Driveway no more

My Dad’s cousin Janet will be ninety years old on 7th November. We will be in New Zealand at the time, so I took Janet out for lunch today to the Homegrown Garden Centre in Gartcosh as a very early celebration. I like her very much; she is an amazing lady and I love listening to her stories about the Russell family in the old days in Coatbridge. She talks about the present as well; she is very well read and intelligent, has a great sense of humour, and has an active social life with friends and family. \

On the way home I visited my Mum and Dad’s memorial bench and then walked past our old house in Grenville Drive. Every time I have walked past over many years, I have paused to admire the concrete slab across the bottom of the driveway, mixed and laid down so neatly by my Dad sixty years ago. It was still there in the spring, but today it was gone; a new driveway has been laid right down to the street and my Dad’s work is no more. I felt a bit sad, but I suppose that it was always inevitable that it would be replaced one day, and it lasted for a long time. 

Goodbye to Maggie and Margaret

Back in good old Scotland, it has been mostly sunny but noticeably cooler than France was last week. It is most definitely autumn now, which is not surprising since we are nearly at the end of September. We have been enjoying being around the house in the company of the kitties. Suzy came round for coffee on Wednesday and I had lunch with Philippa on Thursday. I'm excited that she will be moving back to Scotland next year, as will Margaret D. On Friday Lesley and Chris came round for lunch. I made a Greek lunch in an effort to recapture the summer! Lots of tzatziki, pitta breads, Greek salad and lamb kebabs, followed by baklava. We had a nice chat; they are expecting grandchild number five next March.

In the news, Israel has been bombing Hezbollah in Beirut, after knocking out their communications last week by making their pagers and walkie-talkies literally explode by remote control. Dame Maggie Smith died yesterday, a tremendous actress. I never saw her on stage but she was always excellent in the many films and television series in which she acted. And sadly I just heard this afternoon that another Margaret has died; Margaret Eadie, Grandma's cousin Bobby Eadie's wife. She was a lovely lady, always kind to Grandma, who had been suffering from dementia for a long time. 

Saint-Émilion

Another warm, sunny day in Lot-et-Garonne and we started with breakfast in the garden overlooking the stunning view of sloping fields and trees. Then Russ and James successfully connected the electronics on the pool heater, so Rob will be able to come back and connect the pipes and screw it down. It should all work although Russ and James think that an electrician will be required to finish the job neatly. Meanwhile Jenn and I relaxed by the pool and chatted. 
Jenn and Russ suggested that we all visit Saint-Émilion on our way to Bordeaux Airport. It’s about an hour west of their house. We drove through lots of wine countryside on the way, vineyards everywhere! James noticed that we would be passing very close to La Clarière, the vineyard belonging to Laithwaites wine distributors. It has self-catering accommodation which is often advertised by Laithwaites, and it looks beautiful in their brochures. Jenn and Russ obligingly drove us there and it turned out to be an excellent experience for all of us. We were given an exclusive tour (because there was nobody else there!) by the charming and knowledgeable Brigitte. She showed us the vineyards and let us taste the different types of grapes, which were hanging heavy on the vines because they are going to start harvesting them on Monday. Tony Laithwaite himself will be arriving on Monday to supervise! Brigitte then showed us the different types of barrels and containers used to ferment the wine, explained the process, and we had a tasting session of four types of wine. Brigitte was great fun and we all enjoyed ourselves. 
We were only 7 km from Saint-Émilion so we drove there for a very late lunch in one of the many wine-tasting restaurants. Saint-Émilion is absolutely stunning. It’s a medieval city surrounded by vineyards, 35 km east of Bordeaux. Saint-Émilion is one of the principal red wine areas of Bordeaux, and has lots of cafés, restaurants, wine shops and beautiful Romanesque churches with cloisters, all along its steep and narrow streets. We walked all around the tiny city, taking in the quaint and picturesque views, and later had coffee and crêpes sitting in a gorgeous square beside a cathedral which was partly built right into the stone of the hill. 
Russ and Jenn then very kindly drove us right to the airport, where we said our farewells. What a fantastic holiday it has been. 

Château de Duras

Jennifer was working this morning so Russ, James and I went to Duras. It was market day, although a much smaller market than that at Issigeac yesterday. We had a wander round the stalls and then went into the castle, just across from the market place, which is absolutely fascinating and very cute. It was first built during the 12th century and has been extensively rebuilt since then, with a precarious history of arranging alliances with successive English and French kingdoms during the Hundred Years War. It was ransacked during the French Revolution and fell into increasing disrepair until it was bought by the people of Duras in 1969 and has been being restored ever since. We had such a pleasant and interesting visit, it was very quiet and in many rooms there were traditional children’s games which we tried enthusiastically. Back in the town square the market was finished and we had lunch in a wee café before heading back to meet Jennifer at the house. In the afternoon I had a swim in the pool and we had a relaxing time. It was very warm in the sunshine. It came on to rain while I was in the pool but that bothered me not a jot because I was wet already! 
We had dinner in nearby Seyches in a very traditional French restaurant called Le Vieux Porche. The meal starts with an old-fashioned tureen of hearty potage placed on the table, followed by a limited choice of starters, mains, then cheese or desserts. The food is absolutely delicious and very filling! It is also extremely reasonably priced; 17 euros per person for a four course meal including a carafe of red wine. I already want to go back there! 

