Two days ago, 29th December, Joan and I collected our friends Bob & Gitta from Bordeaux airport as they are to spend the New Year here as our first visitors in our new home. They came in from Gatwick and true to BA form were late arriving. No worries there though as we had prepared a meal that would stand warming up when we all got home. A late night or an early morning resulted, as we had some catching up to do.

After a late and leisurely breakfast we all went out for a sort of tour of the area, but this was after Bob and I had been up to the village post office to collect the logbook for my new car. Yep, I managed to get rid of, trade-in, the Alfa Romeo that had been giving trouble and costing money, but more about that later. Gitta is a professional photographer who publishes frequently, so wanted the opportunity to get some "piccies", as she calls them, of the area and points of interest. We drove firstly around our own village of Loubes Bernac, which doesn't take long and then went on to Duras, Miramont and finally Eymet. In Duras we stopped for a while in one of the bars for a glass of the local wine.

We had decided to have dinner of pork chops and had started to prepare when Danielle, our French neighbour who owns the horses, knocked and invited us all for a New Year drink. Champagne and canapes, very enjoyable. We were joined by two other neighbours who own a house at the entrance to the hamlet, who had driven over from Scotland just for the New Year holiday. This was Danielle's way of getting us to meet some of our new neighbours, very nice idea too. She also told us that she believes she has found us a French language teacher, but the lady is currently in UK.

Oh yes, the horses. We found out their names. "Hen" and "Ry". Try calling that in French and you will find that you get two for the price of one, especially if you have a spare carrot or two.

After another late night dinner, which we didn't cook until we got back from Danielle's little party we found ourselves having another late breakfast. Then during the afternoon we set off for our New Year celebrations.

Bob and I had booked, back in October, for an overnight stay and gourmet dinner, here at the Chateau des Vigiers.

This Chateaux was originally built in 1621 on the site of an old fortress and in those days was known as "Petit Versailles" The then owner, Jean Vigier, was one of the kings judges in the nearby town of Sainte-Foy-la-Grande, which to this day remains our nearest market town.

In 1998, the Chateaux was aquired and rebuilt into a beautiful historic hotel and what is now a 27 hole golf course. I had gone to enquire about golf facilities, found their website and the special events program, hence the booking.

Many of the original buildings features have been carefully maintained and form a backdrop for the golf course, which is very much like parkland surrounded by vineyards and orchards.

You can see from these pictures that the water hazards are quite large and I can only guess at the number of those little white balls that are lurking in here.

There are some rather nice properties on the edge of the lake which I don't imagine come on the market too often.

We all had a superb five course gourmet meal, which included courses such as Foie Gras, then Lobster simmered in Saussignac white wine followed by Breast of Pigeon in a Truffle tapenade. With this came a bottle of champagne per couple.

Bob and I had managed a couple of bottles of the local red with dinner and Gitta and Joan settled for a bottle of white, so we managed to save most of the champagne to take down to the bar later. Good thing that we booked to stay over night. A very enjoyable evening but have to say that the French idea of wooping it up as midnight approaches just doesn't happen. Everybody just stood and clapped as the year changed but did manaage some handshakes all round.

p.s. That's Bob and Gitta, next to Joan and if Bob looks to be sleeping, it is almost 1.30 a.m.

We all four left the chateau around midday, having had a leisurely buffet breakfast and came back home to prepare our own food for the evening. We had bought a goose some time ago and had stored it in the freezer. This had defrosted well whilst we were away overnight, so Joan cooked a super meal with all the trimmings that go with a roast goose and there is absolutely no shortage of wine in our house, to wash it down with.

JANUARY 2nd.

Today we are taking Bob & Gitta back to Bordeaux airport, so Joan and I had booked in to a restaurant in Monestier, about 15 minutes from here and on the road to Bergerac. When we got there it was all shuttered up so clearly, in true French style, the boss had decided that with only four booked in he wouldn't bother opening up. Nice one, will have a word later when we go there again. So no problem because we were able to go much closer to the airport area in Bordeaux where there were many chain restaurants open. We had a nice steak meal in a Buffalo Grill close to the airport and Joan and I were back home again around 6 p.m.

