Our global house-warming day

We thought we’d better have a housewarming party to celebrate our new location and to gather our new friends together to mark the occasion.

We have lived in the Lot-et-Garonne in South West France for over 4 months now.

The day was spent drinking and eating of course. Our lovely mayor was first to arrive. She had a local wedding to attend but she interspersed her village duties with coming back to join in with us 3 times over the day. Lovely woman!

Around 34 people came and went over the day, the sun shone, and someone had forgotten to hang up the clouds (AGAIN!)

I had set up a wee studio in the living room with my trusty Bowens flash units and my portable backdrop kit and throughout the day, convinced just about everyone that a portrait would be a good idea. Paulette, the mayor, is quite shy, she declined. One day… she will sit for a session with me… one day! (See gallery for the results)

One of the highlights of the day was our pal Jean Philippe the gardener/actor who drove over in his 1956 Panhard (see gallery).

Having new friends from France, Germany, USA, Ireland & some Brits too has made us feel part of the community and we’ve been welcomed with very open arms.

So, in short, a lovely day was had with a great bunch of new friends from the surrounding area as well as our close neighbours who have made living in Francescas an absolute joy. Thanks to everyone who came.

Next blog will be about our campaign to set up Studio Faire, our creative retreat and Julia’s writing for The Scotsman & French Property News magazine.