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!