The house that Steve and Vern have rented for the summer sits on the hill on the opposite side of the river, thus enjoying the view of town and encouraging a healthy walk into town.
After Paris and our days on the road in Chartres and Mont. St. Michel, Bellac surrounds us with a calm and charming embrace. All around the town are farmers' fields filled with hay that has already been cut and bailed, crops of sunflowers that take your breath away with their beauty, corn just beginning to form tassels, and Limousin beef cattle. We are in one of the least populous area of France and the pace is one of nature.
Here we eat well and slow. Amazing Brie cheese is less that two euros for a wedge of eight ounces. And we have had some delicious sparkling wine that we can't call Champagne, because you know, they get upset when we make their specialty generic, but it drinks just like the C-word stuff and costs - are you ready - one euro 32 cents. Yup that's less than $2 Cdn. a bottle. We are seriously thinking of getting together and thinking of shipping some cases home.
In short this delightful village is a lovely place for us to decompress and 'just be,' in France, with our good friends.
The surrounding country could be in Alberta - farms and great skies and delicious crops, including steaks and roasts on the hoof.
Just outside town we stopped to buy some gladiolas that we cut ourselves.
We were introduced to the four storey house and its lovely blue shutters.
Our kitchen where we took turns making dinner.
The living room was a common area playing with all the wifi devices.
The view from the apartment is amazing - and we were lucky that the view from our bedroom was the same.
The town is lovely.
Dennis was mesmerized by the neon quality of the stems on this decorative rhubarb.
The next few photos are of the local theatre complex.
Sculpture in the village square.
These seats are all over town, lovely but do they get hot in the sun!
Hard to read but this lovely glass installation is a tribute to the famous poet Giradoux, who was born in Bellac.
This is the train bridge.
There is a lovely patio level to enjoy barbeque.
There are goats near one of the bridges. So much fun!
On Saturday morning there is a market. It's cool that the new trucks are refrigerated.
I love the cute cars.
This piece of artwork is inset into the wall of a house in town. So lovely.
Notre Dame de Bellac.
Just outside the church there are great views of the train bridge.
The church is lovely.
There are relics inside in an old, Limoges box that has gemstones all over it.
This Tudor era house had religious decoration in the corners.
The pub is just a hill away!
The stone bridge is 12th century, and so picturesque. You can still drive across it, but you need a really narrow car!
This is the house we shared with Vern & Steve, then we added Sybil, Sarai and Selene. So much fun!
The megalith in town!
And if we ever come back to Bellac I would love to stay in this house, the Moulin Blanc, by the flowered bridge. Do you think the owners would mind?
The last two photos are actually of places to rent!
