It has been raining on and off for the past fortnight and I have spent a lot of time going through my seemingly thousands of photos of castles, sunsets, and food.
A fair proportion of time has been spent in the very comfy sitting room of our cottage Watermeadows, reading a selection of the thousands (I kid you not!) of books which line the walls. These include the entire collection of the Poldark books for those old enough to have swooned over Ross Poldark in the BBC TV series, plus an awful lot of Dick Francis.
And of course, I have been eating! Lovely, delicious, scrumptious food like home made cake with strawberries from the local market and farm cream, to go with the hot chocolate to warm the cockles of your heart!

In the weeks before the rain I was able to justify such food delights by spending hours each day exploring on foot, but walking in the rain doesn’t hold any romantic appeal for me, and as a result, I think that either my jeans have shrunk a bit in these French washing machines, or perhaps they haven’t ……….

That is why, at 7:00am daylight saving time (translation…..only just light) I set off to walk the 6 kms to the local village for the daily baguette. Our cottage is in Champeau de Bas in The Limousin area of France which is sumptuously green and lush, with fields of golden canola dotted here and there, rusty red cows, little villages of stone houses with the quaint blue wooden window frames and dainty bright blue, yellow and white wildflowers twinkling in the grasses and ferns along the fences. The crisp air echoes with the song of the birds, the water bubbling through the undergrowth and roosters welcoming the sun shining through the trees.

How gorgeous is this countryside

Watermeadows as I set off at first light.

The vegetable plot

Ouessant (Ushant) sheep, bred on the island of Ouessant so that women were able to handle them while the men were off fishing

Les Hirondelles, a beautiful stone cottage

Sunrise

A freshly ploughed field (plus reflection, I love a reflection!)

View across the valley

They just followed me home, can I keep them please Mum? Please?

Halfway!

I love these tunnels of trees

Wildflowers

Chicken and donkey barns

Hello!

A stone cottage with green shutters (I know I said blue but this one has got green!)

Cheniers from across the valley

Only 1 km to go!

And it’s just started to rain……

The church spire, nearly there!

For sale, I wonder how much they want for it?????

The war memorial, still with flags and flowers from 8 mai.

Village shop and Post Office/Tourist Bureau/Bank/newsagency

The town square

I made it! A lovely walk through the French countryside. The driver kindly came and picked me up and I would like to have had a photo of me and the daily baguette, but I was cold and wet, so here’s the donkey outside the shop instead!