Can't decide! Can't decide! HELP!!!

OK, today we saw two houses that are top of the list. One is quirky but completely lovable - it's an old railroad house de ' guarde barriere' where the person in the house would go out and lower th ebarricade across the road when a train was coming. There's lots of these cute little houses all over France and they are quite distinctive. This one has lots and lots going for it. It's really isolated, having no close neighbors at all, although not far from a largish town, and with other houses up the road, including a horse farm. This house would have enough room for Summertime to live at home, but he could take a little trip up the road if we went away on vacation. The house itself is small, but larger than the lovely house from yesterday. It would need some work - updating the electrics of course, which would be true for every house we've seen and every house we've owned. We'd also have to replace the floor in one downstairs room, which is wood and is in the process of rotting, although still usable currently. The house has a huge new bathroom and separate WC, and a large outbuilding that could easily be made into a great studio. This house is certainly the one with the best air quality - there's no neighbors close enough to bother us, and the land around is some sort of preserve. It's across the road from the Dordogne river - a long ways off across a lovely field. The views from this house are lovely, and the general area has an amazing collection of beautiful Perogourdine architecture - houses, barns, chateaux, churches. The whole area looks like an illustration for a fairy tale. OK, I hear you asking about trains. Well, yes there are trains, and we were worried about this until one went past. These are the electric trains called the "Michelines". They are one car long and go past very quickly and are about as loud as a bus. There are a few in the morning, a couple more during the day and a few more in the evening. The train line serves commuters only and runs from Sarlat to Bergerac. There used to be a stop where the house is but that ended in 2005.

The House



The garden/yard

The other real plus about this house is that it could be had really cheap - possibly even as low as 70,000 euros.

The next house we saw was in a town called Sauveboeuf, also very near the Dordogne river, and about 15 minutes fromt he railroad house. It too has lots and lots going for it. It's huge, it's a Perogordine, it has lots of land. It has a full kitchen, living room, other room next to the living room, three bedrooms downstairs, with full bath and separate WC. Upstairs, there are three more bedrooms! Two have lovely little dormer windows, the third is at the end of the house with a window under the eaves. There's also a large garage. Why are we not immediately jumping at this house? Well, there's one close-ish neighbor - but we admit that there was no smell of wood wmoke at all. What's weird though is that this house seemed in some way impossible to see because it's so lived in, by a family with about 17 teenagers, apparently. There's just so much stuff in the house that you can hardly see the rooms at all. There are for instance, huge windows in each room, giving out onto the garden, but you hardly notice them, or the lovely light coming in them, because there's just so much junk everywhere. Outside is the same. There's weird animal pens everywhere, little quonset hut sort of sturctures filled with god knows what - wood, grain, chickens, junk, junk and more junk. But all that room, and it's not over budget - 115,000 euros, and possibly less. It needs no work at all, other than tidying up after all the junk leaves (presumably!)

The house


Some of the junk, in the garage

Along with all this house viewing, we also of course had lunch! We tried out a restaurant in Lalinde that John had noticed yesterday. Good choice - the place is charming and the food was very good. All started with a tureen of soup, which we're coming to expect by now. It was delicious again, but of course different from others, with a slight flavory of curry powder. Our meals were very good too, JOhn had a steak, from Argentina - which tend to be the best beef you get in France. I had confit de poulet which I had never before seen, altough confit de canard is everywhere of course. Both came with perfectly done home fries and a salad with dressing that I'm sure was made with walnut oil and walnut vinegar. Both are quite common in this region. Here's a photo of the restaurant.



Restaurant Le Petit Loup in Lalinde, Dordogne