I stayed with Nicholas in Candes, in the locale of Comiac, in the Lot region, close to the Dordogne.
Candes is hard to find on a map. It's a tiny hamlet with one permanent resident, Sousou. Since her husband died she has lived alone in the large house next to Nicholas. Her nephew checks up on her and a district nurse calls in morning and evening. On Fridays the butcher comes by in his van. At the turn of the century, there were around 90 people living in Candes. Each house had a barn, nearby land, a bread oven, maybe a pig pen or a hen run. Comiac, 2 km away, would have had shops, where now there's only the cafe, which sells lunches, a few token supplies and povides postal services. It is subsidised by the state. The Comiac communual bread oven is fired up by the men once a month and there are community gatherings in the town hall.
Nicholas had done a lot of work to make his house, built in 1780, habitable, but he doesn't stay there over winter. One of the other houses has been beautifully modernised by a Dutch couple who live mostly in Spain and come for the summer.
These weeks Nicholas has been planting vegetables and digging beds for his potato crop, while I have been pulling out weeds. For a couple of days we sat inside by the fire, rained out of the garden. We also did some walks around the neighbourhood, following tracks through the woods, often marked by mossy stone walls built who knows how long ago.
Here are some more photos I took around Candes. It is such a pity many these residential and agricultural buildings are not being cared for.
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