Behind the Scenes: A Day in the Life of a Senior in Rural France

I have to take my daily walk with my collie cross dog in the morning, for both my and her sake. We either walk up the hill through the hameau ( very small village) and then through a forest trail till we reach the coll at the top.

Or we go down to the town and take a walk along the river past fields, trees and a waterfall. This time as I walked along I reached our annual open air art festival, where local artists, sculptors and photographers have installed their work on the rocks by the river, onto trees and over the grass. Here is just one picture of what a local artists was offering.

Our small town Marie elections was won by a group of local artists, musicians, artisans and local activists who wanted to revitalise a town that is in the middle of a poor rural department. They have succeeded over the last 12 years to make it a centre for music events featuring all types of music, artistic events, including a bi-annual potters market and regular food fairs. These include fairs centred on cheese, a sweet onion fair, flowers and fruit trees, a soup night, a sweet chestnut fair as well as at least one local market every Saturday.

As a result the town is thriving, with loads of local shops, a medical centre, an old people's home, a variety of different kine therapists, the local Marie, tourist centre, Prefecture, gendarmerie, a pre- school,primary and secondary school, vets, post office, hairdressers, more or less everything you need,As a result it is centre not just for its own citizens but also from quite a wide area around plus in the Summer months, a fair number of tourists , but thankfully not too many.