Chateau Blog — Archive

And my first go at growing garlic!

The Oregano Harvest. I’m running a little late this year, or maybe the oregano is ahead of schedule, I’m not sure. It’s June and I’ve just caught it before going to seed.

Just because I love it.

After 4 years - our big chandeliers finally arrived! What a ridiculous journey. Ordered in 2022 May. Built in China, shipped to Europe in 23. Stollen by Hungarian customs. Rebuild in 2025 after years of insurance and manufacturing negotiations. Shipped in March 26 and arrived in June. The boxes were beaten up but miraculously the glass beads and metal frames seem completely fine. I’m still digging through the boxes to confirm, but so far so good.

Tilleul flower season. The flowers are inconspicuous but their scent isn’t. It’s gorgeous. All the way down the driveway.

This weeks potato harvest

Bomby’s chestnut bomb Alaska, flamed in Grand Marnier for good measure.

They grow up so fast!

Baby chicks. 14 and counting

Auch cathedral over the Gers River.

Evening light.

Wisteria season

This year the Irises have done particularly well.

Our California poppies love the Gers

Veggie bins: I had no idea that lettuce could survive a minus 9 C winter. This year we had an unusually harsh frost that killed all the citrus and avocado trees, all of the bananas and damaged the olive trees… but the lettuce came through it just fine! Who could have imagined, frost hardy lettuce!

Dawn to dusk burn barrels. We put them on the tree stumps that we want to get rid of. It usually takes about three days to burn one out. Tough work, but it gets rid of all of the windfall branches and sticks, and gives me some purification time with the fires.

Last spring we started a little project to clean up some fallen trees that had been overgrown with blackberry and blackthorn thickets. We were hoping to clear what we thought to be a flat area about 8x8m to use as a storage area for gravel and tile. As we cleared we found that the flat area of thorns and deadfall was a bit bigger than we had expected. 120mx9m

Big storms and downed trees last week. The wind came in from the north, which is totally unheard of here. It took out a bunch of lovely old trees, mostly the ones with unhealthy or diseased root systems. So sad.

Spring springing.

In the process of creating a new gite above the chapel, we have taken down the old (structurally unsafe) beams and will be redoing the floor both upstairs and downstairs. This mid way stage though gives us an opportunity to see the lovely old 9thC chapel as it would originally have looked, before it was cut up into separate rooms.

Building a new toilet block for the event space at the old orangery.

The chapel is getting a new life. Built 1400 years ago this Romanesque chapel used to be the village church, until the village outgrew it. It has had many incarnations over the centuries. a chapel, a forge, a store room. In its new life it will be meditation, yoga and dance studio. ✨🪈🧘🏼‍♂️🪩✨

I picked up these nice old chairs on marketplace. Here they are drying after a couple of coats of anti rust treatment.

Lovely visit from the kind of old family friend that feels like family 🤗✨Please come back soon dear Liz and family.

After part of our dining room ceiling collapsed, we decided to seize the opportunity and insulate the ceiling and therefore the bedroom floor above it. We got to see the amazing wattle and daube of its 16thC construction (twigs, horse hair and clay, and beautiful old beams beneath), but decided to rebuild with modern materials (fibre glass and Sheetrock). We are also replacing the beautiful but dangerous old wiring, while we are in there.

I love the French canal system. Do you know that it takes 7 days and dozens of locks to go from our local river port on the Baise, Valance sur Baise, up to the canal system at Buzet sur Baise and the Garonne river. From there you can go all the way to Holland by canal boat…. Albeit slowly.

After several months of digging ditches, running power and visits from our electrician, our new pond aerator finally has lift off! It doesn’t look like much, but it’s a very necessary first step to a healthy pond.

Tis the season 🌻

The best way to handle a heat wave.

A little trip into Bascous. The heat is keeping everyone indoors, so these sleepy little villages are even quieter than usual.

After a year off, I’m back on micro blog. Here are some of this springs projects. Mostly still in progress as you can see.

The stream and new overflow pond. The new chicken house and run The new collombage for the relocation of the pool tech room New planting beds in the gite courtyard

Good one!

I’m finally getting around to the pressed flower project I planned last spring 😆 I guess that there are advantages to running out of funds for big projects.

Looking forward to lots more renovation and development work at the chateau, we are inviting donations in exchange for country Christmas gift baskets, pampered vacations and retreats, estate tours, herb walks, oil paintings and more. Please consider buying your Christmas presents from us, and support the château at the same time. With thanks and holiday wishes, Monique and Don

chateau-de-seailles.fr/crowdfund…

A lot of work and a lot of progress. We will have to pause this project for a while now, until we either get 60tonnes of gravel for the road and terrace, (and a little digger to spread it), or wait until it dries out in June or July. 🙈

Chop and stack

More rocks! Eventually these will be a terrace and a greenhouse foundation!

We went to the local raceway for the first time today. It was a lot of fun. It’s a formula one track in the middle of the French countryside.

Lots of progress today! We carved a new road to the pool area from the west entrance; filled the giant hole we made when we looking for the pool hoses; and we are currently backfilling the new terrace. It’s so very satisfying 😁✨

Free stone!!!

Just cute. Hibernating snails?

During some crazy mini storms we found ourselves with an abundance of downed branches, so it was time for another little burn. Putting the burn pile on a bramble patch I got two birds with one stone.😁

And chard.

And chestnuts

Black walnuts

And sloe berries of course.

Late season apple harvest

Loving having family here with us.

Preparing bee hives for winter guests

25m with pick axe and shovels. 🙈

This is our hand dug trench for the new electrical conduit that is coming from the orangery to the new pad - for the little pump house we are building.

Thanks to a lovely neighbor for his help: we finally got the new wall filled with concrete. 44 bags plus gravel.

Autumn mowing. With the rains, mists and heavy dews, we waited weeks, for grass dry enough to mow. Then finally got a window (mostly dry). I mowed for 3 hours straight, getting about half done, before I was chased in by a squall.

We found the fosse and pool plumbing at the orangery.

And more pruning

Brush cutting… slow and steady. This is where the solar panels are going.

We have been exploring the wines From one appellation over. Madiran might actually be better than our own st Mont.. not to worry we are equidistant from both coop stores. 😆

Yum

Closer and closer.

Bit by bit.

Progress! The concrete pad for the new pool technical room is complete.

Footing poured. 80 sacks of ready mix and one very long day. Sincere thanks to our wonderful neighbor for helping me with this. It would never have happened without him.

Almost ready for concrete

New bee hives! Now I just need to make them hornet proof before we invite new buzzy residents.

Yet another really good red.

Today I built a DIY water filter from scratch. And it works beautifully 😁

Scavenging flat stones from all of the ditches and junk piles around the property. This place is an Aladdin’s cave of salvage opportunities if you look carefully. This lovely pile of stones is going to be used to line the little basin we are creating to catch the waters from the spring.

This little spring is the reason for all the drainage work we have done

Here’s the wood for the concrete coffrage. A big thank you to Gert the lovely gentleman who runs the local lumber mill.

The piers have been dug and the ferrailles mounted in concrete.

Very nice wine this evening

And another little burn

Next we dig the piers for the terrace.

Next, the downstairs loo!

Tadaaa! Finished, finally.

This year’s sloe berry harvest is going to be epic?

It’s a good time of year for gathering medicinal herbs. So far I have a list of 58 medicinals I’ve found growing wild here… then of course there are my herb beds too. Not bad for a dilettante herbalist.

The new drain is almost closed up. Funny thing is.. they don’t call them French drains in France.😆

Mud mud glorious mud.

We have a spring by the pool that needs to be redirected. We hired a Minipell digger to cut the trench…. It is a super muddy task. The plan is to dry out the area, then extend the terrace by building a little retaining wall (75cm tall), and then backfilling.

First use of the gite courtyard since we installed lights and grew grass.

Sunday lunch at the village hall with all the other Seaillers.

My husband pointed out that you know that you are a permaculturist, when you fund your self discussing with your neighbors over lunch, the best local farms to obtain poo from to make better compost.

Burning out tree stumps is hard work. 2 down 15 or so to go.🙈

One giant old fallen umbrella pine reduced to compost and firewood…. Although I might try to make something else with the huge rounds from the base. Maybe stepping ‘stones’.

We found this old metal table frame and matching chairs on the side of the road in Toulouse. Don just finished building it a new top, from old oak barrel staves. Here it is in all it’s refurbished glory

The veggie garden is coming along nicely.

The sanglier are snuffling for roots and tubers. Ponyo, the allusive giant carp made an appearance. Griffin is thoroughly enjoying the hay raking, And the grass in the west meadow, is taller than the tractor.😆

We finally got our tractor back from the Motoculture people. They were super slow doing the maintenance check (4.5 week), so the grass is ridiculously long and difficult to cut now. I mowed till dark, got about 1/3 rd done. But it will all need to be done twice to get it smooth.

Hedge strimming

Cleaning up downed trees

A new light for the library

We lost 5 more trees in last week’s storm 🥹

The first of this years new veggie starts are going in. So far: tomatoes, peppers, strawberries, red currants, broad bean and zucchini. And last years kale is just going to seed.

We put up the outdoor lights in the Gite courtyard. A year of planning, three days of after work work, and hey presto. Pretty!

And in the kitchen.

Feather duster at the ready.

The new chandeliers are finally going in!! Yay!!✨👍✨❤️

My new willow walk is starting to bud!!

Strangely beautiful deteriorated old plaster and in the workshop/ garage.

The mowing begins. 😆

Our garden is full of early spring wildflowers.

Racing to be finished before the storm, and before the very ripe nests hatched: We removed and burned 60 processionary caterpillar nests from the pine trees. It was quite the race, but I think we got most if not all. 🤞 They are such destructive, dangerous little beasts.

Such a beautiful place, even in winter.

Carnival in San Sebastián this weekend. It is a combination of Halloween, Bay to Breakers and traditional Spanish culture. It is fabulous!

Mushroom soup.

Bit by bit.

Work in progress: The friezes continued - so far you have seen the plaster work applied, and the primer coat. Now I’ve put on the ‘aged paper’ undercoat and begun the gold paint.

Prepping and priming the little downstairs toilet for a new coat of paint. It’s just a tiny room 1m x 3m, but it has four meter high ceilings and a little medieval door. It taking some serious gymnastics to get the 3m ladder in there, and some deep breathing to calm my nerves at its top.

A brand new wood pile. We managed to use up the store of aged wood in the woodshed and had to buy some more. Next year we will have our own, but for now we are cranking through 4 steres of beautifully dry oak.

It’s been ages since I made my seed bread! Such a winter favorite!

Another burn…

The chandelier for the front hall, is coming together beautifully.

Happy New Year from all the Shefer’s and Sterns. We are so grateful for our first full year here! Love, peace and blessings to all.

Our shipment of light fittings finally arrived today. It took 2 years of design, manufacturing and shipping, but we now have a front hall full of crates! As we unpack and build them we will keep you posted.

Two down, thirty-five to go. 😆 This might take a while.

I’m creating a floral frieze around the top of the front hall. It’s based on the decorative design on the front of the Vienna succession building. An art nouveau masterpiece, that I have long admired. This is just the first step. Later it will be bigger of course, painted and gilded.

We planted, what will eventually become a willow tunnel. It’s in the soggiest corner of the garden, below the big pond. In this area a fresh hole will fill completely with water in minutes. Hopefully the willows will dry the ground a little.

A trip to Mimizan Plage.

Morning mists.

A pretty evening sky.

Flu season is upon us, so I’m making chicken soup and warm fires.

A little more ice.

First frost of the season. ✨ Just a little, but it is supposed to get colder over the next few days.

So proud of our new pantry shelves!

Putting up new pantry shelves! So needed!

