September Trip

Last weekend we were over in La Matha with Bill & Shirley for a brief stay, which went very well.  We arrived on Friday and decided that we'd try La Terrasse again for dinner.  If you've read previous posts, you'll see that we'd all but given up going there, as it was always closed when we tried.  When I phoned to book, it was answered by someone new; table booked.  It turns out it now has a new owner, who took over in mid-July.  He's a local man who had sold a restaurant nearby some time last year, and ended up buying this one.

The weather was lovely and warm, so we ended up eating outside.  The menu was not like under the Belgians, where they had three or four differently priced menus - this was a single menu with a bit of blurring between starters and main courses: some dishes could be either, and it was limited to about a dozen items.  Food turned out to be very tasty, and the price not too high - about €120 for four, not including drinks.  Normal service resumes - let's hope it lasts!

On Saturday we shopped tn the market at St Foy, as we had guests for the evening.  The guests were people we'd met at Le Moulin restaurant in Les Lèves back in July.  Before the guests turned up, we had a massive thunder storm - see photo below of the river going past the terrace!

Dinner went well, although the son of our guest had a disastrous evening - lightening had set fire to his hay bales, and he'd lost 200 of them just over in Riocaud!

On Sunday, we had a trip to Les Jardins du Sardy between St Foy and Castillon - well worth a trip.  Afterwards, we headed back over the Dordogne through Pessac to Flaujagues - I'd never been there before, and we found it very pretty.  At the recommendation of a guest, we then went on to find La Table Rouge - a delightful restaurant on the road from Flaujagues to Castillon, overlooking the river.  The owner let us eat a late lunch, which was really good.  La Table Rouge is another decent restaurant to go to!

Table Tennis under the Pergola

Our idea has finally been realised.  The table tennis table fits neatly under the pergola, and the columns don't interfere with playing!

After this photo was taken, we moved some potted climbing plants round, so that it doesn't look quite so clinical.  It was a bit windy on Monday, so, with the table collapsed into storage mode, we pushed it up against the house wall, as we don't want it blown over - I suppose it's a balance between that, and, at the moment, having it down and collecting rainwater whenever it rains.

One thing we did with left over paving slabs was to make stepping stones across the gravel from the terrace to the pool - I'm sure this will be welcomed by everyone!

I took some photos around the pool, as there is one photo I've been using on the website which is very out of date.  Here are a couple of them

Gensac or Balllykisangel?

We were confused.  On Friday evening, we went to Gensaké restaurant in Gensac for dinner.  We hadn't booked, thinking there wouldn't be a problem getting a table, but when we arrived, it seemed very busy.  We did manage to get a table, and had a very enjoyable meal.  However, there was a large party on a big table at the back, and it would appear it was full of Irish people.  Then it turned out that most of the people on that table knew people on every other table (apart from us - we did feel left out!).  All the other diners appeared to be Irish too.  Now had we gone through a worm-hole and ended up in Ballykisangel?

It turned out that there was to be a wedding in the village over the weekend, and Gensaké was full of wedding guests.  As we left, we noticed that Café de la Paix, which is normally closed in the evenings, was open and doing good trade as well.  Big drinkers these Irish!

Pergola - the Pictures

Here are some pictures of the construction of the pergola:

 Bill and Ali help with getting the first of the poles up:

 

Bill helping me with the cross beams, and then fixing the cane canopy:

 

And finally, the finished pergola, with a lot of the gravel in place.  The slabs under the pergola will be laid by Chris, our builder, in the coming weeks.

(Thanks to Shirley as official photographer!)

Another New Restaurant - Le Moulin des Lèves

During our week at La Matha, our friends left for home on Thursday, leaving Pip and me to drive back in the van on Saturday.  We decided to go out for a meal on Friday evening - not too late, as we wanted an early start - and tried phoning La Terrasse.  No reply.

We then planned to go to St Foy and en route see if a new-ish restaurant that we seen in Les Lèves was open.  We didn't know what it was called, as we had only seen it side-on, turning off the D672 on a short cut just outside the village, just before the restaurant.

It was open, and it is called Le Moulin des Lèves (although I couldn't see a windmill anywhere near!).  At first, we were the only people there; a bit later a party of 16 women arrived, but they went into a separate dining room.  Just as we were finishing, a family of four arrived, who were clearly friends of the man who was front of house.

It was an interesting menu, and the food was delicious - I had red mullet tartare as a starter, followed by maigret.  Both were well presented, and the duck was cooked perfectly.  The wine list was slim, but had wine that we liked.

We would definitely recommend it - not as good as Gensaké, but worth a try.

