French Adventure :
Photos of the Cafe
| Visit Update May / June 2003 | |
Now, the original idea for buying the retreat in France was to buy the woodland and also a place to stay whilst I did up the cabin. This was mainly to save on hotel costs but also to give me the chance to have storage for tools etc and also to have a delivery address. Initially I was not able to find anything suitable but then I was lucky enough to find this little cafe to buy. It is a bit of a way from the retreat (about 40 minutes drive) but is a lovely place (but does have a serious leak in its roof). I bought it from Jo Ann at Central French Property Associates who I would certainly recommend for any future purchases. Think in the longer term, I might just live in France as I felt very peaceful there and my spirit became very content. No, this doesn't mean that I've thrown away my Taoist ideals and started to have plans, more like I feel that it might happen anyway ! If it does that's great, if it doesn't that's great too !
The cafe has four bedrooms, a cave (cold cellar), a little courtyard, the main cafe / bar area, a large workshop (which might be convertible into a training room or into a gite for students) and also three allotments to grow food if needs be. The area where it is situated (close to Bourgeneuf) is not quite as interesting as Haute Vienne as the landscape is rather flat but there is supposed to be a big lake near the village which the Mairie is hoping to make into a nature reserve (hopefully I might be able to help with this - I like that kind of thing). I'll explore the area more next time I go over and take more photos then.
Main Street Photo of the Cafe. All of the grey fronted building is the cafe. Red tiled building is the rear workshop.
There is obviously some work to do on the cafe but it will be a great base (and possibly home) once "tarted up" a bit. It has been empty since the mid-'90s but some of the wallpaper probably dates back to the '70s (all big prints and loud colours). The cafe area is where the hole in the roof is and one of the beams has a bad case of damp rot (fixing and inspecting this is one of the first jobs when I next go over) . The area might be OK for training although the floor is very hard. A dance hall is a possibility as this would be fun to do (anyone who has seen me dancing knows I move like a corpse so any practise would be worthwhile!). Who knows what will happen.
Inside Main Cafe / Bar Area
The 3 allotments are a short journey from the cafe (about 5 minutes walk) but actually in a different hamlet. They are probably about 60 yards long and 20 foot wide but very overgrown. There are supposed to be almond, apple and cherry trees in there but most of what I could see was brambles ! Bearing in mind I'd been at the retreat for a week, the brambles here were comparatively benign (as they only reached about 5 foot high compared to the 10 foot at the retreat !).
Allotments (yes, they need some work !).