Beauty everywhere

I think that I would like to make some Green tomato chutney.

We have lost three great old oaks in the forest in the last storm, (they were like dominoes- one took out another and that smashed the third as it came down across a little valley). Also the fire salamanders are out in force, and the fall color is coming.

Sloe gin recipe

1 liter bottle - wide mouth 350g of sloes
1 bottle of gin - 700 100g of sugar 50g - up to 100g of sugar (3 months later )

Steps:

Freeze sloes overnight Add to bottle Add him Add 50g of sugar Seal and store for 3 months Turning bottles regularly to dissolve sugar

After 3 months if resulting liquid is dark and rich in flavor, (if not rich and dark, leave for another 2-3 months), remove sloes and add 50g - 100g more sugar. (Quantity depends on taste preference and sugar content of the berries).

Leave for minimum of 6 months. It improves over time so is noticeable better after a year or 2. ( heavenly after 4 years). Best served chilled in champagne cocktail.

Our burn pile is huge. We have been waiting for that perfect weather to pull the trigger on this one: wet ground, no wind, not raining and not too hot, with rain expected soon. Today is the day!

Olive picking day!

Another visit to Abbey Flarran.

Boat gardening! 😆 This is how you weed the interior walls of a stone lined pond.

The Ordan Larroque flower faire. It’s just one day per year, but it’s a date to not miss.

Hunting for pipes by the swimming pool, so we can move the pools technical room out of the orangery. Dowsing has produced the best results so far. 😆

We lost a tree in the June storm, but gained a new view of the Colombage.

We enjoyed a lovely long weekend in Paris.

A very good rosé.

• 5 types of fish: conga, dourade, merlu, rougette. Whole fish, head. Just scale & clean.
• 3 onions
• 2 leaks
• 3 red sweet peppers
• 1 zucchini
• 3 carrots
• 2 tomatoes (medium)
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 1 little can of tomato concentrate
• 3 or 4 liters of water
• 2 bouquet garni
• 2 tbsp fennel seeds
• 2 tbsp coriander seeds
• 1 salt
• saffron

Bouillabaisse from scratch.

We have named her the SS papyrus.

Creating an isle floatante on the pond: We wrapped a couple of polystyrene wine bottle racks in burlap and landscape fabric, stuffed the holes with coconut peat, and planted with papyrus, iris, Japanese Prele grass, calla lilies, scented geranium and Thai basil.

Tada! It is unusual for me to post the same pictures on all my social channels- the fact that I do so today shows how pleased I am with this accomplishment.

The leaves are starting to turn!! The lime flower trees are always the first to fall. Griff is always happy to go for a tromp through the fallen leaves.

Between droughts and storms we lost a dozen or more trees over the last year, leaving us with the problem of what to do with the stumps left in the ground. Here is the solution we have figured out. Drill lots of 1” holes into the stumps, wait a season or two, then burn out with the aid of kerosene.

The stairs are almost finished.

We were lucky enough to eat lunch at Sofian’s school today. The Chou pastry balls are stuffed with chive cream cheese and smoked salmon, and the little madeleine and cannel cakes were home made. Overhead hung a plethora of little signs with phrases like, “taste each bite”, and “eat your vegetables”.

Hello.

The annual antique fair in Simorre was smaller than last year because of the rain, but still fun.

Much cooler today! Thank goodness! Cool enough to actually cook meals 😆 roasted Delice squash and tomatoes from the veggie patch.

There has been some progress on the stairs. It’s going a little slowly given that it has been 100 degrees F by noon here the last few days, but next week will be cooler! Yay!

Preparing the ground for a new flight of stairs to join the lower pond to the orangery. At the moment the only way between the two is a very steep old road. As a result we tend to access the pool from the house, or the orchard, but this will be better. I began with an hour of serious weed whacking.

Date night at ferme au buffles outside Aignan.

Oh and you have to remember to charge the pump battery the night before.

How to get stored water from the 1000litre cuve (filled by rain water from the chapel roof over the course of one storm), to the orchard before it reaches 95F today. Well, it requires about 1.5 hours, two different pumps, (one of them battery powered and rechargeable), an extension cord, a water barrel, two hoses and an off road utility vehicle.

Considering canapé.

We found an ancient Templar church a couple of minutes from the Chateau. Sadly it was all locked up today so I didn’t get to see inside this time, but I’m hoping to soon. So mysterious!

Nesting swallows have taken over the orangery this year. They are very beautiful, and good luck I’m told… but really messy.

A lovely afternoon at the Aignan lake. Super quiet at lunch time, but bustling with families by the end of the afternoon.

If you are interested in following us on our new instagram channel, you can now use this QR code. instagram.com/chateaude…

We had a lovely weekend with dear friends in San Sebastián.

New gazebos for the pool.

Sloe berry picking fun. This haul took five people about 30 minutes…. It should produce about 4 liters of sloe gin. That was two of about 200 bushes. 😆 Hmm that’s a lot of gin…

A big harvest from my little potager garden.

Tiempo Latino in Vic Fezansac this evening.❤️

Last weekend we were lucky enough to have a visit from the fabulous photographer Angharad Elliott from Haute Xposure. She did a really beautiful job photographing the gite and grounds for us. www.hautexposure.com/blog/chat…

Looking for leaks in the tower roof.

Today we added a fire pit and outdoor lounge furniture. The pieces still need to be placed, but it’s starting to come together.

One of my favorite times of year here. The bails of hay aren’t here for long, but they are so evocative.

We built a pergola in the gite courtyard

Sofian’s equitherapie class.

Driving to the Brico in Agen, followed by dinner in Aignan.

The Tour de France was here and gone.

And a bit more storm cleanup. We sadly lost the top of the old willow tree into the pond. 🙃

Chicory, dandelions and self heal. The wild flowers are loving all the rains that we have been getting.

We have had to do a huge amount of clean up following the storms. I’m not certain that they are over for the season, but I hope so. Just two more downed trees to clear and we will be more or less caught up.😆

The potager looking glorious

1-2 July Samazan Antquarian Salon / Brocant

2nd July Condom Brocant

4th July the Tour de France

5-19th July - is the Vic Fezansac night market.

20th July - Aug 5th Marciac Jazz Festival

20th July - 22nd July La Romieu En Chemin Music Frstival

22nd July - Aug 10th Chestnut Garden Night Music Festival

27th-30th - Vic Fezansac Tiemp Latino Salsa Festival

The Tour de France is almost on our doorstep this year.

And the upstairs

It’s not entirely finished but good enough for initial marketing photos. These are of the ground floor

A bit more progress in the gite dining room/ kitchen. I really love this paint.. I might just paint everything in the house. 😉

The ponds are fuller than we have ever seen them! It’s gorgeous. I wish it could be like this all the time.

We lost some branches in the storm but nothing catastrophic.

Soo much rain! The streets of local villages are strewn with downed trees this morning, but for the most part the drainage is excellent. That’s a very good thing because I can hear thunder again. 😆

That was quite a storm. After effects still being discovered 🤔

I haven’t tried this restaurant yet but it looks adorable, has a yummy menu, and the pretty courtyard is swathed in the mesmerizing scent of dozens of nearby lime flower trees in bloom. Definitely a new one for my list.

Bedroom 2 upstairs, is coming along nicely.

Catalpa trees in full bloom

A fabulous old tree in the Nogaro children’s playground.

I tried something completely new. It’s a store bought gluten free puff pastry. It turned out to be very good. We made an open face Spanikopita, with sun dried tomatoes, marinated artichoke hearts, pine nuts and chard instead of spinach.

Another seriously lovely wine.

Orange cake continued Preheat oven 150c After liquidizing the orange Beat eggs and sugar for 2 mins Then mix all ingredients together (orange, almond, baking powder, eggs and sugar) Optionally you can add chopped crystallized ginger - (for my aunt). Pour into a springform pan. Cook for 1hr - 1hr 10m

The Eauze Vide Grenier this morning.

I love this orange cake. It has a consistency somewhere between cheesecake and moosse. Gluten free, dairy free & delicious.

2 whole navel oranges, skin on. 6 eggs 220 gr caster sugar 250 gr almond flour 1tsp baking powder 1tsp vanilla

Boil oranges 2hrs, liquidize Combine all ingredients well

Progress in the gite. Just waiting for the last mattress!

Well it’s warm enough if you are 10 years old perhaps.

The Fources pottery faire.

It’s slowly coming together.

And a new stove.

Brocanting weekends. We are busily searching the local equivalents of Craigslist for furniture for the gite.

The neighbors warned us about the pod of big hail storms in early May. I can’t say I took them all that seriously, until… hail, out of a blue sky, accompanied by lots of thunder and lightning ⚡️

Spring rains bring an assortment of mushrooms.

Spring!

Le Monastere, saint Mont. best birthday meal ever!

Visiting a truly beautiful local chateau / monastery / spa!

Photos from Sofian’s horse riding camp.

Sofian’s first kid camp. First night away from home. 🥹

Mustard!

Burning the numerous burn piles before the summer heat makes it too dangerous.

The first fruit of the year! Thank you to my auntie and uncle for the lovely apricot trees. Apparently this one liked being cosseted in the potager for an extra season before being planted last fall, because it was first to blossom, and first to fruit in the new orchard this year

A bit of mowing.

The beauty of old glass

We added new planters on the front of the ‘maison guardian’. They are concrete but look like stone. Quite lovely, but perhaps a little small given the scale of the walls… in truth though, we couldn’t have lifted anything bigger. 😆

The leaves are coming in, on the driveway ‘Lime Flower’ trees. 🥰

Dark skies and bright faces.

Rainbows and radishes On the way to the Eauze farmers market, just one hilltop yesterday, we saw a double rainbow, with all four ends visible on the ground. Amazing !

Blossom tree. I’m not sure what it is but it smells lovely. I will use the plant identification app and find out tomorrow.

The Easter flower market in Simorre was lovely today. It was a little crowded in places, and the wait times in the restaurants were astonishing, but there was a wonderful choice of plants, at good prices. I bought 2x Japanese quince, a Japanese maple, a couple of scented geranium

Success! The egg hunt went very well.

Tomorrow I have 20 kid’s coming over for an Easter egg hunt 😆 I have to hide 600 chocolate eggs by 10.30am. 🫣 This should be interesting.

Progress on the new bathroom in the gite.

Just a touch of late frost last night. Hopefully it didn’t cause damage to the new growth.

First full trim of the year for the lawns.

Next up in the orchards unfolding: Three pear and three quince trees.

Today’s delicious feast for the soul.

Sometimes progress is messy.

A little wine tasting at the local St Mont, wine coop. We walked out with four and a half cases of really lovely local wine.

Yum!

A fun new toy…. um I mean tool. Each project, out in the grounds, used to require multiple long walks in each direction, to ferry each tool, too and from the job site. This is better, and more fun, and the dog loves it so much he sleeps in it during the day. 😆

A springtime feast of flowers. Remember all of those bulbs I planted last autumn? Well here’s the first of them coming up.

It’s 72 degrees, and the next two wood fired stoves are just going in today.
It’s a bit of a shame we couldn’t have them for winter, but it’s great to see progress, all the same.

Still weeding. 😆

Competitive weed pulling with the new thistle pulling tool😆 More fun than you would think possible, and soo satisfying!

One old apricot tree and two new ones, are the first fruit trees to flower in the newly extended orchard.

Sometimes sanded wood looks so cool it makes me consider leaving it unpainted.

The top of the world.

Luchon, on the Spanish border. A beautiful Belle Epoque Spa town, hidden deep in the high Pyrenees.

What a beautiful morning for skiing.

Arreau. A Pyrenees village, about 2 hours from home. Looking picture perfect in the snow.

The sheetrock is almost done.

A little flight around the chateau with pilot Sofian.