The Utility Room

We had hoped that our builder would have rendered the walls of the utility room - full render over the breeze blocks and "pierre apparente" where the walls are stone.  However, it has been so cold out there this spring, rather like in the UK, that he has not been able to do it: it needs consistent temperature of at least 20 deg.

He will be doing the walls in early May; however, this didn't stop us from painting the floor.  Well, the primer coat and the second coat went down, with our builder promising to do the final coat after he's done the walls.  We used Ronseal Diamond Hard Floor Paint, which went down a treat.  I was looking on line for some tips, and I read that someone painted the edges with a brush, then poured the paint onto the floor to roller it in.  Brilliant! I had the whole floor painted in a single coat in an hour, with a four hour drying time, the second coat went on later that day.

The result - absolutely no dust from the floor!  It is so good, and will make such a difference when the walls are done.  All we need now is to put a sink in there and move the washing machine to the corner, and it will be finished!  (oh yes, and the rendered wall painted...)

Balthazart Comes to the Rescue!

If you're reading this blog, you will be aware that we have recently put up a pergola by the side of the house, in order to make that part of the grounds more attractive.

The whole of that side of the grounds was covered in concrete - the previous owner was a builder, and that was his "yard".  Therefore, we needed to put six holes in the concrete for the posts.  We came armed with a small angle grinder, electric hammer drill, bolster chisels,  mallets and a sledge hammer.  In reality, this was naive - it turned out the concrete was some four inches thick in places!

On failing to make little more than a dent in the first hole, I decided that I would have to hire a kango hammer.  Bill suggested that we should see if we could hire a man with a hammer rather than just the hammer, and mentioned that Mr Balthazart, our gardener, might know of such a man.  A brilliant idea, I headed straight over the Landerouat to ask him, even though it was Sunday.

Mr Balthazart asked if we wanted someone to do the kango'ing or just the use of a hammer - I replied that it didn't really matter.  He then headed to a large shelving unit, and, from a selection of large tool cases, pulled out a Bosch Professional Demolition Hammer with a chisel bit and a borer.  A quick demonstration later, I was heading back to La Matha full of optimism.

Using the hammer in the concrete was like putting a knife through butter - it really made light work of the concrete, and we had got the first three holes dug by the time our wives arrived from Bergerac Airport in the afternoon.  The final three were quickly finished on Monday morning.

We were really grateful to Mr Balthazart and his hammer - it meant that we could finish the pergola on Monday, and saved having to find a hire shop to rent one.

Pomerol

When Bill and I were here in 2011, we visited the brother-in-law of a French colleague of mine.  The brother-in-law, Charles Estager, has three wine parcels: a Pomerol, a Lalande Pomerol and a Montagne St Emilion.  When there, we bought some of the 2010 Pomerol "en primeur", which means we buy it before it is bottled.

We have just visited Charles again, and picked it up - here is the evidence:

The boxes are in the van already, to which we will be adding some local wines from Berticot and Univitis - we have to do this to make sure the van does not come back empty!

We're Here!

We've now been here for a few days, working hard.  The pergola is up, and the cane shade cover is securely fastened.  Photos of work in progress and the completed works will be posted on our return.

Planting is also now complete, with the whole of the bed along that side of the house now finished - looking good!  I've fixed a hose up along the back of the house from the tap so that the new bed can be watered, but we're having to work out what to do with the high water pressure.

New curtains have been put up in two of the bedrooms, with one more to go, and cushions have been attached to the benches in the dining room.

There is more work to be done, some of which we will be able to complete, and some we won't.  One big piece of work is laying the slabs under the pergola.  That would be a big job for relatively inexperienced people like Bill and me, so we will get Chris our builder to do that when he renders the walls in the utility room.

It does seem like Pip and I will have to come out here for a weekend next month......

Well That Went Well!

We've just come back from an eventful weekend at La Matha.  The weather started off positively - we had lunch outside in the sun on Friday, and it was a beautiful early morning on Saturday, but then got a bit miserable for the rest of the time.  It is March, after all!

We managed to sort a few issues out, none of which were really a problem, and we've taken all the necessary measurements we need for paint, curtains etc.  I took some "before" photos of the "utility" room, which hopefully will have the breeze-block walls rendered and the stone walls finished in the pierre apparent finish we have elsewhere in the house.

I will of course take the "after" photos showing the finished walls and the painted floor!

I also took a photo of where the pergola is going - note the stones on the concrete showing where the posts will go!

Pergola (again!)

That's done it!  Pergola ordered, with delivery just before we go.  Van booked, as is Eurotunnel.  The other good thing is that London Wasps (English Rugby team) are playing their European quarter final match against Leinster on the Friday evening before we go, so we get to see the Rugby, as well as go to France!