JANUARY 3rd.

The two of us were having a quiet day together, with me finishing the worktop in the utility room and Joan sorting out the wash etc. During the late morning, Phil and Shelag (Sheila in English), our neighbours, who we met the other evening, came for coffee and with an invite to join them for a glass of wine this evening. They are leaving tomorrow morning to drive back to Stirling via Calais and Dover. At least they are staying overnight in Ashford on the way up, because the whole journey is around 1,000 miles. I don't envy them that.

Joan and I have in fact booked to go over to UK on 14th January, so will have the drive to Calais to contend with, but at least on the other side we only have about 30 minutes to drive to Jill and Les. The plan is to come back over on 24th January and then drive up to Nieuwkoop in Holland to vist our friends there for a few days. Nice to be fully retired.

JANUARY 6th

Well there you have it, my lovely new car. Joan and I thought about the cost time and time again but then we decided that, or at least Joan decided, that this would probably be my last car. Properly maintained at the local Mercedes dealers and it should be good for at least 200k kilometers. I have to say that it is absolutely lovely to drive and despite all the extra bits such as sports gearbox setting etc there is just no desire to go rushing around. With our plans to make good use of our real retiremnet here in Europe, we feel we will get some good use out of it. The first long journey to UK and then Holland should prove the point.

I actually got the car before Xmas, but did not want to put it on the website, as our friend Bob has similar and was expecting to be picked up in the old Alfa, which he had seen.

Today was another day of getting some of the final unpacking done. We had a suround sound system which connects up to our TV and DVD still in a box. Well it took me quite some time today, mainly because part of it is Wifi operated, but now it is all functioning perfectly so we can enjoy.

JANUARY 11th

A bit of a regular sort of week actually with the weather varying from bright and sunny to ground frost early in the morning. One thing that is very noticable here is that it does not get light until around 8.30 a.m. so we have to make a real effort if we want to get up early. Something we will have to realise when we want to leave here at 5.o'clock on Friday morning.

Sunday evening we had Danielle around for a drink and to let her have keys, as she has agreed to keep an eye on the place, whilst we are away.

Monday was really bright and sunny, so Joan spent most of the day in the garden putting in the bag of 90 tulip bulbs that we had bought last week, whilst I was relegated to the garage putting up the last of the shelves to get stuff off the ground such as spare suitcases, necessary because we have no loft access here, but two huge garages. I had one problem with my task. Our farmer has been going up and down the road with slurry traiiers to spread on the fields and my lovely new car stinks of cow shit. A jet wash job is needed before we leave for UK.

Today, Tuesday, we went out to lunch with Stewart and Barbara. There is a village near here called Monestier which has a Le Relais Pub/Restaurant, where the landlord is a bit of a primo donna chef and every day he does four course lunch for 12.50 euros, delicious. We all enjoyed it very much and especially as it includes a 1/4 litre of wine for the price. It is now becomming sort of normal to do as the French do, have a long liesurely lunch, but did anybody hear me complaining!

JANUARY 14th

We set off at 05.30 this morning to drive to Calais and to catch a late afternoon boat to Dover. We had decided, after talking to others, to go up through Angouleme and then to pick up the motorways from just north of there. The journey takes you up through Rouen, Poitiers and then Bolougne. It is definitely the best route and most importantly avoids the Paris inner ring road. We arrived in Calais in time for our 5.00 p.m. boat and this despite the thick mist on the first part of the journey, in the dark.

We got over to New Romney in time to collect the agreed fish and chips for four of us, which solved the dinner problem all round. Even they taste good with the red wine we brought.

JANUARY 16th

The four of us went to Whitstable today. For those who don't know the place it is fishing harbour town that has very touristy shops and a Sunday matket. interesting place.

