Lazy river, Dordogne style!

A couple of weeks ago we took a day off and as it was such a nice day decided to do what most of our guests do whilst staying here, canoe (for the first time for us) on the Dordogne river. Starting at Vitrac we meandered with the strong river current taking in all the major sights that are on show. La Roque-Gageac (above) with its houses clinging to the side of the sheer cliff face being the first.

After over 2.5 hours, the finishing point of Beynac (below) was in the distance with its magnificent Chateau perched on top of the hill. It certainly is no surprise why this is one of the major 'to do's' for all whilst in the region!

A big thank you to all of you who follow this blog, we have now gone over 20,000 viewings of the blog since I started it many years ago!

Big news!

The route for next years Tour de France was announced at lunch time today, great news for our area is that the tour has a stage starting in Perigueux, ending in Bergerac and is passing through Montignac, our nearest town, in July 2017. We're not sure at the moment but we think the route is passing very very close to Les Granges but this has not been confirmed yet....watch this space again soon for more information as we find out!

Harvest time!

After the fields opposite Les Granges became a sea of yellow for a few weeks, yesterday the combine harvester machines arrived and within an hour or so stripped the dried sunflower heads from their stalks, now leaving us with our normal view across to Le Roque. Still no let up in the sunny days but the evenings are now certainly becoming more on the fresh side!

Now I always thought that Praying Mantis's were a luminous green colour, wrong again, the one I spotted on the flowers in the courtyard outside the Roque Terrace gite is certainly not and if you can spot it, it certainly blends in with the background!

Remember, for a larger image click on the picture!

The Chasse is back!

The early morning straight after one of the busiest days for tourists departing the area returning to their homes marks the prompt return to our surrounding fields of the local Chasse (hunting group). A bit of an obstruction for them this year is the many fields of sunflowers that make perfect cover for the deer and wild boar and consequently we heard no shots fired whilst they were in the area!

Even though many families with children are now on their way home, we are still very busy with bookings right up to the end of October and also quite a few enquiries and bookings already for 2017 and even 2018!

Butterfly time!

Spotted as I was opening up the gite swimming pool, a large swallowtail butterfly on one of the shrubs that border the surrounding path. The first I'd seen all year and consequently since that day I've seen lots!
Our region has now been in full tourist mode for the last four or five weeks, weather has been and is still going to be superb for the foreseeable future and all our guests are making the most of it!

Roque & Pop festival!

Last Saturday night was a big night for our village with the first ever Le Moustier Rock & Pop Festival. Many locals and tourists gathered in the church square to listen to 4 bands play from 6.30pm onwards, dodging a few storms early on, the evening went really very well with a mobile catering company and bar doing a great job keeping everyone fed and watered!

Here's hoping there's a second festival on the cards for the same time next year!

2 weeks later.....

....and the flowers are all out, it's an amazing sight over the road!