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.