Like much of western Europe, we had a heatwave last week with temperatures up in the high thirties for much of the week, peaking at ~41 at the end of the weekend. With a house full of guests for a long weekend and a couple of mid-week stop overs, I was worried about people having an uncomfortable stay but we’ve got the hang of using the shutters to help keep the house as cool as possible and the guests seemed very happy. Once again, the pool was very popular!
I do quite a lot of running which is getting challenging with the heat. I’m never going to break any records, but it is something I really enjoy for so many reasons. When I’m busy or stressed it relaxes me, when I’m fed up or sad it lifts my mood, running alone is great ‘me-time’ and running with a group is great social time, I sleep better when I run, I listen to audiobooks, I keep fit…I could go on, but I know us runners are a boring lot once we get started.
Before we moved, I found a local running group here on Facebook which meets nearby on a Sat or Sun morning for a run. This meant that on my first proper Sunday morning here, I met a friendly group of like-minded people in Eymet village square at 8:30am and I spent a delightful hour running with them through the countryside followed by a coffee together at a local café. Tom joined us a couple of weeks later and since then we’ve only missed a couple of weekend-runs up until we opened the B&B in May this year. The group has been brilliant for us, so welcoming and friendly, we’ve met and become friends with people through it and I am very grateful for that.
I now regularly run with a friend who lives ~20 mins drive from here. There are a lot more trails around her house through woodlands and vineyards with some stunning scenery which seems to change week by week through the seasons. Tom and I try get a local run in together once a week, I try and get out on a long run on my own once a week and we run with the group whenever we can.
I realise now how spoilt I was with Ordinance Survey in the U.K. There is a good network of trails here, it’s nowhere near as easy to find or to follow them without my OS iPhone App but I’m learning.
During the winter months, it was so lovely to get out into the countryside in the sunshine. The fields and vineyards were bare, the tracks were muddy, and we had to be very careful off-road and be sure to wear bright clothing to avoid getting shot by la chasse.
During the summer months, it is often well into the 20s by 10am and still high 20s by dusk, so getting out early is almost essential. Breakfast service at the B&B means I can’t get out early, and on the rare mornings that we don’t have guests, I just want a lie-in until it is too hot to go out running…so I am feeling a bit deprived at the moment and need to find a routine that will allow me to get more miles in somehow…
There are a lot of organised trail races in the region, but with so much else going on, I’ve not signed up for any of them. I like to do run a marathon once a year, so I have signed up for the Cognac marathon in November this year and Paris next spring. I’m going to need to start increasing my mileage soon!