Life in France

In a moment of weakness during the winter, we decided to close for a week during our peak season and book a week’s holiday in Greece, so I am writing this at our hotel in Crete where we are staying with some family. Despite the double hit to income and outgoings, we are thoroughly enjoying our first proper summer holiday for six years. One of my ‘kids’ has taken over our house for a week with friends while we recharge our batteries here in cooler temperatures than southwest France, which feels ironic but is very welcome.

I’m going to steer clear (again) of saying much about our 4^th heatwave during July and the terrible wild fires, other than to say our worst disruption was thankfully some smoke from the fires west of Bordeaux and some disruption as our guests worked around the impacts farther afield.

As much as we are enjoying our holiday, I am a bit sad to missing some of the summer activities in Eymet. Whilst house sitting for us, my daughter and friends are enjoying the Tuesday evening night market in Eymet, Kayaking on the river from nearby Allemands du Dropt, the lovely Thursday morning Eymet market, the fantastic Apéro Cadix evening at Eymet Chateau, the swimming lake at Lougratte, the restaurants and bars in Eymet of course, as well as having private use of Le Portanel with our pool and air conditioning.

Before our break here in Greece, July was a little calmer for us than June in the B&B, but it was another good month with some lovely guests. Only once did we need to serve breakfast indoors after an overnight storm which lingered on, people have really enjoyed the summer activities in the area and having a glass or two out on our terrace in the evenings.

In not so happy news, we’ve had to bite the bullet and replace our old car which is starting to be more trouble than it is worth, find an artisan to do some work on our roof after our busy season and progress my 5 year visa renewal, but we have also had some lovely nights out with friends including eating Indian street food at Le Naked Vigneron, we’ve hosted our yearly summer garden party for the Eymet running group and…did I mention already that we took a week off for a summer holiday?!

We’re back to business as usual in a few days to welcome some new guests and some who have spent their summer holiday with us several times before already. As usual our bookings drop down sharply during September, so I’ll probably do one more update this season and the end of August and then see what the autumn brings.

Well, being British, I have to start this month’s update with the weather again don’t I? Our 2^nd heatwave of the year has been well documented in the news around Europe and beyond so I don’t need to talk about the record-breaking temperatures or climate change, but I was thinking about the impact it has on our guests and our lives here.

On the plus side we have been serving breakfast outside every morning since our season got going this year, having a garden with plenty of shade, a swimming pool and a big stone house now with air conditioning have all been a great benefit to keep our guests (and us!) comfortable plus all of my B&B laundry is dry within minutes of hanging out! BUT it has meant a different sort of holiday for people staying with us when it is simply too hot to do much at all during the afternoon and early evening, our usual daily routine during our busiest month of the year suddenly felt like very hard work and my lovely plants in the garden are looking very sad or have given up all together.

People adapt their plans and work around it. An early start to get out and about in the morning and an afternoon siesta along with some pool time seems to be a common theme for our guests. I have been trying to get my watering and dead heading done before breakfast service and to do as little as possible during the afternoons.

As expected, we’ve had a very busy June in the B&B (our busiest since we opened 5 years ago) with a lovely mix of guests as usual, so I’m very happy with the way the 2026 season is going so far. A few months ago I spotted a 2-night slot at the end of June with no bookings so we closed it off and I booked us a lakeside cabin at a campsite a couple of hours drive from here. It was exactly what we needed – such a beautiful and peaceful setting not far from home, the swimming lake was marvellous and  we drove back this morning to welcome today’s guests feeling very relaxed.

Another highlight of June for me is La Fête de la Musique which I have spoken about on here before. Eymet didn’t disappoint this year despite the heatwave, and we sat outside Le Pepido enjoying some local wine, live musique and a lovely family atmosphere. Of course I was in bed by 22h30 so we missed the Wholly Vinyl DJs set and the band at Tortoni’s but I understand it was a good night!

