The Horn of Plenty

The Horn of Plenty

It was my birthday on the 14th December and a few weeks ago, Steve and I saw an advertisement in our local paper for a winter offer on Brittany Ferries go go from Plymouth to St Malo on Tuesday 13th December, spending 2 nights in a hotel in St Malo and then travel back on Friday 16th December. We booked it and were looking forward to packing up and going away for a few days.

However a few days before we due to set sail, the storms arrived and ferries were being cancelled to and fro France and Spain. We waited until the very last minute to see if our ferry was going to be cancelled, but up until the morning of 13th it was still due to sail at 10.00 p.m. that evening. As we heard nothing to the contrary we made an executive decision that as it would be a very rough crossing there and was also another storm due to hit the English Channel on Friday, we were going to cancel.

Steve then went into overdrive to try and sort out an alternative, and managed to book us for dinner, bed and breakfast in a lovely Country House Hotel & Restaurant (which we have been to before) called the “Horn of Plenty” about a 40 minute drive from us. It was originally owned by Peter Gorton a well known West Country Chef, but it has just very recently changed hands.

He managed to get us the best room in the hotel as he poured out his dilemma to the poor receptionist and she obviously felt pity for him – but hey it worked. The room was absolutely beautiful, Victorian shabby chic would be how I would describe it. It was a huge bedroom, complete with the biggest bed I have ever seen, a 3 seater sofa etc, french windows leading out on to a balcony (which unfortunately we didn’t open due to the gale force winds and rain) and a large fantastic bathroom, complete with a Victorian roll top bath right in the centre of the room, that once seated in it you could look out the window onto the rolling hills of Dartmoor. It also had a separate shower cubicle and a his and hers sink, one at each end of the room, which was really nice, shame our house is not big enough to do this.

The meal was excellent, haute cuisine, small portions, but the presentation, the taste and the service was second to none. It was certainly quality not quantity, but strangely enough we were really full by the end of coffee and the petit fours.  There were a couple of lovely personal touches, one being we were given a specially printed menu with a message inside the cover which read “The Horn of Plenty Welcomes Mr and Mrs Freeman to dinner to celebrate Mrs ~Freeman’s Birthday, Wednesday 14th December”.  The second was, when my dessert came out, “Happy Birthday” had been piped around the edge of the plate in chocolate.

I was woken up at 1.12 a.m precisely with the wind and hail showers battering the window. I laid in bed thinking, thank goodness that we cancelled our trip, as this was so much more enjoyable). The following morning down to breakfast and we were both very naughty and had the full English – heaven. The excellent service continued and we even had starch linen napkins for breakfast!!! Needless to say we didn’t eat a thing until about 7.00 p.m. So all in all the initial disappointment turned into a very enjoyable day and didn’t feel seasick once!!!