The St. Leon/Le Moustier circuit!

Thought we'd go for an early bike ride this morning before all the roads are closed, a cloudy and cool start but will be brighter later.
A couple of pics I took on route is the what the riders will see (ok not with Philippa in front of them!) as they approach the bend to enter the straight road that runs past us, waiting for 10am now to see what happens next!

Ready and waiting!

The first caravans have appeared and are in place at the parking area next to the Le Moustier cemetery ready for the 2017 Le Tour race coming by tomorrow. The Belgian flag flying proudly above one of the supporters vehicles, sure there'll be a bit of a party going on there tonight!

Going to be an early wake up for me in the morning as I don't want to miss any of the build up to the great event!

First signs of things to come!

Preparations are under way now for the big day next Tuesday when the Tour de France speeds past Les Granges. The road that passes us is closed to all traffic from 10am to 6pm on the day so it will be very interesting to see what happens and when as the day progresses.
I will try to do some more posts on the day to let you know what's happening!

July 11th stage 10 route confirmed!

At last stage 10 of the 2017 Tour de France on July 11th is confirmed on the official letour.fr web site as the map above shows, timings (below) are for the publicity caravan to pass our property at approximately 12.47 followed by the race at around 14.43 (french time).

Not many weeks to go now!

Not a happy ending.

Several Black Redstarts have been nesting again successfully in many locations around our property, the pair that built this one decided that an old copper pan hung up in the big barn was an ideal place, which after laying 5 eggs and all of them hatching, all seemed to be well until a few days ago when I went into the barn and there was no usually little squeaks coming from the pan. On closer inspection unfortunately all 5 of the young were dead so for whatever reason the adults had deserted them the day before so they had perished overnight.
Very sad but these things happen for whatever reason but we're sure there are many more young Black Redstarts on their way, 5 swallows have already fledged their nest in the barn already!

Problem sorted!

Another job completed in the main house a couple of weeks ago! Flaking paint and a small crack on the wall at the side of the main stairs from the hallway meant a little bit of investigation was needed to find out the cause. On knocking away the loose plaster it revealed one of the original stone support with a more modern wall that hadn't been joined together properly so problem easily resolved with a binding tape and an appropriate filling.
All finished and ready for our German guests who arrived for their annual golfing break last Saturday and who have probably not even noticed the difference!

One to look out for!

A couple from Barcelona recently stayed with us and on their arrival very kindly gifted us with this bottle of their favourite local spanish wine, a 2012 Crianza from the Protos vineyard and on tasting it we could see why! A beautiful full bodied red wine which according to the internet is available in the UK, USA and other countries, so if you do find any I'd certainly recommend you trying it!