The View from Voutezac

2012-01-06T17:16:00.000Z

Apart from a short frenzied spell at Christmas – no we didn’t totally avoid it this year – it’s been a pretty quiet few weeks. The weather has been reasonable – a couple of frosts, but no snow – yet. Quite a few grey rainy days, but mustn’t grumble. Judy has taken some lovely photos of different days in our valley.

In November our Writers’ club met in La Souterraine, a town in the adjoining Departement of the Creuse, and a mere two hours’ drive away. One of our members runs an English Library in the town, and we met there. It is very impressive, with over 6,000 books, DVDs, CDs etc, and the premises are provided free of charge by the local council. Before anyone thinks it is simply an ex-pat amenity, its real purpose is to provide a central point for English speakers to obtain information and help, to host French (and English) classes and to act as a meeting place.

On our (long) drive home, Sue (who founded and runs the Writers’ Club) and I thought how useful such a facility would be to us in the Correze. When will I ever learn not to volunteer………? So as President elect of the Correze English Library (or whatever we call it), I can say that we already have 1500 books, duplicates from La Souterraine, and we have decided to start off in a simpler way, utilising the empty library in the small chateau owned by another member. Being France we have to register as an Association, so that is my next task. Watch this space.

We had a new water meter fitted a few weeks ago – done very promptly and efficiently. Happily the new meter is just outside the house – the old one was in the bedroom with the bunk beds and was tight squeeze to read. One of the men from the water company who was explaining what was going to happen apologised for not speaking English as “It is the international language.”!! Funnily enough a builder who did a small job for us turns out to come from Swindon, and worked repairing mains for Thames Water when I was with them – so remembers my team calling him out.

Talking about Franco-British relations – I have been asked a few times whether David Cameron’s “Non” has led to any friction. Well as far as we can see the locals hate Paris and everything that comes from there anyway – so as long as the farmers are subsidized I don’t think they care. And they still don’t like Germans round this way. Francoise Hollande, the socialist presidential candidate is the Deputy for Correze – so we might have national leaders in our old and new homes. Hollande is apparently not as rabid an EU supporter as Sarkozy as well. Chirac was from the Correze too!

We posted early for Christmas, and got all our cards off. We have a small artificial tree which we put up a couple of days before the big event. We sent everyone gift cards. Really into the spirit I am. To put me right our daughter Rachel arrived on the 23rd, and decorated the tree for us. As she took us to a match at Twickenham last year, we took her to watch Brive lose to Clerment-Ferrand the evening she arrived. Not the greatest game ever, but the fans were all very vocal, and the steak et frites after tasted extra good. Rae had to leave on the 28^th – but she seemed to enjoy herself. And we did leave a stocking at the bottom of her bed. We had some lovely presents and Judy cooked some super meals, so I suppose it wasn’t too bad.

We had a bit a shock a few weeks ago when we thought that the boulangerie just up the road from us was going to shut. In fact it did, but reopened the following week with new owners. They run several shops in the area, so I don’t think the bread is baked on the premises any more. Anyway it is good to know that we can still get basics just a few metres away.

After doing my SSAFA course I have my first case. Obviously can’t say anything about it, but hopefully we can help.

New Year was celebrated very quietly – just the two of us. At one point we had thought of going to an organised party in a friend’s village, but they decided that €70 a head was a bit pricey, and we agreed. The French seem to take the New Year – or the festival of St Sylvestre almost as seriously as the Scots!

Took the dogs for a walk by the Vezere this afternoon - its a wonderful river which eventually joins the Dordogne.

Further downstream from us the "Valley of the Vezere" is where a large number of traces of early man have been found. Anyway the boys had to have a rest afterwards!

End of the year – seems a good place to stop.

2011-11-15T14:31:00.000Z

The Rugby World Cup was quite interesting – but I don’t think that when I was informed by a shop assistant that England had lost to France my cries of “Allez les Bleus” were totally believed.

We have found a lovely lake near the local town of Vigeois – it’s a great walk around it and the scenery is gorgeous. Last time we were there Faust made a new friend – she said that normally dogs didn’t like here as she is a post lady!

The weather has been pretty good – most days up to about 20 and generally sunny. It’s only in the last few nights that I haven’t been taking the dogs out at 11pm in my shirtsleeves.

Work-wise things haven’t been too busy – but I have several estate agents who say they might have work for me in the future. And if you can’t trust estate agents…..One agent I have done some work for and hadn’t heard from for some months, contacted me to say that she still wanted to work with me. I have also bought a compressor to pump my photo mast up – hopefully saving my young Dutch agent friends from offering to operate the hand pump due to my advanced age.

Poor old Faust had to have an operation – basically he had to lose his bits for medical reasons. He recovered incredibly quickly, and it doesn’t seem to have affected him at all. I was sure it was done as the vet produced the items in question as proof……

We attended a very enjoyable house warming in the nearby village of Lagruliere – a friend who runs my writing club had moved into a new house. We met a young couple who were having a quick weekend away and who were already amazed by our bit of France and I also met en ex-policeman who trained at the same training college as I did, and in the same year.

I am fascinated by the huge apple fields here, all covered in netting for half the year to protect them against hailstorms. When the crop is gathered, they are all neatly rolled up - but when a field is left to itself then chaos results....

I nipped over to London for a week for my SSAFA (Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Families Association) course to be a caseworker. Flew Ryanair, stayed next to Waterloo Station – what’s not to like? Actually it was pretty good – I stayed at the Union Jack Club, which is basically a large hotel / club for serving and ex-military personnel, with over 250 rooms. The course was very good, and I am very impressed with the professional way SSAFA is run. The people were very interesting – from an ex-Ghurka to a chap serving on 8 Squadron ! Now I am waiting to put it into practice. I also got to see Rachel, who was dying of the dreaded lurgy – but she’s OK now.

Our last lot of visitors for the year (apart from our lovely daughter at Christmas) were the Sparrows – old RAF friends. Mike was taught fluent French by the RAF and worked in Paris. He now has so many acquaintances in France that they agreed that actually buying somewhere here was not necessary – they can spend most of the year flitting from friend to friend.

We have been driving around the local area trying to get to know it better -amazing waht you find in the rural depths....

Now we seem to be in a period of relative peace and quiet – but there is always something. I sorted out a problem with my bank – fraudulent withdrawal, but the tax people here are trying to double tax us on our pension income – which is already taxed in UK. Luckily I have an accountant who is trying to sort it out. More happily the car passed its CT (MOT) last week, and it lasts for 2 years. Aaaah, ‘tis peaceful here!

2011-10-02T21:54:00.000+01:00

Gosh life has been busy over the last few months ! Lots of happy events and one sad one.

We had a meeting of our writers’ club at our place – Judy produced some wonderful food and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, oh and we did talk about writing a bit. In the following month we met up again at our American member’s Chateau – of course we aren’t snobs!

We have been to several of the “pie nights” run by the farming couple we get our bacon from. Very enjoyable to sit outside a bar in an officially beautiful French village and eat steak and kidney pies with chips, HP sauce and a glass of wine. They are featured in the ITV series “Little England” which is pretty awful and patronising. It is supposed to be all about the Dordogne – but Sophie and Ray live and work here in the Correze. Can’t you trust anything on TV?

The weather started off a bit wet and gloomy, but in the last couple of months it has been mostly really good, with temperatures on average in the high 20s. There has been a bit of rain (needed for the farmers of course), just a shame one of the very wet days had to be when we had visitors.

Talking of visitors we have three lots of visitors and met with another three lots in various parts of France.

First we met the Allnutts in Sarlat – lovely lunch but make note to self that Sarlat is really busy in the summer.

Then we got together with the Wallaces – I flew with Martin on Hercules, and his French wife comes from a couple of hours North of us. We met at a microlight and balloon festival near them – sadly there wasn’t much flying going on, but we all had a good time at the archery demonstration.

Final lot of friends we met up with were the Makepeaces – they had taken a Gite in the Creuse (an adjoining department to the Correze) with friends and family for Dave’s 60^th (he’s so old – over a month older than me!). We were invited to a very enjoyable birthday party, and even our dogs behaved themselves.

Three lots of visitors have stayed with us – the Lockies, Ashforth-Smiths and Harrops. They all seem to have enjoyed themselves and Judy’s cooking rose to even greater heights!

Locally we had the Paris-Correze cycle race whizz through the village, not exactly the Tour de France, but they all took it very seriously.

The local historic town of Donzenac had a Mediaeval Street Fair on a lovely sunny summer afternoon. We took Faust as we thought he looks suitably period, and he was much admired. However mediaeval towns have narrow mediaeval streets, and filled with crowds, people playing drums and stilt-walking, it wasn’t really a suitable place for enormous dogs, although he behaved perfectly.

Judy and I were looking for something else to do out here – as if daytime TV is not absorbing enough! We have joined SSAFA (the Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Families Association), which has a branch covering France. I will be a case-worker and Judy a visitor, trying to help people with military connections, who have money or other problems. With the collapse of the pound against the Euro, many who moved here relying on pensions have seen their income drop drastically in the last few years.

As you may have surmised from above, I too was 60 a few weeks ago. My lovely children planned a party for me on the day, so Judy and I arranged to fly to England and have a few days seeing friends and family. Very sadly just before we left we learned that Judy’s brother-in-law Peter (married to her older sister Carol) had died after a long illness. The funeral was a few days after we had intended to return to France, but we were able to rebook our flight home, and extend kennels and car hire.

