As we enter the year of the optician (2020 – geddit?) I thought I had better get on with ensuring my blog is up to date.

Well the summer finished with a lot of hot days, so quite a few days out and picnics.

One day we finished up at the Taverne de Montbrun, a small restaurant opposite a stunning chateau of the same name. It is near Chalus in the Haute Vienne, where Richard the Lionheart met his fate. One story says he actually died at Montbrun, and bits of him (!) are buried there. The restaurant was nice, but to our surprise is actually run by Russians – and the food wasn't up to much. I asked if they owned the chateau as well, but the proprietors of that are currently Dutch.

For another picnic I looked on the map and found a nice looking lake, about an hours drive away. Scenic for us and a good run for the dogs. Sadly by accident or design a large hole had appeared at one end, and the lake had all drained away.

Later we found some Roman remains nearby. We know how to live life in the fast lane. 

Rather more successful was a return trip the Chirac Museum, which holds many of the gifts given to the now late ex president. The museum is not huge but is quite interesting, and there was a small exhibition of presidential cars. The display of carpets and rugs he had been given was rather more reminiscent of a trip to Carpetright....

Medically all going well – I knew you would want to know. A visit to the dentist to repair a broken tooth was a lot of fun, and the visit to see Dr Lefort about my high white blood count was actually fine – don't have to go back for two years – by which time she will have retired.

At the end of September we celebrated our 10^th anniversary in Voutezac! The time seems to have just flown by, but we have never really regretted making the move.

My Ipad battery was giving up the ghost, so I tried a few ot the more respeactable looking computer repair shops in Brive. None of them would touch it, as apparently you have to remove the screen to get inside. Eventually I sent it to Apple France – quite expensive, but the price included courier pick up and delivery, and it wasn't the actual battery anyway but a controller. Away less than a week.

More Poppy selling for the British Legion. Three collecting tins out this year, and we managed to raise 365 euros.

We switched the central heatingback on in October, before it got properly cold. Good idea as it didn't fire up. Called out an engineer who eventually got it working, but methinks a service and flush after we turn it off.

Very happy to have a couple of RAF friends, Pam and Kevin McCullough, come over to visit us. We hope they enjoyed themselves – we certainly liked having them.

The wonderful American “festival” of Haloween is now celebrated in France. Luckily we had some sweets and chocolates in the house as we were visited a couple of weeks early. It was very well organised with lots of parents, and there was no suggestion of “Trick or Treat”! I think Judy thought she was going to be mobbed!

My photography has continued apace. When there has been a decent sunny day, I have tried to find interesting villages to photograph. They are all on my YouTube channel (CliftonDJ), and I am still puzzled why some slideshows have had 8 views, and another 884!

I was pursuing a SSAFA case which was sadly cut short when the applicant passed away. However thanks to the needs of Data Protection the system on which we enter case information was deemed to be out of date, and I had a day in Limoges learning about its replacement.

From Limoges I travelled to England to attend a School Reunion – just the 50 years since we left! I always stress that the Royal Grammar School in Guilfdord was a state school when we were there – it went fee paying (again) in the 70s. My very good friends the Makepeaces put me up for a couple of nights, and I even saw some of the sites of Folkestone. The reunion was excellent, held in the Great Hall of the Old Building. A very nice meal, lots of anecdotes swapped and a quick visit to the school's famous chained library.

The actual trip to and from England was......interesting. I had to spend a night in Paris, then caught the Eurostar, which does stop at Ashford on weekdays, but not not for my return trip on the Sunday. Thanks again to David Makepeace for chauffeuring duties, and for the excellent speech he made at the reunion – just right!

As in many other places the weather had been poor – does not seem to have stopped raining for weeks.

Decided I had to go on a diet again, just before Christmas – good planning. I have lost a few pounds so far, but our super Christmas Day dinner with our friend Diane, 

and the lovely Boxing Day lunch Judy prepared probably put some of them back on again.....My first New Year's resolution is....

So what has been happening in the last 4 ½ months?

In April we flew to England to see family and friends. Went with Easy Jet from Bordeaux to Southend, as obviously very convenient for Nick in Leigh on Sea. OK flight, and great to see everyone at the Essex branch. From there to Kingston for the South London Cliftons (and Bourne). Next day to Marlborough to stay with Dave Lockie, then Dorset with Posy Clayton, Fossebridge with Rennie and Peter Thompson and finally North Leigh with Jim and Angela Wiggle. We had a great time, and are very thankful to have such nice friends and relations!

I'm still doing my before and after photography of local villages – see

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZBhxMvmggatemcb9tN16sw

At a cattle show in Objat I took a picture of a little girl sitting by the animals – it won a prize and was published in the French Property News magazine!

Just a couple of kilometres from us is the hamlet of Ceyrat. There is a large quarry there, and looking at the map I found some ruins marked in the hills behind the quarry. The dogs and I went to investigate and found “Les Ruines de Patel” - the remains of a chapel built around 800, and demolished in 1745.

I had rather let our garden go – I say garden but when I got a chap in to cut it all down I advised him to bring a machete! It wasn't quite that bad – he did a good job and we can actually see the garden now – pity it's still on a 30 degree slope....

