We hope you are having a lovely time in the leadup to Christmas. We’re getting through serious quantities of mulled wine and mince pies at The George!

This is our final update of 2010, and we wanted to let you know in advance about upcoming events at the hotel and in Rye….

If you’re feeling very organised, we have just put our Valentine’s Package online. As the 14th is on a Monday this year, it’s quite a good excuse to take a long weekend, so we are offering a 2 night break on the Sunday and Monday (14th) with a slap-up dinner at rate we hope will appeal! Rye is a very romantic town, so you can either enjoy the area, or treat your other half to one of the in-room presents we have just added to the website, if you’d rather stay in. Take a look at the break on the site, and if you want to come, do book early because we are always full on these dates!

Another bonus of visiting Rye around Valentines is that you will find the town in the middle of its annual Scallop Festival. The Isle of Wight may have its garlic fest, Melton Mowbray has its Pork Pies, but Rye – Rye has its scallops, the Queen of Shellfish. Those who have been before will know that between February 12th-20th, all the restaurants in town offer special scallop menus, while there will be plenty of cooking demonstrations and events showing you how to open, cook and eat the delicacy. We’ll have scallops on the menu all week, including Rye Bay scallops with sweercorn purée, tomato and chipotle cream. And on Thursday 17th February, you can join us for our Festival Gourmet Dinner – five courses of Scallop treats with matching wines, specially created for gastronomes. Find out more about the dinner here, and take a look at the wider festival programme.

We also have an exciting find to report back to you. Some lovely new shops and galleries are cropping up all over Rye – and one of the newest to the fold is Laura Oakes’ shop on Needles Passage. As an illustrator and pattern designer who trained at St Martin’s, Laura applies photo-montage to prints and furniture – she’ll get hold of a retro desk (like the one pictured) or cabinet and reinvent it using vintage ads, illustrations and typography. Next time you’re about do pop into her studio, it’s an inspiring place! Laura’s website is http://www.lauraoakes.co.uk

It leaves us only to say – we hope you have a wonderful Christmas and a Prosperous New Year. We hope to see you in 2011.

Best Wishes,

Alex and Katie Clarke