Thursday, December 25, 2014

Merry Christmas everyone!

Looking through my archive of pictures, the above is about the most relevant picture I can find to this time of year, taken 2 years ago showing the front of our property in January after a light fall of snow. No sign of snow at the present although temperatures are forecast to drop to -6 degrees next week, so some pretty severe frosts soon!
We're not in France at the moment though, we have travelled back to the UK for Christmas and just after New Year our youngest daughter, Nicola, is getting married in North Yorkshire, England, so as you can imagine it's going to be a hectic couple of weeks over here!
I took the picture above a couple of days ago whilst we were in Sevenoaks as we walked around a country estate owned  by the National Trust, we really were only a few feet away from this beautiful deer, shame there wasn't any snow on the ground then I could have used it as a festive pic!

Happy Christmas to you all,

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Late November, really?!

It's been an amazing few weeks here in Le Moustier, we've never known it to be so warm at this time of year, we have had lunch sat outside every day bar one day for the last 3 weeks. Work is still going on with the tree felling and the mist still keeps rolling in up the valley as night falls.
We went into Sarlat six days ago to do a bit of shopping, We had a wander around the old town area and I couldn't resist taking these pictures for our guests who have always had to go and visit this wonderful place, to experience the hustle and bustle of this amazing tourist attraction especially on market days, well, this is what its like in late November, still as beautiful but spot the difference!

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Photographers view!

A few weeks ago, the photographer who took pictures at our eldest daughters wedding here last year, came to stay for a week with his family. A bit of a 'bus mans holiday' for him as we asked him to take some new interior pictures of our house and gites which are as I write being applied to our web site.
It wasn't all work as they did manage to go out a lot during the time they were here to see some of the sights, these two pictures showing views only a stones throw away from our property, above, at the bottom the track opposite and below a lovely shot of Le Moustier bridge.
Just one of the interior pictures below showing the house kitchen, plenty more on show on our web site soon!


Sunday, November 2, 2014

Timmmmm berrrr!

Just had a quick bike ride down the track to see how many more trees have been felled and this was the sight that greeted me! They are now felling the poplar wood that is on our side of the Vezere and opposite the main entrance to Le Roque (you can just see Peyzac church to the right of the pic above the maze), a much larger area than the first work that took place at the bottom of the lane opposite Les Granges. It'll make a massive difference eventually to the views all round so can't wait to see the outcome when all the work is finished.
The picture above is one I took a couple of days ago in the early morning showing as the sun came up the mist slowly being burnt away. They're very fresh mornings now, great for walking though!

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

On the turn!

After 5 days of no internet and phone due to a faulty connection, we're back on line, at last!
Autumn is definitely here although we are still enjoying lunches sat outside in the sun with temperatures still in the mid twenties, even though at night it's in to single figures.
We still have guests on site, a family from Germany who have had brilliant weather since their arrival a week ago and it's looking as though it will be as good for the rest of the week, they have even been swimming in the gite pool, must be the thermal cover that's working!!
Great weather for us also, still busy with lots of work on the gites after a very busy year plus clearing up in the grounds and plenty of bonfires to clear the waste, it is a great time of year here in the Vezere valley..

Sunday, October 19, 2014

Who likes Gateaux Noix?

Well if you do, it's good news if you are coming here, this is just about the last of this years harvest of walnuts and there's at least 3 times more than last year and half of last years were not fit for eating due to the very wet spring.
No problem this year, they are drying really well in the top 20's temperatures we've got at the moment, so better get the nut crackers oiled and baking tins at the ready!!

Thursday, October 16, 2014

One man and his chain saw!

After many years of rumour about the poplar trees next to the river Vezere being mature and ready for felling, work has finally started this week. Every day one man has felled about three quarters of the wood to the right of the little cottage at the bottom of the track opposite Les Granges.
Not sure just yet if they are all coming down but what a difference that will make to the views!

Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Wedding Registry Office - Toulouse style!

 A break in customer departure and arrivals meant that we could get away together for the first time this year for a couple of nights in Toulouse, which you may remember we did at the same time last year, this time we managed to go to a few museums and sights, one of which is the Capitole building in the city centre, inside is a magnificent gallery which also has an area for wedding ceremonies (above), pretty impressive really!
The gallery stretches nearly the full length of the Capitole building, shown below, outside in the main square is held many events and concerts throughout the year, on the afternoon we were there, there were many groups of 55+ year olds from countries all over the world performing dance/gymnastic routines.
It was a great couple of days and we are looking forward to returning, hopefully in the spring if we can!

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Unseen St Alvere!

