Summer's here

And the time is right for ...well, maybe not dancing in the street exactly, but it's certainly time for local village fetes and festivals in general.  Which is just as well with a raft of visitors due over the coming weeks. Lesley's stay was filled with lots of local events.

It was Giat market on Tuesday, and we resisted buying whole trays of peaches and melons and tomatoes, and although those two green/black ducks were beautiful we left them there.

There was the Wednesday morning regular rehearsal of a local folk music group at Vincent's bar in Crocq - three fiddlers and a guitarist, who play Creusoise, Breton and Celtic stuff very well.  Goes down well with a great cafe creme.  The music continued that night with a great evening at the relatively new Espace Alain Fauriot in Flayat.  We've been here for ten years and this is the first time there's been that kind of event.  Every Wednesday in July the local Associatif have organised musical evenings and we landed on one of the best, (probably!).  A jazz/swing quartet of fairly elderly guys who were really good - lead guitar, rhythm guitar, bass and drums, they played for an hour and a half!  And it was packed out  - must've been at least 70 - 80 folk there which is very encouraging.  The blues guy who came on next was a bit too much - very up himself basically, even though he played good guitar (and dobro).  We left around 11 - I recommend the Punch Maison!

We saw quite a bit of Roger and Sally over the week - not least when Roger tried to save our ailing mower, but to no avail - it has  a sealed carburettor which is its downfall, or so I'm told.  But he and Nick enjoyed a swim in Ramade while the women cooked ...

Thursday night saw us in La Courtine at the Salle Polyvalente for Sarah's art exhibition.  We didn't expect the entire villlage to turn out!  We thought she was the only artist, but there were many others there, hence the crowds.  Fair to say it was a mixed bag of exhibits... The canapes were lovely but what looked like water in the little glasses was (according to Vincent, who should know), was white rum with something sweet in it.  Virtually undrinkable!

Friday was Felletin market, which is always good and we bought three kinds of Laurent's excellent fromage de chevre.  I especially like the garlic flavoured one.

Alastair and Suzanne came over on Sunday, visiting from their new house at Cheyssac, about an hour or so away.  It was a lovely sunny day so after lunch we headed for Lac de Ramade where they all swam, and I looked after the stuff!!!  Mind you, it was probably warm enough even for me.


(Here's Nick, Lesley, Suzanne and Alastair outside the house).



Then today we drove to Limoges to take Lesley to the airport for her flight home.  Another sunny day, and we stopped at St Leonard de Noblat for lunch on the way home.  Good job we weren't in a hurry as it was 25 minutes before the guy even took our order!  We stopped to shop at Aldi near Bourganeuf - great value in these times of ever-increasing prices!  Then some wall-building for Nick and some tree coppicing for me before tea!