Stunt Rider

March 18th 2012 is the 12th Fête de la Moto at Le Bugue after a gap in 2011 and there will be more than ever to see.  Exhibitions, stunts, stands, autojumble, women-only bike run, food, drink and much more.

All this and it’s a FREE entry and Le Bugue is just 68 km from La Treille Gites – Directions here!

See this link for more information (in French)!

This was the 29th production for the Dordognes take of the ‘Mardi Gras’ Carnival and the theme this year was ‘As Time Goes By‘.  It was a chilly and cloudy start when it all kicked-off at 9am with the release of hundreds of balloons at ‘Au Gour de l’Arche’.  We missed that though as we didn’t get into Perigueux until around 1pm.  Fortunately by that time the sun had come out and although still a little chilly in the shade it was warm in the sunshine.  As the parade wasn’t scheduled to start until 2.30pm we had a little meander around ‘Parc Gamenson‘ which is up near the Prefectures offices.  It’s a beautiful and peaceful little parc crammed with lots to see including memorial stones and plaques dotted around of local born men of literature, an ornamental pool and other statues and sculptures by local artists. There’s also a great arena set against a back-drop of ancient stonework that’s obviously used for concerts in warmer months.

It was getting on for 2.30pm by now so we made our way to the main Boulevards in the City but typically French, the procession didn’t actually arrive on the Boulevards till just gone 3pm… Pas le Guerre!  Not that it seemed to bother anyone, the colourful crowd (between 15 000 and 20 000) were making the most of the beautiful early Spring Sunshine. Many had come dressed for the occasion in colourful costumes and it all added to the merriment. There were about 9 floats (it seemed like more as they passed-by slowley) including the one carrying ‘Pétassou’ – the mascot of the Carnival.  Pétassou gets his name from the scraps of material that he’s been adorned in: hundreds of patches of rags or pétas They were all elaborately decorated and the volunteers on the floats were covering everyone with confetti like it was going out of fashion… I’ve never seen so much, it got everywhere!

It all climaxed with the crowd gathered on the Quay for the witnessing of the raucous trial and and subsequent burning of ‘Pétassou’, his penance for bringing us such a harsh winter!

Local Press coverage here!

Breath Test Kit

A new law has been passed in France to make it obligatory for all cars and motorcycles to carry a breath test kit from 1st July 2012!

Publised in our local English newspaper – The Connexion.

Fishing in the Dordogne

Unfortunately neither Jeff or myself have never fished but I will attempt to give some information on the subject here as I’m sure a lot of our guests or even potential guests will be interested in this popular past-time.  After-all our gites are ideally located if you’re looking for a base for your fishing holiday here in the Dordogne.

I would of course welcome any feedback or comments from ‘those that know’ if I have made any errors in the following information or indeed they have any snippets of useful information that would enhance this post.

Obviously I have seen many folks fishing in our rivers but this article posted in an edition of  our local press ‘Dordogne Libre‘ bought to my attention that the Trout season has recently started (10th March 2012) and it got me thinking “what other fish are in our local rivers”?

Before I go any further I will put a link to the Dordogne section of the official site ‘Fédération National pour la Pêche en France‘, an excellent site with all the information you could wish to find on Fishing in France and the Dordogne. It’s where I got most of the information for this post!

In brief our local rivers  and lakes are home to a wide range of fish including trout (truite), pike (brochet), perch (perche), black bass , salmon (saumon), carp (carpe), bream (breme) , pike perch (sandre) and roach. In fact the local federation has released  925 pounds of fish in to the waters of the region to keep them well stocked.  As I mentioned in my opening paragraph our gites are just 2.5 km from the beautiful river ‘La Dronne’ but we also have on our doorstep (well, almost) L’Isle and La Vézère,  You can find all these and more on this great interactive map on this link! We are also quite near to some well stocked picturesque lakes (lacs) including the gorgeous lake at La Jemaye (28 km), Saint-Estèphe (54 km) and Rouffiac (78 km).

Fishing season depends on whether the rivers and lakes are classed as category 1 or 2, you will find this information on the site.

The Fishing licence or ‘Carte de Pêche / Permis de Pêche’ are available from tabacs and other local outlets or can even be purchased on line direct from cartedepeche.fr The costs are: €65 for an adult, €20 for 12 to 18 year olds and €4 for under 12s.  The permit gives membership to one of the 65 clubs in the department who organise fishing events and competitions.

