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!