Dordogne road trip

The weather was predicted to be mixed today, so Jenn and Russ suggested that we go for a run in the car and visit some more of the area. Our first stop was Issigeac, a beautiful bastide village with a market which extends through several squares. A bastide village is a medieval village built for commerce, with a grid layout of streets and a central marketplace. Fortifications in the form of walls were usually added later. We had breakfast in a café in a wee interior design shop that Jenn and Russ know; coffee and pastries. After a browse around the market we continued on to our next stop, the gorgeous Limeuil, which is built on a steep little hill and has a small castle at the top with gardens overlooking the countryside around. Excitingly (for me and Jennifer) the well in the gardens was the scene of a murder in one of Martin Walker’s Bruno detective books which are set in the Dordogne! We had drinks in the café at the foot of the hill, which overlooks the confluence of the Dordogne and Vézère Rivers. Such a beautiful place. 
In our way to Bergerac Russ stopped the car near Tremolat at a viewpoint which overlooked a huge curve in the River Dordogne. Gorgeous. Our last stop was the pretty town of Bergerac. One of the first things we saw as we walked into the historic centre was a statue of a man with a very large nose - yes it was famous local boy Cyrano de Bergerac! We had arrived just at the point in the afternoon when all the restaurants were shut, but as we wandered around looking at the medieval buildings and the river, Jennifer noticed a wine tasting place in an old convent, which served platters of local charcuterie and cheeses served with wee toasts. So in we went and looked at the wines and had a couple of platters of food. It was a beautiful setting and we had a great chat. 
Back at the house, Jenn and I went for a swim in the pool and Jenn rescued a frog which was trying to climb out. After a tasty dinner made by Jenn and Russ we sat outside and looked at the stars. 

An afternoon by the pool

I had such a good sleep and woke refreshed in the morning to another sunny day. There was a tractor ploughing the field next to the house, followed by a host of white egrets. After breakfast en plein air, Rob and his wife Lisa arrived round to install a heater for the swimming pool. It doesn’t really need heated just now but this will extend the use of the pool into October and November. This took a while, and Russ and James were willing apprentices and helped to get it all set up. The next step is to get an electrician to finish connecting it to the electricity supply. Meanwhile Jenn and I went for a swim in the pool which was extremely pleasant. Jenn and Russ have an automatic pool cleaning device which trundles around the bottom and sides of the pool very efficiently to clean up any debris; the make is Dolphin so they call it Dolph! At one point I was standing in the shallow end and Dolph approached me and nibbled on my foot!

Jenn and Russ’s attractive traditional house is very near the tiny village of Puysserampion which is in the Lot-et-Garonne department near the border with Dordogne. They are also near lots of other villages such as Seyches, Duras and Miramont-de-Guyenne. They are also near Eymet in Dordogne. Their large grassy garden has lots of trees including walnut trees and fig trees. It is idyllic and it was lovely to be able to swim outdoors and then dry off beside the pool in late September.

On the way for dinner Jenn and Russ took us to a quaint and tiny wee hamlet called Monteton which overlooks the River Dropt, a tributary of the Garonne. There were only about twenty houses and a large church; like many villages in the area it was originally medieval and had a covered marketplace. The views over the verdant valley were gorgeous. Then on we went to the larger and also beautiful village of Duras where we had drinks outside a café. James and Russell had bright pink raspberry flavoured beer which was being promoted as the “beer of the moment.” They thought that perhaps the café were trying to get rid of it! After a lovely dinner in a tiny restaurant we returned to the house for more drinks and chat. 

La Maison de Jenn et Russ

We had breakfast sitting outside a wee café beside Bordeaux train station, and caught our half past ten train for the fifty minute journey to Marmande in Lot-et-Garonne. Jennifer collected us by car and soon we arrived at her beautiful house in the countryside. It is absolutely fantastic, a dream house with a swimming pool, surrounded by fields. So rural and yet near lots of gorgeous villages. They bought it at the end of last year and they got the keys in the spring. We were greeted by Russ and we all had lunch sitting outside the house before settling into our bedroom which even has an en suite bathroom. Inside the house has flagstones in the hall and wooden floors in all the rooms and it is cool and airy. In the afternoon Jenn and Russ took us for a run in the car to the absolutely stunning medieval village of Villeréal where we strolled about and had coffee. I went into a pharmacy and bought some cold remedy for the slight but annoying cold that I have developed. Then we drove the short distance to Lac Lougratte which is a swimming lake; Jenn, Russ and I had a swim while James walked around the lake twice to stretch his legs. The water seemed a little chilly at first but actually it was perfect and much warmer than the sea! The setting was idyllic with a little swimming platform that we could climb up on. And in the evening we went to another delightful village, Eymet, where we had a delicious dinner in the Restaurant Italien des Arcades. The food really was first class. Back at the house we relaxed beside the wood burning stove before heading to bed exhausted but happy.