Before and after!

The main house pool area now has even more space following a visit by our friends who are tree specialists, after trimming the Ash and the oldest Walnut tree at the front of the house we decided to make the most of their visit and felled one of the two 8 meter high fir trees, as you can see it's made a massive difference, well worth the 7 hours work it took us to remove all the debris afterwards and then consequently burn it all on a bonfire.

Strange goings-on in St Leon

Taken a short time before christmas, the church at St Leon sur Vezere shows how the french really do not go 'over the top' with their festive decorations!

The fantastic 12th century church is at the centre of the village only a few minutes drive away from Les Granges, had a very unusual happening in 1233, a local servant foolishly let fly an arrow that hit a crucifix above the entrance to the local cemetery, he was immediately struck down dead, reports said of the death that his head had been turned back to front at the time he was struck down. In 1890, the blasphemers grave was excavated to see if there was any truth in this myth and sure enough, a skeleton with its skull back to front was un-earthed......strange but true (or so it says in the history books)!!

Perigueux visit.

We had to go to Perigueux at the beginning of the week to sort out a the car registration and as, unbeknown to us before setting off on the 45 minute trip, the office we had to go to was shut, we had a quick walk around the old centre of Perigueux, ending up in the Cathedral of St Front that dominates the centre of the city. The building is unusual with its five enormous 12th century domes and inside is no less impressive with a high 17th century pulpit beautifully carved out of solid walnut (above) aswell as several massive chandeliers (below) that originally hung in Notre Dame de Paris in 1853 in honour of Napoleon III's wedding.

We shall be returning to Perigueux again soon, next time with Michelin guide book and camera in hand, it's a very fascinating and beautiful place.

A damp start!

A very happy new year to everyone. The year has started a little on the wet side, this picture of St Leon sur Vezere shows how high the river was a couple of weeks ago but is the same now, enough to cover the footpath behind the church and the area that many of our customers lounged on next to the river in the summer...not a good idea today!

2011 was a really good first year for us here at Les Granges, we welcomed 66 groups of people from all over the world who stayed in the house or one of our 4 gites, the total number of guests from each country was:-

Australia       27
Canada        8
England       87
France         38
Germany      25
Ireland         3
Netherlands  12
New Zealand 6
Poland          6
Scotland       4
United States 43
Wales           2

We're really looking forward to meeting guests, old and new, in 2012!