On September 30^th we marked our 4^th anniversary in Voutezac!

We are great users of Kindles – so useful to be able to download books easily. I bought a Kindle Fire HD, with all its extra features as a tablet it seemed an excellent compromise. The main downside was that it recognised I was in France, but had a UK Amazon account, so would not let me buy apps from either store! Not very international. Unfortunately it took the Fire part too literally and started to overheat quite badly. I checked in the net and this is a known problem. Eventually Amazon France agreed to send me a replacement, but that obverheated as well. Amazon gave me a refund and Judy said that to shut me up I could have an Ipad Mini. It’s great.

Our old friends the Makepeaces have settled into their holiday home near us, and we have seen them a number of times, plus their daughter Bethany and her partner James. It is so nice to have someone else fall for this part of France as well, although technically they are in the Dordogne – which of course is inferior to the Correze.

 

Every so often we feel extra guilty about a lack of exercise for both us and Bertie. One of favourite walks is a delightful circle around the Lac de Poncharal, about 20 minutes from us. For most of the year it is a fishing lake, and used by walkers. In the summer there is a campsite and a nice sandy beach for swimmers – we are quite a long way from the sea here!

 

Talking of dogs I have been having Irish Wolfhound withdrawal symptoms, I really miss poor old Faust. However we have agreed that such big dogs are a real tie, and expensive and difficult to look after.  I did spot a clumber spaniel bitch which needed a home some 4 hours from us ( and they are very rare in France), but it had already found one by the time I contacted the owner – so Bertie can breathe again.

We also had a great walk along the bank of the Vezere river in the neighbouring village of Le Saiilant. We got as far as the hydroelectric plant that, presumably, provides some of our power. Back in the village we had a coffee in the local café, which opens on the first of July, and shuts on the last day of August.

 

I had a very enjoyable floorplan job to do in the Dordogne, outside the village of St Julian. The property was an old farm house, literally right on the bank of the Dordogne river. The owners are going to make an up market B & B out of it, and it should be fantastic. Judy came with me and after I had finished we had a picnic by the river. And I got paid for it!

 

More friends to visit in September. The Clarkes came from Liverpool to Limoges, and when we picked them up we were a little disconcerted to see large buses full of gendarmes at the airport. However this was actually because President Hollande was visiting the area, and nothing to do with a plane load of scousers arriving. Anyway Fred and Di seemed to enjoy their break with us, and we always enjoy showing off the area to visitors.

 

On one of our drives I found some caves on the edge of Brive in the guide book. When we got there we found that the Grottes de St Antoine are actually part of a monastery – although all open to visitors. The caves were apparently used by St Anthony of Padua in the 13^th century, and they now contain shrines. From there we went to the Lac de Causse, another large public lake with beaches and lots of facilities, as long as its July or August – which it wasn’t.

 

Around here you can see a lot of sign for farm shops, or places selling farm products, they are quite rightly proud of their produce. However, often when you find the place you discover yourself in a farm yard with no sign of anyone selling anything. So we were pleased to find a local farm shop which sells cheese, butter and yoghurt made from the milk of the cows in the adjacent fields. They also sell fresh whole milk, normally only found in half a dozen bottles in the supermarket.

Had my annual check-up at Brive hospital, X ray, scan and appointment with the consultant. All very swiftly handled, and you get copies of the X rays and scans and lab reports. All good, white cell levels climbing very slowly and we just have to keep a watching brief.

Library news – we had an article in the Connexion, the English language French monthly newspaper. Nice picture of Judy and me and some good publicity. We went to a writers’ club meeting in Sarlat, where we had lunch with members of the Dordogne writers’ club – very interesting. We then had a curry lunch at the chateau as a fund raiser. Not as many attended as we hoped, but the food was excellent and everyone enjoyed themselves.

 

Rachel popped over for a quick visit, an we were back in Sarlat again for dinner with our friend Diane. Before that we had driven around some of the tourist sites on the Dordogne river, and had a visit to the Chateau at Beynac – highly recommended. A couple of days later we were back in the Dordogne to meet up with the Hulses, old friends from UK, in the lovely town of Brantome.  Ah, this mad social whirl…

 

 

Sadly Rachel left the day before we went to watch Brive play Newcastle Falcons in the Amlin Cup. A late start (9pm), but an excellent game and Brive won. We are always amazed how friendly Brive stadium is, all the fans mix, young men bring their girlfriends and there are loads of small children.

