France 3

We visited this destroyed village only yesterday, to think we might had met the President had we visited on the 10th June, marking the anniversary. Well worth a visit

Having two homes is for the most part delightful. That is until you receive a bill for (France) water which is sent to your Australian home whilst you are in France. End result is trying to make a late payment with methods to pay drying up like an Australian dam in summer. Needless to say a letter of apology just sent to the Director General Finances Publiques with the sad advice I will have to pay by cash in January. Looking forward to the visit and getting the en-suite finished. Tiling the floor and walls is first then a simple matter of fitting off the plumbing. A shower screen will be easy as I cracked the code of getting such beasts with the local plumping supplies shop on my last visit. Hired a car for my first two weeks so that I Can collect tiles then over to my push bike or public transport. The cost of the car post Christmas for two weeks was almost as much as six weeks before Christmas, interesting! Maybe time to invest in a car for France. William

Bon Civray should be undergoing the completion of the first floor en suite right now, however work in Australia has delayed my visit until early January 2017. Need to get this work completed before June as we have another busy year ahead. I hear from my friendly plumber in France that it is getting cooler and with some rain. Not unusual for November of course but it does sound inviting as we start to swelter in 30C plus temperature already Down Under! First November I have missed since we acquired the house, still it won't be long before I am back and gracing the Central Café and La Lich Bar.

Photos from Bon Civray's post

I hear from my French friends that the weather is still pretty good in our lovely town but as the year moves towards 2017 I am sure we can expect some cooler temperatures. Of course it generally does not drop much below the frost line as much of the North does and winter days are often clear blue skies with a nice crisp air. I will soon know as I leave for France on 7th November heading over to finish building the en-suite ready for next year when we are expecting another more visitors. Bit rushed this time as I have just returned from a short cruise with my sister and two brothers and partners where we cruised from Sydney up to Gladstone and back. The lovely warm weather was a treat after our wet and cool winter. Looking forward to catching up with my friends at the Central Café and La Iich bar

Talk about missing Bon Civray, well our friends in Civray are Talking about the hot weather and here I am in Bathurst a good size town in NSW about 150km from Sydney (maybe a bit more) Australia. The weather is freezing, more days of frost than Civray for sure. Well my fault for coming back to Australia too soon. What am I doing in Bathurst, well the weather was so bad that the recent storm blew the roof off. No one hurt fortunately. Why mention this, well I could have stayed in Civray. My Bother in Lam and his wife are visiting Civray in the next week or so. I have left instructions for the two of them to make contact with my good friends so look forward to their thoughts on a relaxing holiday in Civray. Meanwhile I will go to work each morning in the frost and cold. Funny, I don't need to do that, I could be in France

Photos from Bon Civray's post

Our time in Civray has come to an end and a frantic end it turned out to be. All that work planned but put aside to entertain and enjoy the countryside saw only a small effort put in on the house. Ended up painting the side gate (bottom door only) and finishing the render around the new window which was the old bakers shop entry. Made some shutters for the two ground floor Windows but they will have to be fixed in November when I come back. Working on the outside front drew many comments of like and support from the locals, should have done the outside first and made more friends! I did try and have two local plasterers do the rendering but neither turned up so after two years of trying, just did it myself. Market day today so a trip to the Central Cafe to say cheerio to Dany and Claude and we are off to Paris to start the long trek home. Roll on November🤔

Photos from Bon Civray's post

For a small Village of around 3000 folk there always seems to be something going on here. last weekend the annual music festival was on over three days and they say 7000 people attended. I can see that was most likely correct as whilst the village square was shut down to traffic, parking was an absolute premium and I had a job to find a place after returning from a day out sight seeing. The campground was overflowing and the young folk pitched their tents on any likely spot, never mind it might be quite a steep slope. Our Street was alive with people of all ages coming and going and not a harsh word was heard. Friday night and after the days mini market we have the annual night market which brings in people from all around, some i saw were from over 80 kilometers away. Once again the streets were closed around the square to let the stallholders set up. It was a festival atmosphere with food, drinks, ice creams, jumping castle and live music to mention just a few. All of the Cafe and restaurants were open and doing a roaring trade, even the Central Cafe remained open till late. Again no harsh words and the children were having a ball (as were the adults). thank goodness the Gendarmes were busy elsewhere.