Still going out for our picnics. One of the best places we have found is above the Viaduc des Rochers – where an old train line crossed a valley. The picnic tables are on platforms overlooking the depths. Nearby is the Garden of Sothys – they are a big cosmetics company and here they have herb and flower gardens and a very nice looking restaurant – almost sorry we had had our picnic!

We got to see Rachel for the first time in almost two years. She was with friends in San Sebastien just over the border in Spain. We drove down, stayed in a nice hotel in a lovely Basque village on the French side then picked her up. Great to see her – if only for a few days. She took us to our favourite chocolate shop and made drink their diet busting hot chocolate...

After finding the ancient chapel ruins near Ceyrat I had another look at the map, and Finn and I found a menhir near the village of Espartignac.

At the start of July I had to travel to England again – for the funeral of my cousin Linda. Thanks again to Dave Lockie for putting me up for a couple of nights. I was glad that I could be there for Keith, Lin's husband – just sorry we hadn't seen each other for so long.

I still play bowls every Wednesday, I'd like to say it keeps me fit but that would be a bit of a fib. Anyway the couple who mainly ran the club have sold there house and moved to Britanny – so I was elected as the new club secretary – such an honour. Actually I haven't had much to do yet – hope it stays that way!

I won't talk about the weather – we've had just about everything! Love the sun – but 40 Celsius is just a tad too warm.

Another picnic day out took us to the hamlet of Sarran. We found a nice picnic place on the top of a hill where three crosses have been erected – a Calvary. In Sarran

itself is the museum containing all (?) the gifts given to former President Chirac. It's a big place – didn't visit it this time I'm afraid.

A few days ago was our annual visit to the opera at the Chateau du Saillant with Rhonda and David Lush. This year it was Madam Butterfly, and it was excellent. A very enjoyable evening.

I found a couple more places frequented by Brits where I could rattle my British Legion Poppy collection tins, and this year we managed a very healthy 315 Euros.

We have carried on trying new places to eat, and we found a lovely little restaurant in a village about 30 minutes away over the border in the Dordogne. It's called the Auberge de Tilleuls, and I think we'll be going there a few times this summer.

This does not mean we have neglected our culinary visits closer to home – heaven forbid!

On Christmas Day we had a superb lunch at the Auberge in our village. Absolutely delicious. We had friends over on Boxing Day for lunch too.

Christmas mostly involved the swapping of Amazon vouchers with family. Why is it that when you have a goodly sum of vouchers you can't think of anything to spend them on, as soon as they are all gone you remember something you have always wanted.......

Just after Christmas we were invited to a neighbor's house where we were invited to share the Galette des Roi with them and some other neighbours. It celebrates Epiphany, and deep in the cake is a small model of a king and whoever finds has to wear a cardboard crown.

I was asked to do some English conversation classes in the village. These are not as easy as I thought, and I ran out of inspiration after a couple of months. Pity as they were good fun.

Lots of days out as the weather improved. The plan is usually to buy some sandwiches and drinks for a picnic, and then hope that a tempting restaurant lures us in....sometimes works.

We have had days out in the Dordognes, and in the last few week the Lot, which is the department south of us. On one trip to the town of Figeac we did succumb to the attractions of a very nice restaurant...

On other trips we have had lakeside picnics and the dogs have had a great time. We have seen chateaux, churches and lovely villages. It's a great area with so much to see. Finn even made a new friend.

 Limeuil in the Dordogne

Judith Margaret in the Dordogne

Assier in the Lot

Fortified Church in Rudelle, Lot

Chateau near Gourdon

Picnic Time

Chateau near Concores, Lot

Finn's new chum...

We have had the Gilets Jaunes in our area as well. They have been congregating near to motorway junctions, and we were initially held up a few times. They are still around (end of March), but don't seem to be stopping traffic any more. However the speed cameras they torched are still a testament to the strong feelings they have.

We applied for our Cartes de Sejour last August and we were told that we would get a text message when they were ready. As the end date of our receipts approached we asked a friend to contact the Prefecture in January and chase them up. They assured him it was all in hand and we would hear soon. A friend who had applied at the same time as us asked someone from his Mairie who had contacts at the Prefecture to try – and after some pushing we found all three cards had been issued in October and were waiting for us. A couple of weeks after we collected them I had a text message to say my card was ready – with a totally different reference number....

We seem to have had a pretty good winter – we had a little bit of snow which cleared quickly and for the last few weeks we have had a number of lovely sunny days. This encouraged me to do some more of my “Then and Now” photography – results on my YouTube Channel – just search for CliftonDJ.

At the end of January we went to a Burns Night, held in our village Auberge. A friend organised it and the great Fabio, proprietor of the Cadran Solaire, learnt how to me a haggis – and very nice it was. There was a god mix of expats, older French and a a number of young French people, and everyone seemed to have a great time.

Modern technology is wonderful. I discovered I had mislaid my mobile, then remembered I had installed a a “Find my Mobile” app on my Ipad. Two minutes later I had the exact location and could pick it up the next day.