Because the roads around Voutezac are quite scenic, we often get old car rallies passing us. It is a little thought provoking when a classic car proves to be one that was our daily transport 30 or 40 years ago….Anyway a couple of days ago a fabulous Bentley swept past, British registered, that’s what I call flying the flag!

 

It’s been a really enjoyable few weeks since my last effort – the weather has improved enormously, so I don’t feel quite so bad about sitting around in the house all day as it comes under the heading of staying out of the sun. Also, of course, August is peak holiday time – and we don’t want to be mistaken for tourists….

 Got a floorplan and photography job near Angers, a mere 4 ½ drive each way. Sadly that day the weather wasn’t too good, but they seemed happy with what I did. If you want to buy a B & B with gite in NW France – just let me know. Or, for that matter a bar in Objat, an “English” shop or a B & B in Tulle. I’ve got contacts…

 

TULLE B & B

The Library is ticking over nicely. The best thing is that we are getting a number of French members – embarrassingly they seem keener to improve their English than many of us do to improve our French. One of our friends teaches English to mature French students on-line, and she says that she now teaches people who have been made redundant, and say that if they don’t have English on their CV they have no chance of getting another job.

We have always wanted to see the cave paintings for which this part of France is famous. The cave at Lascaux is a replica, and the others in the Valley of Mankind near Les Eyzies-de-Tayac are fully booked months in advance or you have to queue for hours in the hope of getting a ticket. When I found the website for the caves at Pech Merle in the Lot, just over an hour south of us, and found I could book a guided tour in English, we were delighted. And we were not disappointed – they were superb. 25,000 year old cave paintings, showing horses mammoths and bison. Hand prints. 12,000 year old preserved child’s footprints. A wonderful day.

 

The weather has been pretty good on the whole. Some very hot days – yet another excuse to sit in the cool and read a book. A few rather impressive storms with rain and hail, plus some exciting lightning displays.

In early July we visited the Jardin d’Eyrignac in the Dordogne, near Sarlat. I am not a great gardener (no surprise to anyone who knows me), but these lively formal gardens are really worth a visit. We went with a friend, Diane, and had a very enjoyable lunch first. Afterwards we went back to Di’s and I took some pictures of her gite for her website – see http://www.homeaway.co.uk/p872106

 

EYRIGNAC

Later on in July we went to UK for Carol, Judy’s sister’s, birthday party. We made a break of it, spending the first night in Honfleur in Normandy and seeing our friends from the old days, the Harrops, who have a holiday flat nearby.

 

HARROPS' FLAT

 

 

VIEW FROM THEIR FLAT!

They presented us with a wonderful painting which Ian had done of our house in Voutezac as an anniversary present:

Then through the tunnel and spent a great night with my cousin Linda and her husband Keith, who are renting an amazing house in East Sussex – who knew you could be so remote in that part of the world? Particularly nice to see the badger that picks up the leavings from their bird feeders.

 

Then on to stay with Posie in Dorset. You meet someone at university over 40 years ago and they still use that as an excuse to blag a room for the night! Back in our old home area we caught up with loads of old friends  - Romney Pargetter,  met up with the Titcheners for lunch and tea with Rennie Thompson. Oh the mad social round! Next to Oxfordshire where we stayed with Jim and Angela. We all went out for a very nice meal at the Five Alls in Filkins, which once again seems to be flourishing. Met up with a few old friends then and on the following morning, and even met the lady who has bought our old cottage.

Final run up to Stevenage, where we met up with Rachel, and booked into a local hotel. Had a very good evening celebrating Carol’s birthday – especially nice to see Lesley, over from California. Back to the Tunnel visa Essex where we caught up with Nick and tribe, and also saw Martin and his family. A night stop in Abbeville, a detour to pick up Bertie, and we got safely home. Tired but happy!

A few days later we had the annual Voutezac Peach Festival – a very enjoyable evening meal (peach themed of course), followed by a really excellent firework display. We especially relished the bit where at the end they light up our house with red lights, almost as if all the fireworks had set light to it! Gulp.

 

Speaking of the weather – not that I was – we have had some really spectacular storms in the last couple of weeks. Our friends the Makepeaces are having their first real break in their holiday cottage just over the border in the Dordogne, and I think that some of the hail storms have quite impressed them!

Just had Nick and family stay the night on the way down to their gite near Carcassonne. Very enjoyable to see them!

