Our holiday - general

The time has come to say a little about our holiday. I'll start today with a few general comments. Once our pictures are out of the camera & in the computer I'll maybe write about some of the specific places we visited.

Undoubtedly the dominant feature of the holiday was the weather. It was wet, very wet. The first week it rained every day. And I mean rained, not light showers in between bright spells. The only break from the rain seemed to be a brief couple of hailstorms. The second week didn't start off much better. Eventually we had a couple of sunny days. By the third day the day started well but clouded over, returning to torrential rain by the evening.

All this rain had a dramatic effect on our holiday. Much of the time was enforced idleness as we hadn't gone prepared with fully waterproofed clothing.  It meant we had to resort to indoor places to visit, or at least predominantly indoor attractions.

The fields around us were soon lakes, especially once the rivers started to flood their banks. I had thought we might have had one of the river boat trips along the Dordogne. However, when we turned the corner of the bend to where the boats were moored, we soon discovered the ticket office was 100 yards or so across a lake, let alone getting to the boats. Admittedly we were rather sceptical about the possibility of a boat trip when we had seen how swollen the river was & how fast its current. Certainly no one was attempting any canoeing in the rivers in the region despite it being a very popular past-time - far too dangerous, I would think, for all but the most experienced canoeists.

It also meant on those few good days we ended trying to pack an enormous amount in, rather than spreading our activities over the fortnight. I suspect that is partly the reason we are so tired now.  We did so want to see the most exciting bits, which also happened to be the furthest from where we were staying. Still it says something that the Fox even managed so much driving in so short a time, day after day, though he is paying the consequences now.

Ryanair proved far better than we feared. With having to print boarding passes before you went to the airport, & many people opting for just hand luggage, it did mean the queues for checking in were much shorter, & therefore, quicker. Although we weren't allocated extra legroom, as is usual for disabled passengers, there was more room than on  some aircraft. The flights were prompt. We even got back to Liverpool early! 

The property itself was remarkably accessible. I say that because we've stayed at so many where it has been essential to be able to walk a bit at least. The rooms were spacious with plenty of turning room for wheelchairs. The bathroom had grab rails & a walk-in shower with a proper wheel-in shower chair, the toilet grab rails & a frame around it. Great!

Our hosts, too, were very welcoming & hospitable. They provided a welcoming back of food, including homemade bread, two bottles of wine, cheeses & a large box of English teabags - in France it is almost impossible to buy boxes of more than 50 teabags, the French preferring tisanes (herbal teas). When they discovered it was the Fox's birthday while we were staying, they gave him a bottle of Saumur sparkling wine to celebrate with.

Our biggest niggle with the property was the heating. The place hadn't been heated up since it was last used, at Christmas. With such a long period of emptiness it felt cold & damp. The only heating was a small electric oil-filled radiator, a heated towel rail in the bathroom, & a wood-burning stove. So we had to grips with the wood-burning stove if we were ever to get warm. 

After the first couple of days we finally managed to work out how to load it, adjust the ventilation etc to keep it going 24 hours a day. Only then did the property really start to warm through.  We remain convinced, though, wood-burning stoves are not something we would ever give houseroom to. They seem to necessitate so much work. Logs have to be brought over. The glass front seems to need cleaning most days. The ashes need emptying. When you open the door to add more wood, half the time smoke billows out, impregnating your clothes & spreading ashes all around. Even the need to keep adding more fuel regularly necessitates a certain keeping your eye on it, especially when you are just first lighting it or trying to revive it in the morning. No it's too much hard work for us. Give us our gas fire & central heating any day.

The other problem with the property was the distance to the nearest shops, bars, restaurants etc.  In theory it was 7km to the nearest amenities. I think they must measure the distance by how the crow flies, not as the country lanes twist. It seemed nearer 7-10 miles! A fact we were convinced of, when later in the week we noticed the roadsigns stated the same distance even though we had been on the road 10 minutes or so already. When we were younger, & healthier we wouldn't have thought twice about these distances. But now, we are older, & not in the best of health, it seems a long way to go just for a loaf of bread. And in France you do need to go & buy your baguette on a daily basis. They just don't keep very well.

Being right in the midst of a maze of country lanes, often unsigned, meant that there were no street lights. Again not a problem if it's your home & you are familiar with the way. But when you are a stranger, & it is pitch black by the time you are ready to return after an evening meal, it is a bit worrying. It wasn't until we were confident of finding our route to and from the bigger roads without a map that we felt we could hazard staying out late.

As a result, between the distance & the darkness, we didn't eat out as often as we'd hoped. It was easier instead to stay at the property & make a quick salad, a quick bit of fish, a risotto, something easy to do.


Despite all the problems that came with the holiday, it was on the whole a relaxing experience. It probably did us good, though at the moment we're still feeling the backlash of those last few busy days there, the 5am start to drive back to Bergerac airport, flight & long drive back from Liverpool to here. I'm telling myself, give us a few days to recover, & we will bounce back. At the moment we're still rushing around catching up. Washing's done but not yet ironed. The larder's been restocked. The seed potatoes have been planted though we could do with a trip to a garden centre for more compost, bark, tomato plants etc. We've just about got around to responding to the mail while we've been away - bills paid etc. We've done a bit of catching up with the news, communicated with friends, even seen some, discovered our neighbour Dave is once more back in Blackpool hospital with complications, found out one friend had an overnight hospital stay while we were away & his wife has been celebrating her 60th birthday as best she can in the circumstances. Life goes on & we will soon be able to relax again, and enjoy the blossoms on our fruit trees, the first emerging leaves of the nasturtium seeds I planted before we went away just popping through the soil, appreciate our avian visitors, & feel the benefit of our holiday.
Roll on.