Sitting in the back of a pickup truck, exploring a neighbor’s land with them.

Mounting sheet rock, to a ceiling, in subzero temperatures, without a single straight line or right angle in sight. Why did I say I would do this myself?😆🤔

We discovered this today in yet another old garbage dump in our woods! Carved stone. It’s the most intricate piece we have found so far.

Gite insulation done. Tomorrow we start to install the sheet rock / drywall.

A trip into the Auch cathedral. Just a quick look around but enough to make me eager to return to this 15th century marvel.

Clearing yet more trash out of the woods. There has been so much weird stuff in there. It is very satisfying to get it out, and it looks so much better with all the mess out of the way.

Just a dusting.

Good morning, glorious day.

It’s snowing!! And raining alternately☔️🌧️❄️🌨️

This weeks storms have brought down a lot of branches, moved some roof tiles around and refilled the ponds beautifully, but most surprising is the new springs and ponds it has revealed/ created. We are seriously considering driving the remote control boat on our new mini canal.

Someone likes wood shavings a lot!

Sand… wash…. Prime… prime… prime.

Sand… wash…. Prime… prime… prime.

Sand… wash…. Prime… prime… prime.

Sofian’s latest project.

First he declared himself an archeologist and then he went and found an old ruin (foundations and flagstones) under the front lawn! 😂

The 13th century church at Sabazan is the cutest in the area. The local chateau also makes an excellent wine.

WIP

Happy New Year friends.

Another yummy wine.

Sheep in the vines. It was a funny sight so we stopped to take a picture, then Sofian “bahed” at them from the car window, and one hundred and fifty plus sheep turned and ran… 🤗

A drone’s eye view offering amazing new perspectives.

We got a drone for Christmas!!!

Amazing shots from the drone to follow, but here are some pics of the drone from the back courtyard.

Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah to you all. 🤗✨🎄

We finally got the new living room curtains up!!

Painting the kitchen cabinets from the gite, one door / drawer at a time. One undercoat done…… Ok this is going to take a while.

Necessities of the season…. Also fun new toy!

Good morning!

We just went up for the day but we are already planning more trips to the snow.

The beautiful road up to the ski slopes today.

Wonderful low lying mists at dawn and dusk today but with a lovely warm clear day in between.

They are now randomly sprinkled around the house and entrances.

My mum and I joined a Christmas wreath making party with a bunch of local ladies. The haul of shared greenery was really impressive. Holy, cypress, fir, laurel, olive, fern, mistletoe, ivy, rose-hips and lots more I don’t know the names for.

Sunrise

Today we are sandblasting the big beams in the gite. They were black with age and presumably from the smoke of the old bake house. They are coming up really well.

First fire!

Installing our fist wood stove… definitely more to follow now that we know that there are actually two separate flus in each chimney!

First frost

The sugar maple has dropping the last of its leaves.

We ate most of that Christmas cake before I thought to take a photo 😆

Time for making the first of the Christmas cakes. 1000g of mixed dry fruit, heavy on the cherries and ginger; 10 ml of grand marnier, rind of a lemon and an orange, juice of one orange, nutmeg, mace, cinnamon, French 4 spice, and salt; Mix and soak for a day or two. Then add 5 eggs, 200g of ground almonds, 60g of tapioca flour, potato flour, millet flour, tsp of Psyllium. 150g nuts. (Walnuts are my favorite), 250g of oil (coconut and olive), and one small grated apple. Ta da! Yum!

Misty loveliness. The frozen mists are settling in for the duration now… it’s that time of year.

Don found this amazing 1950s arial photo of the property: Long since forgotten roads, buildings that have been taken down, a lovely market garden / orchard below the orangery and a full woodlands on the south slope, all gone now. Lovely, inspiring, but sad in a wistful way.

Bread baking. Gf of course.

Spending the day spreading 3 cubic meters of gravel on the ¼ km driveway to fill in all the potholes. Oh the joys of chateau ownership.😆 Actually it was kind of fun. We are feeling stronger and fitter every day.

Sanding down the cabinets in the kitchen of the gite. Yes it was painted coral orange under that grey! 😂

We had a lovely dinner party with our delightful neighbors last night. It was the first dinner held in the actual dining room. Really nice!

This morning.

Last weeks storm brought down one of a dozen or more dead trees in the garden. It gave us the opportunity to try our hand at processing and preparing fire wood for drying. To be honest it was kind of fun. One down 14+ to go.

After the fall harvest we were visited by a rather large number of field mice. We bought live traps and have been catching and releasing every couple of days. I drive them out, a few miles from the house into the fields and woods and release them with a pile of almonds and cheese

Ok the bulbs are all in the ground! Phew but that was a lot of work. Next year more big bulbs like daffodils and less tiny aliums and crocus. Hopefully they will look lovely in spring, if the moles don’t eat them first😆

A little furniture painting: We have restored these cute little bedside tables For use in the gite. I’m in love with the gold wax for highlighting the edges.

We headed out to yet another vide maison to buy some dining chairs. The chairs were a great find, at a super price. Grubby and in need some work, with a little TLC, they will do for the dining room, at least for the time being. The drive there was long but gorgeous. Fall color all around.

The storms this week are likely to bring down the last of the beautiful autumn leaves in the garden. Sad, but they do make such a gorgeous carpet too.

It is too hot in summer to have rhododendrons out in the sun, so I’m planting them in dappled sun in the woods.

Another really good local wine. I used to think that Gers wine was lousy, but they are getting better and better!

The weeks before the rains start in earnest, is the best time to plant your orchard, hedge, new trees and bulbs. Today I planted 18 Crepe Myrtils, 4 photinia (to add to the 62 cypress and photinia I planted last weekend), and about 100 bulbs. 15 fruit trees and 200 bulbs to go.

Putting on the heating for the first time this year. We carefully put little plastic bowls under 20+ radiator valves in case they drip. Apparently they are delicious.

The three new kittens. 🥰

Morning mists

Guy fawkes night at the local British pub, deep in the French countryside, but only 7 minutes from us.

We have been joined by three new barn cats. They are only kittens, (and a touch feral), so we are keeping them in the laundry for now, until they bond to us a bit. The two boys are ready to come out and play, and can be stroked while eating. The little girl is still in hiding.

I went to another vide maison yesterday. The surprise was, that it was at an ancient chateau that we had looked at online, but declined to visit during our house hunt, because it is in such bad shape. New owners have an enormous amount of work to do, but it is picturesque.

A little seasonal color.

Our neighbor flies small planes out of a local recreational airport, and was kind enough to offer my husband a ride this afternoon. Of course they had to come and buzz the château a few times. 🥰

We found an enormous pile of old trash under a bramble we were clearing today. Pulling each oil can and length of wire out of the ground, marveling at the type of thinking that would have made this kind of dumping seem acceptable.

Sorry these pics are a bit dark, but it will give you an idea of it. 😁

Visiting a local ferronier (blacksmith), who fixed the ironwork on our ancient front doors. He is going to give me a quote for some custom art nouveau balustrades / handrails for the exterior stairs to the orangery. Might be silly expensive but you don’t know if you don’t ask.

I’m looking for inspiration, for the creation of a logo for the events business I want to start next year. The umbrella pines and the tower are the most iconic, recognizable visual elements, but they are on opposite sides of the building… maybe I can combine them anyway? Hmm.

The summer season is over, but the locals still fill the Auch restaurants at lunchtime, even mid week.

More and more walnuts, and still lots more to collect.

A new view of the pigeonaire from ground level.

This old retaining wall has a couple of little stone cupboards / guardrooms built into it. They are probably part of the original early medieval structures, so at least as old as the tower. (11th century).

My favorite way to roast potatoes.

Clearing the brush from another little woodland beside the orangery.

A very good morning for seeing the Pyrenees.🥰

It’s getting dark earlier now. This is the lovely sight that greets me when I return from my after dinner trip to the compost pile.

Thai eggplant with basil and homemade hoisin sauce. From the garden.

Happy birthday to my darling boy.

Exploring the local wines. Yum!

First time back on a horse in more than 2.5 years.

New salon paint job completed!

Mondays are market days in Aignan. We had lunch at the Bistro Brocant, and ran into many of our neighbors and tradesmen. Feeling more and more at home.

Lunch at the Henri 5 restaurant in Eauze.

We had a visitor: One of our neighbors lost all five of his hunting dogs when they escaped today. One sweet female trotted into our kitchen and stayed to eat 5 cups of dog food and a carrot.
They don’t keep their dogs with the love and attention we would expect, so I took 40 big burs off her coat, and cut out a bunch of mats. I only wish I had had time to cut her nails.

Who knew that fresh walnuts smell like limes!🤯😲😮

Wood storage shed complete. In the process, we found that the area that we call the old depot, has a stone floor, under 12cm of soil, sand and gravel. Once uncovered, the dog immediately lay on it and would not let us dig further today.

We were just discussing the need for us to adopt some château cats, when at that exact moment this lovely feline jumped on the hood of the car, and then sauntered through the open window. We were just considering being adopted by a cat, when she up and left. ☹️

After a lot of work clearing and cleaning, our woodland walks are looking great. The next part of the plan is to plant lots of bulbs and a few trial rhododendrons, to see what will grow in there.

We are preparing to build a wood storage shed to house the wood cut to fit in the new wood stove. We raided the stores of old timber in the chai to find some good pieces for the frame.

The annual Hunt began in ernest this week. The autumn stillness is broken by gunfire a dozen times a day. Since we put up the ‘No hunting’ signs I have noticed an increase in wild animals on our land. Hopefully they can feel that they are welcome to hide out here. We saw a beautiful red fox yesterday and again today. I didn’t manage to get a photo of him/her but here is a pic of a visitor to my potager today.

We passed the Highway Code portion of our driving test!! Yay!🤪 so delighted to be done with this incredibly difficult chore. It’s my third driving license and more difficult than the others by an order of magnitude. Not so much because the rules are different (although they are a bit), but because the questions are designed to catch you out semantically!!!!

With a lot of huffing and puffing we got the new 140kg wood stove, out of the car and into its place in the kitchen fireplace.

Our friend and owner of the local wood mill, sold me 50 oak planks to repair our wood paneling. Milled in the 1930s by the father of the previous owner of the mill. It was originally intended to be staves for wood barrels. It is the densest, knot free wood you can imagine.

Don’s in Paris for a conference, so I have been moving forward with clearing, planting and other projects.

It turn out that the best place to buy inexpensive plants is the supermarket

The morning mists have been marvelous the last couple of days. That rosy autumnal glow is mesmerizing.

The trail blazing, strimming and weed pulling continues apace in the woods and bassin. We are deeply grateful for the recent rains, even though the clay mud is now fabulously sticky.

More bramble bashing in the forest. Clearing through to the other side of the new Bassin. It turns out that this bassin in the woods is fed by another one higher up.

We drove down to Pau today to do our Highway Code test. 🤞 The scenery on the way down was gorgeous as ever.

The new flag stones have been laid and grouted in the mews. Hopefully this, together with the new gutters, and freshly pointed stone will address the rising damp issues that we had in the cottage.

From the outside of the woods, we snuck into a new part, by crawling through an animal track through the dense hedge. Then we explored happily until we disturbed a nest of carpenter bees and had to escape at a run. Ouch, we are both nursing a couple of stings this evening.

We found pieces of hand carved stone in the undergrowth in the area of the woods we are clearing today!!! And about 100 years of trash. It will take weeks to excavate but it’s Awesome 🤩

There is an area in the woods with no trees. It is about 100ft square and filled with brambles and Virginia creeper vines. Surrounded by raised banks ranging from 2’ to 25’. At the south end a small dry creek bed enters it. We are not exactly sure what it is. A spring perhaps?

Date night dinner in Auch.

