30/8/2015
Woke up this morning to see the cows playing in the field. Fresh eggs from the girls here, down the lane for berries; baguette and croissants from the boulangarie.  Wandered about the market.

The Dordogne has suffered from drought so the grazing fields have been affected terribly.  Blackberries are down 50% at least in size, plums and cherries down 80% but blueberries have exploded as you can see below

Monsieur and Madame Blondy are hard at it fabricating the most superb bread and pastries in tout la region.

The local market on Saturday has grown by a quarter and we found this great clock.  Cant bring it home but at 790Euro was a bargain.  There were many at around 290E.  But we did manage to bring back some 3 year old cheese called Beaufort. It has that aged matured flavour that only comes with using raw milk and close supervision.   The taste is to die for. It just goes so perfectly with a fresh baguette and some fruit vinegar provided by our hosts Karen and Steve.

Cro-magnum village of sorts at Le Thot. It is the overflow of LascauxII where they keep animals representative of the Ice age and up to 5000BC.   Guy is standing in the prehistoric dwelling that they may have used.

They didn't find any real elephants or Mammoths for us. But there was plenty of bison, buffalo, horses, deer of various varieties and goats.

Because we were near Montignac it was not possible to not go to the Glace de Lascaux shop for these heavenly delights

After our return home Nana nap we awoke before dinner to an all too familiar sunset. Bonsoir from us to you.

29/8/2015

We arrived a couple of days ago now. After a long and dry flight, found our way to our hotel in the poring rain, to an approaching dusk.

We did connect with Paris for dinner in Alesia and the first creme brulee. How good is that!!!

Appeared a bit dark in the morning, but weather improved greatly with the day. (Unfortunately we were dressed for winter). On the Metro we made our way to St Michel to check out updates on Notre Dame and the local neighbourhood. Much seemed improved and buildings cleaned. In Rue Mouffetard our favorite little restaurant was no more Farewell "Le Tire Bouchon". (crying) We did avail ourselves of a Breton hot chocolate nevertheless which went down extremely well. A walk to our favourite homewares shop at the south end of the 5th to get a collectable for the new home in Diggers Rest.

Next heading was Trocadero, the other side of the river from the Eiffel Tower, where we enjoyed the weather and great views of the Tower, Seine and various gardens. Other little cafes to have our Chocolat chaud and a Pression St Homer which killed a ravenous thirst and (from a safe distance) watch a conman and three accomplices with a ball and 3 cups routine. When they have tripled their money from two suckers they wrapped up and departed with the loot. As one expects in Paris, there was much music all around. Even a taxi driver with his electric guitar and a dude on the metro.

The mandatory visit to the Church of St Genevieve and St Etienne back in the 5th called us back there as it was closed earlier due to lunch requirements of the district. We stayed for quite a while enjoying the silence and devoting some prayers to our loved ones that have passed on and others we met in our journey of life. On the way home we dropped into St Joseph's Church near the Ibis to say hi to the Saints. We discovered the crypt of the Mnsr Ozonam whmm the Ozonam House in Melbourne was named after. A long and distant connection for Guy and his teenage social work with men was finally made.

29/8/2015

Evening meal at the local Italian joint around the corner. Then preparations for an early start to catch our train to Bordeaux, on which we sit now. There was a bit of a delay (20 mins) due to an "incident". Gendarmes all around avec substantial weapons. C'est la Vie en France.

　The remainder of the travel was uneventful.  Lovely scenery and houses; villages and their little shops.  Collected car from Bordeaux and arrived safely to the friendly welcome of our hosts Steve and Karen, also new pup Monty.  Weather here over 30 degrees C, the pool was nice!

less than 1 week to go

After a two year absence we are anxious to return to our favourite places and to visit many many new villages