OK! after this entry, we have caught up on the past news

The renovation of the garage was a massive job for Peter, and as usual he handled it skillfully and masterfully. Check out the old beams! It was going to be the games room, however seeing as now, there will not be a café/bar, we will use it for storage until we renovate it into a self-contained cottage on one level. We held many a party in there, and the grounds last Summer. We had French tradespeople do the tiles on the roof. Pete completed everything else, with me as ''lackey'' of course! Some days it was 45degrees inside. The sun does not go down until around 10pm in Summer, so long days and many cold beers were consumed.

Renovation of the yard begins.

Down by the river's edge. What a day! The rose wine here is fabulous. I must own shares by now. Have I mentioned the
cheeses and chocolates? Oh, to live for!!!
Wish you were here?

And.....just when we thought it was all finished...we discovered we had no storm water drainage. We found this out due to a huge deluge of rain, which rushed through the yard and into the garage, heading towards the door to the lower level of the house. The French neighbours learnt some new English words and phrases that day#@#*!! Once again polished Pete and lackey Donna to the rescue. Look how straight that drain is..and Pete did that with a shovel! Of course, we donned ourselfs with our ''dry as a bone'' coats while it was raining. We were just missing the horses.......and........that is another story!

à bientôt

Peter et Donna

This is the life!

This is Dorén, our pet swan (le cygne). Formally Doris, until we discovered she was a he! He comes with a whistle and a waddle for his food. As we speak, Dorén has flown South for the Winter. We hope he comes back as we miss him. He became part of our family and the children in the area just adored him.

Missing you Dorén xo

An extremely hot summer's day. I am sure I heard the phrase, "Crazy Aussies", coming from our neighbour, Jean-Michel. Yes! we are, and proud of it!!

We had so many people from the surrounding villages come to look at the glorious transformation of the garden and the river bank, that we decided to allow Kaycee's Bistro Bus to set up their mobile café/restaurant on wheels, into our property one evening. We had 140 people sitting in our garden enjoying the fabulous food, friendships and views. We were run off our feet, to say the least! We had to keep borrowing chairs and tables off our neighbours to accommodate for the constant flow of traffic. It was a night to remember...... particularly for Kaycee's. I believe we got to bed at 3am.

Now...if you preferred these little beauties, you would have to cook them yourself. Yum! Yum!

Friends of Gourgé.
Celebrating Bastille Day with Karim and Mike. Fabulous food and a magnificient display of fireworks and entertainment at Airvault.

Our favourite pastime with Di and David, drinking French wine. I believe we have finally mastered the art!

The end result! There is nothing better than home grown vegetables, fruits and herbs. We had sufficient to feed the neighbours and the endless stream of visitors that came to be witness to our transformations...and of course our Aussie gardening skills, coupled with the advice of the odd French person or 10!

à bientôt

Peter et Donna

Un automne à Gourgé

September 2009 gave us a much cooler month, after experiencing a very hot summer. We were only in Gourgé until September 16, as we left for Aussie land on the 17th September. Our first family members came for a short visit, our daughter Angela her husband Anthony and our grandson Jacob. While the family were here we gave Pete his very first French fête pour son anniversaire (Birthday Party), which was a combination of French food, cheeses, delicacies, chocolates, wines and beers with of course an Aussie BBQ thrown in for good measure!! A fabulous time was had by all the French, English, Scottish and Aussies that attended. It was so funny to listen and observe the antics of people when conversing, particularly when they could only speak a small amount of French or English. I am convinced that Charades was invented by someone in a similar situation!!

What do you think of my home grown tomatoes? My tomato relish was the best ever, using these flavoursome little beauties!

à bientôt

Peter and Donna

Time flies!!

OK, so it has been almost 10 months since I put finger to keyboard. YES Di, I can hear you from here……
So much has happened in this time. I think I will work backwards and fill you in very briefly on our adventures…with photos of course!

We arrived back in France on Dec 12, 2009 after spending 3 months in Australia with our wonderful family. Another grandchild was born, Joel Sebastian (that makes 3 grandsons) and our eldest daughter, Britt was married.

Unfortunately we lost our battle with the French Consulate in Australia, trying to get the business visa for the café/bar. This was our third attempt and now our final. I wish we could tell you “why”, however we do not know ourselves. They are not obliged to inform you. Very sad, however true. We are most disappointed for this region, whom were very excited about the prospect of having the resurgence of the café/bar. So…..

What are we going to do with this amazing pre-napoleon property now?
Keep renovating and offer holiday accommodation. It is the perfect setting for couples, families, walking and cycling groups. Right on the river, boules court, half basketball court, BBQ facilities, fabulous hosts (that would be us!) etc, etc. Spread the word….

Talk about a transition of weather when we arrived back from Australia! It was so hot and humid in Aussie land, and we arrived back in Gourgé it was -9 degrees and snowing. There is something magical about the watching the first snowflakes fall. We just adore sitting by our antique fireplace, wine in hand looking out the window, and being a spectator to the virgin white look of the countryside. Such peace and serenity…..

Christmas Day was quiet without any of our family. They are all in Aussie land this year, and we are here! We went to Noël and Susanne’s, our Dutch friends and experienced our first Christmas lunch cooked on a “hot stone’’. Great concept for a dinner party! On my list for Santa this year…

à bientôt
Peter et Donna