We found, what at first appeared to be a dirty old bathroom medicine cabinet. It turned out to be an incredible find: The old key cupboard from the Chateau. Long before the land was subdivided, when all the surrounding / neighboring properties were part of the estate, the chateau included: Wind mills and aviaries, chicken, pigeon and cow raising facilities, dairies, barns, cellars etc. The old writing is beautiful, if a little archaic, but it was well worth the effort to decipher and translate.

Lunch at ‘Cafe Curry’, at a chateau in Lannemazan.

A day of floor sanding in the Gite. It is slowly getting better and better.

Measuring the stairs for stair runners. 25 perfectly irregular, inconsistent gorgeous stairs.

Did you know that putting concrete next to a stone wall, causes moisture trapped under the concrete to seek an exit, by climbing through the stone? Well now we all know. 😉 We are removing concrete, adding drains, and replacing it with old, rough worn stones. 🥰

Slack line fun in the garden.

Sofian’s first day of school in France.
Complexity abounds. Nothing is simple, but little by little it begins.

A bit at a time.

Processing the wood from the tree that we had taken down last week.

Our friend Gert owns and operates this amazing old saw mill. The mill itself was portable. It still sits atop its marvelous old iron wheels. Pulled by a team of buffalo, the mill and its steam engine used to travel from farm to farm, cutting wood for people. It came to rest in this old barn in the 1920s, and was converted over to electrical power in the 1950s. It is still used today custom cutting wood for tables and shelves, small construction projects etc. Gert cut the new shelves for our library. I’m hoping that he will be able to cut wood for a few replacement wood panels for the salon… and then maybe a dining table, new kitchen counter…..

A foggy morning after a little rain.

European firebugs. Not dangerous or damaging to plants or animals, and kind of cute, for an insect. They live on linden seeds, and it so happens that our whole driveway is composed of lindens. 32 of them to be precise. The dry weather has cased a plague of them. 🤔

We had these guys take down a tree that was overhanging the orangery roof. It would have caused tremendous damage if it had fallen in the winter storms. However, it is always sad to loose a tree, even when it’s necessary.

After the rain

From the apple trees. They aren’t really eating apples so we will make apple sauce and jar them.

Remote control electric speed boat on the pond. Thank you Mart for an incredible gift.

Because it’s fun.

Today we measured the well. It is 19m of stone lined beauty.
A really lovely construction. It only has about 4m of water now, at the end of summer, but rain is coming.

Friends… mostly.

Dress up. Yes we have a dragon themed dress up bin.

This evening’s sunset: Just wow!

More plaster removal reveals a fabulously weird combination of building materials. Ancient and modern methods and materials. A bit of whatever someone had laying around, beside gorgeous hand carved blocks of stone from the 16th c.

The Gardien’ cottage is a 4 bedroom house, that sits beside the Chateau, with its own interior courtyard. Unfortunately, prior owners concreted over the exterior perimeter and interior floor, creating rising damp issues. Today I’m now removing damp plaster (revealing stone).

Zip lines in the tree tops. We return to the Aignan lake zip lines every opportunity we get, before they close at the end of September.

Aignan lake.

Loving our visit with Martin and Miche.

The lightening tonight is almost continuous

I have never seen anything like it. The flashes are coming from every direction at once. We have closed the shutters on the dodgiest windows, fighting wind & wisteria to do so. We have checked all 100 windows. 😆 Now we watch & wait.

Exploring the interior of the Chai. This big old barn is full of fabulous old windows and doors. We even found an old stained glass window! No pics of the stained glass yet because I need to go back without the dog, and with another set of hands and a big flash light.

Today we had lunch with my cousin Sue’s dearest friend from Paris. By a wonderful coincidence she and her husband rent a summer holiday home in the Gers.

The local zip line park was having a little 2cv party. Soo cute.

The veggie bins are starting to provide us with meaningful contributions to meals: 2lbs of green beans, 2x large round zucchini, loads of giant regular zucchini, arm loads of chard, coriander, basil, eggplant and little tomatoes.

Its 85f at 10pm😆 We are having a shadow puppet show in a tent on the lawn.

We have an incredible super moon lighting the garden.

Maybe we will sleep out here if everyone calms down enough. ✨

Still no oars but it is lovely to sit and bob about.

Both ponds are stone lined. This one, has lovely old stone walls at one end, that drop 6’ to the surface of the water. At the other end there is a gently sloping stone beach, from which we launched our little barque.

Ancient and lovely but endangered by years of neglect, the stone walls have all kinds of little bushes and trees growing out from between the stones, that need some serious pruning!

The heat has eased a little today. But we still spent it hiding in the cool of the stone walls (building mosquito screens). Then at dusk we ran down to the pool for a dip. Sofian is becoming a wonderful swimmer.

The Gers is very rural, but horse and cart is still a rare sight.

The sequoia nursery: From even before we found the house we knew that we wanted to plant Sequoias here. Apparently they used to be native to Europe (they are in the fossil record here), but died off in the last ice age, along with the hummingbirds. 🥲

I’m sooo proud of the veggie garden 🥰. The new irrigation system for the veggies is almost finished (just a few more parts to buy). My finger tips are sore with the effort, but at least I will be able to keep it all alive in the next heatwave (next week). Beautiful.

Yesterday we went to IKEA… again. This time for metal shelves and work table for the workshop. I think Don’s long-standing dream of having a proper maker space / workshop of his own is going to drive something pretty cool.

We found what we think is an old Roman road that runs between the fields from just beyond our southern boundary, going for miles up to a main road. Incredibly beautiful and secluded, ancient and lovely. It made for a really special evening walk.

Donnie worked soo hard on the beautiful big hedge in the front park… (you just can’t call 7 acres a front yard). He did a great job.

Rescue operation this morning: a beautiful owl had somehow managed to get itself stuck between an exterior shutter and a window.

The sofas arrived!!! They are gorgeous, and enormous 😆

It’s ok. He can have the sock… he already chewed up the matching one anyway.

My favorite little local brocant. We picked up a set of drawers for Sof’s room and a cute little side table for the stair landing. I loved the mirrors but I’m not ready for them until we have painted.

Remote control, high tech garbage collection in Auch.

First day with a relatively clean new (to us) pool. The liner won’t last more than a year or two, the pool cleaning robot is distinctly mediocre and the uv index was too high, but we had loads of fun. I had forgotten how much I like to swim. Sofian is going to be such a fish!

Yup, I think that we have enough bedding.

Still sorting through the library…. and I haven’t even opened a single box of our books yet.😆

106F today. Yuck! Thank goodness it will start cooling down tomorrow. The wind is up and change is in the air.

That said, record breaking temperatures and fires all over the planet… it has me wondering why people are not more scared and motivated to change.

Who ate all the figs? One day we had a tree full of almost ripe black figs, the next they were all gone! Every last one!

The apples are almost ripe… but not quite. I noticed today that all of the windfall apples are eaten by morning. I wander who is munching?

We made it home just in time for the harvest of our hay!

The view of the Pyrenees from Tarbes airport is really quite stunning. Oh and this little local airport also offers a surprisingly convenient way to get to London, as well as a bunch of other fun places.

Thank you Victor for your warmth, hospitality and kindness.

I hadn’t seen some of these lovely women since we were 16 or so. Funny how the intervening years seem to magically disappear when you are with old friends.

We had a really lovely mini More House reuinion. It was a beautiful afternoon catching up with old friends. Then some of us were able to bring our boys together at Holland Park playground this morning for more fun.

Dippy the Diplodocus at the natural history museum in South Kensington.

Sof and Calvin hadn’t seen one another for almost a year!

The London science museum was awesome yesterday.

So lovely to be in London with Sonya and family.

Sooo many boxes!!!

One of the new water lilies is flowering, and the lawn is golden with dandelions.

This puppy is exhausting. It took us all day to figure out that he was acting crazy (crazier than usual) because based on his new weight, his food requirements have increased again! 16 kg and growing fast. He was 10kg when we got him a month and a bit ago.🤪

The dog seems to enjoy fruit. Anything below 3’ has been eaten: pears, gooseberries, red currants etc. luckily for us the apples and figs are mostly safe.😆

Sof has had a high fever for the last 24 hrs. Not Covid, but something else. His fever just broke this evening. Hopefully he will feel better tomorrow.

Holihock season:

The local canal joins the navigable part of the Baise river to the Garonne River and on to the Canal de Midi. This is the double lock (ecluse) of Graziac. The tow path that runs parallel to it makes a marvelous bike path. We are eagerly looking forward to exploring it by bike.

Cuddles

Schattil’s in the Chateau

My lovely aunt and uncle are here with us this week.

Hopefully tomorrow will be cooler.

It is going to be another scorcher. Early morning watering is a chore but it’s one of my favorite times of the day.

It also has some interesting art installations hidden in the jungle.

Le Jardin Exotique is a tropical botanical garden about 15 mins from us. It has its own microclimate, more humid and wetter than the surrounding area.

The local market square offers games for the public to enjoy for free.

Looking for inspiration for rug designs among the patterns on the Chateau’s floors and walls.

Two big walnut trees, two apple, two fig and two olive, all loaded with the promise of harvest goodies.

The weather is starting to warm up. It was probably close to 90F today, although it was cold and foggy in the morning and blustery and stormy in the evening. I love all of the variety that we get.

Veggie bin progress:

Brocanting for a change.

Morning mists.

Our fabulous house guests are full of fun.

A little tree identification walk this morning with the help of the plant net app. We have yew and cypress, (several types of each), a half dozen types of oak, chestnut, walnut, black walnut, catalpa and tillule, several types of fir, including my favorite - the umbrella pine, ash, poplar, bay, beech….

We started the mammoth task of cutting trails through the woodlands. In the process we are finding and marveling at some incredible old trees.

The most amazing Leclerc super hyper mega store in Toulouse. It was like a grocery store swallowed a target, a best buy a couple of restaurants, a patisserie and a garden center.

Ouch. I fell down the stairs. No broken bones, just some heavy bruising. It only hurts when I laugh, or turn, or bend….

And the moral of the story is don’t descend heavily waxed and polished floors, barefoot, in the dark carrying an 11kg dog.

Thank God for Arnica. Homeopathic remedies rock!

My new veggie bins are ready for compost. Half filled with branches and hay, they will have a 18” layer of soil to finish them off, just as soon as I can find someone to deliver it. We also filled potholes on the driveway.

Squelching clay between my fingers. I’m cleaning pebbles, roots and plants out of the clay from the backyard, to plant my water lilies. It’s kind of fun but really messy!

Latour-Marliac water lily cultivation, gardens, and museum in Le Temple-sur-Lot. Well worth the 3 hours of drive time.

This dog is growing on me.

We took griff to the vet for an introductory check up today, (inspired by all the weird crap this puppy keeps eating). The vet was adorable, he kept rubbing noses with the puppy and making kissy sounds at him. Super cute!

Another brocant, this one in Vic-fezansac. Nice stuff but really expensive! I liked the little dresser but I’m used to paying about €200 - €350 for something like this and he wants €990. Prices vary tremendously from one place to another.

So the pool cleaning proved to be something of a miner disaster… the pool guy didn’t know that you can’t drain pools with liners because ground water immediately pushes it way between liner and soil. Now we have to wait for the real expert to arrive with a giant vacuum sealer to fix the liner.

The local zip line parcourt park, borders a lovely swimming lake, has a paint ball forest, and of course a French restaurant. Sooo much fun! 10 mins from home!

Today we bought a bunch of water plants for the lower pond: water lilies and water lettuce. Still looking for water hyacinth. We also had someone drain and clean the pool.

More mowing reveals a lovely shady spot below the pool that might make a good pétanque pitch / place to picnic/ relax out of the sun.

