The nights are drawing in now as we approach the shortest day of the year, the clocks have gone back to their winter time setting, and the annual battle against the clock and the weather to get the harvest in, before the rains arrive, is over for another year.  Our dry and parched landscape has once again got its carpet of green liberally sprinkled with the multi-coloured leaves of autumn.  The temparatures are dropping and the rain is making up for a 4-month dry spell with a vengeance.

November is traditionally known as a rainy month here in SW France, so there is always a battle to complete the vendage (the grape harvest), before the rains arrive and make it impossible for the tractors and harvesting machines to work the fields properly.  At the same time, the wine growers want to make sure their grapes get as much sun as possible before the harvest begins, and so October is a month of trying to second guess the weather.  With the harvest complete and the rain pouring down, turning the vineyards and fields into makeshift swimming pools for the local wild life, the human population is forced inside, to make preparations for the coming winter.  We are lucky with the weather in this corner of France, as we can usually live outside to a greater or lesser extent from the end of March until the end of October, but it still gets cold in winter.  So in November, when it's not raining, you will find us chopping wood for the fire and preparing the garden for winter, delicate plants are taken inside or wrapped against the frost.  If we are lucky (or unlucky, depending on your point of view) we will even see some snow!  Snow is a rare visitor to these parts, in a bad winter we will see 10 days of snow, and in a good winter, it will just rain.

Many French villages look like ghost towns a lot of the time, because in the summer the shutters are closed against the heat of the sun and in the winter they are kept closed to keep the heat in and the cold out, but there is a hive of activity going on behind the winter shutters, with preserves to make, wine to nurture, Cognacs to distill, and preparation work for the coming spring time.

It's not all work though, and we recently went to a cabaret evening in a local salle de fete.  The cabaret, including dinner for 200 people, was put on by one of our local restuarant owners who stages events as well as running his very good restuarant.  The salle de fete they used was about 20 minutes from the restuarant so all the food was cooked in the restaurant kitchens and then taken to the salle de fete, a mean feat in itself.  The cabaret was a typical French revue that you would see in Paris, with dancers, a singer in an Edith Piaf style, a magician and a comedian.  It was a small troupe, but then again, the stage was small too.  The quality, for a provincial production basically put on in a village hall, was fantastic, the members of the troupe were all professionals (some of whom had been on TV in France) - as you can guess, we had a really good time.

French Cabaret evening

Another feature of French life is the hospitality you receive when you are invited to lunch, dinner, or even just an aperitif.  Do not expect to leave after a couple of hours! We recently went to lunch with friends at 1:00pm and were the first to leave at around 11:00pm and we only left because our daughter had school the next day, otherwise I have no idea what time we would have made it back home.  People are amazingly generous in France with their hospitality no matter what their status in life, tables will be groaning with food and drink, so there is always plenty for everyone.  France is so child-friendly as well, children are respected by the adults and integrated into whatever is going on, our daughter came with us to the Cabaret with a friend and they loved it and the adults loved having them around.

So although it looks tranquil and quiet on the outside, on the inside of a French house it is a hive of activity and life.

STOP PRESS..... it is already snowing here in SW France!!!  it could be a cold winter this year...

Take care, until next time!

Darren Porter, our SW France Editor, is the Owner of Au Bellefleur, a Luxury B&B in Sigogne, France. You can find out more at http://www.aubellefleur.fr/