Here is a marketing image of the pergola we will be taking down there, made by a chippy from Swindon.

In addition to this, we've loads of plants to take down.  Our gardener has just delivered some "terre du pays enrichie avec du compost" - see photo below - ready for the planting

As you can see, that area looks a bit scruffy, but that is part of our project: to tidy it up.  The wall will be painted, and the concrete will be covered in shingle.

Oh yes, did I mention that we are going out there in March - now just over 3 weeks away for the weekend of my birthday.  We can't wait to get out there again: it's been too long!

Bookings

There we were, thinking that in these extended credit crunch times, the number of bookings we've achieved so far is way down on previous years.  When suddenly, we get four enquiries in 24 hours, including two for the same week!  Added to a couple of weeks which friends are interested in, and suddenly, we have the potential for having 10 weeks booked.

That is shaping up nicely - if we get the same number of weeks booked as last year, that will be great; even better if we get the same feedback as last year!

We're Going to France!

Now that the New Year is upon us, we have now started to book our time at La Matha.  We've already booked a weekend in mid-March, and are planning a week's trip with a van for around Easter.  A long weekend in June with girlfriends has been organised by Pip, and we're talking about a weekend and week in September.

The trip at Easter with the van will take some furniture, a Pergola kit and a load of plants.  The Pergola and plants are for the side of the house which is currently a bit boring.  We'll be creating a space for the table tennis table, and make it a bit more attractive.  Oh yes, with the van, we will be able to buy some wine and bring it home!!!!

A Restaurant with a Heart!

When we were staying at La Matha at the beginning of the October, one day, we had lunch at Comptoir de Genès at Saint-Genès de Castillon.  We have eaten there a few times before, and always enjoyed eating from the menu du jour.

This time, there was something on the menu that I had not tried before - Duck Hearts. These were to be grilled and served with frîtes.  The waitress, who was English, had expressed her own reservations, but had commented that all through the week, customers had come back to eat it second or third times.  I decided to give it a try.....  Well, what can I say - they were really, really delicious!

They came on a couple of skewers, with a bucket of fries.  Just like small sirloin steaks, which I suppose is right, as hearts are muscle and not offal like kidneys or liver.

The wine selection was, as ever good, and all the food we ate was of the highest order.  This was definitely the best restaurant we dined in during that stay.  Highly recommended!

Videos

It has always been a frustration the difficulty of conveying how big the house is.  La Matha is Tardis-like in its qualities - the large open plan living area is far bigger than most of the photos can convey.  For that reason, I took some videos some time ago, but whilst I can take reasonable still photos, I am by no means accomplished at video photography!  The results were juddery to say the least.

A family friend who enjoys taking the odd video was staying at La Matha in mid-September, and volunteered to take a promotional video.  This was so much better than my efforts, and as a result, I have loaded this onto YouTube and embedded it in the main website: http://www.la-matha.com/videos.html.

I'm not sure if this will attract any more people, but it might help to persuade people that it really is a large house!

Going East along the Dordogne

Last year we did a day trip eastwards, ending up at Sarlat: http://la-matha.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/another-trip-from-la-matha.html.  This time, we decided to do a similar trip, but starting at Sarlat, so that we could spend a bit more time there, and then make a couple of stops heading back more or less westwards, so that the journey home was not so long.

Sarlat is a great place - a Bastide town with loads of history.  We found a walk suggested in the Dorling Kinderlsey Eye Witness book, which took us round the centre of the old town.

After Sarlat, we headed to Domme for lunch.  Domme is south of Sarlat on cliffs above the Dordogne river, and is a lovely old town, with spectacular views around the river valley.  It does have a  Cave, which has plenty of stalactites and stalagmites - a guided trip around the cave takes about an hour.

From there, we headed back to Baynac, which we had passed on the way to Sarlat.  Baynac has glorious castle on the top of the cliffs, with the village squeezed down on the bank of the river.

 Click on the picture below for a stunning panoramic view:

After Domme, we headed south again for Monpazier - a delightful Bastide town.  We arrived at about 17:30, so all was very quiet.  We had a glass of wine in a bar on the square before heading back across country to La Matha via Villareal and Miramont - a route with some ridiculously straight roads! 

Les Jardins du Sardy

This is a place we have publicised on our website: http://www.la-matha.com/Local%20Area%20-%20Gardens.html, but have never visited.  Some family members went recently and told us how good they were, so we paid a visit.  They are located just north of the road to the west of St Foy on the way to Castillon.  

The gardens have been restored, but, although there is a formal element, they are mainly carefully informal.  We are really glad we finally got to go.  Here are some of my photos.