We were able to visit (and stay) with a number of friends, and special thanks are very much due to Rennie and Peter, Posy and Romney – all great hosts. We stayed in Essex (twice), Gloucestershire, Dorset and Oxfordshire, and caught up with a few old friends on the way. My birthday party was enormous fun and again thanks to Nick and Lisa and Rachel, Jake and Esme, Martin, Vicky, Tom and Flora. Thanks for all the presents too – we actually had to buy another suitcase!

Peter’s funeral was obviously a very sorrowful occasion, but it was nice that Carol’s family were able to attend – including a sister from Saudi Arabia and daughters from California and Vancouver. As I am sure he would have wanted, we tried to celebrate his life rather than just mourn his passing.

Back in France we had our latest lot of visitors the day after we got home, then I had two business jobs and we attended a party at Brive Rugby Club thrown by the Franco British Chamber of Commerce. No visitors for a few weeks, although I have to go to London for a few days in a couple of weeks to do a course with SSAFA. And we came here for the peace and quiet !

2011-07-18T13:44:00.000+01:00

I thought that it was only a few weeks since my last entry – but it’s been ages ! A fair bit has happened, so I’ll pinch Judy’s diary and get it all down.

To get the basics out of the way the weather has been pretty good – mostly sunny and warm, although enough rain to keep everything green. The temperature hit 39 at one point, perhaps a little too warm. We haven’t been out an awful lot – with quite a few visitors over the next few months we are saving ourselves!

My business has been intermittent as usual. One big job involved me actually staying away overnight in the Tarn et Garonne near Montauban. I had to draw up floorplans for a very large restored and updated house (5 garages, two guest cottages, cinema room €2.1m) and a small and rather disappointing chateau (only visited by its owner for 3 days last year). Details by return if interested.

I also did a few elevated photography jobs for a local agent, and hope to get more work from them.

We had an interesting visit from the local water board a few weeks ago. We think that the chap wanted to fit a new water meter, which is situated in one of our spare bedrooms. We were not too happy with his signs which seemed to indicate that they might have to dig up the floor inside! Anyway he apologised for not speaking English, as it is now “the international language”! Very un-French. He left, and we haven’t heard anything since.

The village held a Vide Grenier about a month ago – that’s effectively a car boot sale, without the cars….There were stalls all over the main street and in the car park/petanque area/market square. Lots of junk, as always, but we did get a couple of nice rugs very cheap.

About a month ago I drove up to Picardy, about an hour North of Paris and picked up a new addition to our family – Faust, a one year old Irish Wolfhound. I found an ad on the French Irish Wolfhound Owners’ website – his owners had split up and couldn’t keep him. As we have had four wolfhounds before they were happy he was going to a good home. He has settled in brilliantly, and he and Bertie get on pretty well, although it might be stretching it a little to say Bertie actually welcomes his arrival. He is a great ice breaker with our French neighbours as well!

Our first visitors of this period were Helen and Alan. They were caravanning in the Dordogne, and came to see us for the day. We then returned the visit, and went to their rather posh caravan park. As you can see, Fuast, whom we had for about a week, had setlled in pretty well! If he could learn to lie down in the car,though, journys might be a little easier.

After them came Verena and Brian - two separate friends if you see what I mean. They seemed to have a good time, and we had a couple of good days out. It was made a bit more interesting when our car broke down on the day we were to pick Brian up from the airport. Luckily it was outside our house, and our wonderful local garage owner Jean-Louis came and picked it up on a trailer. I was able to hire a car in Objat, although I was quite surprised to find that the hirer would not take cards – only cheques! One good trip was to Les Eyzies, which is the centre for many of the prehistoric caves with the ancient paintings and sculptures. We went to one cave, which was firmly closed, with a very smalls sign to say tickets could be bought at another cave a couple of miles away. We drove there to find that at this time of year it is recommended that you book at least a few weeks ahead – of course none of the signs mentioned this. We visited the prehistoric museum in Eyzies, which was quite good, but probably had about as many flints on display as I want to view in the foreseeable future.

Socially we have had a few nice days out – friends to lunch and dinner and back to theirs later. A garden party in the grounds of a very up market Chambres d’Hote for which I did some photography last year, and an invitation to an evening’s horse racing at Pompadour racecourse which was very enjoyable.

Finally we have just had the Voutezac Peach Festival. Another evening meal with a peach-centric menu, and a firework display part of which was set off in our garden.

In the last blog I gave my guess as to what the door markings on a village house meant. We met the owner of the house a few weeks ago, and he is a keen local historian and also speaks excellent English. What they actually mean is: the hearts are to try and keep the plague away, and the crosses indicate that the family in the house have already supplied soldiers to serve the Bishop of Limoges when he was the local ruler. So, close……

By the way, if you couldn’t get your copy of June’s “French Property News”, that rather good article entitled “A Happy Twist of Fate” and about Voutezac, was by me. Copies can be sent on request.

2011-05-26T10:06:00.000+01:00

Started this diary period with our 38^th wedding anniversary – celebrated with a very enjoyable meal at our favourite restaurant (l’Auberge sur Vezere or Sara’s). This was obviously a good omen as the weather since then has been pretty excellent – temperatures mostly in the mid-20s or higher, although there have been a few off days. Guess what it was like when we planned a day out with a picnic….

Jude was pleased to discover that although the hairdressers in our village had new owners, they were still Ok and cut her hair as she likes it. Just remember the whole commune has about 1400 people, the village has a bakery, post office auberge and…. a hairdressers. Priorities! We have both got new cameras and have been taking lots of photos - particularly around the village.

Although the weather has been pretty good (and there is already talk of droughts), when it does have a storm here it really lets go. We have had two really heavy hail storms, and it shows the wisdom of the local fruit farmers in putting netting over their crops – not for birds or insects, but for hailstorms. One of these storms would easily take out an entire crop.

I’ve joined a small writers’ group – just a few English speakers who meet every month or so, with an ex English teacher to guide us. First meeting was at an 18^th century chateau which is a B & B and gite complex, and has just been bought by a very dynamic American lady and her granddaughter.

Next may be here, which will be a bit of a difference! Just before I managed to get this on line I found a couple of reviews of the blog – both seemed to like it which is very gratifying – thanks!

Rachel came down by train for a few days to see us – really enjoyable. Naturally for my daughter only the best accomodation is good enough...

We had a few nice drives, including one down to the lovely town of Beaulieu sur Dordogne – a nice day out. As Rae had just had her birthday we took her out for an excellent meal at Sara’s. Complimentary champagne and when Rae didn’t like her sweet it was taken off the bill.

Business picking up – did two elevated photo jobs in the last two days, and have at least one large chateau floorplan to do next week. The job is in the Lot et Garonne – about 2 ½ hours each way, but OK financially. France is a really big place. We took a photo of this motorway bridge the other day..

Had a couple of friends who run a gallery in Pompadour round for dinner, Judy did her rabbit in cider pie, which was a great success. We are now having a short breather before our next guests arrive from June onwards – if you are reading this we are really looking forward to seeing you all!

A couple of photos we need some help with. We saw this goat (sheep?) in a nearby field - any idea as to species?

And this is above the door of a house in the village - I like to think that a couple moved into the house through that door when the maried, and left through it after they died. I am such a big old softy.

2011-04-13T08:10:00.000+01:00

After a few days of temperatures in the high 20’s and a pair of amorous kestrels spending all day screaming to other as they fly over the valley, we sincerely hope that spring is here. In fact yesterday was grey and drizzly, but no rain, no lovely green countryside.

I have been quite busy, actually doing a bit of business for estate agents drawing up floorplans and taking elevated photos. The only problem is that the really pricey properties that want this treatment are in the Dordogne, so I have had a few 4 hour round trips down that way – not exactly a penance! I have also tried doing some writing, although Peter Mayle probably need not worry. I have an article about (wait for it) floorplans and photography in April’s “French Property News”, with another article about Voutezac in June’s issue. I have interviewed some of the Brits who have set up successful businesses and hope to work this into another article.

At the start of March two of our friends from England, Rennie and Peter, came to stay for a few days. The weather was a bit variable, but I think they enjoyed themselves, and we certainly enjoyed having them.

As I have mentioned before I am a member of the Franco British Chamber of Commerce, and we had a very enjoyable meeting at a local hotel – brief talk on marketing, discussion, then networking over dinner. Very enjoyable.

A couple of weeks later we were given a couple of tickets for Brive Rugby Club – the FBCC get some as the club are a member. We saw an excellent game between Brive and La Rochelle – a real relegation dogfight which luckily Brive won. There was a crowd of about 11,000, and it was a very agreeable afternoon, with no animosity between the two sets of fans. There is lots of beer, some monstrous sandwiches, lots of passion and a good time is had by all!

With the nice weather we have stared exploring again. We have found an old slate mine outside a nearby town – they do guided tours and have demonstrations, sadly not actually open yet. The same applies to a Gallo-Roman site a bit further away – there are houses and remains of a theatre discovered in 2004, but not open until the summer. Now we both travel with cameras at the ready, so Judy has taken some really nice shots.

Last Sunday we went into Objat for the local market, and there was also the annual agricultural show. This is a real show – mostly lots of tractors and equipment for the farmers to drool over, and a huge marquee full of wonderful Limousin cattle, all just tied up and left quietly on their own. At the other end of the market is a livestock auction, and I have to say that in Carrefour in a couple of weeks there will be a large photo of “Champion so and so”, and lots of lovely joints of superb meat.

