Monday, December 24, 2012

Seasons Greetings....

We'd like to wish all of our blog followers from all over the world, a very merry Christmas, it's not going to be a white Christmas where we are but I'm sure some of you will be having more than enough of the white stuff!
Have a great time!

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Time for a walk!

A while ago we decided to take advantage of a fine day and drove the short distance to Les Eyzies, parked the car and walked part of the french route nationale (RN89) which runs through this area. Parking near the Hotel Cro Magnon we walked upwards to eventually get a spectacular view of Le Grand Roc (shown below) in the distance which is another rock face, similar to our own Roque St Christophe.
The walk was excellent, about 2 hours long, through woodland mainly and we spotted the above fungus clinging to a fallen tree that looked amazingly as if it was camouflaging itself as wood. 

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Make over.


Work started a few weeks ago on the renovation of our village church, everyone who has stayed at Les Granges will have seen the eglise St Robert in Le Moustier village opposite the boulangerie, it is having major work done on mainly the exterior, the whole stone roof, one half at a time, is being removed and re-laid and the stonework cleaned and re-pointed.

Work will be finished by March, not sure I'd like to be repairing a roof on a day like today though, as you can see below, it was -6 degrees this morning when we got up!

Saturday, December 8, 2012

Bordeaux museum 2

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The second museum in Bordeaux we went to was the musee d aquitaine, another 2 hours spent in the presence of some amazing pieces from the whole of our region, including many prehistoric items from our village of Le Moustier, but the part of the museum that really took my eye was the massive collection of roman relics found in Bordeaux over the years.

Most of the items can be viewed 'up close' without any barriers between you and the history on display, just like the item above, a headstone from the grave of a young child dated at the year of 7AD, which shows the child with his favourite possession of a hen and also holding what appears to be a pet cat. Amazing detail, just as the mosaic floor on display below, great stuff and we look forward to our next break over there!

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Winter's here.

Just seen the weather forecast showing the wintry conditions for all of you looking in in northern europe, usa or canada, don't worry, it's cold here too. You can't beat an open fire on a -3 degrees evening, so i hope this makes you all feel a bit warmer, or, if you're in Australia or New Zealand, get the BBQ on!

Left overs!

A lot of our guests this year asked about the amount of maze/corn that was growing in our area and wondered why the crops had just been left in the fields to the point that the plants were collapsing and the cobs appeared to be rotting, well, on my last walk nearly all of the fields have been harvested and as you can see above this is what remains, all the maze has been stripped off the cobs and the left overs disgarded out of the back of the massive combine harvestors over the fields to eventaully rot back into the soil, always a strange sight after months of walking through 'forests' of corn fields.
Below, now that the nights have turned very cold, an early evening pic of the mist rolling down the Vimont Valley toward the Vezere at Le Moustier, time for those lovely open fires in the house I think!

Saturday, December 1, 2012

Bordeaux Museums 1

 This museum, the Musee des Arts Decoratif, based in a beautiful building that was originally built as the Hotel de Lalande in 1770, now houses a fantastic collection of all things decorative, a lot of which was produced in the Aquataine area.
Everything from porcelain, furniture, paintings, glass and a lot more on display from the 17th up to the 20th century so no wonder we spent 2 hours walking around all the permanent displays, even better, it was free!!