Since we lost Faust, I have wondered about getting another (rather smaller) dog. Today we went to a dog show in Brive – it was enormous and there were even owners from England exhibiting there. I wasn’t allowed to take too close an interest in Irish wolfhound puppies though…

April 14^th was our 40^th wedding anniversary, and we were able to celebrate it in Paris with friends and family!

 

Our friends from RAF days Nichola and Paul Cannock live in a fantastic flat in the centre of Paris and were not only kind enough to put us up, but also helped Rachel organise everything. We met up with Judy’s sisters Carol and Gill and their other halves Terry and Phil, Ian and Di Harrop, Dave Lockie and Richard and Clare Allnutt (and the Cannocks and Rachel of course) for a superb lunch on the Sunday. Judy and I also did a bit of romantic sightseeing of course.

 

 

 

As Paul was kind enough to let us use his underground car parking space, we were able to take the car to Paris. Thus we could pick up Carol and Terry and bring them back to Voutezac with us. They seemed to enjoy their stay with us, although the weather wasn’t as good as it might have been.

One of our ways of contacting friends is on the dreaded Facebook. When I had a quiet evening I put in a few names and got back in touch with several old friends – we may even get some more visitors!

We have a lovely new Mairie in the village -according to the sign it cost 760,000€, and all the work was done by local firms. It houses all the offices, a library, the relocated post office and meeting rooms. The village already has an almost new Salle Polyvalente or village hall. Our boulangerie has shut, and our mayor has said that having no fresh baguettes is unacceptable, so the Commune will buy the shop and house, do it all up and get new tenants. Oh, and there are 1,550 people in the whole Commune!

OLD MAIRIE

 

BOULANGERIE AND OLD POST OFFICE

 

NEW MAIRIE

 

 

"VILLAGE HALL"

 

We had a good day out visiting the Cascades de Murel – when we eventually found them. Lovely waterfalls and pools in a very quiet location.

One of our friends here, Ross Hill is a volunteer on a heritage railway in the lovely village of Martel, about an hour south of us. We had an excellent day there, and it is very impressive. We were lucky enough to be on the trip pulled by their steam engine, which takes an old track which takes a course high above the Dordogne valley, so there are some wonderful views. There were a couple of coach parties from UK who were including the railway in their trip to France – and it certainly went down well. Highly recommended.

 

 

May was an interesting month – with four public holidays. May 1^st for Labour Day, May 8^th VE Day, May 9^th Ascension Day and May 20^th Whit Monday. Interesting how religious holidays are still observed despite France being an officially secular country.  And of course if any holiday falls on a Tuesday or Thursday then many people “Fair le Pont” – make the bridge and take the Monday or Friday off as well. Conversely if a public holiday falls on a Sunday, bad luck, no alternatives!

My oldest friend Dave Makepeace (and the saintly Juliette) visited while they finished work on the holiday home they have bought about 40 minutes from us – and very nice it is too! They moved in and have also been back for a break (teachers – more holidays than you can shake a stick at!). Really nice to have them so near.

 

Finally bought a Kindle Fire HD – very natty bit of kit. Actually ordered it at 4pm, and it arrived at 10am the next morning! Only problems are that the battery life is poor, and because I can’t get any apps from either the French or UK Amazon sites as apparently I live in the wrong place for both of them. Very useful to be able to make Skype calls from anywhere I can get a wi-fi signal though.

We have a favourite character called Bruno Courrèges in books written by an author called Martin Walker. Bruno is a municipal policeman (i.e. employed directly by the Mairie and not a Gendarme or Police Nationale), and the stories are set in a fictional village, but in an area in the Dordogne we know quite well. We knew the village was based on one called Le Bugue, so one quiet Sunday we jumped in the car and drove there to compare fiction and fact. Ah well, Mr Walker does say he has invented most of his places and characters, and it was a nice day out!

Bertie is flourishing. We thought he wasn’t missing Faust, but when we left him in my study when we went out he tried very hard to scratch a hole in the door – which he had never done in all his 12 years. We do take him out a fair bit – he is really a nice little dog to have around. His favourite toy is a retrieve dummy, which he happily fetches back to me when I throw it. He then trots off to his bed with it, where I expect he would happily demolish it if I didn’t take it off him.

One Sunday when we visited Objat market we found that it was also the Fete des Petit Pois. This actually involved stalls selling lots of peas, but also folk singing and dancing, horses and carriages, and a farmer with a pair of very gentle yoked oxen.

