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.