House with a view

I always liked the thought of living in a foreign country. Even though you're no different, you feel it's different It's more stimulating We travelled a lot in France. and we thought this has the best combination of foreign-ness . . .climate . . but there's a chance of understanding the language. That was always in the back of our mind. There are an infinite number of walks you can take through the vines There are no restrictions You can walk anywhere you like. The attraction of living among vines is the combination of man-made and natural landscapes which creates amazing patterns in whichever direction you look, which changes dramatically depending on the light and the sun . . . . . what time of day it is. The whole landscape changes But of course it changes as well with the seasons because before the vines are in leaf there's a range of wild flowers in between the vines And what's unusual is that it's very rarely the same flowers every year. Sometimes it's the yellow of the rape sometimes it's wild marigolds sometimes it's the yellow of the dandelions which then turn white when they go to seed So the whole landscape is actually changing because of what's growing. Walks can never be boring around here . . . . . . and that's ignoring any of the wildlife . . . . and the birdlife. Contact with a particular buzzard that doesn't like anyone anywhere within 2 miles of his nest . . . and it lets you know that! On a Sunday I usually do a longer walk and there's a circuit which in my younger days used to take me an hour. and it included an escarpment which looked over the Dordogne valley. I thought any house here would have the most fantastic view. There were a few groups of buildings Just on this one occasion I saw a 'For Sale' notice. The main asset of the house was the view across the valley, but the previous owners being a working vineyard - and a builder didn't have a lot of time to sit around admiring the view. So, as a result, the building ignores any view in that direction, possibly because it faces north. Because of the different use the house was going to be put to, we thought to maximise the advantage of the view and create terraces on that side of the building. The very first thing that was done was an open terrace absolutely on the edge of the property which was a drop of several feet before it reached the level of the vines. So it was by chance on the walk that I only did once a week that we found this house which has the most magnificent view.