Lou Ann's EuroBlog

"Through travel I first became aware of the outside world; it was through travel that I found my own introspective way into becoming a part of it."
- Eudora Welty

I have a few minutes at the internet place on our last day here in Villereal before I am to meet my colleagues, so I'll type a little bit for you. As I said in my last post, I will next be telling you about our week in the countryside of the Southwest of France. I will be writing a bit differently, though, about this part of the trip, as I've been in the same place the entire week, and want to give you impressions of the place rather than a chronological walk-through of my day-to-day as I've been doing.

Let me first tell you about where I am. Take a look at this map of France. Look at the Southwest region (lower left corner of the map). Find the cities of Agen, and a little farther north, Bergerac. If you were to draw a straight line from Agen to Bergerac, our place is just a little closer to Bergerac than it is to Agen. If you are already familiar with the area, we're in the Dordogne River Valley, very close to the border with the area around the Lot River. More specifically, about 2 km west (and a bit north) of Villereal. Got it?

Now, Agen is a small city, but a city nonetheless. I spent the evening of July 1st there. It took about an hour to drive to Villereal, and then little country roads (which work very differently than country roads in the U.S.) I wasn't sure I'd find it ... but the directions in the brochure were very good and I made it without getting lost this time!! It seems that, at least in the countryside of France, there are no street addresses. It does not seem like the rural delivery route system in the U.S. either. The roads are numbered (just like their major highways), but the houses (which are usually very far apart, just like the rural areas of the U.S.) have names. Kind of like estate names. So, the name of the place where we're staying is Fonguillères. The names are on teeny-tiny little signs, hidden in the growth at the sides of the road. Luckily, I was watching the odometer on the car and the sign happened at exactly the right time according to their directions.

If you'd like to see the website promoting Fonguillères, take a look! Click around their site ... the pictures don't do it justice, though. It's simply gorgeous!! The owners are British, and live directly on the property. They purchased the property which was very run down. It included 16 acres of land. There is the barn, which they have re-done to be their own home and it's fabulous!! There is a garage that looks more like a 150-year-old car-port made out of wood and easily holds 4 cars with LOTS of space around each. The larger rental building, called La Maison on the website, has four bedrooms and a huge kitchen and living area. And the Petite Fonguillères is immediately next to La Maison, and has one bedroom, a kitchen and a sitting area. All in all, the rentals sleep 10 people in five separate bedrooms. All the buildings, the main house, garage, La Maison and Petite Fonguillères face a central stone drive area. The buildings (except for the garage) are made of stone, in the same style as much of the rural buildings in France. My room is in La Maison, upstairs, looking out toward the street ... although, the street is hidden by trees, and even if it weren't, it is so dead that there aren't enough cars there to bother me.

The entire area is FULL of flowers and gardens and more flowers and more gardens. I can't even describe to you how beautiful all of these flowers are. They seem to be mostly wild flowers (remember ... I'm not a flower person!) ... and one of the gals I'm here with describes the style as "English Gardens". Whatever. They're beautiful. The swimming pool is gated, and up on a little hill behind the garage area. The remainder of the 16 acres are leased to farmers. I'm not sure what is farmed there, but know that some of the land is used for hay, as we saw all sorts of bales.


When I first arrived, Doina (one of the other teachers here with me ... I'll introduce them all to you in an upcoming post) gave me a tour of La Maison. Interestingly, she explained to me about "French air conditioning" which apparantly works like this: there are not screens on the windows, but big wooden shutters. During the mid-day and afternoon/evening, when it gets hot out, the shutters are all closed and the lights all turned off in the home. At night, when it starts to get cool, you open everything up (wide open ... nothing between you and the out-of-doors!!) and overnight let the cool air in. Because the buildings are made of stone, and because you trap the cool air in with the shutters, the inside doesn't get hot at ALL in the afternoons or evenings. Interestingly enough ... it works GREAT!! (Well, it works great if you remember to shut the shutters ... and as I'm typing this, I realize that I forgot to shut my shutters and it's 4:00 and sunny out. Oh, well.) That sort of airconditioning really saves on the electric bills, that's for sure! And, you can manipulate lights and food and all to minimize (or eliminate) bugs from the scene.

So ... do you have an impression of Fonguillères? Are you ready to visit here? Upcoming posts will have more about Villereal, about the cities, chateaux, bastides (look it up!) and villages in the area, as well as more about food and drink and, most importantly, the friends that are here with me. We're having a blast. I will probably not be online again for another couple of days.

Au revoir!