Happy Foxes in France!

In May 2011, exactly 5 years ago to this date, we welcomed a party of German men as our first guests to stay with us at Les Granges in the big house, every day of their stay, the club that the head of the party supported proudly displayed his club scarf from his bedroom window, that of Borussia Dortmund, because they had just won the German league championship, well today I can say that I will carry on that tradition by displaying my original 45 year old Leicester City scarf from that same bedroom window after the fantastic news last night that the Foxes cannot be caught and are now 2015/16 English Premier League Champions....the FANTASTIC FOXES HAVE DONE IT!!!

No harm done whilst pruning!

Apologies for lack of posts for a while, I have been back to England to visit my Mum for a while before the main season starts here at Les Granges, I know she'll like to see the picture above!
After last years rather harsh cutting out the vine and pruning at the front of the house, this spring the wisteria has come into bloom very successfully and is looking and smelling very nice.
We have also managed to complete at last (pictured below) the walkway between the Roque Terrace gite and the pool which we are very proud of!
Much spring cleaning going on now and all going well in readiness for the summer, we already have customers in 3 of the gites.

Summer is nearly here!

.A shopping trip last week took us to one our favourite shops, one we've recommended to many of our guests, Grand Frais in Perigueux has the most amazing large stock of different fruit & veg from mainly France but also from all over the world. This area of France is the biggest producer of strawberry's and there was a counter full of different varieties producing a fantastic summery smell, plus, below, on another aisle, a tray full of even stronger smelling bunches of smoked garlic, what a combination!

New terracing (nearly) complete.

So this is what we've been up to recently! First we had to de-construct the existing terrace that runs between the Roque Terrace gite and the swimming pool, dodging between heavy showers and very strong, cold winds, it took quite a bit of brain and physical effort to sort out how to do the work.

The terrace frame work took the time, making sure it was all secure, stable and level, then over the last couple of days we've laid down the boarding on top which is now all completed, only bit to do now is the fencing around the edge.

We're both feeling pretty proud of the (nearly) finished result, not bad for a nurse and graphic designer trained team!!

..and there was more!

Yes the rumours were correct, more rain came over the weekend, as people who have stayed here with us in the past will recognise, the little seat at the bottom of the track was definitely not the place to sit and admire the view, in fact at its highest the seat was very nearly completely submerged.

Thankfully, as I write, the level is now back to normal!

Water everywhere!

Ok, I hold my hand up and say it's all my fault! A week ago in my last post I said how nice it was being able to sit out in the nice February sunshine for lunch,,since then, the heavens have opened resulting in the river Vezere being at it's highest that we've ever seen it since we moved here over 5 years ago. Reports have said that the level that was recorded at its peak in Montignac was 5 meters above normal, that's over 16ft. Bad news is they are expecting a lot more over this coming weekend, fingers crossed not too much more!

2015 guest numbers

It may be early February but it's still nice and warm in the sun to sit out and have lunch in the fresh air!
Last years visitor figures have now been counted and verified (by me!) so here is the annual post showing how many and from where all our 2015 guests travelled from to be with us for their holidays.....

Visitors by country of residence were:-
                 2011     2012    2013   2014   2015
Australia      27       35        11       23       10
Belgium        -          1         2         2         -
Canada        8          2         10       19        9
Catalonia     -          -          -           2         -
Denmark      -          2         -           -         -
England       87      133       116      95      112
France         38       19        20        52       16
Germany      25       21        11        7        12
Greece          -          2        -           -         -
Ireland         3          4         6          2        4
Israel            -         -          -          -         5
Italy              -         -          -          2         -
Malta            -         -          -         10        -
Netherlands  12        1          9          4        -
New Zealand 6         5          2          -        3
Northern Ireland       -          -          -         4
Norway         -         -         -           -         1
Philippines     -         5         -          -         -
Poland          6          -        -           -         -
Portugal        -          3        -           -         -
Scotland       4          7        5          14       14
South Africa  -         -         -           -         12
Spain            -          -         -           7         -
Sweden        -           -        5           -          -
Swiss            -          1        -           1         -
United Arab Emirates -        -           -         4
United States 43       25      21        53        24
Wales           2          4        2          2         -

A total of 229 guests came and stayed with us in 71 groups with 4 new countries added to the list,

2016 is already looking like another busy year so we're looking forward to meeting new and returning guests in the coming months!