Launching into 2023

And so this is Christmas ….. again!

Another year nearly over and time to look back and take stock of it all .

It’s been busy, that’s for sure.

Another year where we have been privileged and delighted to welcome back lots of our regular guests at La Genèbre, some who had missed a year or two due to Covid. We have also met many new guests this year and quite a few have booked for next year.

We now have a smattering of Spring bookings and are fully booked from June through to September so 2023 looks like another busy year. And bookings for 2024 have already started so all looking good!

Add to that the usual ups and downs of family life, new places visited, restaurants tried out, memories made and our own home to finish and it’s understandable that  this year has flown by in the blink of an eye …

Here are a  few of the new places we visited:

RESTAURANT – Le Moulin de L’Imaginaire in Terrasson

Always on the lookout for interesting new places to eat, we were delighted to find this gem situated over the River Vézère – only downside is they’re very busy so last minute booking is a bit tricky!

https://www.moulin-limaginaire.com/ Excellent restaurant in Terrasson

https://www.moulin-limaginaire.com/
Excellent restaurant in Terrasson

MUSEUM – La Rue du Temps Qui Passe ( in Allas-Les-Mines)

This is a very quirky and unusual museum filled with artefacts that the owner has collected since he was 6 years old! It’s created in the style of old cobbled streets with authentic shop fronts filled with the corresponding items. Each shop has one modern item ( post 1980)  which you have to spot as you are walking round. Not always as easy as you’d think! There is also a bistro to sit and while away the hours but sadly that wasn’t open when we visited.

Very interesting museum - a real trip trip down memory lane with shops filled with all the things time forgot!

Very interesting museum in Allas-Les-Mines – a real trip trip down memory lane with shops filled with all the things time forgot!

CASTLE – Chateau de Neuvic – 24190 neuvic

This castle has a restaurant which caters for groups / weddings and we had a lovely Christmas lunch there. If anyone is thinking of getting married in the Dordogne, this might be the perfect venue 😉 !!

Chateau de Neuvic

Chateau de Neuvic – www.chateau-mariage-dordogne.com

We discovered these last two venues via The Franco British Network. We’re looking forward to their next  event and visiting some more new places!

Back on home ground, we did get our own pool built in time for the exceptionally hot Summer but other than that we didn’t advance much in our relatively new abode – to be fair we’ve been living in our new home since July 2020 and we’ve stopped noticing the little details that didn’t get finished when they should have done. In fact I’m sure there might be some masking tape still lurking above the bathroom door …. sigh! But, that’s ok. A little imperfection goes a long way to increasing the homeliness and we all know about cobbler’s children 😉 ! For reasons beyond our control, (very handy phrase !!)  apart from a good few trees which Amar planted, the outside still lies sorely unfinished like a decaying tooth in an otherwise perfect smile. A project for next year!

All this busyness  has meant however that last year’s Resolution of revamping our websites and information folders and keeping the blog up to date sadly fell prey to that old adage,” If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. On a positive note it also means I don’t have to dream up new resolutions and I can just use last year’s. I think I might have resorted to that a few times now – plus ça change!! I do have some aerial shots of the house and gardens taken by one of our regular guests who very kindly said I could use them so I’m looking forward to showing things from a different angle – thank you so much Tom!!

www.latourdegenebre.com

www.latourdegenebre.com

Anyway, wishing you and all your loved ones a very happy Christmas and lots of positivity for 2023 – looking forward to catching up again soon!

Wishing everyone a very joyous Christmas and many happy times in 2023

Wishing everyone a very joyous Christmas and many happy times in 2023

Joyeux Noël et Bonne Année à tous!

Garden Party

A couple of weeks ago we were mulling over how to celebrate our wedding anniversary when we got an email from Les Jardins d’Eyrignac announcing that they were having their very first Garden Party to herald the start of the Summer.

We are great fans of their White Picnic evenings ( see http://dordogne-gites.info/balmy-days/) so thought it would be a perfect event for our happy occasion. We organised to go along with 4 friends – after 34 years of marriage and now empty nesters we reckoned we have more than enough opportunities for romantic dinners à deux !!

Dress code was “Country Chic” and there was a competition for the best flowery hat. This was music to my ears as I’ve always been a sucker for any kind of fancy dress. Just a couple of months ago the Pti Bowl, a new food takeaway business in Jayac launched the first of their music and food evenings and also ran a contest for the silliest hat. I couldn’t resist the challenge even although I only just had time to cobble something together. I ended up with some half baked creation nowhere near worthy of a prize but when we got there I was the ONLY one out of 65 people with a hat on so win I did, and I managed to get myself a free dessert!

I was determined to do better this time but again time was against me and I ended up with a flowery hat with a couple of nods to family nostalgia ….but I knew it would take something more out of the ordinary to win the luxury hot air balloon tickets on offer 🙂

country hatThe worthy winner did just that with a fetching number made entirely out of chicken wire and flowers.

Chapeau gagnant!!

Up , up and away with the Chapeau gagnant!!

I did genuinely congratulate the lucky lady of course, while secretly vowing to think more out of the box in future 🙂 !

We always managed to do really well in our pre France days winning several awards at the local annual fancy dress parade so I need to get back into that mode!

gone with the wind

Emma and Alistair as Scarlett O’Hara and Clark Gable in one of our fancy dress entries from way back when the nest was full …

More photos of our heyday entries here.  But I digress; back to the Garden Party!

The storms were threatening but owners, Patrick and Capucine Sermadiras were determined to go ahead with the event outdoors and we were met with a warm welcome in the sandy court yard of their home. Not so practical for those sporting open toes sandals who no doubt found themselves going home with orange feet!

Very convivial U shaped seating area

Very convivial U shaped seating area

Music flowed out of the rooms in the manoir while dinner was being cooked on the stylish brasero barbecue ( the next in- thing!) , one of which was being raffled at the end of the evening. Sadly, we didn’t win that either.

Cooking dinner on the stylish Basero BBQ

Cooking dinner on the stylish Brasero BBQ

An evening of food and chat followed and the wine flowed until the threatening storms grew closer and everyone started heading home. The gardens themselves are a true delight and until the end of October there is a display of Pierre Treilhes amazing sculptures which are well worth a visit in their own right.

All in all a very pleasant, sophisticated evening – for more photos, have a peek over on our Facebook page. For us it didn’t have quite the same charm and appeal as the white picnic though which is something really special to go to!

Here are a few of photos White Picnics gone by just to whet your appetite.

Nostalgia

one of our many visits to the White Picnic

We’ll be looking forward to going again this year – hopefully we might see one or two of you there!!