This and that

Yesterday we drove down into the South Dordogne and delivered a car load of books to the Phoenix book fair.  Phoenix is an animal charity, rehoming abandoned household pets in the Dordogne and once or twice a year they hold a huge fund raising book fair.   As the St Yrieix charity shop sometimes has a surplus of books it works well to deliver these to Phoenix. We dropped the books off at a huge barn near Bergerac where books sorters were hard at work, getting ready for the early May fair.  They sort by author name and reckoned they’d got to about “M” but donations, presumably, confuse matters.

In the afternoon we stopped for a drink in Vergt at a very old French bar.  It looked as though it, and its contents, had been there since at least the last war.  Service was slow.  The chap behind the bar took at least 10 minutes to draw a glass of beer and pour a large black coffee.   He seemed pleasant enough but had a large collection of rifles hanging on the walls. 

One of the good things about being English is the ease with which I can take photographs when I’m out.  People just assume I’m a stupid tourist as I smile and snap away.

 

 

This morning was  Excideuil market day.  I’m going to England for a few days next week and have promised to try and obtain some large green olives for a friend.  The best ones are usually on the market stalls but today it was raining and there was no olive stall to be seen.  Plenty of vegetables though and the wonderful Excideuil market fish stall so fish for dinner tonight - cabillaud for Mike and tuna for me (he hates it).

A cup of tea at the Kitsch Cafe on the way home. 

That Thatcher controversy rages on.  Inflation was at 10% when she came to power, and 10% when she left.  But unemployment was up and strikes were down, presumably because there were less jobs.  She did, though, have the assistance of the Saatchi Brothers to put a good spin on things.