Day 8, July 17th, 2025

Day 8, July 17th, today marks the 572nd anniversary of the last battle of the Hundred Years War that ended in 1453 near the town of Castillon-la-Bataille. The battlefield was to have been south and east of the Lidoire River, and that is near our maison. Tonight after dinner, Scott and I took a walk down the road to see the sign for the Route de la Lidoire.

Tonight is the opening day of the historic spectacle to re-enact that fateful battle. https://www.castillonlabataille.fr/la-bataille-de-castillon/

It is held in the months of July and August on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. From the website it appears to be a cross between a Renaissance Faire and a military re-enactment. I am looking forward to going there before I finish this trip and I will share copious pictures afterward. I am including one picture taken from an upstairs bedroom that looks out in the direction of Belves-de-Castillion where the spectacle takes place. You can see the light from when they are setting off fireworks. The sound was muted, so that it shouldn’t keep anyone awake.

Onto the daily update for progress on the house. Today, the plumber returned and he replaced a pump which solved our problem. We now have hot water! Woot! Woot! I can now take a hot shower and wash dishes by using tap water.

I stayed behind again today because we were expecting multiple deliveries and someone had to be here to accept them.

One thing I did while waiting for the deliveries was to spend time removing dead vines that were attached to an oak tree outside of our winery. Gardening for me is therapeutic and my favorite task is to weed and remove vegetation that doesn’t belong.

I will show the before and after photos of the tree. I had also spent some time getting rid of dead vegetation at the base of a peach tree, but I had to leave that area in order to hear if there were any deliveries at the front of the house.

Scott and Eric spent the day going to multiple places ordering more appliances, meeting with government officials regarding our winery, and getting more groceries.

Wildlife sightings :

deer in a neighboring field

hundreds of birds in a tree

Sheep grazing in a vineyard

And here are some photos of our neighborhood.

We are making progress, but there is so much left to be done. Thankfully with hot water it will seem less like glamping and more like rural French living.