A New Adventure in France

So a bit about our local village this time. Surprisingly, although we have travelled quite a lot in this area, we seemed to have skirted the village on all sides on previous travels as neither of us could recall ever visiting it.

The bastide village of Tournon d’Agenais sits at 260m up on a hill and can be seen from all approaching roads. We also have a view of it from the house and the sun rises behind it in the morning. The lower part of the village has a small grocery store, a baker’s and a butcher’s as well as bank, hairdressers and a few other businesses. So everything you need on a day to day basis and all the larger supermarkets and DIY stores, etc are a 12 minute drive away.

The village, population around 750 inhabitants, was classified as one of the Plus Beaux Villages de France in 2021 so is a recent addition to this ‘club’. The royal bastide, founded by Raymond VII, Count of Toulouse, dates back to 1271 and the old part is typical of many bastide villages with a central square surrounded by buildings with covered shop arcades underneath them. The belfry tower in the main square houses a lunar clock which dates back to 1637 and is apparently unique in the Aquitaine region. The concrete slab—sided octagonal tower on the church at the end of the bastide is less attractive, but also unique as it is a combined bell tower and water tower built in 1957 to bring a water supply to the villagers. The Belvédère, a small park and remembrance garden gives a fantastic view over the surrounding landscape and you can even spot the house from there.

There are several restaurants as well as some art and craft galleries, all of which we guess will be fairly seasonal. A flower fair in early May attracts about 5,000 visitors, Friday evening ‘Marchés gourmands’ start this week and there is also a Foire à La Tourtière – another butter and alcohol soaked speciality pastry confection. One of our nearest neighbours is a truffle and honey producer so we will go and introduce ourselves there soon.

We called into the Mairie in the centre of the old village to introduce ourselves and were warmly welcomed. The previous owners told us that the mayor lives just up the road from us and passes by on his way to and from work so we may get to say hello at some stage.

When we were at the Notaire’s office for the completion ‘ceremony’, the notaire drew our attention to several clauses in the completion document concerning under what circumstances you could make a claim against previous owners, etc. He particularly highlighted that we have bought a house in a rural area, so whilst we might not hear neighbours or airplanes, we would not be able to complain if we subsequently didn’t like the sound of, for example, the cocks crowing, church bells, etc. We haven’t heard either of those but have seen at close quarters the wheat in the opposite fields being harvested over the past two days, with the combine harvesters working late into the evening.

We have also had a mysterious incident. When we stepped outside the house the other morning we noticed that one of Joe’s walking shoes was in the middle of the lawn – both shoes had been left in a small open cupboard on the terrace and the second shoe was missing. Despite checking all areas of the garden and up and down the road, there has been no sign of the shoe. On our first morning we did notice a collie casually crossing the garden and heading up the road, so perhaps he walked off with it. His mug shot appeared on a local forum yesterday when he was found at a local campsite – no evidence of the shoe though. Of course we’re also on the lookout for a one-legged French man with size ten feet!