Wednesday 25th February

One of the ideas for the café, and indeed why we called it the Café des Arts was that we might have exhibitions by local artists there.  And indeed one of our London friends is anticipating holding her own exhibition in April.  We opened yesterday (Monday) and one of our first customers was Marie, a French lady who lives a few doors away in our road.  She mentioned that she had a friend who was an artist, and wondered if we might put her paintings up in our Café.  Of course, we said; but people say these kinds of things a lot and we weren’t sure anything would actually come of it.  Later on that day she asked of she could bring the artist, a lady who lived not far away, to meet us tomorrow (Tuesday).  And today she arrived, a tall lady in a very small old Renault, and we could see on the back seat a whole pile of large canvases.

So, we have on day two our very first exhibition by Anika Chambley. Eight large and very vivid canvases, mostly of seascapes but also a sunset and an orange landscape, now adorn the walls where only two days before we had hummed and hah’ed and practically denuded our house in order to brighten up the walls with pictures.  In my hurry I forgot to take any pictures for you all to see; you’ll just have to pop in for a look and a coffee yourselves.  We have put up a poster in the Tourist Office and outside the café, and we will see who comes to look at them.  They are rather expensive at 450 euros each, but what do we know about the international Art market here in Eymet !!!  They will be there for a month, so we will see, and anyway they do look rather spectacular.

Sadly I am back in England for eight days, but then returning for three.  Work is waiting me today…..not long to go now.