When we got home we were surprised to find a large group of people milling around outside our house. They turned out to be an Antiquarian Society from Argentat, a town about 40 miles South of us. Their day out was a tour of Voutezac. A few of the party were British, and when I offered to open up our cellars they passed this on. We then had about 30 keen historians looking around our 13th century cellar (and under cellar) and peering through our arrow slits. They seemed to enjoy themselves!

2011-03-05T14:27:00.001Z

Once again it’s been a while since I last put finger to keyboard, but we have spent most of the time just keeping warm – we are saving ourselves for the sunny weather and our visitors. We have more or less recovered from the various coughs, colds and lurgies that we are convinced were given to us by our nearest and dearest in England over Christmas. Below - view of our valley.

In France they are only allowed to have sales in the shops twice a year for about 3 weeks at time – and the actual dates are specified. This means that we don’t have the DFS sale all year syndrome, but the shops are certainly a little busy for the first few days!

Judy got some lovely presents for her birthday – in no particular order a lovely jumper, a scent diffuser (fighting a valiant but losing battle with the Bertie diffuser), a digital camera and a necklace made from old Venetian trade beads. We also had a lovely Sunday lunch out.

My little business venture is starting to warm up again with the weather. I have spoken to a few estate agents who deal in premium properties, and have had some useful feedback and, possibly, hope of work in the future. For one agent I write a short article which she sends out to her clients with a monthly property update e mail. I already have one article in next month’s (April) French Property News magazine about how to photograph your property for sale and how important floorplans are (it’s called advertorial). I wrote another article on our village, which will be in June’s issue.

This got me thinking, and so I have contacted a few other magazines to see if I can interest them in articles from this area. Also FPN don’t pay – so someone who does would be good! Oh, and I got a photo in this month’s FPN too.

Judy is still enjoying her French lessons every week with Francois in Pompadour. When she asked if Francois knew of a cheaper dog trimmer (over €50 last time), she advised us to use an English lady in Pompadour. So yesterday, after weeks of doing nothing, became a little busy….

09:20 to Pompadour, drop Bertie off with dog trimmer at 09:45. Drive around for an hour until drop off Judy for her 11:00 French lesson. Try and think of what to do for an hour. Went to see friend who runs an art gallery in Pomadour as he always offers a cup of coffee! In fact I hope to interview him and a couple of others for magazine article.

Picked up Judy, picked up rather more socially acceptable dog. Went to Intermarché café for quick lunch. Had we booked ? For a supermarket café ? They found us table, reasonable lunch, place totally full about ten minutes after we sat down. High spot was next table with small baby in high chair. Parents and grandparents giving him little bits of food to eat, then granddad had bright idea of giving him something to play with – chose his (folded) knife and cigarette lighter.

From there a two hour drive (luckily it was a lovely sunny day) to the town of Ribérac in the Dordogne, to meet two British estate agents who deal with pretty high end property. Went well and will do a floorplan of their house first to show what I can do. Two hour drive home.

We are now getting ready for our first visitors of the year – and we are really looking forward to seeing them and all the others who have promised, half promised or just hinted that they might come and see us.
I just added this photo because I did some pictures for a couple opening a very high end B & B / Hotel - I think it's quite spectacular!

2011-01-06T12:14:00.000Z

Seems quite a long time since I last updated this – meanwhile the quiet pace of life in the Correze has been disrupted by a flying visit to UK.

We have been much luckier (so far) with our weather here than in UK. We have had a bit of snow, but not more than a couple of inches and it has never lasted for more than a couple of days. The temperature here seems to go all over the place, 2 one day, 15 the next.

Although the roads haven’t been too bad, we have not been going out too much. A couple of exceptions were when Judy went to Church in the Dordogne, and we met a couple of friends for lunch afterwards, and a Christmas lunch given by the local branch of the Franco British Chamber of Commerce. This was held in a small hotel run by an English couple near Tulle, a large town about 30 miles away. The roads were a bit icy, and it was quite foggy, but we made it OK and lunch was very nice. What they hadn’t mentioned was that the hotel is at the top of a hill, and after last year’s event a number of guests couldn’t actually get away through the snow and ice they had then, and had to stay the night!

Tulle is actually the departmental capital, despite being much smaller than Brive. It’s not a very attractive town, but most people dislike it for the simple reason that it’s where you have to go to pay your taxes!

Voutezac takes Christmas quite seriously - the council put up some very nice decorations.

We made our final preparations for the holidays – most of the presents were from Amazon and went via Rachel – thank you. We have found a good boarding kennel for Bertie, so were able to drop him off on the way to Brive Airport.

We flew to London City Airport on Christmas Eve with City Jet. After all our worries about the weather we were only an hour late landing in London. The airline service is very good – helped by the fact that there were only 13 passengers on the flight! We hired a small car and set off to stay with Rachel in Tooting.

I have to say that Judy and I are now very much country mice. Although we have both lived in London, we now find the noise and bustle hard work! But it was worth it to see the family. Christmas day was spent with Nick, Lisa, Jake, Esme and Rachel at Nick’s in Essex – a really good traditional day right down to the totally unfounded accusations of cheating at the board games.

Boxing Day was at Martin’s (my brother) – again a really nice family occasion.

On the 27th we had a really nice pub lunch in Richmond, and in the afternoon Rachel took us to watch Harlequins v London Irish at Twickenham, along with, we soon discovered, 74,000 other keen spectators. Although the game wasn’t very good we had a great time.

The next day we met Nick and family again at Bluewater – the huge shopping mall in North Kent. Perhaps not the grumpy old man’s ideal day out, but it was really nice to see everyone again.

Our busy schedule continued with a visit to Priscilla and William Hedley, Judy’s friend from her nursing days at GOS, who had organised the reunion Judy went to in September. We had a very enjoyable lunch there, with Judy catching up on a number of her old friends. They live in East Greenwich, and, apparently, you don’t actually have to go through the Blackwall Tunnel twice to get to West Greenwich as we did. Whoops.

On the 30th we went with Rachel to Stevenage to see Judy’s family at her sister Carol’s house. Her other sister Gill was also there with her husband Phil, and her brother Chris. Sadly Peter, Carol’s husband, is really not well, and was not able to join in as much as I am sure he would have wanted. The girls all went to see Judy’s mum in her home – sadly she really didn’t recognise them. We had a very pleasant lunch and caught up on some of the family gossip and swapped presents. Gill seemed to do best.

In the evening we took Rachel to a French restaurant in Clapham (no I’m not sure why either), and we had a nice meal and picked up a £60 parking ticket. London just loves tourists doesn’t it?

Next day we stopped off at Canary Wharf on the way to the airport and had breakfast with Rachel, saw where she works, and met her boss. He didn’t seem to blame us at all, which was nice.

We got back to Brive right on schedule, and when we eventually found the car park ticket, we picked up a very happy Bertie and arrived home. We saw in the New Year with a call from the kids in UK, and a glass of wine. Since then the weather has been cold and a bit wet, and we have both got stonking colds which we blame on England.

Thanks to everyone who made it such a good Christmas !

2010-11-29T16:10:00.000Z

Autumn came and went rather rapidly – we have just had our first snow of the winter, but it has almost all melted and it hasn’t caused us any problems. I am sure there is more to come…

I have “double-glazed” the house, that is I have fixed bubble wrap over all the windows – will have to do until we can afford new windows. With all the insulation in the attic it seems to be having some effect – maybe its wishful thinking but the level in the oil tank seems to be dropping more slowly than last year.

We have also survived the general strikes – in fact the only effect we seem to see is that the rubbish isn’t collected. As there is a recycling point in the village we only have one small bag a week of actual rubbish, so that hasn’t been too much of a problem.

Mostly we have stayed in and endured the joys of day time TV (English). However we have had a few enjoyable days out. We drove to Argentat, a lovely town on the Dordogne and had lunch in a café right by the river – late October but we were able to sit outside. A few days later we had lunch with a friend in Brive.

While Judy was at church one Sunday (the church is in the Dordogne) I had a drive around and found a couple of old chateaux still ripe for restoration – particularly this one…

After picking Judy up we met another friend for lunch.

On 11th November we attended the Remembrance Day service in the village – very moving. A couple of days later we did some shopping in the centre of Brive, and saw the new theatre area which will be opening soon. The city are really making an effort, and have rebuilt the façade of the old theatre with modern facilities behind, and a lovely square in the front.

Because our house is built into the old village walls it is floodlit in winter – paid for by the Commune. It looks pretty good too.

Looking over our valley there is something interesting in one of the trees – we think it’s a wasp’s nest, but have decided not to investigate more closely!

Last Friday Judy had her normal French lesson in Pompadour. I went for a coffee to a little café, where I had been told one of the staff was English. She is actually ex RAF, and her late husband was also a regular. They served at many of the stations we did, and her daughter was born in the hospital in Kings Lynn where Judy worked – although I don’t think we ever overlapped.

To give you an idea of what you can still get here we also had lunch there – the Menu du Jour. A tureen of excellent home-made soup with croutons, a visit to the hors d'oeuvre buffet (meats, pate, salads – good choice), main course of turkey fillet with mushroom and cream sauce and a huge bowl of chips, choice of 5 cheeses and chocolate éclair. €12, or about £10. We do like it here !

2010-10-12T14:20:00.000+01:00

Autumn is approaching pretty fast, although we haven’t had to have the heating on yet. Only a few more days to go though I fear.

This morning we heard a loud honking and rushed outside to see large skeins of geese flying over in perfect V formations - wonderful sight.

As predicted we have had a very quiet time in the last few weeks. Luckily Judy keeps a diary, but even that hasn’t got much in it! Not complaining – we came here for the quiet life.

