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Last week a pair of Eurasian Black Capped Warblers arrived in the garden as they do each spring. I love to hear them sing during the summer months, it is one of many things I enjoy as we leave the frosty nights behind us and turn our attentions to a new season in the B&B.

During the winter months we’ve had a good mix of holidays, home improvements and socialising as well as keeping the B&B ticking over…and running of course 🙂

Our travels included seeing Les Misérables at Le Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, some down time in stunning Freeholders on the beautiful North Norfolk coast, seeing family in Derby and London, a week in the Pyrenees and some winter sunshine in Maspalomas in Gran Canaria.

Our winter projects included a complete refit to our utility room, extensive replumbing of our central heating system (not planned but essential unfortunately) and ongoing maintenance / refreshment both inside and outside the house.

We spent time with friends to celebrate Christmas and New Year, time together watching some deliciously awful Christmas films in front of the fire, and some time apart due to a death in the family.

In the B&B we’ve been fortunate to once again host the visiting jazz musicians who play at the Maquizartconcerts in Eymet château every couple of weeks through the winter, and a handful of clients visiting the village for various reasons. Our bookings for June, July and August are looking good so it promises to be another busy season for us.

By the end of April, we’ll have the pool open and, weather permitting, the outside paintwork jobs should be nearing completion. Tom is currently experimenting with some new breakfast specials now that we have added a waffle maker and an air-fryer to the kitchen. I’m working on some website updates to provide more information including details of the local vineyards to sample and buy direct from the owners. We also need to try out the newly opened places to eat and drink in Eymet and surrounding area so we can make personal recommendations to our guests – it is tough job but …

Well, what a fun month August was! Against all logic when running a seasonal B&B in southwest France we were closed for 15 nights, but we had good reasons for this self-indulgence: the marriage of Ollie (my eldest) and Abbie (my lovely new daughter-in-law), Paris 2024 Olympics and some quality time with friends and family.

Having had wedding guests staying in our B&B almost every weekend over the last 3 summers, it was a such a pleasure to be able to close and host our own family here for a week while we celebrated Ollie and Abbie’s wedding nearby at the beautiful Manoir du Bout du Pont in La Sauvetat du Dropt. A three-day celebration weekend started with a gathering at the marché gourmand at La Sauvatat on the Friday evening, the main event at Le Manoir on Saturday was just perfect followed by a chilled Sunday pool party and barbeque. What a fantastic time everyone had.

Earlier in the month we closed for a few days in Paris. Tom secured tickets for 2 days of Olympic athletics in Le Stade de France so, after a full house, we cleaned all the rooms, caught the TGV from Bordeaux and spent 3 nights in Paris. It was a fantastic trip. Paris was looking beautiful, everything was extremely well organised, the atmosphere in the stadium was awesome, the bistros and bars didn’t disappoint, and I even managed to run a ‘Paris landmarks’ half-marathon one morning.

Before we re-opened for business, we held our 3^rd annual summer garden party for our running group friends. Despite the 39 degree weather, it was a very chilled afternoon with great company and some lovely food that people brought, and the kids (big and small) all enjoyed the pool!

For the two weeks of the busiest month of the season that we did stay open, we were much busier than we expected to be with a lot of last-minute reservations, so we were turning people down because we were full. During our busiest week we checked-in 20 guests over a period of 5 days which was another ‘Le Portanel record’.

Apart from our family wedding of course, the main event for me in Eymet during August was the fabulous Fête de l’Huître et du Vin Blanc which takes place every year since 1989 on Assumption Day, 15^th August. I have talked about it before on here so I won’t go over the details again, but it certainly lived up to expectations again this year and I can’t recommend it highly enough.

So, the peak season is behind us for another year and once again it has absolutely flown by. We’ve got around 30 room-nights pre-booked for September as it stands, which sounds nice and relaxing compared to the ~65 per month we tend to have during peak season. I’ll do one more update at the start of October to reflect on this month and what the winter has in store for us.

Well, I really enjoyed July this year. With the very wet winter / spring and having been so busy with the B&B during May and June, I was feeling very tired and a bit disillusioned with it all at the start of this month. I was struggling to stay on top of things in the house and garden and was often too tired at the end of the day to get out and enjoy the long warm evenings.

With this in mind, we closed off some days in July that we still had free (and to avoid the dreaded 4-room-changeover days) and after a couple of days at the start of the month with the house and garden to ourselves, I had already started to feel better about life and I am ending the month in such a better mood than I started it 😊

Of course the B&B, the village and the whole region have been extremely lively with the school holidays underway, but the atmosphere has been great. The night markets, marchés gourmands, live music, apéros at the château and of course the big party for La Fête Nationale on 14^th July have been a lot of fun.

La Fête Nationale Française is a big deal and is celebrated right across France. For the 3^rd year running we headed down to Parc Bretou where volunteers had set up trestle tables, a stage, marquee tents and were selling food and drink. With a band playing, the dancing and the fireworks it was once again a lovely summer evening.

July also saw the return of the Apéro Cadix events on Thursday evenings in the garden of Eymet château. Organised by Le Comice Agricole with a strong focus on local wines and food, with live music followed by Wholly Vinyl disco and in such a beautiful setting, this is one of my favourite events of the summer. To mark our 3^rd anniversary of moving to France Tom and I had a night away in Bordeaux by train where we did some shopping, ate some lovely food and soaked up the atmosphere.We’ve had B&B guests attending 6 different weddings during the month which I think is a record for us and it looks like next year’s wedding plans are being firmed up because we’re receiving bursts of long-weekend reservations for next summer. Meanwhile we are now in the middle of our first proper heatwave of the year which is making everything a little more challenging! 

I’ve mentioned before that I enjoy running, and how lucky I was to find our local social running group here in Eymet. I thought I’d reflect on this again this month. Why? Well Tom and I have both signed up to run the Marathon Des Alpes Maritimes later in the year, a one-way 42km race from Nice to Cannes along the mediterranean coastal road, and our training plan starts in earnest this month. We are keeping our fingers crossed for some cooler days for our long training runs or we are going to have some very early mornings!

Our running group has settled into a really good routine meeting outside the Eymet Centre de Loisirs on Friday mornings for a gentle 5k run, and somewhere in the area for a 10km run that normally has options for shorter routes too. We vary in numbers from 2 to 12 runners each week and the Sunday run is often followed by coffee and cakes (the photo this month is in our garden after one such run from our house)

Several members of the group sign-up for some of the local races and 7 of us have already signed up for the Semi-Marathon de Bordeaux in December. We also have a few social gatherings during the year including a summer party at our house and a Christmas meal in the village.

I have started a paper collection of routes that can be run or walked from ours for B&B guests to use and that is proving popular, so I’ll keep building on that.

Speaking of our B&B guests, June has been very busy with more returning clients, wedding guests, people on holiday and people just passing through. An old friend of mine who I started work with in 1982 stopped for a night on their way down to Spain which was great. One couple stayed for 11 nights and another for 13 nights which is a new record for us. They have both already booked to stay again next year.

The first Eymet night market of the season took place last week which was, as always, very popular with a lovely atmosphere and a good night out. The weather for the first few weeks of June continued to be very unsettled which was disappointing, but we are finally serving breakfasts on the terrace most mornings now, and we have been up in the 30s with hot sunshine long enough for the pool to be lovely and warm.

Our marathon training starts mid-July with a plan to be running up to 70km per week by the end of August including a weekly long run of around 30km. The B&B is full for 3 or 4 nights every weekend through July but we’ve got some mid-week breaks with an empty house as it stands, so we should be able to get our running in before it gets too hot.