With less than two weeks to go until the 2025 season starts we are looking forward to being able to produce some new catch reports instead of news of what we have been up to…after all that is why you come to our website in the first place.
We have just celebrated the anniversary of our second year in France which brings about the need to renew our visas and this year we have also had to have both cars inspected for the Contrôle Technique (similar to the MOT in the UK). As we expected both needed a bit of work but will hopefully both be back on the road for the season starting. As last year we have a chance to reflect on our time here and how far we have come in those two years, not only with the work we have done around the lakes but also personally. Nigel can ask for more than a ‘grand bière’ now and we have been supporting others on their journeys to move to France and get into the systems.
Jo’s sister and brother-in-law have just been out for a week and Douglas only left Pouméroux twice in the 7 days when he was dragged away to have lunch with us! He loves getting stuck in and is highly skilled and of great help to Nigel. The woodchipper was put to good use and a path made along the main bank of Kingfisher which gets a lot of water run off from the land above it. A couple of new pipes have been put in the bank too to enable the water to go directly into the lake. They also built up the bank where a gabion had collapsed to strengthen the bank and used some chestnut stakes to make it more substantial.
The walk through the woodland has now been created, enabling us to walk Maisie in the summer months without disturbing the anglers. This will now finish at the far end of Kingfisher with a bridge they have built across the stream.
We have also made some new steps for Kingfisher chalet and added an extra one to Lac Lucie chalet to make them safer.
The ladies mucked in outside too, hemmed the new curtains for Lac Lucie and also had a couple of days out doing touristy stuff. Angoulême, our nearest big town, has walls all around it and being on top of a hill there are stunning views as you walk around them. Being the home of ‘la bande desinée’ (comic strip) which has associations with the creator of Tintin there are some amazing murals to be seen on the buildings around the town.
They also had a day out in Limoges, visiting the porcelain museum, which the city is famous for. This was well worth the visit and showed how porcelain is made and the origins of it in France, as well as exhibits from some of the famous porcelain makers in the city. Obviously both trips involved a croque monsieur for lunch!
We visited a new restaurant in La Rochefoucauld for the first time whilst they were here, Chez Steph, at the foot of the château. There is a great atmosphere and the puddings are to die for!
Nigel has had a quick weekend trip back to the UK to meet his new granddaughter, Raya……and spend a few nights in the pub catching up with his mates but is now back and has started making bait ready for our first guests.
We reported last month that we were seeing temperatures in the high teens but that seems to have changed now and this morning we even had a few snowflakes! But the rain has still not been nearly as bad as last year and for the most part we have been able to get done what we wanted. We have now added the February figures to our graphs as below.
Fingers crossed we might have some fish on the bank before the end of the month as son-in-law, Matt and his friend, Adam are coming out the week before our paying guests to help us to finish the last few jobs and do a bit of fishing. They will bring with them Sophie and granddaughter, Dot who will be just 2 so sure there will be some fun and games as well as some hard work. So hopefully there will be some fish photos coming up very soon….until then bonne journée and à bientôt…..