Chateau Ribagnac

This is Chateau Ribagnac (www.chateauribagnac.com). About four years ago, Patrick and Colette Bergot, a couple from London, purchased and converted it into a bed and breakfast. Gabe and I spent the month of November here, primarily working in the garden. In addition, we did some odd jobs around the estate, such as spreading gravel on the driveway and cleaning out a pond.

It was definitely late in the season, but there were still a few things left in the garden. We spent some of our time harvesting and some weeding around the permanent stuff. We also spent some time getting the garden ready for plowing and transplanting things like raspberries and strawberries. Below you can see Gabe digging up an extraneous raspberry shoot, which he then moved to an empty spot farther down the row to the left.

Yes, this is a small tractor, but it's still a tractor and it was fun to drive. And yes, I'm trying to look cool, just like all the other people who take pictures of themselves in front of their houses with their cars. There's a load of cattails in the trailer, pulled out of a nearby pond. They're on their way to the burn pile.

My fancy digital camera is capable of taking videos, so I figured I might as well use the functionality. Unfortunately, the camera's sound recording is screwed up, so you're going to have to deal with a hastily thrown together Windows Movie Maker job that replaces engine noises with a Doc Watson song. I'm driving back from the burn pile. Gabe's the cameraman, sitting in the recently emptied trailer.


Between Gabe and me is Danielle, a local man who came once a week with his big tractor to do jobs around the estate that we couldn't do with the little one. We were his assistants whenever he came. Danielle was a lot of fun to get to know. He's twice our age and put to shame not only our "farming" skills, but also our energy level (he ran a marathon over one of the weekends we were there). He speaks essentially no English, but luckily was the most accommodating French speaker we met. He actually made me feel like I could communicate in French.

In the 6th century the Limousin region in France was home to Saint Leonard. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Leonard_of_Noblac) One weekend, Gabe and I went with the Bergot family to a festival celebrating his tradition. Saint Leonard is a patron saint of prisoners. The main event of the festival (pictured below) is teenage equestrians destroying a wooden model of a jail. They gallop toward the model and try to hit it with a mallet. After the jail is destroyed, everyone gets to keep a tiny shard of the jail as a good luck charm for the year.

This is the Bergot family watching as the jail gets destroyed. From left to right are Patrick's parents, Gerard and Marcella (who were visiting the Chateau). Next is Collete, then Eve, then Patrick with Agnés on his shoulders. Gilberto is in the stroller. I have to say, they make quite a lovely family.