Where’s me rod… After looking at all this ‘fishing information’ I can understand the attraction and wouldn’t mind having a go at fishing myself.  Think I’ll have to find someone local who wouldn’t mind teaching me… Any takers?

Rusty old 'flower bike'

Enjoy a relaxing and sunny Spring-break in the Dordogne!!!

Chill-out around the gites or explore the local area… There’s lot to do including many local events getting under way… Check out our Events page here!

Chateau view over Perigueux

You know, I’ve been pestering Jeff for weeks now to accompany me on a particular walk that I’ve been itching to explore.  The walk is just outside the City of Perigueux.  Driving into the city along the D939 at the junction with the D3 (Route d’Agonac) there’s a huge hill on the left hand side that I reckon would have amazing views over the historic city of Perigueux down below. Here’s the location on Google Maps! We just needed to find the best route up to the top.  I downloaded, magnified and printed a copy of the walk from Guides des randonnées and off we went!  By the way I’ve been raving to friends about this great recent find of mine and I’m sure any walkers or randonneurs in the Dordogne region would also find it a great resource, if of course, they didn’t already know about it.  I know these are available in ‘hard copy’ from most local tourist info centres (I’ve got a few copies of the Montagrier and Riberac issues) but it’s even better to have ‘instant on-line access’, be able to zoom-in and even print-off specific areas.  The other thing that I’ve found really useful about these ‘interactive’ maps is, like a lot of middle-aged duffers, my ‘taken for granted 20/20 vision’ is not what what is used to be,  recently I even succumbed to buying a pair of those ‘off the rack’ reading glasses (I’ve booked an appointment with an opthamologist to get them tested properly but they (opthamologists) are in short supply here in France so it’s not unusual to have to wait 6 months for a rendezvous – mine is booked for April 24th).  Going off on another tangent and knowing the French are infamous for poorly constructed and out of date websites it was a pleasant surprise to find these guides, perhaps they’ve been there for ages?  Perhaps  I’m the last person to find these?  I’d love to hear  if you’ve already been using them or even found them via my blog?  Have you discovered some interesting walks? Oh, I should just mention that the detailed information (usually printed on the reverse of the hard copy)  for each walk is not included in the ‘on-line’ version… I guess ‘they’ still want to sell some hard copies and so you’ll need to buy one if you want this info!

Getting back on track… Having decided to start the walk from the chemin de Beaupuy I have to confess that we didn’t actually climb this steep lane as there wasn’t anywhere near that we could conveniently and safely park the car so we drove almost to the top of the hill before we found a suitable parking space. This happened to also be in-view of the ruins of an ancient Chateau and it’s surrounding dilapidated outbuildings.  It looked like it must have once been a very impressive estate and although there was a ‘Propriété Privée’ notice we couldn’t help but investigate.

Chateau near Beaupuy

We were both really taken with the property and phrases like ‘crying shame’, ‘how can it be left to just decay’, ‘who does it belong to’ and many more were uttered as we ambled around the ruins.  Even though it was obviously beyond Restoration you could still envisage what it must have been like in it’s glorious heyday.  There were so many lovely and appealing aspects to the buildings that we spent a good hour nosing around.  There wasn’t much left of what must have  been a beautiful garden, yo’d have to have a good imagination to envisage it restored but, there were a few hints of its loveliness including a magnificent and very old Cedar Tree. This tree with its wide-spreading branches would overwhelm most ordinary gardens but it was just perfect here.  And the views were to-die-for; on one side it gave an amazing Panoramic over the metropolis that is the city of Perigueux down below and on the other, far-reaching views over rolling countryside with the tiny hamlet of Beaupuy in the foreground; you just know that painters would love it up here!

I knew there was something on this hill and I’m so glad I finally got to see it.  Today I’ve spent hours googling trying to find out more about the property but to no avail, there were plenty of references to another nearby chateau, ‘Chateau L’Eveque‘ but nothing about this Chateau.  I’m not even sure of its name, I’m guessing because it’s near the hamlet of Beaupuy it perhaps has the same name.  The only reference I could find was a site about a local family with the name of Beaupuy.  Not sure if they’re anything to do with the Chateau but you never know, the site that I found certainly doesn’t mention them as being the owners at any time.  Perhaps you know more about the Chateau?  Please get in touch if you have any information?  Don’t get me wrong we’re not in a position to buy it (no way, José), just curious?  Anyway, here’s a few pics I took before we dragged ourselves away for our planned walk.

