday?