Far from the crowds!

Tucked away at the opposite end of Les Eyzies to where all the main museum and tourist attractions are, is this very small but very historic site. Even though it is a UNESCO World Heritage site, it doesn't really get the visitors it deserves considering this is where Cro Magnon man was discovered, here on this very spot, in 1868 by accident as a road was being built to service the nearby railway station. The Abri de Cro Magnon was unearthed and the discovery of five skeletons were later proved to be 28,000 years old.
A lovely little spot up a little track next to the historic Hotel De Cro Magnon, it really is well worth a walk up the road from all the souvenir and fois gras shops to say you've been there and done that!

Not so little beauty!

Just as I was about to reach over some flowers to dead head them at the front of the house (the walnut trees are in the background of the picture), I spotted this rather large spider waiting to catch its dinner. About 3 cms long, it had positioned itself above a zig-zag thread it had created on the web which I take it was to attract its prey. Needless to say I left it alone!

A special lady flys in!

Another first for us here at Les Granges, we've had Porsche, BMW, Mercedes, Jaguar, Lexus, Honda Goldwings, a Harley Davidson trike plus all the other makes of cars, but never have we had this special lady float her way onto the drive. She had travelled all the way with her owners on Saturday from East Sussex in England and they will all be staying with us for a couple of weeks, the sight is already causing a lot of heads to turn as they drive past!

Also, so that our other lovely guests Dennis and Lois from England don't feel left out, there's a very nice black Audi on the drive too!

A swarm of swallows!

Look very closely at the picture above. As we drew back the curtains yesterday early morning, this was the sight that greeted us, a gloomy rainy morning but as you can just see the sky was full of hundreds of swallows circling and feeding over Les Granges.
An amazing sight that we've never seen before and as the morning progressed the weather got better and most of them eventually settled on the cables at the side and to the rear of the property as if to rest after a full mornings aerobatics. By mid afternoon they had all gone, we take it south for the winter, it would be nice to think that the four swallow families that were raised in the barns over the summer were all part of this fantastic display, very sad to see them all go but it will be great to see them again next March or April!

Jet streams.

For the first time in a few months we've had a cloudy day, up until a few minutes ago when the blue sky has broken through above La Roque St Christophe to reveal this criss cross pattern left by the airliners heading north, south east and west.
Consequently with the clouds and breeze the temperature has dropped to low twenties but according to the forecast it's heading above the thirty degrees again by Saturday so our new arrivals on Saturday have nothing to fear!

Painting the town red - or i should say building!

We had a day off yesterday so decided to have a trip out and explore a village brought to our attention by a couple of our guests Lynn & Jack from Yorkshire in England a couple of weeks ago.
To the east of Brive in the Correze region is the village of Collonges-la-Rouge, all of its buildings are built of red sandstone which makes it a very different sight compared to the yellow sandstone of the Dordogne region.
A village has been here since the 6th century, most of its buildings though date from 16th, 17th and 18th century.
It was well worth the visit, a major tourist attraction as it's a member of Les Plus Beaux Villages de France, 'The most beautiful villages of France' and is actually where the association was founded, with so many cafes and shops we have ever seen before compacted into such a small village.

First bunches!

Our first grapes on the vine outside the house that's using the railings as a trellis, ripening in this afternoons sun.