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Our 4^th summer season in the B&B has flown by once again. The weather has been fantastic until the last few days of August when the storms arrived. We did struggle a bit with the 40-degree heatwaves which continued into August, but the house stayed relatively cool and the aircon that we had installed in May was brilliant. The rest of the house will be done later this month so next summer we will be truly ready for the heatwaves.

We have learned so much since we opened in May 2022. I think our biggest lesson has been to carefully close off rooms / days from time to time to give ourselves a break and to stay just about sane during the busiest weeks. Also, over time we each seem to have settled into the roles that suit us best and we’ve become much more efficient as a result. Tom is much happier in the kitchen than serving breakfasts to guests for example, and I certainly couldn’t turn out the perfect poached eggs or the great daily breakfast specials that he does. Tom takes pride in cleaning the bedrooms while I take care of the bathrooms with all the delightful things that involves.

In 2022 the B&B was pretty much our life, now we have a much better balance (although we are both looking forward to our winter downtime again this year!) Because we are more experienced, we are more relaxed. The routines of check-in/out, breakfast, cleaning, laundry etc mesh nicely with our daily life most of the time.

I’m also so much more at ease with our French speaking guests now, to the extent that I can chat with them in French to pass the time or to deal with whatever questions they may have. When we arrived in France I could just about ‘get by’ in French, but before appointments, phone calls etc I had to spend time looking at the vocab and role playing the conversations in my head. Somewhere along the way I developed the confidence and vocabulary to deal with daily life here and new situations as and when they arrive. I still have a long way to go with my French, especially when speaking as I know I make loads of mistakes and forget the vocab that I really should remember, but I’m proud of where I am and I’m determined to keep improving.

A year or so after moving over, once the novelty had worn off a bit I guess, I did start to crave for ‘stuff’ which is either hard to find here or is ridiculously expensive compared to buying it in the UK. As time has gone on, I find the list of cravings is much shorter as we have grown to enjoy local alternatives. One example still on my reducing list is a proper British country pub, with a wide choice of excellent real ales, to wash down a local pork pie or scotch egg, in front of an open fire or in the beer garden…mmm… but I guess I’ll just have to manage with a glass or two of local wine with a charcuterie board sitting in the sunshine watching the world go by outside one of our local bars until our next visit to England…it’s a hard life.

As we’re approaching the end of the busy season, I’ll make this my last update for a few months. One final push for us this month until we get some proper downtime as well as a chance to work through the list of jobs for the winter.

This week we have a house full of family staying with us. Last week, we had a house full of paying guests. On one hand it is hard to close for a week during peak season (€) on the other, it means we too can relax and make the most of high summer here. Of course, having extended family staying for a week comes with its own challenges! but it is lovely to have everyone together and great not to have to get up early for breakfast service every morning and worry about keeping everything clean and tidy all the time.

It was during July four years ago that we emptied our house in England, squeezed what we could into the back of the car and made the move to southwest France. This July was a lot less eventful, but it has been a lot of work for us as well as a lot of fun.

To celebrate la fête nationale française on the 14^th, commonly referred to as Bastille Day in English speaking countries, the town once again provided an excellent evening in Parc Bretou with food, drinks, live music and an awesome firework display at the end of the night. This is among my favourite evenings of the year here.

We have also been enjoying the 3rd year of the Apéro Cadix events on Thursday evenings in the grounds of Eymet Château. With different local wines / foods on sale each week, live music and of course the Wholly Vinyl DJs to finish the night off, it is such a great setting to meet up with friends, have some food, wine and a dance. We were quite restrained for the first two weeks, but with no breakfast service this morning as it is only family staying…well last night was a good night and we are having a gentle day today.

In the house, we upgraded from copper to fibre broadband with the step change in performance you would expect. Also, having lived with aircon in half the house for a few months now, we have bitten the bullet and agreed a quote for the rest of the house to be switched over to reversible heat pump heating / air conditioning in September. This means we will be able cancel our gas supply contract and do our bit with more environmentally friendly heating during the winter, as well as benefiting from aircon in all the rooms during the heatwaves in future summers.

July was another busy month in the B&B. I counted 50 room nights during the month, which is about 20 down on last year, but with 4 rooms being closed for family for a week that is not surprising, and we’re very happy with the season so far as well as the advance bookings for next year.

Reflecting on our 4-year anniversary of selling up and moving to France, I think this deserves some more time on here, so I’ll do that during my next update in August.

I’ve mentioned the Eymet summer marchés nocturnes before. They are events that have really grown on me since we moved to France, and the first of the season last week didn’t disappoint. When we arrived in July 2021, I didn’t really ‘get it’. That month was a rather rainy one, the tourist season was in full swing, we were still coming out of COVID restrictions, so the stalls were limited and the queues were long. Now, however, we really look forward to them.

Sometimes we find a table for two where we can sit with a bottle of wine and ‘people watch’. Sometimes we join some friends and spend the evening catching up. We have a few favourite food stalls that we frequent. I love the fresh grilled demi-magret de canard and saucisse de foie gras served with potatoes cooked in duck fat and delicious garlicy herby tomatoes. The falafel or onion bhaji wraps from the excellent vegetarian stall are another favourite and sometimes a simple barquette de moules frites is perfect. The local producers sell their wines and there is a mixture of stalls selling crafty stuff plus the ubiquitous touristy tat of course.

The atmosphere of these evenings changes through the summer. The first ones of the year are largely dominated by local families coming from all around to enjoy the evening. During late July and August, it gets very busy with tourists as well as locals. We now know where and when to make sure we secure a good shady spot for the evening, and how to avoid the longer queues for food.

