posted on 15 September 2006 12:49
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Forum Admin
Mushrooming in the Livradois-Forez, Auvergne.
Since our move to France in November 2004 life has been very hetic. We now have our Chambre et Table d'hotes at Le Boucharel, Champagnac le Vieux, 12 kms from the small market town of Brioude, up and running and have just finished our first summer season.
We have learnt many things along the way, one of the main things being the length of time it takes to wash and iron bedding when guests only stay one night and are followed by new guests the next night! We are now looking into buying one of those new steam irons with a separate stand, but are not yet fully convinced if they will be any better.
We also learnt that our Bank does not take cash on Thursdays and were told to return another day to deposit it!
Our first winter of 2004, was the coldest winter in the Auvergne for 40 years and we had snow for 3 months. Not what we had expected, but lovely blue skies and sunshine, no wind and very pleasant to enjoy a coffee in our porch whilst enjoying the view of the snowclad garden, as well of course enjoying many walks in the snow. This year we hope to have time to try cross-country ski-ing.
We had a new postbox fitted outside the front gate. One day when we collected the post we found a parcel inside the postbox, which was almost the same size as the outer postbox. As there was no way this parcel could have fitted throught the slot into the postbox, it took us a couple of minutes to realise that although you have the key to your own postbox, obviously the postman has a master key!
We have been on a few walks in the forest which surrounds our small hamlet, the last one lasting 4 hours (it should have taken 3) as it would appear two walks must have crossed each other. We were following the yellow marker lines on the trees and must have followed the wrong tree!
We grow most of our own vegetables and have various fruit trees in the garden, so I have started to make jams, jellies, soups and crumbles. One of our trees is a Mirabelle, which I had not heard of before our move to France and the jam from this is delicious.
The other people in our small hamlet are French and we all get on very well together, considering that my husband and I only had school level French when we arrived. They could not be more friendly and helpful and we have even managed a few jokes. They tell all their friends and family about our Chambre et Table D'hotes and a lot of French networking is done by word of mouth.
There are not many English in our part of the Auvergne our main guests being French or Dutch, but we think that once the Auvergne is discovered by the English they will be in for a very pleasant surprise. The scenery is truly amazing, wildlife in the forests abounds, fishing is abundant in the many rivers, there are many walks, romanesque churches, chateaux, cycling, swimming lakes and horse riding. As well as they usual summer fetes and of course the Mushrooms!
November 2006 - Autumn has arrived and the changing colours in the forest are amazing. Excellent weather for walking. A red squirrel ran across our path in the forest this morning.
I am now in process of preparing for Christmas. Mince Pies etc. I already have Xmas Cake and Clotted Cream supplied by friends who have a second home in the area.
We are going to invite the french neighbours for Mince Pies, clotted cream and mulled wine on Boxing Day, so this should be interesting!
We are open all year for holidays, short breaks and house hunting.