Happy birthday to my dearest mama🥰

Don calls it my new “lady chainsaw”.😆 I love it! It’s brilliant for pruning and clearing brush and the low hanging branches that make all the little paths nearly impassable. A bit hard on the hands but the results are so gratifying!

Who ever heard of wild gladioli? Slightly smaller blooms and more resilient / longer lasting as cut flowers than their common garden variety cousins.

The library curation project continues: We have made an appointment with a friend who is an antiquarian book dealer to examine some lovely old books for possible sale. And an appointment with a local ‘book brocanteur’ for some of the others. Their is a lot of chaff :)

We met a lovely local family who live a couple of hundred yards from out southern edge. They have a son Sofian’s age who will be in his class at school in September. The boys got on very well, as did the mums 😊 The four of us had a water fight that lasted all afternoon.

We went to a fun local horse race. Deep in the countryside with fields all around, there is, what the French call a hippodrome. It was a pretty rural event, but in true French style it featured a sit down white tablecloth lunch, crepes and ice creams.

Doggie aka griff, aka grufalo, is getting comfortable in his new home.

My herb garden. Behind the chapel, there is an enclosed courtyard bounded by the back of the gardian’s cottage, the workshop / garage/ wood shed and a charming old wall. Surrounded by old stone walls it catches and keeps the heat. We use it to dry laundry and grow herbs.

We spent a couple of hours getting to know the lovely local mayor and his sweet Israeli French assistant. They gave us our attestation de domicile. This is the essential item that gets us schools, cart vital etc.

Then we went and picked up our new puppy. We are delighted to introduce ‘Griffin’. (Provisional name subject to family conference ).

Then… finally, and very belatedly the mattresses were delivered!!! Yay! So we disassembled the old headboard in the master bedroom, moved the bed into its place and placed the lovely new mattress atop it.

Then I bought some plants and filled 6 large empty planters with little palms, hibiscus, strawberry plants, scented geranium and snap dragons.

Hopefully the dear will stick with the roses.

Have you ever had a day that felt like 3 days?

In the early am we drove to an estate sale. We spent 20 mins struggling up a drive way jammed with dozens of brocant trucks, and 45 mins backing down the quarter km of switchbacks to escape the madness. We didn’t even get in.

Brocanting day. Still looking for drawers and side tables, dining table, outdoor seating etc etc.

I think we need grazing animals!

Mowing around the flowers!

We drove up to Agen to pick up my Cart de Sejour! Such a pretty drive.

Another brocant. We are looking for drawers and have decided that brocant is way better than ikea, and sometimes even cheaper. We didn’t find any furniture we liked at this one but picked up a couple of little plant stands.

We also got one more bed built, and picked up a nice table for the entrance hall. Happy birthday to me. 🍾😆🎁

The bed will be moved once we can extract the built in shelf that occupies the other corner of the room.

Today we set to work, trimming the low hanging branches that obstructed so many of the paths and stairs. In the process Don discovered a whole new alley. A lane that was obscured by low branches and partly blocked by young saplings. It runs from the house to the lower pond.

One bed done. (It only took 4 people 3 hours). Three more beds to build. No mattresses yet. Tomorrow is another day. We did plant one loquat tree, in the chateau orchard. We found it abandoned on the side of the road in a Toulouse neighborhood. Its name is senior Loquat.

Work in progress. Hopefully the mattresses will arrive today also.

IKEA again for kitchen wares, towels and hangers. The shippers say that our container is finally on the ship! ETA mid June.

Lots and lots of beautiful big empty spaces: The walls behind, where the furniture and art used to be, have 20 + years of dust. The interiors of the many lovely built in cupboards are grungy. This house was loved & generally well maintained but a bit neglected in places.

It has been a very long, wonderful day. We spent at least 6 hours cleaning; 5 hours driving around picking up the things left with friends before our trip, and then we unpacked for what seemed like eons. This house is big and has a lot of stairs. We are so very very tired…

House purchase achieved. It’s gorgeous, and it is really hard to believe that it’s ours. I imagine that it will sink in eventually.

A little brocanting along the way:

We traveled From Pamplona back into France today. Travel Day 3:3 Tomorrow is the big day. We pick up a new car for my dad at 8am; we have the pre signing walk through of the house at 10.30; then we sign and get the keys at 2pm; return to the house as it’s new owners… and start a new life.

Madrid to Pamplona. Day 2:3 Madrid is a massive, sprawling city, with the most complex and non intuitive road system imaginable. It takes an hr to escape it’s thrall. Driving north, green fields give way to scrubby terrain and then to a patchwork of yellow rapeseed flowers.

Headed north. Day 1:3 Mile upon mile of olive trees. Ancient gnarled beauty erupting from rough parchment colored sand, forever to the horizon.

The last day of the grand tour. Wrapping it up in style, with a day at the Alhambra in Grenada.

And lastly, an unexpectedly fine dinner in the plaza square of a hill village on the way home from the coast.

After lunch we met up with one of my childhood friends, who lives not far from Banus, with his lovely family. Such a wonderful afternoon!

When I was a child we visited Puerto Banus near Marbella, on many a family holiday. Staying on friend’s boats we enjoyed this glitzy world of palm trees, sun, surf, fancy boats and lovely restaurants. Today we took a stroll down memory lane.

About 6000 years ago a megalithic peoples constructed a 100ft long barrow on a hill top. Oriented towards a mountain that looks like the profile of a face. It is a beautiful site and an awesome display of prehistoric building skills.

Great date night in the Granada old town. We spent the day trying to drive the big minivan into Granada old town and failed. Then we drove to the outskirts, and took an Uber into the tiny streets. Obviously the best solution. Gorgeous ancient hill town.

Another travel day: East from Seville to Granada. The plains give way to low hills. You drive for an hour and a half with your ears popping and then discover that you are actually at 400m. Not long afterward the hills turn to mountains. The snow capped peaks of the Sierra Nevada

Poppies for my Auntie:

20 mins to drive its entire circumference. And then an hour to inch through customs and passport control, while hundreds of locals buzz through on scooters with a mere wave of an I’d card.

A great rock rising out of the sea. At its summit, scrub brush and mean monkeys. At its margins, a dense jumble of modern and ancient. In general it is inelegant, heavily fortified and grubby, but with hidden jewels, mysterious tunnels and breathtaking vistas.

Seville’s Alcazar: Mesmerizing beauty. Artisanship that boggles the mind. A depth and breadth of history transfixed in space.

Cadiz is an ancient port town about an hour west of Gibraltar. It sits on a narrow spit of land ringed by beach and shipyards. Founded by the Phoenician’s it is the oldest continuously inhabited city in Europe. It’s history is very colorful having been raided dozens of times.

Seville is stupid hot. 80f by about 10am😆. It makes the three giant bags of coats, hats and scarves that we are toting around , feel ridiculous.

A gentle ride around Seville:

On the road again. Today we are headed to Seville. With a little coastal sight seeing along the way, we should be there by 4 or rather 5pm with the time change. Strange place for a time change.

Family Mini golf at the beautiful Vilamoura Marina.

We took a fun speedboat tour along the magical coastline of this part of the Algarve. Visiting a long series of gorgeous caves and idyllic hidden beaches, and occasionally hidden beaches in caves.

Shopping for curtain fabric: It sounds like an odd thing to do on vacation, but the Portuguese make the most gorgeous fabrics, and are much less expensive than the French or Italians fabric manufacturers.

Compared to our recent adventures, a day at the mall may sound a bit plebeian, but we thoroughly enjoyed the vast Algarve shopping experience today. New haircuts, pjs, toys, swim trunks and underwear, and nice cutlery for the new house.

Far out on the most south westerly point of Portugal, is a little peninsula called Sagres. Braving the crazy winds and storms of the Atlantic coast, an old fort from the 15th century stands triumphant. Today the area is largely populated by surfers, but its history is worth looking up.

One of the loveliest European beaches I have ever encountered. 45 mins east of Faro, this sleepy lagoon is bisected by a huge sand bar. By wading through knee deep water (or hiring a little boat), one reaches a string of golden sand beaches that go on for miles.

New house, new region. This week we are in the Algarve. 🥰 Something in the air holds a memory of intense heat, even though it is only 22c, but April here is green and lush, with quiet beaches and empty restaurants.

Seafood dinner:

Beach day:

Sintra: A half hour west of Lisbon, there is a hilly neighborhood with views of the coast. Clearly valued by the rich and powerful for a couple of thousand years. The beautiful wooded hillsides are studded with gardens, castles, forts, palaces and mansions.

Lisboa from a different perspective:

Glorious Lisbon. Today we took a 2 hour tuck tuck ride around the center of Lisbon. It was rather chilly, colder that is usual for the time of year, but very beautiful.

It was truly difficult to walk away from all of the beautiful animals. My 9 year old was in tears pleading for a pet bunny… and a parakeet… and a pheasant… I would have liked to rescue them all. Every last peacock and all of those chickens bound for someone’s Sunday lunch.

We had the amazing good fortune to find that this week’s rental just south of Lisbon, is only minutes from the new home of an old friend whom we knew from London. She and her lovely fiancé met us at the enormous monthly market at Azeitão.

Kite surfers abound. Lagoa Albufeira is an enclosed lagoon within a circle of golden beach. Strong winds but no danger of being pulled out too sea and protection from the worst of the Atlantic chop. Beautiful to watch.

Today is another travel day! Leaving Figuera da Foz and Coimbra and headed to the beaches just south of Lisbon.

In love with Portuguese cobble stones. We spend a lot of time lately, discussing where at the new house, we plan to install cobblestones.

Castelo Montemor o Velho Build in the 10th and 11th centuries as the border between Christian and Moorish lands. It was the sight of countless battles, as the Moores fought to retain control of the Iberian peninsula over several hundred years.

Beach day.

Cultiflor Viveiros.

Another amazing plant nursery. Most comprehensive collection of temperate plants and trees you can imagine. All in great condition, good prices.

Ancient salt pans of nucleo museologico do sal.

Coimbra museum of Portugal, for little ones. Amazing reproduction of a dozen or more famous Portuguese buildings, some in Portugal, others in their colonies / former colonies. Beautiful buildings even in miniature. Shame there was no info about what and where they were from.

The Roman ruins of Conimbriga, just outside Coimbra. I have never seen anything like it. Many more mosaics than Ostea, with multiple Roman baths, interior courtyard gardens with fountains, aqueducts, forum, defensive walls… with a beautiful hilltop site overlooking a deep gorge.

We bumbled into a classy restaurant in Figuera da Foz. Being sweet Portuguese people, they opened the restaurant an hour early for us, and treated us with warmth and generosity. Sad to say that would never happen in France. Plus dinner cost half what it would have in France.

OMG

Another boat tour on the upper Douro river. This is the area with all the vineyards where the port wine is grown. The river valley is among the most magnificent natural sights we have encountered on this trip.

Date night for Don and I, in Porto. These people know how to live! These crowds of people were enjoying the night air at close to midnight on a Thursday.

Yesterday’s river trip in Porto.

Morning walk on the local beach. The waves are huge here. Fabulous sets line up beautifully, break close to shore but roll right into rows of big boulders at the shore line. Lovely to watch, but no surfers here.

Tonight we went to an exhibition Fado concert. It introduced us to the beauty, art and history of this quintessentially Portuguese musical genre. My dad who is very familiar with Fado from his youth in Mozambique knew all the words. His enthusiasm and excitement was infectious.

We went down to the quai to pick up a boat for a little 1 hr tour cruise, but parking our big minivan was so complicated that we ended just sitting at a restaurant looking at the view and watching the people go by. All in all a good way to spend a few hours.