I got my birthday present a couple of weeks ago – an Amazon Kindle. Quite amazing to be able to order books and they just appear out of mid-air onto the reader. I am trying not to order everything in sight – there are quite a few good ones for free, so I have downloaded quite a few of those so far.

I am glad to say the car is running perfectly now, so we have been going on some very pleasant drives around the Correze countryside – even having the odd picnic. Judy has been trying to find a local church – a couple of weeks ago she tried one in Limoges, only about an hour away. Very nice people, but the service was not really to her taste. The following Sunday she went to the church at St Nathalene in the Dordogne again. I picked up a friend who lives nearby, and we had a very nice lunch in Sarlat.

I have had a couple more jobs drawing up floorplans – both large properties in the Dordogne, one a genuine Chateau, part dating back to the 13th century. Great fun, and fairly lucrative. I also used my elevated gear to take some shots of the apple fields here - all covered in netting not againts birds, but as protection from hail storms.

We have two walnut trees, which have produced huge numbers of nuts – we have 3 large boxes of unshelled ones, and there are still some to be picked up. We shelled a load, and have had walnut and basil pesto (delicious), made candied walnuts (OK) and frozen sveral bags. The rest will be shelled one day soon…..possible. We had hoped to find someone who made walnut oil in small quantities, but no luck so far.

That’s it apart from the rounds of Judy’s French lessons in Pompadour (she drives herself now), shopping, paying part of the rates bill etc. We are planning a trip to UK over Christmas – just trying to book the flights.

Oh, some new spaniels seem to have appeared around the place. Just don’t forget the original and best…….

2010-09-18T15:45:00.000+01:00

Taking a deep breath after all our visitors had gone; we have had a pretty quiet time since.

Poor old Bertie had to have a trip to the Vet – teeth descaling and a couple out. He didn’t enjoy it, but we were pleased with a bill of only €76.

The Discovery carries on playing up – hopefully fitting a new radiator should finally cure it.

On the 5th September Judy popped back to UK for a few days. The main reason was to go a reunion of nurses from her days at Great Ormond Street, and she also saw Rae, Lisa and Nick and Vicky and family.

She got to see an exhibition at the Royal Academy, shop, lunch out, see Vicki and their new puppy, go to the top of the Gherkin with Nick, go to Lords, and nip over to Leigh on Sea to stay the night. A quiet week then…

The reunion seemed to go very well, and Judy says she knew quite a few of the people there.

She flew out and back on City Jet from our new airport at Brive, says it was very pleasant. Hope we can fly to UK from there over Christmas.

We have now reverted to relaxed mode – although we did test the Discovery by taking a long drive in the country and having a picnic lunch today – all OK so far!

2010-08-22T14:29:00.000+01:00

The last few weeks have been pretty busy, but very enjoyable.

At the start of the month we had a visit from Jim and Angela, whose BMW Z4 sports car must have impressed the locals! The weather wasn’t as good as we might have hoped, but we took them on what is becoming our regular tourist trail – Collonges le Rouge, Brive, Donzenac, the wine tasting at Le Saillaint and they very kindly treated us to dinner at L’Auberge sur Vezere (more commonly known as Sarah’s). We also have a drive that describes a circle around the local countryside, and has some splendid photo opportunities.

Unfortunately our Discovery had some serious over-heating problems, and had to have some serious surgery. We were lent a rather ancient Peugeot 205, which actually did us rather well.

After seeing them in a car that can be safely described as well packed on their way to the Franco-Swiss border, we nipped up the road, dropped Bertie off in kennels, and caught an evening flight back to UK.

As we landed so late, we stayed in a hotel at Stansted. We had hired a car – a Chevrolet Epica, and no I have never heard of it either – and we then headed off to Essex where we saw Nick and family and picked up Rachel. Off from there to the Cotswolds, lunch at the pub in Filkins where we met a few friends, and a night stop with Rennie and Peter – lovely.

We then motored up to a hotel near Stoke on Trent, where we were due to attend a party to celebrate the 25th wedding anniversary of Judy’s sister Gill and her husband Phil. We had a very enjoyable time, meeting relatives, and finding that some of the other guests knew the part of France we are in.

After a night in the hotel we drove back to Essex, where we dropped off Rachel, who was house sitting for Nick and Lisa. We then returned to Stansted, where the holiday was slightly spoilt when we were charged £584 as there was a tiny chip in the windscreen! We paid, under protest, and are challenging them….vehemently.

After a few days rest (and yes we did remember to spring Bertie), David had a very interesting job drawing up a floorplan for a really nice chateau. A big job, but really interesting. It’s for sale if anyone’s interested….

We then had Dave and Juliette to stay for a thoroughly enjoyable few days. They seemed to enjoy themselves, and we took them to all the nice places, and they treated us at Sarah’s – are we getting too predictable? Anyway, they were quite reluctant to leave, which is always a good sign.

Got the Discovery back, surgery wasn't quite as extensive as we feared, but I don't get the bill until next week. So that’s it for a couple of weeks, until Judy has a quick trip back to London all on her own.

2010-08-01T09:39:00.000+01:00

We are now well into the season of fêtes and festivals. First we went to the Raspberry Festival in a nearby village – where we had a slice from the largest raspberry tart in the world ( Guinness Book of Records apparently). We then had the Peach Festival in our village – frankly not very exciting and not a record in site. However there was a very enjoyable meal in the village square on the Saturday evening – everyone sat around together in a large open sided marquee. We sat with some neighbours, and thoroughly enjoyed it. The menu was somewhat peach biased – ham, melon and peach, followed by duck, baked potatoes with caramelised peaches, soft cheese with peach coulis, a peach sorbet and to finish....a peach. Wine and coffee included for about £12.

The evening finished with a really excellent firework display. We knew about this and had been told that it would be set off on the ramparts. Well, there is a street just above us called “Rue de Remparts” so we thought that was the place, at least until we looked out of our window and saw some fireworks being set up in our garden. We crossed the little valley behind our house with a couple of hundred others and had an excellent view of a very well organised show.

Inspired by the peach theme, and with a recently purchased box of the things to use up we have been trying our hand at making and bottling some chutnies. Judy's peach and chili is superb, my peach and tomato is ...interesting.

As a member of the Franco British Chamber of Commerce we were invited on a visit to the new airport at Brive. It is a fairly basic operation, with only return flights to Paris most days, an the City Jet to London on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. This seems to be going well as City Jet have extended their timetable into October. We were shown around the control tower, and the airport firemen were very happy to show off their fire engines, and give us a short ride. As always the visit ended with a very nice buffet lunch.

One of Judy's friends from her last job, Heather Wilson, is restoring two properties near us, and she dropped in for a night on her way back to UK. We found we had other friends in common around Faringdon as well. A few days later two of her friends, Nick and Andy, dropped in on their way back. They are doing some work on Heather's house, and are from Carterton - so were able to catch up on a few things!

Life gets a bit more hectic over the next few days. Tomorrow two friends from UK are coming to stay for a few days – Jim and Angela Wiggle. On Friday we are flying back to UK for a family party on the Sunday – Judy's sister's 25th wedding anniversary – in Stoke. Saturday we are back in Filkins for lunch to see if they are missing us (or noticed we had gone). We are then staying with friends, Rennie and Peter Thompson, for the night. Back on the Monday, a few days to recover our breath, and then two more old friends to stay – Dave & Juliette Makepeace.. Really looking forward to it!

2010-07-07T13:37:00.000+01:00

Life has been fairly peaceful for the last few weeks. The weather started off a bit rainy, but we have had lots of sunshine for the last weeks or so - tomorrow is forecast to be 36 !

Did another couple of photography jobs, one for a couple of gites owned by a Dutch couple, then the grounds of a house being turned into a luxury 5 star B & B.

Now waiting for a couple more visitors before we pop back to UK in August for a family do - Judy's sister's 25th wedding anniversary.

As I was allowed to buy a good video camera some time ago, I thought I had better justify having it - so please forgive this amatuerish effort.......

2010-06-12T13:52:00.000+01:00

Quite a busy few weeks – two lots of visitors and some very changeable weather.

First came Brian Mitchell – an old RAF friend. He stayed for a very enjoyable week, although the weather wasn't as kind as it might have been. It was a bit grey and drizzly, but Brian enjoys long walks so he was able to do 3 long walks around Voutezac without it being too hot. We also took him to all the favourite places - Segur, Donzenac, Collonges, Brantome etc. Anyway he seemed to enjoy himself!

The day Brian flew back from Limoges, Sue and John Titchener arrived – friends from the RAF / Lechlade. They had stayed a few days with friends further South, and spent four nights with us. They brought the nice weather with them, and again we were able to show them lots of the nice places around here. We also had some very enjoyable meals, both out and in.

As they left the weather took another turn for the worse. We have had some very heavy rain, with lots of thunder and lightning. A lot of people have had their computers fried by the lightning, so I am careful to unplug the power (although I do have a surge protector) and internet connection.

I did my first paid job with my elevated photo gear. It's a small château in the Dordogne, set in a walled courtyard. The pictures show it off very well and the agent seemed very pleased – as was I.

If you like it it's on for €1.1m. Apparently Madame who is selling is a little discerning about who buys it – the agent said he had some prospective buyers from Russia who wanted to view the property, but Madame said “No Russians” !

