At Perigord Retreats, our cooler months of the year were spent carefully tending to our huge variety of plants, shrubs and trees. We spent a lot of time pruning our Buddleia, caring for the mature oaks, trimming the blue and white hydrangea, planting several new fruit trees and planting a whole host of different bulbs ready to flower throughout the season.
The start of April brought with it a sharp turn in weather, which is expected in the Dordogne; daytime temperatures in the mid 20s (77 farenheit), beautiful sunshine and the eruption of colour from the ground up. Tulips flowering, Roses growing wildly and vivid flowers growing from the fruit trees. Seeing this every spring really makes all the maintenance work throughout the winter worthwhile.
It seems as though the whole of the Dordogne comes to life at the same time like clockwork. Apart from all of the plant growth, we start to see the wild Roe deer with their fawns, Boar with their piglets and a lot of song birds rushing around our gardens finding every morsel they can to feed their chicks. We do our best to provide a wide range of options in terms of photo opportunities and painting opportunities for our guests. Whether you like to paint or photograph traditional buildings, flowers, landscapes or even wild animals, we know the best spots in the region and are more than happy to accommodate.
All of the shops and restaurants have opened as normal, so now is a great time to spend an evening in the sun drinking a glass of locally produced “Cahors” wine or even some Dordogne produced “Monbazillac” blanc with foie gras. We are fortunate enough to have some beautiful towns and villages to explore within a 30 minute drive of Perigord Retreats (Sarlat-La-Canéda) and we endeavour to provide a service that keeps our guests content at all costs.
This is all the time we have for now, the garden is calling!