Social Marathon

This week has been full of social engagements - it seems like back to back.

A luncheon at our place on Wednesday which was absolutely lovely.

Very hot and the wasps were a problem with one guest being stung.

Copious amounts of food and wine were consumed and lots of jokes were told. Below is a photo of Michael having us in stitches.


One of our guests is a painter (photo of Mel on right with tractor behind him - and that's another story).

We have commissioned him to paint a scene of our village which would include our maison.






Then there were Friday night drinks which turned into dinner.  We discovered a huge big umbrella in the barn that Bill erected to provide more shade. Those pesky wasps didn't give up and another guest was stung. In desperation I went into Boussac to buy a few citronella candles to burn but the wasps seem to just ignore the candles - so will have to research this more as to how to keep them at bay. Again lots of food and wine and many stories told. Our French neighbours came so conversations were held both in French and English.

Then another luncheon at our place on Sunday - not so hot but the wasps still buzzed.

Another lovely afternoon in the french outdoors.
















We also had a visit from our dear neighbour's grand daughter last Saturday.

Melanie, who just turned 11, came wandering into the yard.

She spent time with trying to teach us words for things in the house and garden.

She was quite excited about being invited in and wanted to take some photos of us and inside the house.

She is learning English at school and so it was good practice for her as well as us.

Hopefully she will be a regular visitor.




We had excitement in our village last Sunday with the Tour du Limousin come through. The announcement came over the loud speaker from the Mairie (Town Hall) but I couldn't understand what was being said. So came out the front and there were all the neighbours in front of their houses waving flags. I wondered what was going on so hung around awhile and then all the motorbikes came through followed by hundreds of cyclists and support crew.

With our social calendar now tapering off a bit this week, we need to get on with some painting around the place whilst the weather is still warm. We have to coat the walls with a weather penetrating paint and finish staining the cover at the front of the house.

Bill did manage to obtain permission from our neighbour - Alain - to access his property to remove ivy from our barn wall.

Bill also asked him if he was interested in selling his land.

We are interested in buying some of it if we go down the path of renovating the barn.

Bill was met with a "stern" reply of NO. So that's the end of that I suppose, unless circumstances change for Alain.

Apparently he owns quite alot of farming land around here. The farmers are reluctant to give up ownership of land as they get subsidized by the government.

Oh well, we will wait and see if he changes his mind as we are in no hurry.

As we are heading over to Limoges and then down to Portugal soon, we need to get the automatic sprinkler system working to keep the garden thriving while we are away - a project for this week.

à plus tard

Wendy