A week of eating, drinking, some renovations and rendez-vous

This week we sent off a request to the German Embassy in Bordeaux to get recognition for Pete's German ancestry. In the past weeks we have discovered that Pete's Grandmother was French/German and Pete's Great Grandparents were French! We knew his Dad and Grandfather were German, however we did not have any information past that...It has been a very emotional time, and it certainly explains Pete's love and passion for France.

We have finally finished cementing the bar floor. Now to lay the tiles. OK! things go slow over here:)

It seems that this week was the week for being invited to dinner and lunch. Wow! so much fabulous food, wine and amazing company...An author (on her 3rd book), a retired lawyer/art critic, an ex diplomat who has given us so much support, a business developer, an engineer who has lent us most of his household tools, and a very multi-talented gentleman whose degree is in tourism and his expertise is in renovating old buildings. They are also bi-lingual. Way to go!!! We feel very blessed:)

We also managed to fit in more meetings with very influential people in the community to explain our plans for the café/bar, and a French lesson with our very patient and wonderful French teacher, Elisabeth.

Back in Aussie land, my sister was very pro-active this week and called me every day, ahh!

Our youngest son even broke his hectic life style to call us this week:)

We went for a brief walk this afternoon and these are the photos taken just up the road looking back on our property. Double click the photos to view in a larger screen, and then left arrow back at the top of the page.

Au revoir from Gourgé, France

Week-end of Feb 14-15

Another wonderful week-end with lots of sunshine, however the temperature was still between 0-10 degrees and very windy. Still able to go for walks. ..Above is one of the walking tracks which is just down the road. It crosses over the River Thouet.

For the first time we were able to sit at the end of our property beside the river and drink Champagne. Looking forward to Spring. We can see the new growth on the trees already. Just discovered a Mulberry Tree. Mulberry pie it will be for our customers in the café/bar!

We had a number of visitors call in for a chat and a drink. I wonder if they still will, when they have to pay??

There is a small basketball court in the yard, so we ventured out and played around for while. Some children came and joined us, and it was wonderful to have them around and listen to their laughter, as we miss our family very much. Thank goodness for Skype, and unlimited internet phone usage to Australia and the UK:)

Received a surprise on Valentine's Day..Ahhhh

A visit from an Aussie friend

John Nayler visited us for a week and these are some of the photos that he took. The 9th Century Church in the village, local scenery, one of the walking tracks 2 mins down the road, Chateau Roche 10 mins walk away and of course..........John had to work off his stay. He is helping Pete to lay new cement. Go John!!

Another wonderful day!

This is across the road from our property:) The building you can see in the background is a Mill dating back to the medieval ages. There is a picnic area adjacent to the river.

YES! this is us!

Bonjour:)
It is important that we integrate into the French lifestyle. Here we are doing our very best communicating in French, and explaining that our bar/café will be open in April, 2009 in Gourgé.

Gourgé is SW of Paris. The closest major town is Poitiers. The area offers beautiful countryside, a 9th Century Church, an 11th Century Roman bridge (which is at the end of our property) and 15th Century Châteaux. There are 5 different walking tracks and cycling routes.

Bring on the bar and the sunshine!!

More to come from the Aussies....
Au revoir:)

Snow in Gourge

We had a wonderful surprise on the 6th January 2009, with the arrival of snow. The river iced over and it was a magical scence for a week.

First Post from Gourgé, France (380k SW of Paris)

We both fell in love with this area in November 2006, whilst we were on holidays in France. The memory stayed with us, and was so strong that we came back to look at an old property that was for sale beside the River Thouet. This property which has been dated back to the pre-Napolean era, was for many years a bar/cafe. We are still trying to find out more details, however we do know it was a Petrol Station at some time, there was a bike shop here and we believe it may have been a toll house.

The village is called Gourgé and the closest major town is Poitiers. There were extensive renovations to do as it was very run down, however we had a vision of what could be! The setting was magnificent and the area offered so much to visitors. We decided to buy it, and here we are:)

It was very difficult to say good-bye to our family and friends in Australia. We knew in our hearts that for now this is where we were mean't to be, so we sold up what we could and arrived here on October 21, 2008.