June 2019

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 →

We had a lovely time at Gill and Phillip’s – delicious meal (with vegetables!) great company and good wine – what more could you ask? Their place is truly wonderful – set in 3 acres of garden, and you can’t see another property at all. Stavvers was parked on the drive, and we slept in him overnight before heading for the airport at Bergerac some thirty minutes away. Bergerac airport is tiny – we parked in the long stay car park and 30 seconds later we were in the terminal building! The flight was less than half full and very easy, as indeed was LeedsRead More →