🥰

Porto is my new favorite city! We took a tour in a tuck tuck all around the old city. It was fabulous! Ancient, beautiful, lively and elegant. Rather decrepit in parts, with quite a lot of homelessness unfortunately. A bit like SF in climate, culture and topography. The brightly colored houses climb the steep sides of riverside and bay, seeming to grow out of the medieval stone walls. Up on a plateau above the slopes and walls, a crazy mix of modern and medieval adorns the streets….. Amazing !

Landing with our proverbial bums in the butter. Our apartment is directly on the beach behind the black building, which is a fun beach front restaurant.

We are all packed up again and headed to Portugal.

Corcubion: one of the most westerly points of Spain.

We drove into Santiago de Compostella, the 8th century town at the conclusion of the way of Saint James / Camino de Campostella. This 500 mile, thousand year old pilgrims walking path, crosses Europe, (passing close by the Chateau we are buying in Seailles), culminating here.

If any Bay Area friends, reading this, feel like they might be able to spare a couple of hours today to oversee the shippers for us in Point Richmond, it would be deeply appreciated! We can offer room nights in a Chateau in the sw of France in payment, or cash if you prefer. 🙏🏻

Today is the day! The shippers are coming to pick up our worldly belongings and transfer them to the 40’ container that will make the sea voyage to France! Nothing like moving all your stuff to make you feel the significance and permanence of a choice to emigrate!

We stopped for lunch at a little restaurant across from the beach. Once again google translate had a great deal of difficultly translating the Galician menu. We are pretty sure there was no hedgehog or algae on the menu - in spite of the funny mistranslation.

Laxe

Our very nice rental is in Laxe, a seaside town on the western edge of Galicia. Probably a good deal more lively in Summer, it has a gorgeous bay with stunning white beaches.

We got totally lost trying to find our new rental. 3 lovely old Galician ladies tried very hard to help us, in Galician. Google failed to help with either the Galician roads or the language, but we eventually found our way to our very lovely new accommodations.

Dinner in the coolest street in Orviedo. Wow, what a buzz! We ate ridiculously early by Spanish standards, the first table to be seated at 7.30pm. By the time we left at 10, there was a crush of gregarious people, laughing, drinking and eating from one end af the st to the other

Heading onwards to Galicia via Orviedo today.

Yum.

Followed by a nice lunch at our favorite restaurant in Monflanqin.

Carte de Sejour interview day, at the Lot et Garonne prefecture in Agen.

Back up to Lot et Garonne. This beautiful Dutch owned airbnb is really exceptional. Domaine l’Esprit d’Antan, is a lovely renovation, very sweet hosts.

The first basque village that we have liked. It seems that there are only a very few medieval villages left. Between Franco’s attempts to whipe out the Basque in the 1930s and the assistance he received from his friends in the German luftvafer, these few gems are sadly rare.

Lunch in the home town of Balenciaga

And flan.

1kg of steak. 1kg of turbot. Marinated and Barbecued to perfection. Sooo good. Mission accomplished. And with a fabulous view.

Runner beans and Chorizo.

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Then there was Altamira: Like the Lascaux caves, that we visited in the Dordogne last week, this prehistoric cave complex is about 18,000 years old. The recreation is not as high tech but the art is beautiful, and so similar in style that it has to be the same peoples.

So sad.

Yum

We feel so ambivalent about this place. The natural beauty is incredible, monumental, dramatic, gorgeous. The man made additions are heart breakingly ugly, even when they are trying.

The war in the Ukraine: It feels so strange to be vacationing, while not very far away people are fighting for life, giving their lives to push back a rising tide of despotism.

They are defending themselves, but I have a very real sense that their success or failure will determine my safety and that of my family also.

This mad man has the power to end us all, right now. This is not someone else’s problem, this involves us all.

I keep meaning to post about the spectacular food. I do mean to take photos, and then the food arrives and all plans and thoughts evaporate, leaving only very enthusiastic noises, munching and slurping sounds. Sorry, I hope to do better next time… or maybe the time after that.

My Spanish is rusty but there are at least some words rattling around in the back of my brain. Basque though (the language spoken here) is jaw droppingly foreign. Nothing even vaguely recognizable about it! Pics are of descriptions in the Guggenheim that say the same thing.

And the art 🥰

The Bilbao Guggenheim :

To Bilbao:

View from the rental apartment in the Urdaibai biosphere, on the Bay of Biscaye, Cantabrian Coast.

The drive down to Spain: I love the Pyrenees. The land itself is beautiful, but the border towns west of San Sebastián are grungy, high density, industrial places, interspersed by clear cut forests and train lines. So very sad. Luckily it gets better towards Mandaka bay.

Bigger and bigger

The amount of stuff we have accumulated in 6 months is staggering. Tomorrow we leave for Spain with the suitcases we came with. Our landlord has kindly agreed to store everything else for us until we take possession of the Chateau. This is the pile of stuff staying here.

We are working on getting everyone haircuts. Two down three to go.

Monflanquin

Visiting our friendly neighborhood cat in Monflanquin.

I finally got my appointment for a Carte de Sejour appointment! It is set for the 11th of March. It took 2 months for the expensive lawyer to mail the application, 4 days for the letter to get to them, 2 hours for them to respond with an appointment invitation just 1.5 weeks out.

It is getting real! Our first of many trips to IKEA for supples for the new house. Don’t panic, I promise not to furnish my 16th century chateau with IKEA furniture! We were just buying duvets, pillows, plates and water glasses.

Guess where?

And then the beautiful drive home.

The amazing Lacaux caves. Well worth the drive up into the Dordogne. I only wish that my French were better. The guide spoke so fast I really only caught maybe one word in 20. Arg just when you think it’s getting better🤪

2.5 hours drive to Seailles to meet the mayor, only to be stood up. Grrr. Then of course 2.5 hours drive home.

We drove around the outside of the land taking pics of views of the house from the surrounding countryside.

A fabulous plant nursery near Villeneuve sur lot.

Our plan is to sleep for one more week, and then head out for 2 months of exploring and vacationing before we move into the house on April 30th.

On the plus side, our Compromis de Vent was signed today. Our countdown for taking possession of the house has begun. 🤞✨

In summary, thanks to Covid we missed Don’s birthday and Valentine’s Day, coughed, wheezed and sneezed for a week. We had one blessedly brief ER visit for Sof, and now we are recovering well.

Covid has struck our little pod. Yuck!

Coming back from the grocery run.

Gasping lungfuls of kinship. A memory of connection, wholeness stepping forward, rising up, down, through and out into the all.

For Don.

.. or not. The centrifugal wind, momentum expressing light and shadow towards the fringes of consciousness. A celebration of being seen, owned, acknowledged, warts and all.

The Dance: A juicy, tender, erratic whirlwind of deep play, or just life. Propelling, excreting ancient shadows, goo and rainbows from crevices within. Displaced, expelled or abandoned fragments of soul traversing bowel and bone to erupt into the warmth of tender greetings,

Chickens. The house we have been staying at for the last few months has 9 sweet brown hens. They sit under our windows in the morning and call to us, follow us around like puppies waiting for treats, and make the cutest chirpy noises when I feed them. They have won my heart.

Day four of my six day Open Floor teacher training has drawn to a close. (1st of 8 workshops): My leg muscles are whining, my knees are screaming and my lower back is aching. I just keep telling myself that I am only as old as I think I am. It will all be worth it.

We went for a drive along the road between Montpazier and Cahors. Dodging rain clouds and rubbernecking at fabulous castles.

Beynac

An ice glazed world. Such tender glittery perfection.

Saturday market in Villereal.

It has been a hard week: On Monday I checked with the notair that we could, most likely close the sale by April 1st. He said that he thought that was fine. On Tuesday the seller declared her intention to close on May 30th because she has a second vacation scheduled, and is concerned that clearing out the 6000sqft house might take some time. (She just got back from Italy, which is presumably why she has done nothing for the last two months since she accepted the offer).

I said, “absolutely not”.

The day of the scheduled signing (yesterday), we compromised on April 30th! Then we drove through frozen fog for 2 hours to get to the 9 am signing, and arrived to discover that the Septic diagnostic had not come in, and therefore we would be unable to sign, until it does. Grrrr.

Montuban’s new town square paving project is coming along. We watched as they used a suction device on a crane to move huge stone slabs into place. I had never seen that before.

It’s Sunday so it must be Issigeac.

Property #49: Between Riberac and Aubetter sur Dronne. Two very lovely towns. 1.5 hrs from Bordeaux and 45mins from Bergerac. The house has been over modernized, but is well done, with high quality materials. Big barn, gite, salt pool but overlooking neighbors.

The presale contract is scheduled for January 27th! Yes, it has taken 2 months to even get our purchase of #32 in front of a notaire! After that it is likely to take another 2, for the ‘agricultural right of first refusal’, & for the seller to pack up her belongings.

This €4 bottle of wine, was really fantastic. If someone had told me it was a $30 bottle, I wouldn’t have been surprised at at. I might just have to buy a couple cases, and maybe shares in the vineyard.

Issigeac Sunday market.

Details from the extraordinary interior:

Through a very foggy, frozen landscape down to #32 again to meet with roofers and painters.

Views of the Pyrenees from #32

A visit to #32

A day out between the rains:

One of the best so far.

Another brocant - this one outside Fleurance. Lively collections of copper and coffee grinders. The owner was a singularly unpleasant man with a loaded shotgun. He made French huffy noises the whole time we were in the store. Generally the Geroise are nice… I guess that there have to be exceptions.

2.5 hrs south to Auch. This will be our closest largish town, from the new house. It has a lovely pieton area, lots of restaurants and cafes, a cinema, schools and a large circus school. There are parks, bike parks and walking paths along the river. A bit grungy in parts, but not bad overall.

Just in time for sunset.

Out … finally… after 3+ hours of driving, to Soulac sur Mer on the Atlantic coast. A ridiculously busy seaside town.

Lots of driving west…

Next we went in search of Tich Nat Han’s monastery, which turns out to be an hour west of us. Unfortunately it is closed to visitors during Covid, but we passed the brown robed residents hiking the hills on the way in.

Castellones. Heading west from Monflanquin we went through this pretty little village. A sweet old gentleman saw me taking photos and led me to a date carved in stone on a wall in the town square. It read 1621.

Certainly too good for the stew.

Hi there. I haven’t forgotten about you:) We have been lazing about at home this week, but will be back on the road exploring tomorrow. In the mean time, here is today’s bread recipe:

noglu-nomoo.com/quinoa-gf…

Chestnut pudding with crème anglais port poached pears and chestnut cake.

noglu-nomoo.com/chestnut-…

It was quite a production!

Anyway, they are safely locked in the second fridge now, along with a brining Turkey and couple dozen oysters.

Christmas, I’m ready for ya!

A few pics on the way to Toulouse this am. We felt like intrepid explorers venturing into the frozen lands at the crack of dawn. In reality it was 8.30 am, and the French had already dropped their kids off at school, on their way to work. But it was frosty and very pretty.

We went into Toulouse today to visit our BNP bank manager in preparation for buying the house. Our first impression of the city, several months ago, was not great. Today we returned, open to the possibility of being persuaded in its favor. I think that we are warming to it.

Danish / Norwegian Seed and Nut Brød. noglu-nomoo.com/norse-sty…

More from Bergerac.

Heading into Bergerac again, to visit my parents optician.

A wonderful brocant.

Another gorgeous foggy morning.

Ok maybe it is a little early for Christmas cake, but it is delicious anyway :p

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An incredible ArtNouveau classic in the heart of Agen. It’s an apartment building and is for sale 😲

An afternoon exploring Agen.

Experimenting with Clafoutis. One of my favorite deserts, made dairy and gluten free of course. This one was made with port roasted Christmas spiced pears. noglu-nomoo.com/dairy-fre…

A wintry walk through the nighttime streets of Agen.