 

Last week had some friends from UK visiting – Jim and Ange Wiggle. A very enjoyable few days, although the weather could have been a lot better – naturally it improved as soon as they left. WE did have some good days, including a nice visit to Sarlat. They took us out for a very nice meal on their last evening with us – for which many thanks.

 

As a caseworker for the charity SSAFA I went to London to do a couple of courses, one on the on line form used to progress cases and one on loss and bereavement. I went over a couple of days early so that I could travel with CityJet and not the dreaded Ryan Air. I stayed at the Union Jack Club, which is a very nice club / hotel right next to Waterloo station. I managed to meet up with Rachel and Nick, and we had an excellent meal at a very posh restaurant called Rules. I also met an old friend Verena, and we met Nick at his place of work the “Gherkin”. He took us up to the top for a coffee and some fantastic views. A good trip, but glad to get home, of course.

Last night we rushed out at 11pm to watch the International Space Station pass over. I have found a website which lets you find when it is passing near you and is visible. We always find it exciting to think that there are actually people whizzing past up there!

 

 

 

The saddest news is that we have lost Faust, our Irish Wolfhound. He had a heart attack in the back of our car. He wasn’t even three years old, so it was a great shock and we miss him very much.

 

Our Library goes from strength to strength. It has been fairly quiet over the winter, but we have recruited a number of new members and we have a number of plans for 2013. To raise funds we had a Fish & Chip lunch in a small Bar Tabac near the library. The owner kindly let us use his kitchen, and between some of us committee members we produced a meal of home-made soup (my contribution), fish, chips and mushy peas and apple tart and custard. We fed some 45 people and it was pronounced a great success. Next we plan to have a curry lunch.

 

Our weight loss has slowed down a bit, but we are trying to stick to our diets. I have lost about 10k and Judy over 8! We’ll keep at it.

A high spot recently was having a bath fitted in our house –it replaces a shower and we still have a shower in our guest room. It is really nice to be able to relax in a nice hot soapy bath – worth every € it cost.

The weather has been pretty changeable, but nowhere near as bad as we hear it has been in UK. We had a slight spattering of snow in Voutezac, but it cleared within a few hours. We had a trip out to the east of Correze a couple of weeks ago and even at the highest point in the Limousin, Mount Bessou, the temperature was in the low 20s. Mind – there was still some unmelted snow at the sides of the road. Mount Bessou is 977m above sea level, so they have built an observation tower which I am guessing is just over 23m high, so you can clear the 1,000m. Anyway the views are fantastic.

We also visited the site of a Roman Villa - Bertie enjoyed the view as well.

 

Another good day out was walking with Bertie around a local lake - a lovely day and a nice cold drink at the refreshment bar at the end.

I did a very interesting floorplan job in a local village –a nice large house with a big garden. It also has two attached flats, and in one there is the most enormous train layout. It is actually in 3 or 4 rooms, with holes knocked in walls to accommodate it. Not sure if it is an attraction or not – it must have cost a fortune.

Shopping in a local store I glance at a selection of children’s’ books near the till. One caught my eye “Mes Amis Les Canards”, a sort of Ladybird book with a picture of fluffy ducklings on the cover. In an area of rural France where duck is the meat of choice in restaurants, where Foie Gras is the local delicacy and even a supposedly vegetarian omelette comes with a drizzle of duck related sauce surrounding it this rather amused me.

Our village boulangerie shut last year, and we accepted that a small village like ours could not really support its own shop, with a large town only 5 minutes’ drive away. At the start of the year we got our copy of the annual full colour glossy report from the Mayor and council. Having no boulangerie was insupportable! The commune will buy and restore the shop and adjacent living accommodation, and get new tenants. Mind, nothing has actually happened yet….

Our brand new Mairie is almost finished and should open any day now. The village post office was closed by La Poste some time ago, and that was also taken over by the Mairie and the staff paid by the commune. It will be moving into the new building as well.

Had a few medical forays – Judy has painful knees so went to Brive to have them X rayed. She then saw a specialist who said that she could have an injection in one knee – done the next week, and should have a course of physio on other which we have yet to arrange.

We have just had two friends staying who have bought their own holiday cottage about 40 minutes from us. They have got it to a habitable state after lots of hard work, and we cast them off to sleep in their own beds a couple of days ago.

 

We have a busy week coming up. We are celebrating our 40^thwedding anniversary soon, and we then have more visitors coming to stay. Tell you all about that next time.