A New Adventure in France

Spring has well and truly sprung here and fruit trees are in blossom, bulbs are flowering and we are surrounded by bright yellow fields of rapeseed. Joe has been mowing parts of the land every few days and there are jobs to be done in some area of the garden every day. It will be interesting to see over the next few months what we have taken on, but we’ll try and keep it all as low maintenance as possible.

Easter came and went fairly quickly, even more so because Good Friday isn’t celebrated here so it’s a normal working day. However despite it being quite early this year, Easter weekend tends to mark the reopening of restaurants, village events and fairs starting up and everyone emerging from ‘hibernation’. On Easter Sunday we decided to have lunch out at the Café du Centre in a local village. It’s a typical village café, sitting at the junction of two roads in the centre of the village, with a large terrace partially shaded by a very old plane tree. It’s always lively on a Sunday when the very small local market takes place, but we hadn’t eaten there before. We had a lovely lunch including aFrench Easter favourite of lamb, the restaurant was full, but we were surprised that every table was occupied by expats of various nationalities. Long time residents of the village told us that whilst the French will have a drink at the café, they don’t eat there, partly because they spend Easter with their families and partly because they won’t spend the money. It’s a pity, but also makes you wonder how these cafés would otherwise be able to survive other than on coffees and drinks.

Whilst admin appointments continue, we decided that we really must get away again in the campervan. We’ve travelled extensively in this area but there are still some towns that we have passed by regularly when travelling to and from the UK and that I have been curious to visit. So we planned a short 4 day trip to take them in. Back in the UK we also used to watch the ‘New Life in the Sun’ programme, chronicling the ‘journey’ of various Brits who decided to relocate to Europe and start a business, often with mixed fortunes or outcomes and always involving a lot of hard work. Two of the couples featured set up businesses less than an hour north of us so we decided to include those locations as well as part of the short trip.

First stop was a return visit to the Bastide village of Monpazier on market day – a lively affair with lots of interesting shops under the arcades and a good selection of market stalls. From there, after a very muddy afternoon walk around a nearby lake, a short drive through the Perigord forests took us to Pays de Belvès- a village we first visited in October 2020 and commented on how quiet and deserted it was. The following year we saw the programme about two guys who had opened a wine bar – Planches et Plonk – in that same village, serving French wines and ‘planches’ or boards of local cheese and charcuterie products and with B&B rooms above. They went on to open a separate wine shop in the village and linked up with a vineyard near Bergerac to get some of their own label wine. Belvès certainly seemed more lively than we remembered with more shops doing business and signs of renovations. A surge in temperatures meant we were able to sit outside all evening enjoying local wines and produce. As well as being very knowledgeable about all their offerings, Graham and Damon seem to be very well integrated locally as everyone who walked down the central street waved, paused to say hello to them or their rescue dog Malbec, or stopped for a drink. We had deliberately planned to stay in the village overnight so had only a short walk back to the van and views over the local viaduct.

The following day we headed north, following the valley of the river La Vézère, past the famous Lascaux caves of the Dordogne and then continuing further north into the Corrèze department. A little off-road detour took us to our lunch picnic spot at a view point overlooking the river gorge. Continuing north, our destination for the night was the town of Uzerche about an hour south of Limoges. The steep walk up to the old town was worth the effort for the views over the surrounding countryside.

As part of our circular tour we headed west from Uzerche, stopping first at Arnac-Pompadour, or simply ‘Pompadour’, the home of the French national stud and the main centre of breeding of Anglo-Arabian horses in France, and a racecourse just outside the town. The town was named after Louis XV’s mistress, Madame de Pompadour, to whom he gave the chateau for which the town is also known. There were no specific events on but we made a stop at the very simple Chapelle Saint Blaise, the parish church of Pompadour dating back to the 16th century and now known for its huge painted mural. In 2002 the chapel was falling into disrepair and was only saved thanks to European funds secured as part of a contemporary art project. Over 5 years French artist André Brasilier created a mural which covers almost all of the walls in the chapel, more than 300 m2.

Our next stop was was another of the villages in the Plus Beaux Villages de France category. Our own local village is a recent addition to this group, so perhaps not one of the most pretty, but the small village of Ségur-Le-Château more than lived up to the classification. Located on a loop of the river Auvézère, with the ruins of the chateau overlooking the village, and the home of the first viscounts of Limoges, it could easily be used as a film set. As we started to walk around the village we noticed small clay figures on many of the houses. Apparently these are known as Plaizentins from the name of the local artist Dominique Plaize. There doesn’t seem to be any story behind them, they’re just the imagination of the artist but charming.

Our circular trip took us back for a second stop at Monpazier for lunch and live music at Bière de la Bastide, a brewery business set up by a British couple and which we had visited once before with visitors. They’re obviously making a success of it as the place was full and great to have some live music.

As often the case with short breaks away, we felt we had been away a lot longer and had travelled a lot further away. Now to start looking for the next destination.