A couple of RAF Association events so far this year. Once again we attended the memorial service in the village of Grun Bordas for the RAF crew who crashed after dropping supplies to the Resistance. As it was the 75^th anniversary it was very well attended, including Australian relatives of one of the crew.

A couple of weeks later I went to the RAFA SW France AGM in Bordeaux. Great meeting people and much swapping of stories. The actual AGMs can always be a little dull – and when everything is read out in English and French it can definitely drag. Great meal afterwards though!

Now that Spring is definitely here, and the central heating is about to be switched off, I'll stop and get on with gathering some more stuff for my next missive.

One of the few drawbacks to living here is the number, and viciousness of the local mosquito population. To be fair I seem to be particularly susceptible, and I have had a few visits to the doctor when I have reacted badly. Luckily the mozzies like me much more than Judy – so she has been fairly unharmed.

I have been keeping up my photography, both to make the sliding then and now photos and slideshows. Good fun in the summer! I have visited some lovely villages to do so. See my YouTube channel at CliftonDJ.

Our new Renault is going well, there is plenty of room for the dogs in the back, and it is a very pleasant car to drive. All the modern features take a bit of getting used to – key-less door opening, automatic lights and wipers, but they do make life easier.

We found a real bargain in a local brocante, a French school map of the UK. Always nice to know how others see us!

Healthwise, (apart from the French insects hatred of me), we have both been pretty well. Judy had a cracked tooth, which has been repaired with a crown. We also went to the optahlmologist – Judy for her cataract operation to be declared fine, me just for a check up. Very few opticians here give thorough eye checks, only ophthalmologists, who are very busy.

We had a very enjoyable visit from Barrie and Leslie Munday, old RAF friends. We showed them the delights of the Correze, and they seemed to enjoy an evening at the Marche des Producteurs and another at our village Peach Festival. Really nice to have such enthusiastic visitors!

We decided it would be a good idea to apply for Cartes de Sejour – basically French identity cards. Got all our paperwork together, including the only translation we needed, of our marriage certificate, and took it all to the Prefecture in Tulle. Two of the things we had to prove were that we had been resident for over 5 years, and that we had sufficient income not to be a burden. We had lots of photocopies of electricity and local tax bills, plus proof of pension and bank statement. We also had our income tax bill to show the address, and the (helpful) lady at Tulle pointed out that if we brought her copies of the income figures on the back of the bill, that would cover that aspect. Quick dash home, copies made and back after lunch. Everything accepted, fingerprints taken and we were given a receipt – just waiting for the actual cards.

Being France everything is done differently in each department. The Dordogne, which adjoins the Correze, only accepts applications by appointment, and won't even make those at the moment. In the Haute Vienne to the north of us you send off all you copies of supporting evidence and if it is okay, they make an appointment to speak to you. Guess we have been quite lucky!

The weather has been pretty good over the summer and autumn. Last Thursday we were in Brive and the temperature was 26 degrees. Since then we seem to have moved straight into early winter – yesterday (October 29^th) saw 3 degrees here, and snow in other parts of the Correze. Today there is a severe snow warning in place for the Correze – the department starts at less than 100 metres above sea level, and climbs to over 970 as you move towards the Massif Central. Ar 214 I think we are safe for a bit!

Just a quick moment to do the proud grandfather bit – Jake has started at University of East Anglia reading history, and Esme got 5 grade 7s, 4 grade 8s and a grade 9 in her GCSEs and has moved to Grammar School for the sixth form.

A few weeks ago we had an art exhibition which took over much of the village. All the artists showed there work in the streets and alleys of the old part of the own, and it was cleverly named "Remp'arts". We had an artist outside our house, and he made a delightful sketch of it, which we bought from him.

One weekend a year there is a Jour de Patrimoine, when many historic places are open to the public which are shut or private for the rest of the year. We went to Segur le Chateau, and joined a guided tour, the highlight of which was a visit to the Chateau itself. It is still in private hands, and the owner, who I understand is a duke, showed us around. There is a lot of building work going on to repair and stabilise the older parts, and we had a brife glimpse inside the Chateau itself as we moved from one part of the grounds to another.

The village has started English conversation classs once a week, and I am doing my poor best to supply the English side. Much harder than I thought!

We have had several enjoyable picnic days out while the weather was nice. Particularly memorable was a picnic overlooking the lovely village of St Leon sur Vezere, after which we visited a wild boar farm near the town of Le Bugue.

The annual Levriers or running dog show came to Pompadour again. I didn't show Finn, but we saw his breeder who said he looked fine – but need a good brush. Very embarassing.

We don't forget Icare – still "top dog"!

As always at this time of year I have been selling poppies for the Royal British Legion. I have two tins, and have been moving them around a bit, so I am quite optimistic this year!

The History Society in our village have commemorated the 100^th Anniversary of the end of the Great War with a superb exhibition in our village hall. There are boards with the names of all those who fought, details of the 88 who died, and many mementoes provided by their relatives. I was asked to provide some details of the history of the poppy, which I was very touched and pleased to do.