Bonjour. Yep, September has been visitor month! We collected Kevin from Limoges at around 1pm on Thursday, with me making my first of what will no doubt be many drives to the aeroport. We were graced with lovely weather – clear skies and temps in the high 20s, which lasted all day. Kevin, a friend of ours from London, is another repeat visitor, having first come out to see us in January 2010. He is a prolific traveller, so we are pleased he found the time to come out and see us again.
We got back and quickly wolfed down the traditional Port 80 sandwich and then I had to shoot off for some work. I have recently been helping out some English friends of ours, Pete and Sally, with some translation stuff. He is essentially project-managing an extensive renovation of a huge and stunning property near Piegut, about 15km from us. He is sourcing local artisans to do the entire first floor and as his French is about the same level as the workers’ English, he asked me to help out. It’s really easy – just pitch up a couple times a week, interpret for a wee bit, then home again. I get paid for my time as well as gaining additional driving experience so I love it.
Matt, meanwhile, gave Kevin the tour of the house and garden. Kevin grew up in the countryside but has since lived only in large cities, so he was loving the garden and was soon getting his hands dirty, pruning rosebushes and generally making the garden look nice. When I got back, it was time for cocktails out in the garden, followed by a yummy barbeque for dinner, all washed down with some rather tasty wines we picked up in Angoulême recently. The boys also took a trip down to the boulangerie, getting both some of her legendary patisseries which we had over the next two nights, and some croissants for breakfast the next day.
The following morning saw us all up ready to go fairly early for our planned day-trip down south to Sarlat, Domme, La Roque-Gageac and Beynac – all of them classed as some of the prettiest villages in France, and some of our favourite places to visit. Kevin had never been down that way before, so I am glad we got to show him just how pretty the Dordogne can be. We started off in Sarlat and immediately grabbed lunch – 3 heavy and very Perigordine courses. After Matt’s Dad’s visit, when I had duck breast 2 days in a row followed by duck leg a couple days later, “no more duck” has been a mantra of mine – but in this, I failed as expected. Afterwards, we strolled around enjoying the sights, and also the stolen sunshine. The forecast had been for a warm but rainy day but we didnt get a single drop all day, which was most fortunate. Afterwards, we hit the other three villages, which I wont describe to you as I’m sure we’ve blogged them before, and you can see them in the photos. After a very full day, we came back home to chill out and have a mercifully light dinner of salad and leftovers. Oh, and cocktails and wine of course.
Saturday was a much cooler day, and somewhat rainy, but still pleasant enough to be out. Kevin and Matt continued to busy themselves outside in the morning, including harvesting several kilos of grapes (which has made hardly a dent in the supply on the vine). As Lucien lost most of his during the big storm last month, we thought we’d bring him a load of ours as a gift. It was about 11:30 when we got there and so, by Lucien’s reckoning, close enough to lunch time to have a round or two of aperatifs! It’s not often one indulges in vodka that side of noon, but we thought hey, why not? We stayed and chatted for a while before coming back for lunch and more chilling out at home. That evening, we rustled up a dinner of pork served with the lovely creamy fig sauce recipe that Sharon first did for us last year in Badaillac. It is very simple to make but extremely yummy. That was followed by cheese (NB – every evening meal featured a cheese course – it is implicit) and the then a chocolate fondant for dessert, a recipe taught to us by Véronique’s young kids. Matt did the honours, making enough for about 8 people. We did our best to eat it all, but we were outnumbered and gave up. This was all washed down with more cocktails and wine, and we then enjoyed some Kath n Kim before calling it a night.
Sunday was Kevin’s last day but as his flight wasnt until 4 that afternoon, we had to get in one last bout of over-eating, so we swang by St Jean de Côle and crammed in an excessive 4 course lunch. All of us plumped for their signature warm goats’ cheese and bacon salad for the starter, with Kevin feeling obliged to end his trip with a final hit of duck for the main. I opted for a cèpe (porcini) mushroom omelette and Matt had salmon. This was all prefaced with amuse-bouches, and followed by crème brulées for Kevin and Matt (I was done for by then and surrendered). Grossly full, we headed on to the aeroport and said our goodbyes.
Since then, it has been back to work mode for us. Matt had 3 potentials come up all at once at the end of last month: one a local project that would have been nightmarish, so he is pleased that fell through. Another one is still uncertain at the moment, but the last one is now going ahead. It is for a bank in London (so, good wages) but Matt’s involvement has changed from doing the build to project managing, to now just documenting how the work should be done. It will be about a week’s worth, so not huge, but it will buy us another month out here. For me, I have just finished a site for a charity in Lancaster, which I agreed to do pro-bono, but they liked it so much, they stumped up €200 for me, which was most kind. Since then, I have heard back from a client in St Tropez and they have decided to go with me for the redesign of their villa rental site, so I am working on that. Dad kindly placed an ad in the local business directory in my home town (where most of my business seems to come from) and that has generated one other potential customer too, which is great. Just waiting to hear back on that one. So, what with my translation stuff too, it’s busy busy busy for us!
Next week, visitor month continues with a very welcome visit from la famille Roberts who are staying for a long weekend. They are driving, so are bringing us a few supplies from the UK (tea and mayonnaise mainly!) as well as some tools so dad can do a few bits of superficial work to the house, which will be great. From the front, she is a stunner, but from the rear, the house looks a state – exposed breeze blocks and a ramshackle shed. Dad will cover over the breeze-blocks with some rendering, which will make a huge difference.
In other news, I don’t think we’ve yet mentioned we have a trip to Hong Kong and the Philippines looming fast! A good friend of Matt’s works in Hong Kong as a lawyer and invited us to his wedding at a resort in the Philippines. A week in Asia would obviously not be in the budget normally but he really wanted us to be there, so offered to cover both our fights and accommodation, making it very hard to say no. It is slightly awkward timing what with the few bits of potential work we have looming, but I was overruled, so off we go…!
Finally in the news round-up, our friend David Cox from London has just booked a long weekend with us for the day after we get back from Asia, so we will need to hit the ground running! We havent seen him since February, so it will be nice to catch up again. Ok, I think that is all the news from Mazeroux for now. Bonne soirée.