I have also done a floorplan of another very large property in the Dordogne for another agent. This was a strange place, a beautifully restored old house, but with only two fabulous bedroom suites, another small bedroom and a studio bedroom. The caretaker's house has two bedrooms , and there are a swimming pool, lake and a lot, and I mean a lot, of land. Just €3.3m to you!

Domestically Judy has declared war on some Japanese Knotweed we found in the garden. She cuts them back and inject Roundup direct into them – nasty!

Yesterday we visited our friendly English farmer / butcher and picked up half a lamb for the freezer – wonderful meat. Does anyone know how you cook the cut lamb skirt ?

World Cup beckons – forced to sit in front of the TV. No tooting horns last night as France drew 0-0 with Uruguay – won't say anything yet as England play the USA tonight.

2010-05-21T12:04:00.000+01:00

Had some building work done – the floor in the en suite to our bedroom was basically rotten, so we have had it replaced. I now feel much safer when I blearily wander in there in the middle of the night.

May is a month of bank holidays in France : the 1st (Labour Day), 8th (WWII Victory Day, 13th (Ascension Day) and 24th (Pentecost). Also May 30th is Mother's Day! Luckily our relaxed lifestyle means that everything being shut doesn't effect us too much.

We visited a “Flea Market” in the local town of Allassac a week ago. We expected it to be a small affair, but it is an annual event that takes over the whole of the town centre. It was really a car boot sale, and we didn't buy anything, but it was a lot of fun to nose around.

A couple of days ago we went to visit some friends who run a couple of very nice gites about 2 hours South of here in the Tarn et Garonne. I took all my gear and got in some practice by taking some elevated photos and drawing up some floorplans. We had a lovely day, and the photos seemed to come out all right too.

Today I have just returned from the dentist – and have several more visits to make unfortunately. Paying is a bit complex – the health service pays a little bit, our top-up insurance another little bit, and we pay the rest.

We have a new little chum – a squirrel who obviously lives in our attic. We thought he was rather sweet and photogenic, until he started eating our herbs and plants on our little balcony. We tried leaving part of Bertie's dog bed hanging near as the small should deter him, but to be sure we have put netting over the plants he seems to like most.

We have visitors over the next couple of weeks – ash clouds permitting!

2010-05-01T13:15:00.000+01:00

I forgot to add that we now have an airline flying into our new airport at Brive - or will do shortly. From 25th June CityJet will have 3 flights a week from City Airport in London on Friday, Saturday and Sunday - initially for 3 months.

2010-04-30T17:40:00.000+01:00

The main excitement since my last entry has been a really enjoyable week long visit by Rachel. She arrived by train at Brive only an hour late. Apparently there was some sort of rail strike, but nobody really bothered to mention it – later we couldn't even find a mention on the SNCF website.

We were very lucky with the weather while Rachel was with us – sunny and lovely and warm. We did all the tourist things – a visit to Rocamadour (our second in a couple of weeks), and from there to the Goufre de Padirac – the large hole in the ground with underground lake that Nick and his family had visited. I went down there with Rachel, and was very impressed – you descend deep into the earth and are then rowed across an underground lake – viewing wonderful rock formations, stalactites etc.

Another day out was to the Dordogne where we visited the Chateau des Milandes, a lovely old building which was the home of the American singer Josephine Baker. While Judy and Rachel looked at the house and the exhibition on the amazing life of Ms Baker, I was able to sneak away and watch the falconry display. We had lunch in Domme, a hilltop bastide village with wonderful views.

Rachel caught the train back to London (all on time thank goodness), and since then life has returned to its quiet pace. The weather stayed really nice until today – the temperature has dropped 10 degrees C, and we have had some rain – ah well, I expect the farmers need it.

We have a pair of kestrels nesting in the wall of a house opposite, so I was able to get a good picture just by pointing my camera out of my study window – bird watching in comfort!

2010-04-16T14:36:00.000+01:00

Quite a long time since I last put keyboard to work – one very enjoyable family visit and various computer problems being the excuse for such laziness.

On the 30th March we went to a presentation by the Director of the new airport soon to be opened in Brive. This was organised by the Franco-British Chamber of Commerce, and was also an excellent networking opportunity – with a superb buffet lunch. The airport will open on 15th June, but so far the management are still in negotiations with the low cost carriers, although they hope to have 3 flights a week to the London area operating later on in the year. The only guaranteed flights they have are a commuter flight to and from Paris, which is apparently very expensive.

Nick, Lisa, Jake and Esme arrived after a very exhausting drive from Calais. They seemed to like the house and the village, and we tried to get out and see a few places, despite some indifferent weather. We had a wander round Brive, sampling the hot chocolate in a coffee shop. Lisa was much taken by one of the Trocs – these are large secondhand / antique stores selling on behalf of customers. There are certainly some bargains to be had in the older furniture.

The next day we travelled down the valley of the Vezere – this is the area that contains many of the cave painting and very early remains. A big hit was the Roque St Christophe – dwellings cut out of the rock high up in a cliff. They were occupied for thousands of years – from cavemen right up to there being a complete mediaeval village attached to the cliff face. This is taken a step further at a site just down the road at Reignac. Here the ancient dwellings eventually developed into a fortified manor house – again built into the cliff high above the marauders who swept back and forth across this part of France.

After a day spent touring a bit closer to home – and dodging the rain showers, we all went to Rocamadour, a world heritage site and a pilgrimage centre almost hanging from a steep cliff.

We then split up as Nick and family went the Goufre de Padirac, and underground grotto and lake. Judy had already seen this some years ago, so we met up again at Collonges la Rouge, a very pretty village on the way home.

Sadly the visit just flew by, and Nick and family set off home via Honfleur on the Channel coast to break the drive. Hope to see them again soon.

Of course as soon as they left the weather started to improve! Unfortunately my PC decided to finally give up the ghost, so I am typing this on my all new Windows 7 all singing and dancing replacement. I was able to get it from an English supplier nearby – not that I have any problem with French suppliers – just French operating systems and keyboards!

On the 14th we had a very enjoyable wedding anniversary dinner at the Auberge sur Vezere, a small hotel we have stayed in a couple of times and where we eat on special occasions! We met a couple from Cheshire who were just buying a holiday home. He was an ex policeman, and she was a former nurse called Judy! There our paths diverged as he started his own business which turns over £18 million a year.

We are having a couple of quiet days now – I'm getting the new PC working, and we are both gathering our strength as Rachel arrives tomorrow!

2010-03-27T09:44:00.002Z

Been busy getting ready for a visit from Nick & Lisa and our grandchildren – praying that the weather stays nice! Luckily lots of the tourist attractions open at the beginning of April / Easter, so there should be plenty to do.

Otherwise lots of minor events. Had to have some minor work on the car – replacing the thermostat. The unanimous vote was that of course I could do it, but if anyone was going to drop nuts into the depths of the engine, let it be Jean-Louis at the garage.

Starting to get my business running. I have a really good website http://imageriedelapropriete.com/ sadly not designed by me. To get some more pictures we went to lunch with a couple with some gites South of Brive, and I had a good time taking photos and drawing up floorplans. When I decided to try the elevated gear at another friend’s, I discovered a fault in the cable that connects the laptop to the camera at the top of the pole. After ordering a new one at huge cost, I tested mine again and…you guessed it, it now works. However I can’t have kit that I can’t trust, so a new one is on its way. I have new business cards and am printing off some fliers for agents, so fingers crossed.

Bertie had a morning at the dog grooming parlour, and came away looking (and more importantly smelling) wonderful. The lady in the parlour said he was “tres, tres amiable!”. I bet she says that to all the boys…

House-wise I have finished insulating the loft – really timely, as we haven’t had to have the central heating on for a week or so. Also we got another electrician to check our wiring, and he is perfectly happy with it – a big worry gone.

I was watching Bertie in the garden a few days ago when I noticed a squirrel (red of course) in one of the walnut trees near the house. He scrambled around, keeping an eye on Bertie (who was blissfully unaware of his existence) and then dashed along a branch, flung himself at the wall of the house, scrabbled up and disappeared into our attic. Ah well, at least it will be warm for him….

2010-03-13T08:38:00.000Z

We have finally managed to decide on what work we need (and can afford) to do to the house. We have chosen a builder to rebuild our en suite to the main bedroom, which has some rotten beams supporting it. That should start ext month. We are also waiting for a quote for fitting a bath in the current shower room. The bad news is that when our electrician was fitting a couple of new lights, he found a problem with the earthing of the whole system, not immediately dangerous but should be sorted out. It should have been spotted by the firm which did an electrical survey for the buyers pack – so I have asked the estate agent we used to contact them to sort it out, but he doesn’t hold out much hope of them admitting responsibility.

In the “garden” at the back of the house we are now planning to install some decking to give us a decent sized flat space, and a large poly tunnel to enable us to grow our own veg secure from birds, squirrels, deer etc.

With some sunnier weather we have been getting out a bit more. Last week Judy went to a church service about n hour away in the Dordogne, and after we had lunch with a friend we met when we stayed in that area for our first month out here. There is also an evangelical group which meets much closer near Pompadour, and Judy and I were invited to lunch for Judy to decided is she would like to attend some of their meetings. Really nice people, and the husband is ex RAF aircrew – so we have a few friends in common.

We still hanker after a few items we can’t get easily out here, so a couple of weeks ago we met up with the travelling fish and chip van in a local town. It stops outside a small bar – you order and pay for your food, go in and get a drink and the food is brought to you – quite a fusion of civilisations! A few other Brits there – something we may do a few times a year.

