life in france

And relax…

September has proved to be another busy month in the B&B with a flurry of last-minute bookings and, I think, a great end to another successful summer season. A 7-night booking for two rooms from guests that stayed with us earlier in the year was very welcome, and we hosted other returning guests during the month along with first-time visitors.

A lot of guests stay with us for a couple of nights as part of holiday / road-trip of the region, and during September, we closed for a week and did exactly that ourselves heading down to the mediterranean coast. What a lovely week we had stopping in CarcassonneNîmesFréjus and Béziers, all stunningly beautiful historic towns and it was great to lie on the beach for a few days with my paperback.

Having had Le Portanel up and running for 3 seasons from a standing-start, we have learned a lot, listened to feedback and adapted to make staying with us as relaxing and comfortable as we can, whilst becoming more efficient and making life more enjoyable for ourselves as well. Over the coming quieter months, we’ll be reflecting on how to improve things further for next year as well as getting on with the house and garden maintenance and improvement that has to be put on hold during the summer. The utility room is our first project!

I’m delighted that Maquiz’Art have booked with us again for the visiting musicians for their jazz concerts in the village right through the winter and spring, and with flights into Bergerac now available for next year from Bournemouth, Bristol, Brussels, Edinburgh, East Midlands, Leeds, Liverpool, London and Rotterdam, new reservations are arriving, and tentative bookings are being firmed up so 2025 looks like being another busy year for us!

If you are thinking about staying with us or visiting the area, please don’t hesitate to get in touch to discuss your requirements.

I’ll put the blog on hold for a while now. Last week was our last really busy week, and over the next few months we will be taking the opportunity to catch-up with the dreaded ‘to-do list’, spend some time with family, visit some new places, try some new experiences and, of course, just relax in front of the fire with a bottle of wine and some truly awful Christmas movies.

Aqueduct Pont du Gare

And relax… Read More »

A brief (and it is very brief!) history.

Having enjoyed so many holidays in France over the years, both during and since my childhood, I have grown to love the country, the culture and the people. More recently, spending family holidays here and touring the country in our Motorhome, Tom and I became more and more convinced we’d like to move our home from the U.K. to France.

I don’t remember exactly when and how it turned from a ‘wouldn’t it be great to…’ into a ‘let’s just do it…’ but a combination of things came into play at once. I think the big 3 were:

  1. The U.K. voted for BREXIT – I’ll say no more on that for now 🙁
  2. I’ve always said I wanted to quit work for a complete change at 55 years old
  3. COVID happened and the phrase ‘life is too short’ kept cropping up

We explored all sorts of options around buying a primary and/or secondary home in France and whether to sell, downsize or rent out our UK house. In the end, after much head-scratching we decided to sell up completely in the UK and rent in France until we found somewhere we wanted to buy, and so the wheels were in motion.

This week we welcomed our first paying guests into our Chambres d’Hôtes and opened another chapter in our lives 🙂

A brief (and it is very brief!) history. Read More »