June has been a really strange month with very little happening with the gite and B&B, lots happening with Geoff’s English teaching and quite a few events in and around the community. We have been very quiet as far as visitors go this month with only
We have been busy little bees this month. We have now finished the “spring cleaning in the gite and I profited from some excellent drying days to get the curtains , duvets and bed covers all washed, dried and sorted out. The gite was looking
At last, a bit of time to get the blog up to date. The month started very quietly but has gathered pace towards the end with lots of things taking up my time. The most notable of these is the arrival of a lovely “new” dog, Bounty. We were unbelievably
I am writing this today with a very heavy heart as our lovely old dog Chester died on Saturday. He was so much part of our lives here that everything seems very strange at the moment. He was very old, perhaps 17/18 – which in human equivalent years
February has been a strange sort of month really. The weather has continued to be cold and miserable with some snow falling every week. Even the locals are thoroughly fed up with the long winter now and we are all longing for a bit of spring
Firstly let me wish you all a belated Happy New Year. This month seems to be flying by – I can’t believe it’s the 21st already. It seems like only yesterday that we were in the UK spending Christmas with the family. We came back here for New Year
What a month! Good things first. We started it off by going to the closing down buffet at the bar at St Etienne sur Usson. It was a quiet affair really with people dropping in for a farewell drink and some bits of food with Jeannot and Dolly. We (like
As I type this, I am watching the snow falling – hence the title of this months post! It is very cold and we have about 3+ inches of snow already – and it is still snowing. I blame myself – I planted some pansies in the pots yesterday – always
October has been a very mixed sort of a month with not a lot of business, lots of nasty bills, a hectic visit to the UK and quite a lot of meetings and social events.
The nasty bit first – this is the time of year in France when the tax
It was fortunate that we had the celebratory lunch to organise and keep us busy for the first couple of weeks of September as we really have had a bad case of “end of season” blues. It was very sad realising that all our summer visitors were now
We do lead a very varied life here as this month’s title might suggest! We have had a very busy month both at home with all the summer visitors and in the community with all the excitement of the annual fete and other happenings.
The month started with
Every month I wonder if I am going to have enough news to make the blog interesting and up to now I have been astonished at all the things we manage to fit into a month. This last month has been a pretty hectic one really – much more than usual.
The Auvergnats have a lot in common with the British when it comes to talking and moaning about the weather. The hot topic of conversation here for the last month has been the unusually “mauvais temps” (bad weather). That is bit of an understatement
May in France seems to be just one long sequence of Bank Holidays! We sometimes wonder if anyone ever works during May. Firstly there is May 1st (Fete de Travail), then May 8th (end of WW2) and this year we have had Ascension Day and Lundi de Pentecote
As predicted we have been busy and have had a very good month all told. We have had a visit from friends who really enjoyed their long weekend with us and went away, happy to spread the word about how beautiful the Auvergne is. They were followed