The other item we have missed is bacon, although there is a wonderful range of hams and pork products. A small farm near Pompadour is owned by an English farmer and his wife, and they produce their own bacon and sausages, as well as beef and lamb. Last night’s bacon baguette was very enjoyable!

We are getting to know our way around the local area, and many of the local towns and villages. A few days ago we revisited the village of Correze (on the river Correze, in the Correze department), and realised that we had missed all the good bits on our first visit – it has a very pretty centre.

Driving through the countryside on a sunny day is a joy, although watching a car still covered in snow pass us was a worry as we couldn’t see any snow even in the high hills to the east, we guessed he must have come a long way.

My business is almost ready to be launched. I have had a website created, which I am very pleased with, and which will come on line as soon as it has been translated and the French pages added.

2010-02-27T09:22:00.001Z

The weather here has been improving slowly, and some days we have had temperatures above 16 degrees. In fact according to the readings on our mini weather station, we should have opened the windows as it was warmer outside than inside the house. However when we do get bad weather it does come in large sizes. We had a thunderstorm the other night, and neither of us has ever heard thunder just keep on echoing around the hills for so long before.

Last week we went to a memorial ceremony for a number of resistance fighters shot by the Nazis in February 1944. 34 young men were captured and shot near an old mill some miles west of Pompadour. About a dozen were sent to concentration camps, seven of whom died, and three escaped. It was a very moving ceremony, attended by several hundred locals. The mill is now a small museum to commemorate the event.

The next day we decided to visit Brive, and ended up in the middle of a rather damp Carnival. It was in fact a Carnival week in Malemort-sur-Correze, a village that is now really a suburb of eastern Brive. The floats process from there to the centre of Brive where everyone apparently eats snacks and throws confetti. Despite the weather everyone seemed to be having a good time.

I should have my very own website soon, advertising my little business. I was doing some marketing with local agents, but have paused until the site is up and running.

We should know which airline(s) will fly into the new Brive-Souillac airport soon. The airport is planned to open at the end of June, and is forecast to bring in more visitors and raise the profile of the Correze as a whole. Just bought a new sofa-bed for those awkward extra guests! Looks pretty comfortable, and certainly big enough for two.

As the weather has been so nice we have taken the opportunity to drive around the area, our excuse being that we are scouting out sights to show visitors. One of my favourite views is the valley of the Vezere river, where it is overlooked by the Chateau of Comborn. This was once the home of one of the local counts and his family had control over a large area. Today it is mostly in ruins, and there is supposed to be a restaurant there. It was actually for sale a few years ago, and we went to have a look. We discovered that for a few euros the owner gave guided tours, so were able to look without making any offer!

Yesterday we went again to Uzerche, another lovely town high up overlooking the Vezere again. More wonderful views!

2010-02-15T10:43:00.000Z

Not a lot to report since my last dispatch from the front. The weather has continued pretty cold with a bit of snow, so we have mostly stayed in and read or watched TV. We are saving our next lot of real exploring until we can share it with our visitors.
I have got my Siret or registration number for my small business, looking at creating a website and I am contacting prospective clients.

The French lessons are going well, we will practice a lot more when we go out more and there are a few of our neighbours actually outdoors as well.

We have had a few interesting experiences with the post – one parcel of books from Amazon was returned to them and the order cancelled as they couldn’t find our address. I re-ordered and they arrived in about 4 days. Other items have taken weeks, some just a couple of days.

Playing around with the panorama maker software I tried it indoors – so you can actually see a whole room. This is the dining room, very bare and empty at the moment and awaiting the input and inspiration of our interior designer (also known as Lisa our daughter-in-law).

2010-02-02T09:37:00.000Z

We started our French lessons on the 22nd – beginning right at the beginning! Our teacher is French, but lived in UK for 21 years, and we get on very well with her. We are having a lesson every week, so we hope to get more confident soon.

On the Saturday we drove to Brantome, just over an hour away in the Dordogne. There was an exhibition of English speaking businesses, and I wanted to see if I could make any contacts there for my own business of property photography and floorplans. It turned out to be very small scale, although I was able to leave info with a few people. It’s always a delight to visit Brantome anyway – we have stayed there a couple of times.

The Sunday 24th was Judy’s birthday, so we went out for lunch. Research on the net found us at the Relais du Bas Limousin, which is a very friendly hotel and restaurant with excellent food – a very enjoyable meal.
http://www.relaisbaslimousin.fr/accueil.html

Talking of Judy’s birthday, the postal system here is not the fastest in the world. As I write she is still waiting for two lots of presents, and one of her cards only arrived yesterday.

I mentioned starting my own business – well “Imagerie de La Proprieté” has now been set up as a company under the recent “Auto Entrepeneur” regime. This is specifically for very small businesses, and means I only pay tax and social charges on anything I actually earn. I am waiting for my Siret or registration number, but I have started marketing, and hope to get a website going soon.

A couple of interesting car related incidents. We went out for a drive last Tuesday, and in the depths of the countryside discovered we had a puncture. I crept into the nearest town – Pompadour, and the garage repaired if for me for €15. While we were waiting for it to be done, we investigated a new restaurant we had heard was being opened by an English family. They told us there opening night was on Saturday, so we booked a table – got to support each other!

http://www.7bedandbreakfast.com/

By the time we were due back in Pompadour for our French lesson on the Friday, the snows had returned. I thought if were careful and stuck too the main roads, we should have no problem getting there. Halfway there we turned a corner on a road leading downhill, to find a surface covered in ice, and a large white can with its nose in the ditch and the rest of it occupying all our side of the road, and a fair bit of the other side too. I braked as gently as I could and tried to steer around it, and as we gently, and inexorably, slid towards the van, I may have uttered a prayer or two. In the event we just clipped bumpers, and knocked back our wing mirror – no damage to either party. I stopped to see if I could help, but the van driver needed a tractor or similar to pull him out. We pushed on, and weren’t even late for our lessons.

Unfortunately the snow still hasn’t fully cleared even by today, so our visit to the new restaurant in Pompadour had to be postponed, as the roads get very icy at night. A treat to come!

Ah yes, I have worked out how to use the panorama making programme on the computer!

2010-01-20T10:54:00.000Z

Another fairly quiet week as first I had the flu, and then Judy went down as well. Nothing too bad but not very pleasant.
We met the language teacher in Pompadour, a very nice lady who lived in England for 21 years. We will go back to basics and work through a course with her – one lesson a week to start.

We managed a trip into Brive to get Judy her birthday present – she chose a really nice necklace. The lady in the shop then boxed and gift-wrapped it so I can “surprise” her. I have been in touch with an accountant, and taken the first steps in setting up my little business here - “Imagerie de Proprieté”. Once the official start up is underway I can start approaching potential clients and advertising, hopefully just as spring starts and people might want nice photographs of their houses and gites.
Still trying to get some building work done, but as everywhere getting a builder to come is one thing, a quote is another, and actually getting the work done….We are still waiting for quotes from two builders, one of whom – a really nice chap with several acquaintances in common – said that with the downturn there isn’t enough work around, and there are lots of cowboy builders about. He is thinking of going abroad to work.

One of the nicest things here is to be able to look out of the window and over “our land”, even if it is basically scrubby woodland on a 45 degree slope. I often see and hear buzzards, and a couple of days ago Judy watched three deer. The oddest was a squirrel (red here of course) on the windowsill of our sitting room – some 8 metres above the garden – very athletic.

Just had an oil delivery, I won’t tell you how much it cost because I’ll only get depressed again. Anyway it should last us well into next winter, particularly since we had the boiler serviced.

Now we have private top up health insurance we are off this afternoon to settle up our bill for our blood tests at the laboratory, life here isn’t so much complicated as just different!

2010-01-09T15:43:00.002Z

Now we have recovered from Christmas, we have got down to sorting out a few more things to help us settle in.

We know we must improve our French – but we hardly see anyone to talk to at this time of the year as everyone is indoors in front of their fire. We have had some cold temperatures and a bit of snow, but nothing as bad as UK seems to be enduring at the moment. Anyway we are meeting a local language teacher next week, and if she seems OK, we will book weekly lessons with her. We have tried studying from CDs, but it doesn’t really give you the confidence you need. The big problem is that all our first contacts in France have been with people like utilities, phone companies etc – and mostly on the telephone, not an easy start.

Regarding the house we have had the boiler serviced – should run a bit more economically now, and had another quote for blowing 30cm of insulation to fill the attics – just over €2,000. It’ll be spring before I make up my mind. Some of the bubble wrap we used to protect pictures when we moved has come in very useful for “double-glazing” some of our draughtier windows.

Our doctor had us take blood tests – there is a laboratory in Objat to which we went on Thursday morning. They took an armful from each of us, and the results were posted to us and arrived the following morning. We took them up to the doctor, who said we were pretty healthy, but gave us the usual warning about cholesterol etc. Phew.

Later on Thursday we went to Brive to meet Amanda Kiff, who runs the Correze office of the Franco-British Chamber of Commerce. Amongst other things this helps new businesses to start up, and Amanda was able to give me lots of useful advice and contacts to help me with my plans. She radiates enthusiasm for her job and for the Correze. It may be a relatively unknown area at the moment, but not for much longer is she has her way. I joined up on the spot, and this will enable me to make further contacts, go to meetings and social / networking events and, I hope, get more help and advice. Amanda can even get tickets for Brive Rugby Club!

2010-01-01T13:22:00.000Z

Well we are back home again after visiting the family in UK for Christmas.