We’ve kept up our weekly ‘date-lunch’ during June to get us away from the B&B for a while and to enjoy some of the great restaurant options around us. A couple of the highlights this month were En Toute Simplicité in Loubès Bernac for a 17,50 € fixed menu du jour of 4 courses + wine and coffee, and Château de Fayolle in Saussingac for their amazing charcuterie planche on the terrace overlooking the Dordogne valley. 

During June we have had the 2^nd and 3^rd heatwaves of the year so far, so the newly installed air conditioning in our west facing guest rooms came into its own, and the pool has certainly had plenty of use. Apart from a couple of stormy days, we were able to serve breakfast outside throughout the month. 

We were really pleased to have 4 repeat-reservations during June (22 nights in total) and both rooms that checked out yesterday have already reserved to stay again. For me, a returning guest is the best review that we can hope for. It has certainly been a very busy and positive start to the summer season but, learning from previous years, we have blocked off some days in July and August to give us a break and have family to stay. We have a full house again tonight, but we’ll be off to enjoy tonight’s night market of course!

Flaming June has arrived with the first heatwave of the year in Southwest France and I’m loving it. Unlike last year, we have also had some great weather during May so we, and our guests, have been using the pool already and, given the forecast, it will get a lot more use during June.

Eymet has been a hive of activity this month as the new water / drainage infrastructure continues to be rolled out along with fibre internet throughout the village. A wave of new traffic calming and pedestrian focussed measures have been put in place during the month which should make the Bastide and the Boulevard both safer and calmer. Place Gambetta is traffic free in the evenings now so the tables and chairs for the bars and restaurants can spread out and the kids can safely play around the square and fountain.

One day last week I was out running some errands before our next guests were due to arrive. I drove over to the farm just outside Eymet where we buy our eggs and, once again, was struck by the beauty of the countryside around us. It was a beautiful day, the vines are in full leaf, the corn and sunflowers are shooting, the Aquitaine Blonde cattle in the fields have calves with them and the wildflowers are stunning in the meadows. I reminded myself to get out for a run later to take some time to soak it all in properly.

Yesterday we spent a couple of hours in the sunshine at a local family run vineyard Domaine de Sauban who had an open day for tastings of their wines and those from other producers, great food provided by Andine, quad bike vineyard tours and various activities to keep the kids amused…oh and plenty of wine to buy direct from Christophe and team. Relaxing at events like this remind me how lucky we are to live here.

While we were planning our 2025 season I suggested to Tom that we block out a week for a road trip early May to take advantage of the late spring weather before we get too busy. Tom took no convincing at all of course, so at the start of the month we drove down to San Sebastian in Spain for 2 nights, back across the border to Saint-Jean-de-Luz for 3 nights, then 2 nights in Biarritz before heading home from there. It was lovely to spend a week by the ocean in the Basque region, with plenty of running and hiking along the beaches, superb seafood and local wines. It was our first time in St Jean de Luz and I thought it was lovely. I can imagine all 3 towns get extremely busy at peak season though, so May was a great time to make the trip. Time to start planning the next one!

I just re-read my 1^st May entries on here for the last 3 years. It reminded me how bloomin’ hard we worked to get ready for the B&B opening in May ’22 and what a relaxing winter we have had this year compared to the last 3. I also realised that we are getting into a routine as we move into the busy season here for the 4^th time. I think that’s a good thing? Before I quit full time employment and moved out here, I changed jobs every few years (I was lucky to be able to do that within the same large company for many years) so I wonder how I will feel if my new-found routine starts to become ‘too familiar’? Having said that, being ‘un étranger’ continues to bring plenty of surprises, and learning the language is a never-ending challenge to keep me on my toes.

We’ve had some beautiful weather in April. The sun lotion and straw hat got plenty of use while I was working outside, although we were still lighting the log burner most evenings. An exciting development in the house is the installation of a heat-exchange pump serving our living room, dining room and the two west-facing guest bedrooms. This will give us more flexibility with our heating in the winter, and the aircon will be a huge benefit to our guests in those two bedrooms which can otherwise get very warm during the summer months.

Along with asparagus and peonies, the famous local strawberries arrived in the markets so Tom has made a new batch of jam for our guest breakfasts which should see us through for a while. The pool is open and looking lovely…fingers crossed for a hot May to warm it up! We have the 2025 tourist information booklets from the brilliant Bureau d’Information Touristique in Eymet, and it looks like it is going to be a great summer season.

A quick update on a couple of new (to us) places that we’ve enjoyed during April.

– Le Croquant in Fonroque – I don’t know why it took us nearly 4 years to eventually go as we love this sort of place. 17€ for what was effectively a 5-course lunch with wine and coffee included. No frills, excellent value, very French, a great way to spend a couple of hours.

– Café À L’Endroit in Eymet – This cute oyster bar opened during April, and we popped in for a drink in the courtyard with some friends and again this morning for some fresh oysters, it has a lovely vibe and the seafood planches looked great.

Today being the May 1^st is a bank holiday here in France for La Fête du Travail, so apart from stalls selling oysters and lily of valley (muguet de mai) and the boulangeries for a few hours in the morning, the shops are closed. Our Eymet Thursday morning market went ahead as usual as it has done since 1270 and it was bustling. This afternoon was another local tradition of coming together in the village centre where volunteers are cooking huge aillet (young garlic shoots) omelettes served with salad, cheese, bread, wine and some strawberries to finish it off, all from local producers. After being rained-off last year, it was great to enjoy a couple of hours in the sunshine soaking up the atmosphere and of course, enjoying food!