Many of our guests fly to France, our nearest airport is at Bergerac which is only a one hour drive to Les Granges, half way between the two on the D32 between Bergerac and Rouffignac, is the lovely town of St Alvere and for the first time after dropping a friend off to fly back to the UK I stopped for a bit of a wander around.
Usually when passing through you just see a small part of the town, church and town square, a bar and boulangerie, but stop to get into the back streets opens up a very fascinating and historic place.
The original gate house to the walled town still stands (above) which still has signs of the draw bridge mechanism.
Around another corner, the towns very old Lavoir (wash house) area still stands where the stream is diverted through the wash area to give clean water for the women of the village to do their washing.
And below, to the rear of the church, a very old complex of beautiful houses are joined to the rear of the church, yet another view unseen whilst travelling through the town.
Anyone doing the journey in the future I thoroughly recommend a stop off to stretch the legs and have a look around!

Sunday, September 7, 2014

Beautiful Montignac

 We went into Montignac this morning, we thought there was a vide grenier (bric-a-brac sale) taking place but we were wrong, it's next Sunday, so instead we had a lovely walk around the town on both sides of the river in the very hot mid day sun.
Around one of the narrow back streets we spotted this pigeon in an old derelict 10th century building having a good look at what was going on from its usual perching place, very sensibly well in the shade!

Thursday, September 4, 2014

Rain, what rain?!

After yesterdays post showing the rain we had at the end of last week, I have just taken this pic to show what it has been like all week....look at that for a blue sky!!

Wednesday, September 3, 2014

Taking shelter!

At the end of last week this was the Roque Terrace, a heavy down pour and the leaves have started to drop from the lime tree, very autumnal. The grasshopper below was spotted as I was just about to go to the boulangerie when the rain had stopped, it had obviously taken shelter from the rain and as it disappeared under the seat when I tried to brush it off, it had to go with me!
   The weather all this week so far has been superb, top 20's most of the day and isn't looking to change until next Monday or Tuesday, lovely!

Sunday, August 31, 2014

A little piece of pre-history!

We've been living here for nearly 4 years now and this is the first time I've had my hands on a real pre-historic piece.
Found next to a walking track by one of our guests from Holland who has had an interest in these artefacts for 30 years and has studied and learnt an amazing amount about articles that can be found in this area.
He says this hand axe is thousands of years old, carved out of flint it fits fantastically in the palm of your hand and looks as though it was made yesterday and is still very sharp.
A little hard to believe someone all those years ago sat and made this beautiful piece.

Sunday, August 24, 2014

After the ceremony....

 After the wedding ceremony and aperitifs all the guests were asked to proceed to the dining area and after they had all found their places Sara & Mike entered to raptuous cheering and applause from all as Mr & Mrs Diaz.
 In the build up to the sit down waitress served 6 coarse meal, Chef Delmont took 5 minutes out to relax during preparation of the meal, which included a fish starter of Sturgeon with orange sauce, followed by a citron with vodka sorbet, magret de canard with creme de cepe sauce, cheese followed, then by piece montee (pictured below) as the dessert and coffee/tea to finish.

Friday, August 22, 2014

Wedding pics 1 - Sara & Mike

 Where have the last two days gone! At 1pm on Wednesday Sara & Mike had their wedding celebration at Les Granges in front of 65 guests, a beautiful day but not too hot for those in jackets though. After the 35 minute ceremony they were showered with confetti by all the guests before aperitifs were served in front of the house.

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Wedding day preparations.

At 9 o'clock this morning the vans, trailers and work men arrived  to put up the marquee ready for Mike & Sara's big day tomorrow. The weather is looking good and all is underway, the difference this year is that the party are having a sit down waiter/waitress served 4 course wedding lunch for 70 guests which entails a local chef who brings 2 vans tomorrow morning, one a fridge and the other kitchen/oven unit, cooks and prepares the feast on site and all ready to be served at 3.30pm. The day after (Thursday), Edwin from the restaurant La Source in Tursac is doing a BBQ in the afternoon so I don't think anyone will be getting hungry. We're really looking forward to the 2 days, oh, so are Mike and Sarah too!
More pics to follow soon.

Thursday, August 14, 2014

Night Market.

A couple of nights ago we went with some friends to St Amand de Coly where there was a night market, something else we have never done since moving here! After parking near the village this was the sight that greeted us on entering the village, the enormous 12th century Romanesque fortified church which reportedly has walls that are 4 meters thick in parts, gaps in the walls for archer positions to defend the occupants and several staircases that can be seen inside the church that mislead attackers to enter that eventually led to dead ends, which I take it is exactly what happened to the opposition when entering the passage ways!
Walking through the village we came to a very large area where local produce was being sold and cooked to order if required, a really good evening with live music and plenty of food and drink, something else we will definitely be going to again soon, maybe I'll remember to take some more pictures of the actual market next time!

Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Ugly bug ball!

Spotted this not so little caterpillar a few weeks ago and so far have drawn a blank trying to find what it will have turned out to be, about 5cms long I think it's possibly going to be a moth as some other moth caterpillars I saw on the internet had the little pointy thing at their rear end.
Anyone else who can spot anything on the internet please let me know!

