Saturday, March 5, 2011

The Countryside of France

We had such a lovely time yesterday visiting small towns about the French countryside with some new friends of ours, Diane and Peter Block. Originally from England, they moved here 8 years ago looking for an adventure. As Peter said, after retiring he didn't want to sit around twiddling his thumbs waiting to die. So they sold everything they could, packed up the rest in an RV and drove around France until happening upon Brantome (Venice of the Perigord) they thought that living near here would be very nice indeed.







Diane took me into a tiny shop literally built into the mountain rock side. Every square inch was covered with antiques from dishes, glasses, clothing, fabric, buttons, brooches, furniture and figurines. VERY French-like.

The charming little town of St Jean Cole with its very own castle and church built in 1083 (uh, our blessed America hadn't even been discovered yet...crazy!) What fascinates me about these small French villages is the architecture. It's absolutely incredible. I can't help but wonder what it looked like a couple hundred years ago, if there were markets in the square everyday, if a lot of people attended the local church, what people did to survive. 







Brantome, St Jean Cole so magical. I felt like these towns came right out of the story of Beauty and the Beast. Kyle and I decided the rolling hills of Dordogne could be for us someday too...

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