Into Rural France - Pt 1

Do come and join me on this journey into the heart of rural France over the next few posts. Having left home at 6.30 am we took the shuttle train under the channel (see last post) arriving in Calais at 11.0 am and drove through France arriving at our destination at 7.45 pm. The temperature was in the mid 80's and we were so glad to be driving our newly acquired car which had air conditioning, a first for us. It is July 2002 and the journey has been good apart from 2 wrong turnings while negotiating our way around Paris and then missing the by-pass around Poitiers and driving through the town centre in the rush hour.

We are staying with English friends who now live in France some 45 kilometers South East of Pottiers. Tony and Ruth bought a small farm and dilapidated farm house and have spent 10 years converting it to the lovely place we see here today. Initially Tony moved to France with one of his sons doing the work himself while Ruth, who is a doctor,stayed in the UK to earn the money with which to do it. At the time the only way up to the top floor of the house was via. and outside step ladder. Once the house was in order they then worked on turning part of their barn into a Gite for rental. This small Hamlet of just five dwellings is about 5 kilometers from the main road.

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We will be out touring the area but for today I will take you around the grounds.

The Farmhouse



The Barn and Gite

Scenes from the back of the house and garden. Gardening is a hobby of Ruth's and I found it interesting to see how she managed to tame large areas of farmland into some beautiful rural gardens, especially in an alien climate.

Looking back towards the house from one of the fields

Milk sheep just sheared. If one does not use the land in France then high taxes have to be paid on it. I am not a milk lover so I visited the local supermarket (13 miles away) to buy my skimmed milk

Walking down to the lake that Tony had made in order to stock with fish for the fishermen that came to stay at the gite.

If you double click you will see that man who even manages to get into French pictures on the far bank.

An evening sunset

I think one of the main memories of this garden was lying listening to the enormous frogs that croaked all night