About 30-40 minutes from our house is one of the most famous wine regions in the world - Saint Emilion.

This is a beautiful town to visit - it seems more like somewhere located in Provence than in the Dordogne.

There are lots of restaurants, a large square that will usually have some sort of live music to enjoy while taking a break from exploring or wine-tasting... it is one of our favourite stops when we stay at the house and I am sure that you will like it too.

Here's a few photos from a recent visit:

I came across this interesting article on the Dordogne today from the Daily Mail.

It is basically describing how the Dordogne and Eymet in particular has become such a hub for Brits moving abroad that five of them are running for the local council (only recently allowed due to changes in French law).

It highlights several families who have made the move and their reasons for doing so - a common thread is that the Dordogne is "like Britain 50 years ago". Interestingly, this is a statement made by people in their 30's and 40's - so I'm not sure how they would know.

One family moved to Eymet after the father was diagnosed with a heart condition and was made redundant from his PR agency (it didn't say which occurred first). They now run an internet cafe from the ground floor of his home in Eymet and lives in one of the two flats above.

They were impressed with the French health system. In the UK, he was on a six week waiting list. In France, he was seen by a specialist within three days.

Their children are attending a small, Catholic private school for the incredible price of 15 pounds per month.

So natural beauty, inexpensive property, better health care, and affordable private education. It is hard to see why so many would move.

A new entertainment venue has opened in the centre of Bergerac that offers a Parisien-style dinner and cabaret show.

"Le Music Hall" is run by Bernadette Biato and includes a three course meal with wine.



- Tickets cost 49 € per person for a fixed-menu dinner (aperitif, starter, main course, dessert, coffee and wine included) and cabaret show
- Cabaret lasts 2½ - 3 hours
- Drinks from the bar at extra cost
- Seating for up to 300 people or 500 standing
- Limited places available
- Reservations advised
- Open at weekends, all year round
- Starts at 8 pm, ends at 12-12.30 am, open until 2 am
- Reduced tariffs for groups (minimum 20 people)


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Under the heading of "a small world"... less than 1Km from our house in Sigoules is a wine co-operative. All the local, small-hold farmers bring their grapes here and they produce a variety of wines. A lot of it is good, but their Rose is really great.



I guess it caught the attention of other wine enthusiasts recently as it is now for sale at our local Waitrose here in Portsmouth... and online.

Go and try it.. (although it is much cheaper when purchased locally!).

The vineyards around our house in the dordogne are primarily growing grapes for Monbazillac wine. This is a lovely sweet wine and to ensure this sweetness, the grapes are left to "rot" on the vine. This simply means that they are harvested as late as possible.

The Monbazillac wine is named for the main chateau near us - Chateau Monbazillac. It is an imposing building set on the top of a hill with beautiful views and is certainly worth a visit if you are staying at our house.












As the chateau also produces wine (of course), it has a shop and wine tasting. The actual Chateau is open to the public.

We provide a number of walks for our guests and one of them starts and ends at the Chateau. Pack a picnic and you have an excellent way to spend a day.

It is only January, and we are pretty much booked up for the peak season this year. Looking at the reservations, 70% of our holiday makers for 2008 are either people who have stayed at the house before, or friends of previous holiday makers. Hopefully this is a good sign that we are doing something right and keeping our guests happy!

The house is great for winter holiday lets and our guests who stayed to see in the New Year of 2008 had the following comments:

"The weather was spectacular - The Snow Queen's palace springs to mind; the vines were frozen white and the frost was absolutely beautiful. ..... No house we saw came close to yours which is so well equipped and comfortable"

This particular couple were looking to buy a house in the Dordogne to retire to.