It wasn’t until I started to write my blog that I realised there were another couple of photos I could have taken that would be nice, ie a view of the hill from ‘down-below’ and a couple of the gatehouses and entrance to the Chateau.  I have to go back near here tomorrow so will take a few more and re-post them.

The rest of the walk was very enjoyable despite the grey weather and although we managed to go off-the-beaten-track at one point.  We came-up against an impenetrable fence blocking our way so a slight detour was made which involved hacking our way up-through a densely wooded hillside where we managed to to re-discover the track and eventually back to the car after just a couple of hours.

I know I keep saying it but I have to add that I really must loose a bit of weight,  the difference  in my fitness from a couple of years ago was very noticable when we came to a decent incline. I quit smoking just over 12 months ago so it’s definitely the weight that’s making me unfit.   Walking is great but I think I’ll get back on the Xbox 360 Kinect tomorrow with a vengeance!!! Anyone fancy a duel workout on the Fitness Evolved – My Gamertag is Anglaisdame, send me yours and we can get fit together

Masses of Mistletoe!

There are dozens of mapped and waymarked walks around La Treille and we’ve covered quite a number of them over the last few years; many, I’ve documented on this blog (you’ll find them archived under the ‘Walking‘ tab under the Categories section). I thought I’d gotten quite adept at reading the yellow and green posts that mark these paths; so much so that today we confidently set off  ‘sans carte’ on what was supposed to be a short jaunt of perhaps just 3 of 4km. I hadn’t even put my proper walking boots on, just my flat leather boots. I’m paying for it now with sore aching feet having walked around 20km.  We obviously took a wrong turn and mis-read a couple of the signposts.   Is it just me or are these signposts deliberately a little vague, does anyone else have problems, would love to hear how others get on with following walking maps/signposts?  I’d love one of those ‘all-singing, all-dancing’ GPS thingymejigs but they’re so expensive… Had one in my Amazon Wish List for ages, ever optomistic that someone will treat me!

Actually, I have to hold my hand up to kind of knowing what we’d done as I’m sure moh would never have agreed to walk so far today.

Borie-Petit (honest)

Borie-Petit info

"Read all about it"!

Fortunately it was a beautiful sunny day if a little chilly and as it turned out I reckon he’s a lot fitter than me… I was the one who had to keep stopping to catch my breath whilst climbing one of the ‘usual’ bloody hills in this area.

Champcevinel Village

Chene and charme

Randonee signpost

On the plus side we’ve probably walked-off  that huge Christmas dinner that I cooked yesterday.  Talking of which, the allure of turkey and stuffing sandwiches back home was the perfect enticement to keep us going.   There is still enough turkey left-over for the traditional cold turkey, chips and pickles tomorrow (albeit a day late)  and no doubt I’ll use the last of it for a tasty Tai-style turkey curry later in the week.

Pine processionary caterpillars

Jeff on the trek

Low winter sun

The other plus that’s come out of this impromptu trek is that I’ve managed to find the complete set of ‘Randonnée en Dordogne‘ walking maps on-line, these should come in handy for printing off when we next set-off so no excuses next time!!!

Arhh, what with winter solstice just passed we’re half-way through another ‘L’hiver français’.  Warm and comfy in our cosy gite we’re all snug as bugs in rugs.  Here’s a few more photos taken this month that I thought you might like…

Frosty Dordogne Morning

Patient Pets!

Jeff by candlelight!

Hope you all had a good Christmas and best wishes for 2012. Soon be summer!!!

ps  Oh and if you have been on any great walks around the Dordogne we’d love to hear about them via the comment box below?

pps  Don’t forget that you can subscribe to my blog and get notified of my latest posts via the RSS feed buttons!

Although I’ve put  a link to the ‘official beautiful villages’ website above, I had better point out that Saint Yrieix (pronounced Saint ear-ee-a) is not in fact officially listed on the site!  But, it definitely should be in my opinion!

It’s a shame that the weather was a bit grim the day we visited this village – quite warm for this time of year but drizzly and grey.  Still, it didn’t dampen our enthusiasm , even when we realised that we had actually been before, ironically also in the winter time when it was bitterly cold.  On that occasion we were not impressed with what we’d seen but unbeknown to us we’d completely missed the best parts; including the medieval quarter.  This time we were recommended the visit by a family visitor,  who wanted us to accompany him on a reminiscing trip after visiting St Yrieix over 30 years before in 1982. He persuaded me when he mentioned a visit to a factory shop at the Madeleine cake factory!

