Our Mid Life Crisis Gap Year: Our Time In Magnac-Bourg

The tiny village of Magnac-Bourg is in the Haute-Vienne region in just south of central France. The whole area is incredibly green and lush and is a place to visit in the summer to go for walks, cycling and canoeing. Out of season it appears that it is a quiet place....a very quiet place.......this was great for me as it gave me a chance to get used to driving a car again after 2 months, on the wrong side of the road, and on the wrong side of the car. So here is a review of our time in Magnac-Bourg and the surrounding area.

On the Tuesday morning we were up bright and early....about 9.00am....hey, we are on holidays! After breakfast it was time to hit the road our first destination was the nearby town of Pierre-Buffiere just 10km away along very narrow windy roads....very good driving practice, especially when we had to go past a truck..so how am I feeling about driving now? Quite good actually.

The Beautiful Approach To The Village Of Pierre Buffiere

Beautiful Old Buildings

Very Quiet Streets - It's Lunch Time!

We learnt a very valuable lesson on our first day out touring in this area of France....the French take their lunchtime very seriously....everything shuts for 2 to 3 hours whilst they take a break, and being out of the main tourist season this also includes many of the cafes and restaurants, and the ones that are open are only open for one and a half hours...so that they can also enjoy a lunch break.....gees, we have got a lesson to learn about what is important in life....back home everyone tends to eat on the run whilst working!

We then headed towards the main town in the area, Nexon. One thing that we did notice while driving around were the many signs showing that Richard The Lionheart had taken this route....now we drove around this area quite a bit over the 5 days and kept seeing this signs.....I have come to the conclusion that he must have been lost and just wandered around aimlessly....lol.

Richard Was Here!

A Very Nice Chateau In Nexon

That night Lesley was feeling quite inspired and cooked a beautiful slow cooked beef dish with heaps of vegetables and crispy roasted potatoes........heaven.

Masterchef At Work

By Wednesday we were settling in quite nicely into the cottage and the area around us, so we decided to travel a little bit further into the region of Haute-Vienne, this time we headed out into the south west area. The only down side...the weather...the rain had settled in on was a steady drizzle all day.

The Best Photo I Could Find In Aix-Sur-Vienne

Our first point of call was the town of Aix-Sur-Vienne, very wet, very quite, and not too much to look at, so we moved on.

At lunch time we came across the pretty little village of Sereilhac. One thing we noticed was how quiet it was...it was lunch time!! We found a small restaurant with a plate of the day for just 12 Euros, so in we went.

We should have taken notice of the number of cars in the car park...the place was full!!! We could sit at the bar for about an hour and wait for a seat if we wished......no.....time to move on.

Coming Into Sereilhac

Pretty Little Village With a Chateau

Sorry We Are Full

We headed towards another small village named Gorre. Before we got to the village I saw a sign advertising "Biere Artisanale".... a brewery!!!!

A Sign To The Good Life.

We drove down the narrow track to a small farm. One of the sheds had been converted into a small brewery. We were greeted by the brewers wife who took as through the range of beers, the whole time she kept apologising for her poor English, which we thought was great. At one point she disappeared and came back with her daughter who spoke very good English.......We apologised for our poor French, and so we should...we are the visitors. I must admit all of the people we have met in this region of France have been so very friendly and patient with our lack of French, and have made us feel very welcome.