UK bound....

Once our stint in France was over we had a very brief stopover in Bristol before we made our way to repeat clients near Worthing in East Sussex. Sadly, the lovely Cavalier King Charles, Jemima recently died so we just had the two girls, Persian cats, Minnie & Myrtle to look after - it was strange returning to our client's home without Jemima being around. However, it was lovely to be back and our stay was enhanced by the bizarre but welcome mild November temperatures. The house is minutes from the seafront and we enjoyed several walks along the beach without jackets, unheard of at this time of year on the east coast by the sea!!!
During the two-week stay there was plenty of time to catch up with paperwork and emails and when we'd had enough of administration a spot of fresh air and some great sunsets were the order of the day!

Jemima, gone but not forgotten.

After Sarlat......

Our short stay in Sarlat was over in a flash and we headed further south to our old stomping ground - we were house and pet sitting in a village not far from where we lived for a year or so back in 2007 when we first decided to up sticks and travel for a while.

Our charges were two delightful dogs, a greyhound and a doberman - both older dogs and both very sweet.

It was lovely to be back in familiar surroundings, nothing had changed and, it was also a great opportunity to catch up with old friends.

We managed a couple of get togethers including a delicious pizza at the local pizzeria and where one of friends now works!

Best of all we went to a local auberge and enjoyed a delicious fixed price menu (formula), which consisted of vegetable soup, hor d'oeuvres, omlette and french fries, dessert of fromage blanc with rasberry coulis, coffee and a pichet of vin de table - all for under 15 euros/head!!!! Good times.

We also managed a half day trip down to the pretty village of Arreau - we lived here for a couple of months and memories came flooding back. Again the weather was kind and we had a lovely afternoon revisiting old haunts and reminiscing - we never would have guessed back then that we would have had the good fortune and opportunities to travel as extensively as we have done over the last few years - life really is full of surprises!!

La France encore!

Early October saw us return to our beloved France. We flew Easyjet from Bristol to Toulouse and then picked up our hire car and headed for Sarlat. We stayed in the most beautiful Bed & Breakfast (chambres d'hotes), in the medieval centre of Sarlat.

Our reasons for staying here were two-fold - first off the location is just perfect and secondly, it was a chance for us to meet the owners (friends of friends) who have now become good friends of ours!

The link to their B & B is here: http://www.sarlat.biz/index.html however, despite the great website the photos don't really do the place justice - it is a gem in the heart of Sarlat and we were grateful for the opportunity to spend a couple of nights getting to know our hosts and exploring Sarlat a little more.

We are familiar with the area and have friends who live just outside of town near Proissans but each visit brings new surprises and this visit was no exception. The weather was glorious with sunny blue skies and temperatures more like mid August than early October!

The fine weather only served to enhance our stay - we were lucky enough to be in town on market day and whilst during the high season Sarlat can be overrun with tourists, this late in the season everything was much less frenetic, the hustle and bustle was more relaxed and it was a real pleasure to browse the stalls and enjoy the ambience and atmosphere.

We took the opportunity to visit our friends in Proissans and the weather was pleasant enough for us to dine al fresco at lunchtime - we spent a very pleasant couple of hours over a couple of very pleasant bottles of wine!!