PIP

Visited the PIP (Pole International de la Préhistoire) in Les Eyzies today. Extraordinary building - white and filled with light, great exhibits and a sunny terrace at the ecofriendly café.

Poolside

It's a swelteringoony 38°C in the shade of this pine tree. Even the wind, although unusually strong, is hot.

So far this Summer

The weather has oscillated between dreich and sweltering. Yesterday we spent a lovely sunny day at the Lac de Lacanau, today we've cancelled an outing to Le Moulleau because it's grey and raining. In fact weather-wise it's sometimes difficult to remember if we're in Scotland or in France.Stop Press: now it's hothothot again and we're beach-bound for the second day in a row.

Most singular experience in Scotland was a bluegrass concert in a church in Moffat with Craig Duncan and friends all the way from Nashville, Tennessee folks.

It was a good for wasps — I suppose I really mean a bad year — in both Scotland and France. In the Dordogne there was an influx of those nasty Asian hornets. They seemed quite partial to the quince jelly in my trap improvised from a butter dish.



In completely unrelated news, we spent an hour or two in Thiviers last week and P. reminded me that as a boy Jean-Paul Sartre spent his holidays there. This rang a distinct bell and I remembered reading (or perhaps being told in Mr Walker's "Politics and the Novel" class?) that J-P's favourite boyhood pastime while there was performing enemas on a little girl. Can this possibly be true? And why is this useless trivia taking up valuable brain-space when I can remember so little of the Sartre I've read?

Essendiéras

E had a riding lesson here this morning.

Le Potager

Lots of tomatoes this year.

In the Lake

At Le Camping du Lac, Plazac.

Tourtoirac

Visited the Grotte de Tourtoirac. Incredible stalagmites and stalactites. Took this before the guide said that photography was forbidden. Ooops.

Méchoui

Down by the river for the village méchoui.

Périgueux

Last day of Mimos, the festival of mime and street theatre.

Au supermarché

The Carrefour Market in Saint-Martial-d'Alabarède has a special section for British tourists. They seem to hanker after Coleman's mustard, mushy peas, and Vegemite.

Skimming stones

On the river Isle at Les Chambrettes.

A Rainy Day

Visited Saint-Robert in the neighbouring département of Correze. A very pretty village, even in the rain.

By the walnut tree

This is the walnut tree that we look on to from the terrace of the house. The walnuts are still green. Yesterday I received a book that I won on the This French Life site, it's all about truffles and walnuts and the cuisine of the Dordogne in general. It's at the top of the LibraryThing list in the sidebar.
Gotta go, MsMac has just texted to say she's only five minutes away!

En route for the Dordogne

It's a lovely sunny day and having arrived back in Bordeaux last night after our Scottish holidays, we're now on our way to the Dordogne If this works and I can blog via email from my phone, then I may treat you to a photo a day in August. But don't hold your breath.