Sarlat Christmas market:

Property #49: Very nearly right. 3 sided mas with 2 towers. 9 bedrooms. Two lovely ones and a bunch of little ones. 3 interior staircases, and 1 exterior. 1 gite, with potential for 1 more big one. Potential for big Venue space. And the most gorgeous river! Views of the Pyrenees.

Even though we have an accepted offer on 32 we continue to look at properties for 2 reasons: 1) the possibility for a sale to not go through is quite high due to: excessively long closing period, complicated title, local politics, agricultural rights of first refusal, mayoral rights of first refusal, or just because the seller changes their mind. 2) there are more properties to see and we enjoy the process.

Christmas markets are popping up in every little town. Here are some pics from yesterday’s trip into Villeneuve sur Lot. Junk food, ice skating and little fairground rides! I hear that the best one is in Sarlat, but we haven’t been up there since it opened last weekend

#32 continued:

We have an accepted offer on #32. ✨🌸🙏🏻🎏🍁✨

After the rain.

Property #48: 39 hectares of forest, a river, mill, ancient forge and 17thC chateau. Gorgeous grounds. Two grungy tiny gite, one barn that could be an event space, but barely. Main house has a new roof but needs everything else. Windows small, doors low. Nice monkey puzzle tree.

Foggy morning walk.

More photos of 47. Another heartbreaker.

Property #47: A working vineyard of 9 hcts. With a lovely 19C house. No heating, all single paned windows and old electrical. Amazing views of the Garonne river valley, with its road and rail lines. Gallo Roman and Renaissance ruins, 8 hcs of woods. 6 wells and three springs.

Lunch in Carcasonne on the way back up to the house.

A few more pics from Sete.

So the medical exams went well. Paperwork in hand we move on to the next step of our residency applications. Here are a few more pics of pretty Sete.

We have traveled back down to the Mediterranean coast to attend a medical exam for our long term visa / residency card application. Staying in the beautiful port town of Sete, not far from our appointment in Montpelier.

The pretty medieval village of Gordon on a frosty grey afternoon.

Property #46: Into

the wilds of Correze. This listed Templar castle was both too medieval and beset by loud roads. Main bedrooms only accessible up narrow stone spiral stairs. One per floor, no convenient bathrooms. Fabulous vaulted Templar banquet hall, right on Dordogne river.

Property #45: Amazing perigordine stone rooves on super cute 16C fairytale house and gite. Ceilings heights were not too bad but the doorways were “designed to require those entering to duck, thereby making it difficult for them to attack or defend themselves as they entered”.

Sarlat continued…

Back to Sarlat. A fabulous decommissioned church with a farmers market inside. It specializes in local produce, with an emphasis on duck and foie gras. We dubbed it the church of foie gras.

Property #44: Road noise. Road noise. Road noise. Historically listed manoir, with very well renovated 5brm gite and 5 more chambre d’hote. Charming stream, lake and 1 hct garden, in the middle of a village. Not far from a local lake. No venue space, roads on all four sides!

Property #43: Soo ‘Home and Garden’.
The dead animals were awful. The house was cute but too small.

Property #42: Gorgeous 16th century chateau with 5 towers, remade in the 18thC. On a limestone bluff, overlooking a burbling river. With its own island, canal, big caves under the garden, 10hct of land. 300m2 stone barn. I would happily do the renovation, if not for the loud road.

Frog #41: if we could just be less picky… no never mind, even then we wouldn’t be interested in this one. A restaurant with a little 5 room hotel and a big old barn. No main house for the family, no gite, no venue…

Martel: cute town east of Sarlat with an abundance of really good restaurants.

Property #40: So sad when the nicest ones have wrap around roads.

Property #39: the most perfect venue space we have seen so far. 2 lovely gite, but main house to renovate. Land a little tight, road a little close. BUT enormous gorgeous vaulted cellars and it’s own beautiful little church. Yes the irony would not be lost on us.

The village of Lallind. An old canal and disused canal port, feed a series of man made runnels that cris cross this sweet little town. A wash basin, and associated feeder stream are full of water plants and trout, with a mantle of golden fallen leaves floating on the surface.

Building pillow forts on a quiet day in, as we rest up before a busy few days.

Property #38: Amazing piece of land (29hectars) on the southern edge of the Dordogne. Another mixed up agglomeration of buildings, stuck together rather inelegantly. Downstairs living spaces were not great. Character lost, poor condition, urine smell unforgettable. Great barns.

Ongoing discussions about the sleepy bucolic Gers (specifically the remote location of #32), Vs the more diverse Lot et Garonne region and it’s more remote but more dramatic and natural (plus more socially vibrant), neighbor, the Dordogne. Also we really like Bordeaux more than Toulouse, so we are being pulled N. and maybe a bit E.

Property #37: Back into the northern Gers, very near our last rental. This true castle is a crazy agglomeration of bits added and modified over centuries. Floor level changes at every threshold. Multiple stairways. Parts cut off from the rest of the house, rooms with no access!

November holiday festival in Duras.

The Dordogne.

Troglodyte city: Inhabited from prehistory (55,000 years ago) through the Middle Ages.

Sarlat Caneda: Such an adorable town. Awake, alive, busy and vibrant. Lots of restaurants and stores that stayed open all afternoon, midweek in November! It even has a big cinema and bowling alley.

Our host took Sofian for a ride on a great big tractor and let the 9 year old drive! He was in hog heaven.

Returned to #32 again. Really a remarkable property. It has everything on our wish list: woodlands, views, huge orangery, enormous barn for conversion, chapel, ponds, gardien’s house, garages, workshop, swimming, pool, area for a walled potager, ground floor bedroom, pigeonaire.

Property #36: Light and clean, well renovated shabby chic on a lovely hill top in the southern Gers near Mirande. No visible neighbors. Room for a gite or two. Don hates the white washed beams, he took a distinct dislike to this property.

Issigeac farmers market was chilly but buzzing with activity this morning. Quite beautiful, with a good range of local produce. I’m on a hunt for a herb mill for a dear friend in London, but haven’t found one yet. I did get alpaca scarves for Don, my dad and myself. Much warmer.

Property 35: pretty, well renovated Chartreuse house with views, seemed like a possibility until too many low doorways changed our minds. Then we were introduced to the two neighboring houses (not included in the very high price) with shared walls. Then we left.

We also decided to explore a new section of the Garonne river valley on the journey home, the villages along the river are ancient. Many dating from before the hundred year war with the English in the 14th and 15th C. Sadly dilapidated although still incredible in parts.

The city of Liborne lies in the valley to the NE. of Bordeaux amongst the vineyards of the mighty Pomerol. The city has a pretty old center, with beautiful architecture from across the centuries: Early medieval to Beaux Arts. As one would hope, wine with lunch was fabulous :)

An evening stroll through the wintry streets of the village of Issigeac.

Property #34: rather similar to #33 but on a smaller piece of land. No road noise but no gites either. One big barn but it’s divided into small rooms. Might work for gite conversion but not venue. No views. Sweet, comfortable looking house, but nothing standout.

Property #33. Beautiful old Georgian style house. Pool, tennis crt., 2 gite, stables, lake, but no venue space, overlooking neighbors and loud busy road. English owner made a 30 yr business with horse riding holidays. BYOH.

Evening light and ground fog. Last night we had some lovely rain, so this evening as the sun was setting we had the perfect conditions for ground fog. Utterly gorgeous!

Today we journeyed up to Perigeaux and then to Riberac. Perigeaux was very urban in the least pretty ways. Grimy, dilapidated, crowded. Not so good. Riberac on the other hand was lovely; clean, stylish, vibrant and well worth another visit. Photos are from Riberac.

The tour of the Plus Beaux Village continues. Today, in Monpazier, we had the honor of supporting a friend as she made an offer on an apartment right on the town square. This beautiful village is just 20 minutes north of where we are staying this month.

Another month another house. We moved again. This time we are in a huge old farm house, between two plus beaux village: Villereal and Monflaquin. The house is so big we keep loosing one another, and we have had to make a map of the interior floor plan for our own use.

More photos of #32:

Property #32: It’s really hard falling in love every other day. It’s an emotional roller coaster, and it is exhausting. That said we love this house and are considering making an offer. The asking price is just outside our budget unless we can sell that last piece Ca real estate.

Property #31: Isn’t it strange how something can check all the boxes in theory and yet not make an impression on the heart at all. This one was so well restored, it felt more like a Californian show home. It had a pond, stable, gite, pool and a cute cat who comes with the house.

Property #30: This one was certainly a show stopper. A touch outside our budget, not close to any of our favorite villages, but still fabulous. It includes a big lake, water lily pond, gite, 2 big barns, 12 hectares and a house that every member of the family loved!

The gorgeous farmers market in Eauze this morning. Strangely we have not made it to a lot of farmers markets yet. But we are resolved to change that terrible oversight. They are a fun feast for the senses. Relaxing and productive at the same time!

A little geographical context:

Someone asked for a more in-depth look at what ‘needs everything’ means, in terms of cost. 🤣

docs.google.com/spreadshe…

Property 29 also had another ancient medieval stone wash basin in the forest. Spring fed, very much like the last one, but not as well maintained. I’ve never seen a private residence with one of these, and then we find two in the span of a week.

Property #29: Oh my goodness. It’s gorgeous, huge and amazing value! 12 hectares of forest, meadow, stream, fields. 14th C. manoir renovated in the 17th and 19th C. Needs everything of course; rooves, kitchens, bathrooms, fosse, heating, insulation, new windows, plaster, paint.

This is our last week in the Gers before we head up to explore the Lot et Garonne / Girond and Dordogne area for the next couple of months. The move will take us from maison Lartet near Fources, to a big farm house near Monflaquin.

Today I did battle with the French postal service. I’m not sure if I shall emerge victorious. I will track my package daily, (my Uk passport going for renewal). Fingers crossed, the system is more reliable and organized than appearances suggest in the ‘la poste’ of rural Gers.

Property #28: Condom area. A converted factory made into a nice industrial modern home. Lots of great architectural salvage. Plus Maison de Maitre, wine barn, atelier, pigeonaire. Close agricultural neighbors, no water feature, no venue space. Good for maybe 2 additional gites.

Bergerac: I like this little city. It has a lot of character but is very natural. Not at all pretentious.

Property #27: Elegant chateau, on white stone bluff overlooking a valley. Unfortunately industrial with road, rail line and new build complex in close proximity. BUT huge outbuildings, gorgeous woodland meadow, with stream, spring and 13th century stone washbasin in the woods.

#25 didn’t post last night. Oops. Fabulous views. No ground floor apartment, but a very beautiful 19th century house. Needs all new bathrooms and kitchens, needs gite and venue conversion from lovely barns. No water feature, but no road noise.

Property #26: I want it! I want it! It has my dance floor, and venue, and beautiful volumes. But someone needs to move that freeway somewhere else. Sniffles.

Monflaquin: A tres baux village. One of the signature villages of the south west. Charming, gorgeous, historic and lively. Quite distinct from the scores of simple ‘beaux village’.

Happy birthday to my darling boy! Sofian is 9 today!

Pics of Mauvezin, just east of Auch. It is pretty and quite dynamic for a little place. With nice central market, 6+ restaurants including one Lebanese one, and a cinema. There was also Moissac, north of the Garonne and east of Agen. Seedy and dirty but with lovely canals and rivers.

They are not all gorgeous: as we explore villages to find an area we would like to live in, I would say one in five is fabulous. The other 4 being cute but comotose , seedy and dirty, over industrialized or just modern. Or a combination of these.

Property #24: Medieval manor with gargantuan fire places, low ceilings, even lower doorways. Don had to duck through almost every doorway. Also road noise and close agricultural neighbors. Not in the least bit comfortable, but beautiful none the less. It had radiators and pond.