July looks calmer than June for us as it stands, but we’ll see what the last-minute booking crowd bring in. Looking further afield our advanced bookings for 2027 are very strong with lots of returning guests which makes me very happy 😊

Well May has certainly flown by as I’m sure the next few months will too. The last couple of weeks, as in much of Europe, saw our first heatwave of the year with afternoon temperatures up in the high 30s for well over a week. This makes the ‘day-to-day’ tasks tough and leaves us pretty drained, but for me, the benefits are worthwhile; serving breakfast on the terrace every morning, pool up in the high 20s, long balmy evenings… so we started the month with the heating on in the house and end it with the aircon working its magic.

Amidst the start of the busy B&B season, we’ve also had family to stay in May and eaten out at some great local restaurants such as Chateau La Fayolle, En Toute Simplicité and Le Vieux Porche. We also spent a lovely few hours among the vines at Domaine de Sauban drinking their wine and eating food prepared by Andine as well as meeting up with friends out and about during the month.

Looking ahead we’ve got about 70 ‘room-nights’ reserved this month, so plenty of ironing to keep me busy during the long summer evenings! BUT we’ve also made sure we have closed all the rooms at various times over the summer to give ourselves a break and time to enjoy the festivities too.

Last weekend in Eymet we’ve had a big Batucadas event with 8 teams from SW France, the French national Petanque qualifiers with 90 teams participating, the monthly Brocante in the village square as well as the Fêtes des Meres events in the restaurants. It’s great to see so much going on here…but I did have to queue for 20 minutes at the boulangerie this morning at 7:30am after having been out for my morning run before breakfast service for our guests, which was annoying….but also kind of charming passing the time with other locals and visitors as we waited our turn.

I’m sitting on the terrace writing this, enjoying the peace and the cool of the morning with a pot of tea while I wait for guests to come down for breakfast. Looking around the house and garden, there are still quite of jobs which we haven’t QUITE got around to yet this year, but realistically, I have learned it is time to start adding them to the list for the end of year when things quieten down again for us.

It’s been such a great couple of months here since my last update. As well as the usual wet and windy spells and cold nights that we see during Spring, we have had some fantastic weather with temperatures up in the high 20s for a few weeks. The swifts, hoopoes, warblers and cicadas are back, our swimming pool is open and the terraces of the cafés, bars and restaurants in town are filling up. Along with the migrating wildlife, the Easter holidays also brought the usual influx of second homeowners and tourists into the region to make the most of what we have here.

We’ve already had some lovely guests in the B&B over the past couple of months, and with often just one room at a time booked during the spring, guests have often had the house to themselves, enjoyed their privacy in the garden and getting cosy in front of the fire in our guest lounge on the colder evenings.

Between guests, we have pressed on with the house and garden maintenance work, taken a city break in Porto and had some time just to enjoy living here before things get very busy later this month. I finally made it to Chateaux Milandeslast week which has been on my list for ages. Josephene Baker was amazing and this beautiful house and garden that she owned really brought that to life for me, surrounded by such beautiful countryside too!

Eymet has seen some changes over the winter, a few bars / restaurants / shops have closed, moved or expanded and some new ones have opened. Likewise on the weekly Thursday morning and monthly Sunday markets, there have been some changes to the regular stall holders, but overall, the town remains vibrant with plenty of choice and the usual summer activities to look forward to. We had pizza and a carafe of wine at Casa Napoli on impulse last week as we walked by one evening, they are such great hosts with delicious fresh pizzas.

This year will see our 5^th anniversary of moving to France. I’ll need to renew my carte de séjour for the first time later this year, and I’m seeing mixed messages about whether I first need to pass a level B2 French exam. I’m pretty confident I could pass B1, but B2 is quite a lot more challenging from what I can see. Either way, I am still working to improve my level, not least because it makes living here so much easier!

Now we’re into May, the wedding season is underway, and the busy season really kicks off for us and I was delighted to see reservations start coming in for 2027 too!