Photos from Bon Civray's post

A beautiful day here in Civray with a sad moment remembering those who lost their lives in Nice on the Fete Nationale holiday. The village was a little quiet with a few traders taking a short holiday before the August Rush. I think the high 30 degree (+) heat under a cloudless day also curbed the desire of some to venture out. One group who were out in force were the farmers reaping the winter crop of wheat and barley followed quickly by bailing up the straw and also fodder crops for winter stock food. All in all a great time to be wandering around the countryside and seeing the early harvest coming in and the next crop of Sunflower and Corn to be harvested in Autumn giving the fields a lovely green cover with a friendly golden face of the sunflowers watching the sun. The wild poppies that spring up in the hardiest of places are on the wain with many ending up with the harvested crops. With two of our guests Bernadette and her daughter Christine from Sydney we spent Fete Nationale Day in Lourdes visiting the Basilica and Grotto where Saint Bernadette spent her early days, including the house come flour mill she lived in as a young girl. A four hour drive from Civray and overnight stop in Lourdes proved to be a wonderful and memorable trip. If you visit Lourdes make sure you visit the information centre at the Basilica complex and book in to see the film about the whole story, in English or French. Evening fireworks over the old castle/chateau concluded a full but interesting day.

Photos from Bon Civray's post

The lovely organisers of Le Tour de France routed this years ride through Vienne where Civray sits, about 45 minutes from Poitiers, our centre of administration. Pity stage 4 which started at Saumur and finished in Limoges was to the North East. Our plan was to head up to the route close to Limoges but guests arriving and being picked up at Poitiers Gare put that plan somewhat askew as they were due at 2pm, 1400hrs. We did our best to make Limoges before the riders but alas we arrived at our chosen spot a bare five minutes late. Not deterred we headed to Limoges next day for stage 5, Le Tour departing Limoges to Le Lioran a 216km leg. We arrived at our chosen spot with an hour to spare before the noon start but even so, we were soon to see the lead riders, about 14 or so coming into the village barely 15 minutes after the start. Down the hill into the small village of Bujaleau and up a slight rise out of the village and they were gone led by a convoy of support vehicles, press and Gendarmes on their motor bikes. Shortly after, the Peloton, travelling in a tight bunch and a little slower followed by the support vehicles carrying the spare bikes raced through and were soon into the next village. Nothing more to do but head for lunch in Limoges and check out the porcelain museums. To see the Tour in person was a great experience as was being part of a small French village celebrating with enthusiasm this iconic race. Next year our guests will be treated to a similar experience.

Photos from Bon Civray's post

A musical day in Civray yesterday with several musicians entertaining around the village. We spent the evening in the La Lich Bar which is about 25 meters from our front door. The musician in La Lich was excellent and ran a part Karaoke evening. Our table set next to his setup was his first target and Marg and visitors from Canberra Anne and David were first up and blasting out the old hit Yellow Submarine which was well received by the happy (Frnch) crowd

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The countdown is on to the next visit to our French Home and can't wait to be back and in summer this time. Friends Ted and Sonia made a quick stop at the house a couple of weeks ago on their way from the South of France to Villiers Bretenoux to attend the ANZAC Day service and visit the area with daughter and other family. Ted and Sonia were the first outside of the family to access the house and get everything going. Just two queries, where was the water valve and where to go given only a couple of days available. They chose a visit to the coast at La Rochelle and a visit to the WW11 village of Orerdour Sur Glane where the occupants were massacred in a rather brutal way. This village has been left exactly as it was after the massacre and a poignant reminder of some of the horror of war. The only report of note was that they didn't find La Lich bar open during their visit. Hope that is a temporary situation. June, July and August are going to be busy at the house with several visitors moving in for various periods. Guess I had better get cracking with some tidying up painting and wall papering. The shower screen in the main bathroom will finish that one off. I am hoping that the render has been done on the front outside wall and that an electrician has been in to do some work. It sure will be nice to be in town during the summer months.