Days 594-600, 17-23 Jan '16, Le Dorat, Magnac, Aperos, Matha and not winning the Euromillions (but it's up to €115 million - woo hoo!)

The past week has seen us leaving the Hardie Hobbit Hole on a frequent basis and, for the most part, enjoying glorious winter weather. There have been mornings when the temp is -2 with a helpful note that it "feels like" -5. Usually we agree swiftly when we take the doggie out for her first thing "business". It's a stunning way to start the day with icy cheeks, the crunch of a hard frost underfoot, the steam rising as the hot liquids descend and smiling as the cats try and dig a hole in the frozen stiff fields. By the by, lots of long walks and we've even put a few kms on the car with a full day excursion over to the Limousin region where I spent a couple of months in late 2014 - just over a year ago. We rugged up early, jumped in the car and didn't arrive until 11.30 am - which meant a brilliant, fun, crazy busy afternoon catching up with different folks - we even got to enjoy the last crumpet in the shop at my fave coffee shop in Magnac-Laval. We joined a great mate (hi Barbara!) for a trip to Le Dorat and it was fun to show James our haunts - in particular the cosy cafe/bar Le Petit Fontaine. The kind of place that fills the wine glass right to the rim and the dark ale was full and flavoursome. In other words, our kind of place. Thankfully, though it was a cold day, it wasn't raining - so we took a short walk to the city walls and saw the Shepherd's Gate of Le Dorat - Le Porte Bergere (pictured). It was a race against time to get to our last stop in time for a solid catch-up with Mark and Michele and a cheese and chutney sandwich... aaahhh bliss. It was full dark by the time we left and the drive home took exactly 2 hours and 7 minutes, very accurate prediction on the part of Google Maps. Good driving roads when they are empty - but we have discovered the lorry-convoy phenomenon - lots of lorries and tankers with very bright lights driving across/up/down France at night - presumably to avoid day time traffic. We think the record convoy was 10 in a row - we felt like rabbits in the headlights when they finally passed us. Night vision? What night vision! We'll try and leave even earlier next trip - but between taking our lovely doggie for a long walk, feeding the chooks and giving the cats a cuddle, not to mention showers, getting dressed and breakfast... There's only so early we can leave. Whilst that was our big day out, we've had some little jaunts too. Finally made it into Matha our closest little town. It's only 15 minutes drive - but it seemed like a challenge. We can report it is indeed a small town but has a wonderful thrift store - which we had a good hunt through. Suffice to say a woman can never have too many fur coats. On the social front? Were lucky to be invited to "Aperos" or evening drinkies with some local friends on Friday night - we never think of ourselves as particularly solitary - but perhaps we are as we can be relied on to talk the legs off donkeys some nights. Well that is us. Plans over the next few days? Well a warm snap has descended on Europe. Far from freezing, it looks like we won't have another cold day for at least a week. We're thinking Cognac (the town not the drink) for our next outing as tomorrow is predicted to have a day time high of 14 degrees and sunshine. Winter? No way!