Property #23 A heartbreaking property. Exquisite, neglected, ancient, with orangery, pigeonaire and chapel, on a river and lake… but beset by heavy industry all around. The sound of trucks and aggregate being crushed for concrete is at a constant 5db, 5 days per week from 9-5pm.

Yesterday we went down to Mont de Marsan and Saint Sever. This area would theoretically be wonderfully convenient for access to both Bordeaux, the beaches, the Pyrenees and N.W Spain. I wish I liked these towns more. The French Air Force base makes Mt. d Marsan, seedy and noisy.

Property #22 The village chateau in Fources. A 13th - 16th Century gothic stone castle, on a river. Currently run as a Chambre d’hote. With 6 really lovely suites and another 6 to renovate and 5 for the family. No venue space and a severe flooding issue.

And Arcachon: A lovely old beach resort town on a bay to the south west of Bordeaux.

Today we went to Bordeaux. Wow. An ancient and gloriously beautiful city on the banks of the vast Girond. Dazzling in the sunshine and buzzing with activity.

Sofian’s birthday is fast approaching and Autumn is in the air. I love this time of year. We put several Amazon orders in over the last few days. Lots of presents for our boy and thick sweaters, gloves and scarves for all.

Property #21: Another very elegant house in good general condition, in a private park with no close neighbors, off the road from Nerac to Agen. No gites, views or water feature, but otherwise very sweet.

Property #20: A beautiful house between Nerac and Castlejaloux, with fantastic private park, on the edge of a village… but with horrendous road noise.

We decided to explore the areas a couple of hours north of where we are staying. Today we went to Cahors. We were very happily surprised to find a young, vibrant and elegant city where we had expected another little medieval village. It even had its own food market ‘les halles’.

Eauze:

Vic-Fezansac:

Fources: The village closest to our rented house, is very quaint and enterprising. There were 3 stores selling local products like Fois gras and Armagnac, honey, chocolate and wine, three restaurants, Brocant shops, gift shop selling the wares of local craftsmen / artists.

Montreal du Gers. Where we had our daily helping of duck and steak.

We returned to property #13 to ask some more questions. Don asks that we re-number them so that this one isn’t number 13. If we buy it I will get around to that ;)

Property #19: it’s got a lake, an amazing view, 2 gites and a nice house, but it’s criss crossed by power lines, dark energy, and has no venue space.

From the year 1062 the cloisters of La Romieu are still graceful and serene after more than a thousand years.

Les Jardins de Corsiana: Beautiful planting in the style of an English country garden. A privately owned botanical garden near the Romieu cloisters.

Back to the Gers for a month long rental in a luxurious house near Condom. Our Airbnb accommodations to date have all been a bit small for 5 people, and not very sumptuous. This one makes up for it, and then some!Each member of the family is happily setting in, in their own way.

Ceret: Once home to Pablo Picasso and a host of his contemporaries, this hill village above Couliure has an artsy feel and faded elegance. Although the new builds have added a bit of awkward sprawl.

Property #18: We drove all the way to Couliure and then an hour west into the most outstanding hills to see a Catalan style mas conversion. The silence was as captivating as the view, but the long road up, was strictly for 4 wheel drives :o

Couliure: Quintessential Mediterranean seaside village. Glam and gorgeous.

Property #17:

Back to Castelnaudary area again to see this 19th century mas conversion. Almost worth considering just for the The potential venue space. But with tiny windows and close agricultural neighbors.

Coast near Perpignan:

Perpignan: Now this is a city I would like to live near.

Cathar country:

Property #16: Magnificent landscape of Cathar country. Huge house with several abandoned barns for conversion, but 45 mins from a decent restaurant.

And more

Narbonne food market yesterday:

Tonight we are near the Mediterranean coast close to Perpignan. The landscape is spectacular, the wine is devine. We spent the morning at the Narbonne food market. An experience to be remembered for a lifetime. Unfortunately there is no WiFi and only 1 bar of cell service!!!

We spent yesterday exploring the area around property #13. Particularly the cafes & brocant shops of Lectour. See pics below. 😁 It seems that the house itself has a pond & stream. More points in its favor! And it is due to have fiber network installation within the next year!! Amazing!

Property #15: in the heart of the pine forest of Les Landes. This old convent from the late 1800 is huge and very pink.

Property #14: Also really beautiful. An old Armagnac distillery. 10’ wood barrels fill a huge old barn. It’s all a little moldy, but very charming.

Property 13: A firm maybe! Between Fleurance and Lectour. Two of the most beautiful villages. This is a gorgeous home.

We drove up to Marmand, half way to Bordeaux today. It’s a big town on the Garonne river. Very pretty with huge public parks. A bit urban though. No photos today because we lost our WiFi in a big electrical storm last night.

Nerac is the most beautiful little river side town. With a medieval heart, a renaissance royal palace and a bubbly contemporary feel. They even have bars and restaurants open on a Sunday afternoon! Incredibly rare in an area that usually closes down completely on Sundays.

Property #12: Vast, beautiful unusable spaces. House with close agricultural neighbors, in a village with the church literally at it its front gate.

A trip into Condom: An ancient and beautiful town in the Northern Gers. By my count it had 5 churches / cathedrals. It is also at the heart of Armagnac production. hic…

Property #11. A gorgeous renovation of a Maison de Maitre. One nice big gite, but lots of big agricultural, non organic neighbors, with fields right up close to the house.

Property #10. Is 12 bedrooms too many.. ? ok I think maybe it is. Look out for the 18’ ceilings, and 15’ windows! Majestic is an understatement. The conversation in the car driving away from this one was theorizing on the feasibility of indoor vacuum drones.

Even though it is a gorgeous area, we decided that we are going to stay clear of the nuclear power plant at Golfech. It means avoiding some of the most beautiful villages though.

We dropped off our rental car, picked up our new Peugeot space ship and headed up to Montouban to do some scouting.

An after lunch drive. The sky cleared and then clouded over again and again. The weather is so vivid and alive here. It is tremendously fickle, richly beautiful, and never boring.

The lovely town of Nay: Our French pass Sanitair finally came through, which allowed us to eat out at a bistro for the first time since our arrival. When we sat down at our outdoor table, it was pouring with rain. (We were really determined). By dessert the sun was shining :)

Today we drove up into the mountains to visit a Neolithic dolmen. Built by mankind 80,000 - 100,000 years ago. It may have been a burial mound or a religious structure, but today it was a climbing frame for an eight year old who had been in the car too long.

Property #9 Zigzagging 3 hours back into the Ariege to see a beautiful 19th century chateau built on the stone base of an Abbey from 960. Complete with ancient refectory and pointed arches in the basement. Right on the banks of the Ariege river.

Lourdes in the rain. We didn’t go down to the sanctuary. We are saving that for another day. We just drove around and took in the sights.

A random grocery store by the Biarritz airport. I would consider living in this neighborhood just to be near this store.

A day trip to the beautiful Saint Jean de Luz. Just minutes from the Spanish boarder, this little town is a gem. The mainstreet looks like PaloAlto, the beachfront like Nice. More laid back than its glitzy neighbor Biarritz. We spent the afternoon on the beach; wondering through the pietons and eating sorbets.

The sale of our house closed today ! We stayed at our Airbnb, drank champagne, cooked up a wonderful dinner, toasted to all of the fabulous people who helped make a beautiful home. Thank you Phoebe, Pinar, Fred, Joe, Trina, thank you Able, Balthezar, Jairo, Jose, Jody and others.

And we visited Pau, a little Paris hidden in the foothill of the Pyrenees. Elegant and cosmopolitan, less populous and more affordable than Paris and with a milder climate. It doesn’t have the Eiffel Tower or the Louvre, but it’s very lovely.

But, oh my goodness the scenery was beautiful.

Today we went back to property #8 to drive around the area. Unfortunately this lovely house is a little too remote for us: 30mins to a freeway. 25 mins from even a basic store or village. 1hr to the nearest things to do or see. Sadly we don’t think this would work for us or our guests

Property #8: A new favorite… again. An amazing restoration project by a very talented couple. They took a wreck and crafted, an exceptional home. Inlaid marble floors, wood floors from trees they cut from their own forest and milled themselves, crazy cool home automation.

Property #7: It looks stunning from a distance but the workmanship is appalling. High quality materials installed by inexperienced idiots. It would all have to be redone. It also has non-organic agricultural fields that extend almost to the walls. :(

The first agent that we have seen in this area assures us that, because it is so wet and warm here, pesticides and fungicides are heavily used, & that there is almost no organic produce here as a result. We will fact check, but that would rule out this region.

The change of scenery and climate is startling as we shift gears from the Langudoc to Jurancon, heading west towards the Atlantic.

Property #6 Wow. This one is special! From the early 1700s, this Maison de Maitre has had some structural issues, (hopefully addressed successfully), but it is lovely. And the grounds are incredible. A pair of tiered water lily ponds, a vast flower meadow, a spring fed swimming pool with an island in the middle, forests with long promenades…

Property #5 A petite chateau on the edge of a lovely little village. The wonderful old lady who owns it, is a botanist aka a horticultural engineer. Her gardens are intriguing and elegant. A little orangery and u shaped farmhouse complete the estate.

We drove north to Mazamet, taking the twisty road through the tall pine forest of the black mountains. It feels rather alpine. The town is much larger than I thought. Attractive in parts, although large parts of the population look very low income and more than a little grungy.

Property #4 Castelnaudary Not a bad house, with lots of space to build gites, and a venue space, but certainly not a chateaux. Unfortunately the overlooking neighbor, and freeway that wraps around two sides of the property probably explain the attractively low price.

Today we returned to property #2, to chat with the owner and his wife and ask a bunch of additional questions.

We only have a couple of days left in the Aude. We have not seen nearly as many properties as we had hoped. It seems that many of the agents are only just returning from their summer vacation. However, as they are coming back to the office, and as our search is extending into the necessary ‘word of mouth’ circuit, we have an increasing and slightly alarming number of properties to visit in our last two days.

This afternoon we drove the hour out to Narbonne. I had not been there since my teens. The old center is really charming. We are hoping to go back to visit the food halls at les Halles another day. Yum.

Property number 3: Castres. Wow what a contrast! Pristine, ultra modern renovation of an old Maison de maitre. Next to a river, with a huge park. Unfortunately it had overlooking neighbors and no space for gite. Where would I put all of my wonderful friends and family?

Property number 2: Castelnaudary. Oh my goodness, I’m in love! Did someone say that you shouldn’t buy property with your heart? What these photos don’t show is the 10,000 sq ft of ancient delapidated rooms, annexes, barns

A busy day: While the real estate agents were closed for the weekend, we visited the brocant market in Toulouse, had lunch by a lake and dinner with wonderful new friends in the countyside.

From the Southern edge of the Aude to the north of the Ariege district. Beautiful rolling hills and wonderful villages. Mirepoix is a new favorite village. The area is a little less windy, and a little milder, and oh so pretty.

The first property we looked at: Puylaurens. Fabulously elegant petite chateau, with two gite, a third to be developed and a nice big barn for a venue. On a hilltop, it has beautiful views and a walking/ biking trail that wraps around the foot of its hill.

Revel, a beautiful old town, at the edge of the Haut Garonne and the Tarn regions.

Welcome to the South West of France.

Barcelona to Toulouse today.

Up up and away!

Hotel rooms with heaps of giant pillows are awesome.

Dear New Owners, We have loved this house and we hope you love it too. Please take care of the hummingbirds. Best Wishes, The Shefer Family

Bye to the house.

Bye to the redwoods.

Counter offer accepted on my parents house!!!

38 Alexander

Tout ira bien. Respire profondement!

Just sold!! We had the best agent ever. Phoebe took really good care of us.

2 spruce

Packing and packing and packing!

Time for a nap.