We bought some lovely big kippers to have for breakfast tomorrow and had a bit of a wander round followed by a couple of drinks in a harbour pub. On the way round Les and Joan found this divers helmet, that was set out over a bench, so they could not resist the opportunity to be pictured in something different.

JANUARY 18th.

We are now having to delay our trip over to Holland, which should have been starting on Monday next. Unfortunately we have had some problems with the new car, it has been sticking in gear, which on an automatic is not good news. We have discovered that you can pull over, switch off and start up again. The thing them resets itself and is all A-OK, but we don't want to continue in this way as the problem might get worse.

We have had the thing on diagnostic test at the local Mercedes garage and they have said that there is a control computer misbehaving. Fortunately we are covered by the European guarantee that came with the car, but we have to wait 5 working days for the part to arrive and when it does, we have been told that fitting should take only 3 hours, but the invoice will be for £1,452.00. We have received confirmation that this is covered by the guarantee, thank goodness.

The only thing now is that we are having to stay with Les and Jill for another 6 days, but they are of course quite relaxed about it and of course it gives Joan more time to do her shopping !!!!!!!!!!! Ouch.

JANUARY 20th

This evening we met up with Anne and Peter, old friends from our New Romney days. We all six went to The Ship in Dymchurch, which is traditionally a Dr Sin town. Dr Sin is a tale about smuggling that is supposed to have taken place in and around this area, many years ago, you can read all about it in many books here, it's up to you if you want to believe or not.

We had a meal in this pub and have to say that the quality of the food was very good, but the service was rubbish (polite word). Despite this we had a very enjoyable evening, finisshing off back at Anne and Peter's place.

JANUARY 26th.

We got a call from the local Mercedes garage this morning that the new part has arrived and that I have to take the car in tomorrow morning. Once this problem is sorted out we will be able to leave for Holland, hopefully on Friday morning. At least I get a free loan car and the bill will be paid by Mercedes.

JANUARY 28th.

We left Jill and Les at 0730 this morning and got to Dover in time to see that we were to be sailing on the brand new P&O ship, the Spirit if Britain. This thing is really huge but they clearly are still breaking it in and the staff are struggling with things new. At this time of the year there are not so many sailing across, so all was OK.

Once we got to Calais we drove straight to the small town of Nieuwkoop, which is were we used to live in the early 80s. The plan was to stay with Arie and make a couple of visits to his mother and father, Co and Henny, who were friends of ours for many years. The first evening we went to see them and then got a Chinese take away.

JANUARY 29th.

Joan's first meeting with Spip, Aries big softy cat, who weighs in at a massive 7 kilo. She really is just a big softy so guess thay will make friends very quickly.

Joan and I went to the village and then later in the afternoon to Alphen on the Rijn, which is the nearest big town. We wandered the shops there but I managed to keep my wallet in my pocket.

Later Joan and I went round to Co & Henny's for dinner as Arie and his son Michael were running a charity disco this evening and probably not planning to be home before about 3 a.m.

JANUARY 30th.

Bit of a lazy day today as both Arie and Michael did not get to bed before 03.30 a.m. this morning. When they did get up I had the job of cooking the full English breakfast, which we all enjoyed. It was even so successful that Michael managed to get out of bed around 11.30 to enjoy.

Later in the early afternoon, Joan and I walked around to Kitty and Theo, Arie's sister and brother-in-law. We spent an enjoyable afternoon chin wagging and drinking Theo's beer and wine. It seems as if Kitty is planning to come and see us in May and is hoping to drive herself with the two kids. Jordy, the oldest son, is very good with the GPS thing so they should be OK. We will have to wait and see if she confirms the visit.

Joan and I had bought some pork loin yesterday so we went back and helped Arie make dinner which the four of us enjoyed. Tomorrow we will be on our own as Arie is working and Michael off to school and the plan is for us to have dinner at Co & Henny's on our last evening, as we plan to drive back to France on Tuesday.

Spip managed to get a last minute cuddle from Joan.