A Postcard from Eymet
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For this week’s postcard we’re back in South West France. We’re on the road again for a long weekend of celebration with a friend of ours in Eymet and then we’re going to visit a few properties in Duras. We love this part of France because it has such happy memories for us.
The first stop on our tour is Eymet where we’ll be staying with a friend of our friend who’s having her 40th birthday. If my estimations are right, there’ll be a great mix of English speaking friends and French friends and neighbours at the party, so it promises to be a great day and evening.
We’ve arrived in Eymet and having not been here for at least 5 years, it’s comforting to see that little has changed. Eymet is a commune in the Dordogne department in Nouvelle Aquitaine region. A classic bastide town, it’s well known as a real favourite for expats. Featured in a host of TV programmes, but most notably in Little England, Eymet has had a mixed reaction from many people. This is a shame because it is a lovely spot. With a population of less than 3,000, this small town has a real community feel. This, along with the rolling hills and valleys in the Dordogne make this a great place to choose for either a holiday home or a permanent move.
With a long and troubled history with the English, most notably in the Hundred Years War, there is a real feeling of English-ness here even today. With a reported almost one third of the population hailing from Blighty, you could be forgiven for worrying that being here wouldn’t seem all that French, but that’s not our experience. Our view is that the French are as evident here as the English-speaking community and life here is good for everyone.
Our friends live in a large renovated farmhouse on the outskirts of the town with a fair bit of land, so it’s the ideal place for the huge party that Linda has planned. We’ve decided to have a coffee in the town before heading over there to help set up the food and wine ahead of everyone’s arrival for aperitifs at about 11.45am. The bar in town we choose is lovely, with a handful of Frenchmen sitting at the bar partaking of a mixture of coffee and the odd Ricard.
Once the party’s over and the clearing up has been done, we’re heading off to Duras in the Lot-et-Garonne, another bastide town that has a really pretty centre and a bustling market. Once again, Duras is a small town that we know well, and on this visit we won’t be calling in on the Château de Duras because we’re here to visit some properties we are planning to put on our site. That said, Duras is a great central base if you fancy exploring this neck of the woods.
A really interesting place for wine-lovers and gourmands alike, a tour around the tables of Duras will leave your waistband a tad tighter than when you left home. One of our particular favourites is Château Molhière that boasts a great view over Château des Ducs and the whole village of Duras. Bottling its own Côtes de Duras, we are particularly fond of its dry white and rosé although its red is pretty good too, especially with a generous portion of confit de canard!
Anyway, suffice to say that we have a special place in our hearts for this neck of the woods and would encourage anyone to give it consideration if they’ve got their sights on a new life in Nouvelle Aquitaine.
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