We travelled over on Le Shuttle on the 22nd. Eurostar and the Tunnel had just had major problems, and the weather in Northern France was supposed to be awful, so we set off very early and got to Calais with about 3 ½ hours to spare, as all the problems had disappeared. Luckily they were able to put us on an earlier train, so we were able to visit a very old friend, Dave Makepeace, and his family who live very close to the Folkestone Shuttle terminal.

We then went to stay with our daughter Rachel in Tooting in South London. We visited our son Nick and his family in Leigh on Sea, my brother Martin and his family in Kingston (twice), Judy’s sisters Carol and Gill and brother Chris in Stevenage, another old school friend Richard Allnutt and his family, and we even managed to squeeze in some culture visiting the Turner exhibition at the Tate. We had a great time – especially thanks to Rachel.

We came back yesterday – a long day’s driving, and we were very glad to get home. It was noticeable on the motorways that there were lots of cars with Parisian plates also heading South – the French like to spend the big holidays with their families we are told.

We have cranked up the central heating again, I have slept for about 10 hours, and am gathering my strength to sort out the bits of official post we got when we were away – utility bills, health stuff etc. It’ll wait!

Happy New Year!

2009-12-18T09:24:00.000Z

With the cold weather we have had a pretty quiet time for last few days. The oil-fired central heating is working well (although the level in the tank is falling too rapidly for my pocket’s liking!) but this is an old and rather draughty house. Ah well, on goes the jumper. I have done some insulation between the cellar roof / house floors, but we do need more insulation in the attics. We had a company come out to give us a quote – they pump a type of cotton fibre in to a depth of 200mm. €9,000 ! Even allowing that we can reclaim 40% of that against tax next year, that’s quite a lot. I’m looking at other possibilities, as I really don’t want to use fibreglass. Sheep’s wool would be perfect, but I haven’t found a supplier yet. There are a number of websites with classified ads and chat forums so I have asked if anyone knows of a supplier – so I live in hope.

We hope we have finished the Christmas shopping – just a couple of perishables to get. We had a bit of snow last night, and the road outside our house turned into a bit of an ice rink – a couple of cars were abandoned for the night at the bottom of the hill. This morning the tractors are out clearing the roads, but I don’t think we’ll be going anywhere today.

Took our tetanus jabs out of the fridge last night (before the snow) and nipped up to the doctors with them. A quick jab, and we have to have another one in a month. He also wants us to have blood tests – so we have to the laboratory in Objat and get them done. A bit of paperwork to sort out to get some of the money we have spent reimbursed, and we don’t have our Cartes Vitale (health cards) yet, but we are getting there.

Returning to UK on Tuesday – so hope that all the roads have been cleared here and there before then.

A happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year!

Joyeux Noël et une nouvelle année prospère

2009-12-09T21:38:00.000Z

Quite a busy couple of days – for us at least. Tuesday we were in Objat, with two main purposes in mind. We have received a social security number, but not yet got the actual “Cartes Vitales”, which are the ones you present to doctors, chemists, hospitals etc. Judy discovered that for getting a prescription the social security number was enough – although we should get the Carte soon. Although this pays for most of your treatment, it is recommended that you get top-up insurance which pays the rest and will cost about €1,000 a year for both of us. One rather surprising element was that our new doctor had asked if we had had tetanus jabs recently. We haven’t, so the prescription included two doses for tetanus, diptheria and polio, which we were sternly told to take home and keep in a plastic bag in the veg drawer of the fridge, until we took them to the doctor to give to us.

The second thing we had to do was to change my mobile from pay a you go to a contract. PAYG is fine, but here the cards are time limited – even one for €25 may only be valid for a couple of months. The nice lady in the phone shop told me that if I did take out a basic low-cost contract, I would have to have a new mobile number. To keep my old one would involve a discussion with Orange customers services. After a bit of thought I decided that 1. Only a couple of people have my mobile number so telling them a new one wouldn’t be a problem, and 2. I hate talking to customer services in any language. So a new number it is.

We then went to look in the local wine merchants in the town. What a great place. A huge choice of wines, from the really expensive to, and I kid you not, the draught white at €1.20 per litre (or red or rosé) which comes via a baby petrol pump straight into your plastic bottle or other container. What a lot of experimenting we have to do….

Today we had a drive around looking for a couple of last Christmas presents. (By the way Christmas cards are on their way as soon as the lady in Voutezac post office gets a new supply of the relevant stamps). We first went to Donzenac, a really pretty mediaeval village about 20km away.

Sadly, and not surprisingly, nearly all the interesting shops have shut over the winter, so we’ll have to keep on looking. On the way back we called in at the vet in Pompadour to check that they can give Bertie the jab for his pet passport the day before we hit the Chunnel for an English Christmas – all OK.

2009-12-07T13:39:00.002Z

When we went into Brive on Friday we had a really good lunch at a very nice restaurant which specialises in Correzian dishes. So you will probably be a bit surprised to learn that on Sunday we decided to go for a drive into the Dordogne and had lunch in an Irish pub. It was nice, filling, food, and it was enjoyable chatting to the owner, but (aside from the fact we were the only customers), it isn’t difficult to understand why Irish and British food doesn’t have quite the same reputation as the French variety. Mind you we may go back again for the quiz night…..

2009-12-05T13:10:00.002Z

A pretty quiet week – we’ve written all the Christmas cards, got most of the presents, and gloried in the fact that we are returning to UK for the actual celebration, so someone else can do all the hard work!

I am hoping to set up a small business here, doing property floorplans and photography. To help me with the setting up the local Franco-British Chamber of Commerce arranged for me to meet a very nice and helpful French lady from the Brive Chamber of Commerce, whose job it is to help small businesses start. She seemed reasonably impressed by my plans, and was able to explain the steps I have to take – although the system I want to be under is comparatively simple, there are still a few bureaucratic hurdles to overcome.

I’ll keep you posted.

2009-11-27T08:43:00.003Z

For those of you who are not quite sure whereabouts in France we are (and it is a very big place):

2009-11-26T15:22:00.002Z

I'ts been a very quiet week, but I suppose that's why we came here..

Set up a Skype account - we are now able to make free calls over the internet all over the world. I think that's a great idea.

The prices here are no longer cheaper than in UK - in fact some things are a fair bit dearer. However part of this is obviously the exchange rate, and as we came here when the rate was virtually parity, we hope that if it climbs we will be better off. The people to feel sorry for are those who came to France or Spain when the rate was 1.60, or have their money invested in funds paying hardly any interest. Fuel, especially diesel, is cheaper even now, and costs such as local taxes are lower too. We still keep an eye on the shopping bill, and there is even a Lidl nearby for when we are feeling particularly mean.

The weather has been pretty good for the last few days - mostly sunny and temperatures around 15c - rather better than UK we hear. We have had a few exploratory drives while going shopping, and the countryside and views around here are really wonderful - come and see!

I have discovered that there is a branch of the Franco-British Chamber of commerce in Brive, and they are happy, in fact very keen, to help me through the bureaucratic hurdles of setting up a small business. We have a meeting tomorrow week, and I am really looking forward to it.

2009-11-23T09:21:00.000Z

A very quiet week - though after a weekend with Rachel, most weeks would seem fairly peaceful....

We are still getting builders around to give us quotes for the building work we want - I know that a good builder should be a busy builder, but it can be quite hard work actually getting the quotes - so no change from England there.

On Wednesday we drove up to the North of Limousin to visit David Brown, who runs a business doing floorplans over here. We have met once before, and he was keen to see my elevated camera gear at work. He'll put in his ads that he can provide this service, and I can also help out if he has any floorplan work down our way. I need to formally set up a small business - not as easy as in UK, so I am seeking advice.

On Sunday we tried another Church for Judy - this time in the village of Limeuil in the Dordogne. Rather a distance away (over an hour and a half drive), but they hold Protestant services every Sunday. Jude enjoyed the service (which had far more worshippers than the church in Filkins ever seemed to have), while Bertie and I wandered around the village, along the banks of the river (it's in a spectacular location where the Dordogne and Vezere rivers join) and I had a coffee. After the service there was a "bring it yourself" lunch with wine and bread provided - very enjoyable. We'll go again but perhaps not every week. While there is a well-established Anglican church set up in the Dordogne, there seems to be nothing formal yet anywhere near us. We have found out about a group that meets in someone's home on Wednesdays in Pompadour near us, so Judy will be contacting them.

2009-11-16T19:48:00.002Z

Phew - a busy few days in which we have covered a large number of, admittedley very pretty, French kilometres.

Rachel arrived at Brive Railway station on Thursday afternoon and we brought her straight back to Voutezac so she could look around the house and village while it was still light...she seems to have approved.

On Friday we took her to Brive, the centre of which is very attractive. It was warm enough to sit outside and have a coffee. From there we went South to Collonges la Rouge, officially one of the prettiest villages in France.

After a very nice lunch we went to two other officially pretty villages - Curemonte, and then Turenne, the village we almost bought a gite complex in a couple of years ago.

Saturday was even busier. First stop was Arnac Pompadour, a town about 20 minutes from us which has a Chateau which is used as one of the French National Studs for Arab horses, and also has a race course right in its centre.

Then we went to Segur le Chateau and St Jean de Cole (two more prettiest villages and well earned). Lunch was in Brantome, "the Venice of the Perigord - that is it has a river running through it. However it is well worth a visit as it's Abbey is particularly photogenic.

At this point it would have been wise to have gently worked our way home, but we decided to go the medieval town of Sarlat, which was a further hour and a half away to the South. However Sarlat is always worth it, and we had a very enjoyable walk around and coffee in the main square.

