Easter to 10 April 2026

Which it was. A good day Monday that is.  A good burger and salmon citronee at Alison’s restaurant by the lake; dogs fetching sticks from the lake; and catching up on emails.

Tuesday was a quick trip into Limoges to visit Grande Fraish and Kiabi for some fruit, sardines, salmon and bread and  some cheap summer gear as it is now a bright, warm 26C at Les Vergnes. All  our neighbours (3 of them) are away and we are surrounded by paddocks full of green grass and yellow dandelions. With all the deciduous trees now starting to bring on leaves and blossom the place looks a little like NZ or even parts of the Kiewa valley.

Wednesday was another walk up the hill to the dam for a session of stick catching and leaping about in the water.  That’s the dogs, not Flashy.

Stripped off into shorts, catching the rays on the terrace, sipping on beers (0 alc) at 11’sh, we noticed a fox in the adjacent paddock. The binos picked him out perfectly at about 150 metres and it was the biggest fox Flashy had ever seen or shot. Oh, for a .222! Time for some smoked salmon and champagne as it’s nearly 2.00 pm now. Probably should have a shower and shave first. Sardines grilled on the smoky BBQ for dinner

Thursday was another stunning, hot day. Sunscreen and shade needed. We sure have had some great weather this week. On the prediction that it will turn cold and wet on the weekend, we went for a drive to Oradour-sur-Glane, a beautiful, picturesque village a short drive down the A20.

The story of Oradour is incredibly sad. Four days after the Normandy landing in June 1944, The Waffen and Panzer SS Divisions headed west, providing fanatical and stubborn resistance to the Allied advance.

For no known reason, apart from them being the SS, the Das Reich SS Division, heading for Normandy, arrived in the peaceful village of Oradore-sur-Glane at 2 pm on 10 June. There, in three hours, they executed 643 men, women and children by machine gun fire. The women and children were herded into the church and suffocated/burnt to death. The youngest was eight days old. The men were shot then their bodies burnt. The buildings were also set to the flames. Luckily, some escaped to tell the tale.

A year later, ‘old big nose’ (de Gaulle) visited and after an act of parliament, the ruined village was left as it was and declared an historic monument. A new village was built nearby.

We were two of only a few visitors, as it is the off-season. This is of course, our preferred way of going to popular places. A very moving and somewhat disturbing visit. Looking at the eighty years since the massacre, not much changes- Africa, the Balkans and Middle East, as bad as the Nazis.

It’s Friday again. We’ve been here a week. Our black Labs are, well, Labs! The cat of course thinks she is a dog. Got to be the funniest sit we’ve done to date.

Oradour building

Bullet holes inside the church.

The new village's main street.