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 !

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…….

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!

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.

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!

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.......

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.

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!

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.

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!
 

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!

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….

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.

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!

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).

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!

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!

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!

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!