I think I can say it was tired but satsfied trio (plus the dog whose opinions were not canvassed) who eventually made it home.

Sunday was busy again. After a trip to the Sunday Market in Objat (where we saw a basket of black truffles at only €50 per 100gm - surely the perfect thank you present?) we had to take Rachel to catch her train home from Bordeaux, as she wasn't able to get a ticket back from Brive. Bordeaux is over 200 km from here, but luckily its motorway all the way, and we hardly saw another car all the way - French motorways are quiet (and they ban HGVs on Sundays!). After lunch in the station buffet (not BR curly sandwiches) we saw Rachel off. On the way back we dropped in to someone I contacted out here who has Peregrine and Saker falcons - a very interesting meeting. She just breeds them, and doesn't hunt. It's much more complex here, but I hope I might get another hawk one day.

Today we took another giant leap into Frenchness - the Disco is now on French plates.

Thanks to Jean at the local garage for all his help. As well as fixing the problems I had with the car, and getting the car a Controle Technique (French MOT valid for 2 years),today he came with me and another English couple to the relevant office in Brive, where we handed in a number of forms and supporting evidence and a cheque for €180. On the way back Jean called the local car spares place on his mobile, and the plates were ready when we got back to Objat. He then fitted them for us - that's what I call service..

2009-11-11T10:57:00.001Z

We've had a very quiet few days - the weather has been chilly so we snuggled up around the TV!

Judy had her hair done at the village hairdressers - and it looks very nice. She is happy to keep on going there as, despite the language problem, they seem to know what she wants.

I have been thinking about getting back into falconry, but I know it's rather more complicated here. The people who hunt and shoot are very well organised, and certainly to shoot you are supposed to take a theoretical and practical exam. I am in touch with a lady in the Dordogne who has a small collection of falcons, and we are seeing her on Sunday, so I should get some idea of what it all involves.

We have just got back from the Rememberance Day ceremony in the village. It was held outside the local church, and there was a good turnout. The Mayor spoke, and then several of the village children read out their set speeches. Although I couldn't follow all of it, they were talking about what they owed the many men from the Commune who died in the two World Wars (particularly the First), Algeria and Indo China. They also spoke of the folly of war, and hoped for peace, and who wouldn't agree with that?

Tomorrow Rachel is coming to visit for a few days, so more news later!

2009-11-05T20:12:00.000Z

Really settling in now. Judy has booked a hair appointment - the village may only be small, have a post office and bakers, but it also has a hairdressers!

Went to the vets to get Bertie some more tablets - he wrote out a prescription for no charge, and the chemist charged €4.80 for 90 tablets, it was over £17 in UK!

We are now getting builder's quotes for the work that needs doing - probably won't happen until well into next year.

2009-11-03T16:40:00.000Z

Judy says we have come to France to relax a bit - we are certainly learning to do that.

On Sunday I was going to take Judy to an English speaking Protestant church service in the Dordogne. It's about the nearest one to us and it's a good hour's drive. Unfortunately there was thick fog in the morning, so we had to give it a miss and just sit around and watch sport on TV - curses.

On Monday we made a double tactical mistake. We drove to the departmental capital of Tulle - about an hour from us. The two mistakes were that Tulle is not a very exciting place - although it is the administrative capital Brive is 3 times larger and rather more interesting. We should have taken notice of an acquaintance who runs a hotel we have stayed in - she says they really don't like Tulle, partly because there is not much there but mostly because the only reason they have to go there is to pay their taxes. The other mistake was going on a Monday - round here almost everything is closed on a Monday, and Tulle was no exception.

Today was a lot better. The weather is still grotty - grey and rainy, but we drove to Perigeux, the largest town in the Dordogne. It's a lovely town, with lots of interesting shops and back streets. We even found a good restaurant and had an excellent lunch.

For a view more views of our village click on this link:

http://pagesperso-orange.fr/brive/voutezac

there are several glimpses of our house.

Our first guest should be with us next week - Rachel our daughter is coming by train. We are really looking forward to showing her our house and the local area.

2009-10-28T16:51:00.000Z

Took a drive out to the Eastern side of the Correze - the countryside there gets progressively hillier as it climbs towards the serious mountains of the Massif Central in the Auvergne. We just drove to a well known view point at Suc-au-May at 908m - and the views were amazing. The leaves are just starting to turn - they will probably be amazing in a week or two, but no guarantee that the weather will be as nice as it was today.

Last Sunday we ventured down to the market in Objat. This is obviously an important social occasion as well as a retail opportunity - everyone seemed to be meeting their friends as well as going from stall to stall.

2009-10-27T16:27:00.000Z

A successful day - we braved French bureaucracy and survived. To re-register the car I had to see someone in the tax office in Brive and fill out a form, which she then stamped in about nine places. Now all I have to do is get a CT (French MOT), and take that and all the other paperwork to another office. Of course first I have to have new headlamps fitted.....Thank goodness for finding my English speaking, Land Rover keen garage owner.

I even did some actual work this afternoon - fitting insulation between the joists in the basements, as there was nothing between the floorboards in the sitting room and study and the cold basement below. Looking quite good so far.

2009-10-26T11:45:00.000Z

Weather has perked up a bit - we have a nice sunny and quite warm day. If you want to see how much better the weather is here:

http://france.meteofrance.com/france/meteo?PREVISIONS_PORTLET.path=previsionsville/192880

We are getting the house together now - our new curtains are up and we have most of our new furniture in place - just the bunk beds to come. A few photos:

We leave the Old Country........

2009-10-19T20:13:00.000+01:00

3rd September 2009. After many vicissitudes we have finally sold our house in Filkins. The movers pack everything up to take it into storage. The couple buying the house are so keen to move in, they are happy to take the keys off us as soon as the removals van is loaded. This means that we have to find somewhere to stay until our ferry - we stay in the Five Alls our local pub for 3 nights, so not really a chore. The only family member a bit puzzled is Bertie, our Clumber Spaniel, who has to sleep in the back of the Discovery, but he gets lots of walks to compensate.

4th September. A gratifying number of our friends turn up for our leaving party in the pub. Lots of good wishes, cards and presents. Also lots of people who promise to come and visit us!

6th September. We catch the ferry from Portsmouth to Cherbourg. It's a very reasonable 3 hours, although Bertie's comments from the back of a car that is now moving up and down are not recorded. A couple of hours from the ferry port we spend the night in a nice little hotel, which, much to Bertie's relief, has a small park right next door.

We decided not to start the formal buying procedure in France until we were absolutely sure of our UK sale. This meant, according to our French estate agent, that the legal process overseen by the Notaire would take some 2 months. We were lucky enough to be able to rent a house in the Dordogne from a friend of a friend, so thats where were headed.

7th September. St Julien de Lampon, midway between Sarlat and Souillac. Not bad place to see out our wait. The weather for our stay was excellent - it hardly even rained, and the temperature was around the mid 20s most of the time. Bertie appreciated the back garden, and we appreciated the views........

We kept in touch with agents, and met up at the Notaire to sign some preliminary paperwork. To our surprise the Notaire announced that we could complete on Saturday 19th September, much earlier than we thought!

19th September. We all meet up at the Notaires, Judy and I, the vendors M and Mme Morant, the Notaire and our estate agent Peter van den Berg, who translated for us. After signing our names to what seemed like a huge number of pieces of paper, we had a house! We had transferred the money from our UK account to our French one, and I was a bit disappointed that we had seemed to hit a low in the rate. In fact it kept on falling, so if we had had to wait a few more weeks we would have lost a fair bit on the exchange.

We accompanied M and Mme Morant to the house where they gave us all the keys, and showed us what everything did. Madame had spent 4 days cleaning and polishing the house, and it was spotless. The only snag delaying our move was that the removals firm couldn't slot us in until the 30th... so it was back to the Dordogne to wait.

30th September. Our big day. The removals men turn up on time, and get everything in pretty quickly - helped by the fact that we have 3 front doors! They are gone by lunch time, and all we have to do is unpack a huge number of boxes. At first we thought a couple of things were missing, but one turned up in the bottom of a packing case a few days later, and the last item about 3 weeks after that.

One little problem showed itself as we drew up outside the door that morning. Judy pointed out a slowly spreading pool of water under the car, which turned out to be a leak from the heater matrix. Luckily I had taken out breakdown cover, so the nice man from Green Flag came and winched me onto his low loader and asked where I wanted to go. The nearest town to Voutezac is Objat, some 10 minutes away. As we had driven through, I had noticed a small garage which always seeme to have Land Rovers and Discoveries outside, so I said we would try there first. The owner is not only a Land Rover expert, but he also speaks excellent English. He made a temporary repair so we could keep going, and said he could repair the car, fit left hand headlights and otherwise prepare it so I can register it in France. Result!

The house and outside:

20th October. Lets get up to date. We have settled in very well ! We have bought some new furniture, some of which is in and the rest should be delivered tomorrow. We also have new curtains on order. We have begun the registration with the French health service, and found an English speaking doctor.

The nearest town is Objat, a very pleasant place with a good selection of shops including several supermarkets. Each Sunday a large market takes over the whole town centre. The large town of Brive is about 20 minutes away, with all the shops you could want, with a particularly attractive town centre with cafes etc. We are off there later this afternoon, looking for rugs.

The house still needs some work - it probably always will. The house is dated from 1689, while the cellars are the remains of the village's fortified walls, and apparently date from the 13th century:

We plan to have two bedrooms and a shower room in the attic, with a few other improvements. As you can see from the floorplan we have lots of scope.