We set the Sat Nav knowing it would take us via ‘a scenic route’ (it’s a long story that I’ll tell you about in another post) as we were in no rush and just out for a nice ‘day out’.  The journey took about an hour and half and we’d planned our ETA for lunchtime. So, that was our first port of call.  We quickly found a lovely little restaurant ‘La Bonne Cave‘.  We checked that the staff were happy for our dog ‘Ruben’ to come inside the resto with us – fortunately the French are very ‘dog friendly’ and settled down for some traditional French fare.  We ordered the Menu de jour and at just 10,50 € I should have realised it would be a gamble.  I couldn’t believe it when the waitress placed the plate of Andouillette sausage in front of me for the Plat de jour.  Have you ever tried Andouillette sausage?  I ordered it by mistake when we first moved to the Dordogne 8 years ago and swore it would be the first and last time.  Just google it, there are some interesting sites about this stinky regional delicacy.  I dare you (if you’ve never tried it) to eat it!!!  Feeling brave I hovered my nose over it and was surprised not to find any repulsive smells being emitted, it actually smelled quite pleasant – perhaps I was just really hungry.  I broke the sausage open and the meat spilled out onto my plate like gutting a pig… no going back now! I pushed some onto my fork and tried it…  It was actually ok.  Surprised at my own courage I took a decent slug from my verre du vin rouge and went in for a second go. It actually got better the more I ate and I managed to finish it off although, I have to confess to not eating the skin.  Whether it was the vin rouge or, I’ve just got accustomed to French cuisine I’m not sure, but, I still don’t think I’d knowingly order Andouillette again in a hurry!

Moving on, we paid the bill and left.  It was now after 2.30pm, the shops were all open again but we first went for a saunter around the medieval quarter and the Romanesque church, I took a few photos but they really do not show it at its best so have not added them to the post.  We’ll come back in the Spring or Summer and take lots of photos then.  There were quite a few quaint touristy shops to browse around as well as the porcelain factory shops (after all we are in the Limousin region, famous for it’s porcelain).   I was in my element… unfortunately it’s a bad time of year for us (all our fiscal obligations arrive at once: Taxe d’habitation, Taxe Fonciéres, Taxe de Sejour and Taxe Sociaux) so I have to be frugal with the purse strings: even that gorgeous hand knitted hat set that I’d die for in a chapeauxerie (hat shop). C’est la vie!

Having ‘window shopped-out’ we made our way back to the car and headed off to find the Madeleine cake factory shop.  It was actually on the road heading home (D704) about 3.5km outside of the village.  All my good intentions went out the window and I exited the shop 15 € lighter with a bag of goodies that will no doubt be devoured within the week.

We’ll definitely be putting a date in my diary for another visit next summer – Bonne Idea!

So much choice!

I get asked quite frequently if we would mind adding these links to our website and whilst I have no problem doing so I always ponder which page to put them on?  I advertise on many sites, both ‘paid-for’ and ‘free’ and to put a link to each and every one would clutter my site and quite frankly make it look very untidy. Having said that I do feel quite guilty by not giving a reciprocal link to these directories – especially the ones that are free.  I understand the hard work that’s gone into creating some of these sites.  It’s because of this that I have decided to add a new blog post specifically for displaying these links and will update it as and when I feel we have a new deserving case.  The advantage of putting these links on a unique blog page (as opposed to just adding the link to the bottom of an inappropriate page) is that they will get picked-up by the search engines faster – thus giving more exposure on the www!  I have separated the directories into ‘Freebies’ and ‘Paid-For’:

Freebies:

• GiteFinder

Paid-For:

• Owners Direct

We’re making the most of this beautiful Autumnal weather this weekend and yesterday (Saturday 15th October) went for a leisurely walk around the lake at La Jemaye.  The temperature peaked at around 27ºC in the afternoon which caught me out as I’d put a jumper on… I felt a little ‘out of place’ as the sun had bought out a lot of other promenaders who were all sensibly dressed in summer T-shirts.  Our intention was to walk the whole perimeter of the lake but about half way around their was an ‘Interdit’ sign across what looked like the obvious path.  It felt wrong but we followed the direction and it promptly took us back the way we’d come… Oh well, never mind, it’s a good excuse to come back next week, ignore the sign and try to get all around the lake in one go. Only thing is, you can bet your bottom dollar it’ll not be half as nice as today’s been!

Oh and just in case you’re wondering what the green drink is in the glass in the last photo, it’s a ‘Perrier Menthe‘… Most refreshing, and I’ve become quite addicted to them!