Saturday, August 2, 2014

3 Stars confirmed.

We had an inspection by the Dordogne Tourist Board the other week in order to get our star rating classification, a long story as to why but it is all to do with local taxes/social charges etc, after a thorough inspection of all the gites and house the only urgent recommendation was to have a safety railing fitted to the lounge window in the Haybarn gite which as people who have stayed with us know has an extremely low window ledge.
So that was my job a couple of days ago and fortunately all went smoothly with the fixing of it and we are now officially 3 star accommodation, it could have been 4 star quite easily according to the inspector, but that would have meant more taxes and social charges to pay....so we didn't go for that!!  

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

All out now!

The last brood of swallows have just left the nest this afternoon in the main barn, the above 2 haven't got very far yet, about 6 feet away from the nest but at least they are now free.
It's been the busiest year we've had with swallow nests, 2 in the boiler room with a total of 11 young and 4 nests in the main barn with at least 16 fledged, should have been more but unfortunately all of the young in one of the nests died mid way through the rearing.
Only a few weeks remain now for all the young to get up to speed before the mass exodus to Africa starts!

Sunday, July 20, 2014

Deer spotting!

Just as I was on the phone to my mum in England earlier today I spotted these 3 Roe Deer in the field opposite Les Granges, get the camera quick I thought and as usual couldn't find it so I did think they would have moved on by the time I'd found it!
Quite unusual to see them considering it was late morning with quite a few visitors now in the area using the footpaths along the river side, after very quickly informing our guests  it turns out that one family had already seen them on their morning walk to and from the boulangerie, so they must have been in the area for some time!

Friday, July 11, 2014

Terrasson, a link! .

We had a trip out last week with daughter and son in law Charlotte & Dave to Les Jardins de l'Imaginaire, a place we'd heard about from our customers but as usual somewhere we'd never made time to visit, a large area with different areas of various themes of plants plus some very spectacular views, especially over the old town.
The above view had some information in the walk guide which caught my eye as there was a link between the Terrasson Abbey and Le Manoir des Granges. The Abbey, which sits magnificently on the cliff edge over looking the Vezere valley was restored "like new" by an architect monk who also restored the famous Abbey of Mont St Michel and here's the link, it was restored in 1889, exactly the same year that Le Manoir was built, I'm pretty sure there was no monk working on our property when it was built!

Monday, June 30, 2014

On top of the world!

A few days ago at about 7pm we took a slight detour on the way to St Leon sur Vezere to take in the view on a beautiful evening from the Cote de Jor. I'm sure I have already posted a picture of this but every time we take a trip here it never fails to impress.
The point at which these two pictures are taken is not actually the official viewing point but it is the clearing in the trees where all the para gliders launch themselves from the near sheer drop on the valley side, rather them than me!
Above, the river flows through St Leon and curves around in front of the view point, pasing the Paradis campsite (below) and eventually past Le Roque St Christophe and our property, how lucky we are!

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Stormy weather!

After two or three weeks of perfect weather, a couple of nights ago we had what has been building up for a while, an amazing thunder storm, at about 2am Monday morning, constant flashes of lightning and extremely loud thunder passed over head accompanied by a couple of inches of monsoon style rain in the space of about an hour or so. Garden now well watered and pools topped up, the weather now is cloudy (as above) but still very warm, top 20's in the shade so still very nice!

Monday, June 16, 2014

More room for the Walnut Store!

Here it is, after a few weeks since my post about the work to remove a flower bed, we've finally got to put out the parasol, table and chairs for the Walnut Store's extra area for our guests. They can now either sit and dine around the pool or in the courtyard area, so in the morning or afternoon you can either have sun or shade, the choice is yours!

Friday, June 13, 2014

Wrong stopping place!

Look at this for a brilliant piece of camouflage, this large moth, which was about 5cm wide, was on the roque terrace gite wall, if it were on a tree then it may have been a bit more difficult to see!

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Phew 30+ in the shade!

What a few days we've had, full sun and temperatures to match, even the honey bees are thirsty! With the weather comes the threat of storms in the evening, the last two days we've had alerts but so far nothing has happened, it won't be long until it does though.
The eagle eyed amongst you will have noticed the main picture at the header of the blog has changed, it now shows the most up to date image of the house including new front door.

Friday, June 6, 2014

A couple of hours off!

Yesterday, for the first time this year, we managed to get out for lunch and travelled the short distance to our favourite retreat in St Leon Sur Vezere, the Dejeuner Sur L'Herbe, the beautiful cafe/shop on the banks of the river where many of our past guests will know.
A plate of regional cured meat and pates accompanied by a bowl of fresh salad with goats cheese on top, as my mother would say, it 'filled a corner'! Washed down with a bottle (or two!) of locally brewed beer in the sun, what a treat!

Thursday, June 5, 2014

Before, during and after!

Last week it was the turn of the house pool for a clean & brush up! For the first time since we bought the property we completely emptied the pool.
All a bit of a long process as it took two days to empty, two days to clean and do some general repairs and then three days to refill, but the end result, below, has been worth all the work and it was all ready for our guests from the USA who arrived at Les Granges last Monday.