Retired? Me? not on your life. Iv'e never worked so hard, but I believe its good for the soul. We have decided not to open up gites for reasons I will explain later, however we are converting the barn into self contained accommodation for friends and family who want to visit. It will be some time before that happens as we still have the main house to finish converting, the grenier (attic) in particular. The gite market has been saturated and clients are becoming more demanding as time goes by. They require exclusive use of a swimming pool, satellite TV and many other luxuries. It would be difficult also to contain our children and prevent them from making any noise to disturb the guests. Also some of our animals would have to go particularly the cockerel. He is so noisy and randy. We have a Beagle called Rug, our cat Ember (these 2 are sworn enemies) We have 2 ducks, 3 hens and a cockerel called Flashman. We get a surplus of eggs usually but they are not laying at present so we have to suffer the indignity of buying them from the supermarket. We also have a large pond with 3 very big koi carp and about 4 goldfish plus a very small frog and lots of interesting water critturs. We are visited regulaly by the most beautiful dragonfies,butterflies and birdlife. We are surrounded by fields which are farmed for grains or sunflowers. We have made a lot of friends both french and english, and the boys are doing very well in the local school. They are speaking french now as if they always had. I keep myself busy making jams chutneys and other preserves, plus cooking for the family. Jacky my daughter in law and I go to pottery painting sessions and when the better weather arrives, we will be out with the camera and painting pictures of our lovely village and the surrounding countryside. I do miss the Players though, for the productions and the camaraderie. However I do believe there is a drama group in Verteuil sur Charente, a lovely village not far from here (They have amost wonderful Chateau). When my french is a bit better I intend to join them. I am attaching a few pictures for you to see and show to whoever is interested.
Give my regards to everyone who remembers me and please keep in touch.
Lots of love
Carole ------ See a slide show of Carol's home over to the right ----->
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