The Building

The shop is in Honeychurch; a small, quintessentially English, village in the Cotswolds.  Before the war it was the village bakers and small café with a few tables and chairs round the fireplace.         The door to the kitchen was at the back.  During the war, with rationing, the bakers didn't survive and so the café expanded and added a small bar on the right side of the room.  The door at the back of this side of the room just led to the stairs up to the store rooms and the door to the flat upstairs.  The flat above the shop had always been rented and was locked off from the shop, its only access being the outside stairs.  As there was no real kitchen up there - only a baby Belling and water in the bathroom it had got more difficult to let it.

Finally, when the husband died, the wife gave up on the business and put the whole place up for rent.  It had stayed empty for several years before Vianne (through a friend in England) decided to rent it.  It needed a good cleaning and painting but Vianne was able to use the shop furniture pretty much as it was for what she needed.

She was able to us the bakery kitchen to make her chocolate and cakes.  This is also where she an Anouk eat their meals.

The internal door upstairs is now open and she and Anouk can come and go to and from the flat through the shop or from the outside. The rooms are small but enough for them.  Anouk's bedroom is one of the storerooms and there is a lot of space for her and Vianne to store their belongings upstairs as they don't need much of that space for the shop.