Original river crossing.

Opposite Les Granges is a very old track that, before Le Moustier bridge was built in 1872, led to the original crossing point of the river Vezere used by the ancient inhabitants of the Roque St Christophe and surrounding villagers. I've been told that a ferry ran between the end of the track to the opposite side of the river, plus there was a ford at some point nearby but at present i can't find out the exact location of this, but I will keep trying to find out and let you all know!

Spectacular sunset

Now that the snow has gone, we are still getting some very cold evenings and early mornings but during the day it is bright, sunny and warm. The birds are busy exploring sites for nesting, most of the daffodils are all out now, so all is ready for the spring...at last! We're looking forward to our first sightings of the Cranes and their returning up to the north, plus our swallows will be back, can't wait!!

Nuts anyone?!

After the sighting of a very healthy and well fed mouse that was residing in our walnut drying racks we decided we better bag-up last years crop of walnuts to hide them away from our overweight little friend. Not sure how many kilograms of nuts there are in the wheelbarrow but there will be plenty to hand out to our visitors in the coming year and enough for Philippa to make some more of her special gateaux aux noix!

Ice flow!

Yesterdays walk to the boulangerie was a very interesting one, firstly the river Vezere was full of ice that was flowing at great pace down river (below) after the temperature had soured from -16.5 degrees in the morning to just above freezing in the afternoon, after taking the picture i spotted what at first i thought was either an otter or beaver swimming at the side of the river dodging the ice blocks as it swam, it turns out after a bit of internet research, it was a Coypu, it's body about 40cms long and a tail of about half its body length, a great and surprising sight that means from now on i'll be on the look out for more sightings of them!

It's cold....very cold!

These pictures taken last Sunday show our first snow this winter, temperatures haven't got above freezing since then and will not be for a while yet. The little figure in the picture below is Philippa walking to a neighbours house in Le Moustier (who has returned to England for a few days) to let the chickens out, needless to say, the chickens weren't that interested in getting out of there hut, don't blame them really!

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)!!