G'day Mates!

Greetings from the Lot Valley! We are a couple of misfit Australians who abandoned the heat to move to France only to discover that it came with our luggage! We must have unpacked it because it has been hot ever since! We do love it here in the Lot, people are fabulous, the scenery and the communities are so welcoming. So far we’ve only met one other Aussie living here, but loads of expat Brits, Dutch, Irish, Greek, and of course French, may of whom speak a bit of Anglais. I have just done a Greta course in French and now have B2 level, but my husband D relies on Google translate, shrugs, and grimaces to communicate before he heads off to the forest with his chainsaw to feed the greedy woodburner. We are both ex-teachers, and my husband is also an artist when he is not wrestling with the house and property. Good to be here, we need all the advice we can get! R

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Greetings from Burgundy, the other side of France.
Glad you are keeping warm.

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Welcome to France and the SF!

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Welcome from me too, and you will not be alone, we already have our own pet Aussie here who is being particularly valuable to me at the moment. :joy:

But many of us are familiar with Australia so maybe an indication of where abouts there you both originate might be interesting.

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Welcome to SF from someone who only lives in france a few weeks a year and is struggling to catch the language.

Now, where’s @toryroo :wink:

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G’day and bonjour.

Yep. It’s hot down south. I’m familiar with Lot & Garonne. Gets a fair dose of the current bun.

I moved from Spain because of the heat. I took no chances and settled in Normandy, 80kms south of the D-Day beaches. Even so, we had a water crisis this summer but it’s making up for it these past few weeks - chilly and very, very wet. This stat is what the past couple of months or more have been.

Rain = green grass = cows = rich milk = Camembert & Pont L’Eveque. :grinning:

image

However, I take inspiration from the spectacular cloudscapes, giving it large with my inner Constable …

But the summer will not be a pergatorial penance of high °C’s. It’ll be balmy and green [like Sugden]

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We are most recently from Adelaide, South Australia, but I have also lived in Melbourne, Victoria. We’ve both also lived in various small country towns. It really is a very small world…as they say, 6 degrees of connection? :earth_asia:

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Welcome!

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Beautiful photo! I do love watching the clouds as well. You’ve captured them well, which is difficult as their magic is often our awareness of their transience.
(Turner also managed to capture the uncapturable, did you like the recent film “Turner”?) We get alot of fog here in the Lot valley, (we call it the “Figeac Fog”) sometimes long wisps and often actual huge clouds descended in the mornings. Its a bit chilly atm being winter, and the smoke rises from everyone’s chimneys…

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Welcome, which bit of Oz are you from ?

Don’t know what level French you are up to but Duolingo is quite a good site to help your French. I’m sure others have different suggestions.

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Welcome, you’ve chosen a great part of France in which to live! We’re on the Lot at La Roque Bouillac between (Capdenac and Decaz). Artists too! We go to Figeac mkt every Saturday morning, so maybe meet up.

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My husband’s website:

His main area of expertise is large-scale holography. My background is in Anthropology, my passion is Australian Aboriginal art, préhistoire et art rupestre.

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G’day Aussie

Greetings from even wetter Normandy

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Hi Peter, we are from Adelaide. Duolingo was my first tool! I’ve also done other online classes like francaisauthentique.com and https://app.frenchtogether.com/. But what really helped me was doing a French course at the local GRETA (a government training organisation associated with Pole Emploi), which went for 3 months fulltime, had a workplace experience (I was lucky to get a placement at Figeac’s Champollion Museum), and concluded with an official government exam in French proficiency (DCL). Somehow, I really dont know how, I attained a B2 level. (However, on the phone, I am still absolutely hopeless!) I’m hoping to do more study and “parler avec des francophones”, volunteer work, and eventually find part time work.

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Hello AnAussie and welcome.

If you are into art and prehistory I can really recommend the Pech-Merle caves, not that far from you. (If you haven’t been already). They are stunning.

https://www.pechmerle.com/

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g1075819-d219124-Reviews-Grotte_du_Pech_Merle-Cabrerets_Lot_Occitanie.html

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The steam train at Martel is good fun on a nice day, a bit smoky but worth the asphyxia!

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I was going to say Lascaux (and there could well be other places)

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I’ve spotted a couple of houses for sale there, but being sandwiched between the road and the hill didn’t quite appeal, though must be nice to be near the river!

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There are lots of words to describe ‘fog’.
We have mist which comes from the Saone on our left hand side and from the Loire on the right side.

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Peche-Merle is my absolute FAVORITE place in the world!!! I wish I could live in a troglodyte house there. Maybe one day!!!

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