Thursday 5th January

It is cold here in Eymet.  There are clear blue skies most days, cold frosty mornings a couple of degrees below freezing.  But by the afternoon, for a precious couple of hours it warms up to around 20 degrees – a warm Spring day in England – but quickly the temperature drops as darkness descends.

And I find, as I and most of our friends out here in South West France are all of a certain age, that we are limping through the Winter.  Most of us are nursing colds which threaten to clear up but never quite manage it; one day you feel better, the next your nose is completely blocked again.  A few of the Restaurants are still closed, and even Le Pub Gambetta has no music for the second Friday running so it is a case of an evening meal and then hunkering down in front of the telly.

And we console ourselves with thoughts of Summer, and as the calendar slowly fills up with family and friends bookings we think about the long warm evenings eating out in the park, live music and Gourmande evenings all around, wine and oyster festivals, Medieaval banquets and all the fun of living here in the Summer.

It won’t be long now before Spring arrives, crocuses and snowdrops poking their little heads out of the earth – and then the daffodils, my favourite flowers.  But till then for a few more weeks we continue to limp along, that little stone of Winter persistently stuck in our heavy shoes….we must console ourselves with the knowledge that without the cold of Winter we would not appreciate the warmth of the Summer.