Ellis Family Blog

We all rose bright and early on Saturday (6.30 a.m.) as we wanted to get away by 8 o’clock for the airport and had to pack up the gite before we left, including the fridge and all the wine we’d bought over the past few days.  In fact we were ready for off a few minutes early, so decided to drop the rubbish off en route rather than taking it with us.  We lead the way as Satan was guiding us, but she seemed to be intent on taking us on every minor road she could find to get us to the airport.  In factRead More →

As there was an underwhelming response to our suggestion that some of our friends guest blog, we haven’t really reported all the amusing and interesting aspects of our week at le Chat de Pierre.  Therefore, in no particular order: On our first morning when we all stopped for coffee at a lovely cafe in Sainte-Foy, Karen tried to fob off the waitress with a £1 coin, mistaking it for a Euro.  The savvy lass wasn’t conned however, and returned it to an embarrassed Mrs Howlett, who rummaged in her purse and eventually came up with the correct currency.  And of course, as £1 is worthRead More →

Guest blogger – Karen Howlett Saturday – Sainte-Foy: The flight arrived ahead of schedule but sadly the car rental was certainly behind schedule, the excuse being they weren’t ready for the early flight !! Our bezzie mates were there to meet us looking tanned and relaxed, little did they know that was all about to change 🙂 x After first stopping at the camp site we hit the market in Saint-Foy.  Very big and a little expensive but lovely.  Coffee and a croissant were welcome.  8 of us then did the supermarket sweep.  This was like herding cows (What?  I thought that’s what one didRead More →

Tuesday was very hot and steamy so we spent the day trying to keep cool and doing the few last minute chores in preparation for our move on Wednesday.  Peter and Ro were moving on too, so we had dinner with them at the campsite bar that evening, expecting to finish the day on a high.  However, when we got to the bar there was a blackboard sign up warning us of a possible thunderstorm that night with 80 km per hour winds, and suggesting that we needed to make sure we had everything tied down.  This put a bit of a dampener on theRead More →

Friday was another washout, so we chilled out, played games (Karol beat me at Bananagrams by some margin – clearly my earlier victory must have been a fluke!) and discovered that the lime tree on our pitch was full of bees taking the nectar from the blossom (our French neighbour who keeps bees pointed this out to us while prodding Karol’s arm and saying pique! pique! – I think it means sting!) Saturday was also forecast to be wet and overcast in the morning so we took ourselves off to Le Bugue to stock up on supplies.  We’d visited a wine shop on our lastRead More →

Monday was wet again so it wasn’t until the afternoon when it brightened up that we ventured out.  We had new neighbours on two sides, who were all very chatty – Nico and Ria from Holland with their dog Mike, and Agnes and Hank from Germany/Holland (He’s Dutch and she’s German, and their front door is in Holland, but their back garden’s in Germany!)  Agnes is very forward and within seconds of meeting us, had given Karol advice on how to hang her washing out (!) and had invited herself into Stavvers for a nosey round.  She was however very complimentary about Karol’s choice ofRead More →

Thursday night after we got back around 7.30 p.m. we had a bit of tea, and then I popped up to the bar to watch England play Holland in the Nations League Semi Final.  I arrived to see only one other watcher who looked suspiciously Dutch (and was) so we nodded politely to one another before settling down to watch. A few others sloped in over the next 30 minutes or so, until there was quite  contingent of mainly English ‘fans’.  It wasn’t worth the wait though, and I stormed off in disgust after Hollands third goal went in deep into extra time, as itRead More →

On Tuesday night we had a thunderstorm that started around 9 p.m., and lasted most of the night.  Wednesday was forecast to rain all day, and lived up to expectations!  On Monday we’d taken the burst tyre to a local garage recommended by Didier the campsite owner, who had kindly phoned ahead for us as Monsieur Delmas doesn’t speak English. However he is lovely and very kind, he understood me anyway, and told us to phone him on Wednesday for an update. We tried unsuccessfully to phone on Wednesday morning, but had decided that we’d also like him to try and fix the spare wheelRead More →

Monday we did some chores and then in the afternoon went for a bike ride to explore the village Limeuil.  It’s actually only about half a mile away, but over two bridges crossing the Vezere and the Dordogne where they join adjacent to the camp site.  It was an important centre from the middle ages until the end of the 18th century as small boats arrived down the Vezere and their goods were loaded onto barges (gabarres) to be taken on to Bordeaux along the Dordogne. With hindsight it probably wasn’t worth getting the bikes out!  Having parked the bikes we walked up the hillRead More →

You remember we had a very early start (before 4 a.m.) and by the time we got to Gill and Phillips the temperature had already to the high 20’s.  We had a quick cuppa, and having roped in our hosts to help turn the caravan round (there wasn’t enough juice in the battery for the motor movers to work) we set off for Limeuil on the Dordogne. It started out really well – beautiful countryside, clear blue skies and empty roads, although some were a bit bumpy – a bit like our roads Geoff!  However, as we were going through Beaumont du Perigord we tookRead More →