The Oldies have been working long days since we arrived and so far I’ve had very little chance to explore the village we are staying in. Today, however, they finished up early for once and we had time to potter around.

St. Adjutory is a typical village of the Haute Charente, the nicest part of the Charente in my opinion. Further north, it becomes very flat and rather boring. Here there are soft, rolling hills with extensive views. What is particular striking, especially when you are used to living near the mountains, is the sheer expanse of sky. The sunsets here are wonderful!

We are not far from Montemboeuf which boasts some of the largest nurseries in Europe (I’ve heard that Christmas trees for Trafalgar Square in London have been ordered from here), so the land is rich and fertile. Normally. This year, the fields are brown, brown, brown! You can hardly see the brown cows for the brown grass. It has been an extremely hot and dry summer. The temperatures have been in the high twenties and even thirties and it has only rained twice since we arrived. The Charentaise will have to start doing a rain dance soon!

St. Adjutory has a particularly nice example of a romanesque church. And this is another very typical feature, a lavoir – basically a medieval launderette. Thankfully, most lavoirs around here have been restored and are well maintained. On hot summers days they come in useful as watering holes for dogs out on walks. And for cooling off the feet of their tired owners.

The original Charentaise houses are usually of stone and have some interesting features, such as stone sinks and bull’s eye windows. Unfortunately, a large number of the houses (like in most villages in rural France) are derelict. However, this does not always mean that they are unoccupied…

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Some houses have been beautifully restored. Those stone walls look good when the old rendering has been removed and the stones pointed. Add a few pots of geraniums, a wisteria or a climbing rose and you’re ready to feature in Ideal Homes magazine.

As I’ve said before, it is soooo quiet around here. Great if you want to get away from it all, but it entails a lot of driving when you need to get back to civilization. That probably explains why there are such long queues of customers with overflowing shopping trollies in the hypermarkets in the bigger towns. You’d swear they’re stocking up for months. Perhaps they are. And when you’ve all those miles to travel, you’d daren’t forget anything on your list.

Her Ladyship was spitting fire yesterday. We had just arrived at the building site when she realised that she’d left the phone behind, just when she needed to make a series of important calls. Muttering something under her breath (I didn’t catch what she was saying. Perhaps it’s just as well.), she hopped back into the car and drove home to get it. A 40km round trip.

It was still better than the time a few years ago when the Oldies drove to a building project in the Charente, went to open the door, and realised that they’d left the key back home in the Dordogne. That time, it was a 90km round trip.

They’ve never forgotten a key since.