July has been a busy old time for all the villages, towns and cities in the Dordogne and around our little piece of heaven here at La Treille – I think we’re Fêted out and we’ve still got August to get through.

The weather has been glorious as normal for this time of year, unlike the UK which I hear has not been having the heatwave the weathermen had predicted.   Our guests have been getting well and truly chilled-out whilst holidaying here… relaxing around the poool, having a BBQ in the evening, enjoying the regional food at our lovely local restaurants and hopefully leaving with many happy memories.

We have a new local restaurant that opened just last week in Tocane St Apre. It’s called ‘Rouge’ and is already a hit with our guests and ourselves. The local newspaper or should I say journal, the ‘Sud Ouest‘ promoted the opening with the owners Janice and Paul Studer standing proudly at their bar! Janice’s cooking is ‘to die for’ and already you have to book to guarantee yourself a table – according to one of our guests Janice’s “Lavendar Scones” are amazing and Paul’s ‘Special Coffee’ is the best in the Dordogne!

You too could be here at La Treille,  perfect for families – enjoying a BBQ, playing one of the many games, having a swim in your glorious pool or just watching the sun set over the glorious views.   Just book yourself a little piece of heaven at La Treille Gites! There’s plenty to do all year round but during July & August there’s even more to do and see – every weekend there’s a different fête being held, all within  shouting distance of La Treille and the beautiful gites.  Here’s just a few that we’ve visited this month…

The Fête at Montagrier…

Creyssac Fête…

You may be surprised that I haven’t mentioned what I thought would be the biggest festival in the whole of France… ‘Bastille Day’. To be absolutely correct it is known as ‘Fête Nationale‘ or more commonly ‘quatorze juillet‘ (14th July) and not ‘Bastille day’. Some of us may remember learning about the historical event from our school days… the storming of the Bastille fortress-prison on 14th July 1789 and the beginning of the French Revolution. But like many historical events the origins and meanings have become jaded over the centuries and having mentioned this to a few friends I’m not the only one who mis-understood the true meaning of this National Fete. I guess we all think of it like Independance Day for the USA but I have recently learnt that a huge majority of the French public do not actually celebrate this event. I’m no history teacher so will not try to explain but it’s all here if you want an explanation. The bigger towns and cities do ‘put on’ a show and Perigueux apparantly had a pretty good Fireworks display over the river although we decided this year to spend the day and evening at Montagrier. suffice it to say that the Fête Nationale is not as much a big deal as I thought, especially in smaller towns and villages!