Autumn Visit

We're now back from a lovely week out at La Matha, spent with some friends.  We did a few chores/DIY stuff, but also did a lot of visiting places, eating out and tasting/drinking wine.  Later posts about the trips we made with some photos.

One big thing that was sorted out was additional insulation for the large en-suite shower room - the ceiling had been insulated; however, the wall behind the washbasin was just plasterboard.  This was the reason why, when the weather got to -15c last winter, we suffered some damage in that bathroom.  As a result, I bought 100mm think insulation sheets and some adhesive.  It took me less than two hours to insulate the whole of the back walls, including our cupboard on the landing and the triple bedroom and shower room.  Hopefully the problems of last winter will not be repeated.

If the weather does get as cold as it did last winter, I also rigged up a frost thermometer for an oil-filled radiator for the large en-suite.  This has now been left so that it will come on if the temperature falls below 0c.

One thing that had been annoying me was that, for a couple of years, a hazel bush had grown so large that it obscured the swimming pool from the master bedroom window (not that I spend a lot of time looking out of that window!).  I had bought a good bow saw, and started to be a lumber-jack.  Soon the whole party joined in the fun - stripping the leaves and making kindling and firewood.  We did not pull up the roots, but will chop down the growth each time it gets too much.

Finally, and all the visitors from this year will be please to know this, we have finally identified the source of the blocked loo and slow draining shower in the main en-suite.  This is caused by bad angles/joins in the pipework from the loo and the shower.  A French plumber called Nathaniel Botti will be sorting this out the w/c 22 October.

Is this Flash, or Not?

When I first created the website (www.la-matha.com) back in early 2008, I was putting something very simple together.  The software I was using was NVU, which is now BlueGriffon, which is freeware.  It does not have many rich features in it, although if I knew how to type HTML code, I could have done great things!

The original Pictures page was just a table which contained a series of pared down pictures - it did its job, but it was basic.

Earlier this year, I used some different software to build a website for my business (http://www.opriskconsultant.com/ - have to give it a plug!), and bought an easy to use program called Coffee Cup.  This was fine, if a bit stilted - it was harder to customise things in it.  I decided not to re-build the La Matha website using Coffee Cup, leaving it as it was.  Coffee Cup also produce a Photo Gallery program, so I got that, and very quickly produced quite a good little gallery which could run a slide show.  I was happy........ until I tried it on my iPhone.  Of course Coffee Cup Photo Gallery produces the slide show using Adobe Flash, which is not supported by Apple - if you don't know, there has been a long battle between Adobe and Apple: Adobe promoting their Flash protocol, and Apple wanting the world to follow them with HTML5.  Apple have now won, and Adobe are no longer going to be bringing out new versions of Flash.

Anyway, Coffee Cup announced that the new version of Photo Gallery can produce HTML5 slide shows, so I got an upgrade.  However, that only works if you take up their hosting package, which I don't need, as I already have a web service that I use.  Not happy.

I then found a new software called JuiceBox.  That produces a photo gallery using HTML5, and what's more, there was a free version!  Happy days!

The newer and better photo gallery really looks good - see for yourself: http://www.la-matha.com/Pictures.htm and the great thing is that you can view it on an iPhone or iPad!

End of the Summer

We're now at the end of the summer.  We have family staying at La Matha at the moment, and one more set of visitors staying at the beginning of October, before we go out on 6 Oct.  We really can't wait, as we haven't been able to go there as much this year as we did last year.

At this time of the year, thoughts turn to improvements we would like to make for next year.  We have done a large number of improvements over the last couple of years, as chronicled in earlier posts.  What more is there to be done?

One thing we would like to do is render the walls in the utility room, and then paint them and the ceiling.  We will probably have the stone walls finished in the traditional "pierre apparente" that we have outside and on some internal walls - strangely, it is a cheaper finish, and looks so good!  Doing that, and then painting the concrete floor should make the room (which is just used for storage and as a utility room) much less dusty and be a tad more inviting than it is at the moment.  Oh yes - we will also have to see what we can do to replace the cracked glass in the sliding patio door in that room.

Another idea we had for an improvement was to build a large pergola on the hard stand to the left of the house.  With some shade over the top, that will be an ideal area to have the table tennis table, which, unless people bring it outside, is a bit cramped in the utility room.  That area to the side of the house is the least attractive part of the grounds, and is in need of a tidy-up even if we don't do the pergola.

A final thought on the pergola is that we have not been able to find any for sale in France, which will mean buying a kit in the UK and taking it over.  That means hiring a van again, which will also be a good excuse for buying a load of wine again - memories of bringing back about 700 bottles last year.........

Further posts will be made of what we decide to do.