St-Martin-de-Vers

From the hill to the west. Our house is the one at the far right. For now, the construction crane and green plastic tarp covering the church repairs make it a bit less picturesque.

View to the Southeast

Looking out one of our windows in the early morning.

View to the Southwest

The carpenter shop across the bridge specializes in staircases and seems to have supplied all the houses in town, ours included. (Our leased Peugeot 206 is in the foreground.)

View to the Northwest

Looking another direction. The view of the village was taken from the top of the hill seen here. (A good walk!)

North Side View

The old fortified church (mainly 15th century, foundations older) dominates the village.

East - Out the Front Door

Like most medieval French villages, St-Martin-de-Vers has strict architectural regulations. Exceptions seem to be made for satellite dishes, however.

Neighbors...

The distict variety of sheep in the area is marked by black eye circles (called "lunettes" because they look like glasses). This breed is one of two that produces lambs year round, so lamb is very much a local specialty.

Diana and Marinette

Diana has gotten to know several of the locals, including Marinette Conduché, who lives just down the road and raises her own rabbits and chickens.

The Causse

The high limestone plateaus surrounding our valley are called causse and are used mainly for agriculture. They are honey-combed with caves, so this also is an area popular with spelunkers.

Old Bridge

This old stone bridge is about a mile down the Vers from us.

Northwest side

A little stream, actually the millrace from the village mill, runs past this side. The lintel over the lower window on the street side, which appears to have once been a door, says 1847.

East side

The main entry is from the porch, up a few stone steps from the gate and the street.

Salon, facing west

You enter into the salon and kitchen. We bought the major furniture pieces, but not all the decorative items, from the previous owners.

Kitchen

The corner kitchen is immediately inside the entry.

Salon -southeast corner

Another view of the salon area.

Upstairs bedroom, facing east

Eventually, we'd like to add a second bathroom here.

Upstairs bedroom, west end.

There's actually a fair amount of room here, once the previous owners got all their stuff out.

Downstairs bedroom

Note the old beamed ceiling. The bathroom is on this level also.

Downstairs bedroom

A door leads from here onto the patio.

Patio

The left door leads to the bedroom, the right one to a storage area, the bathroom and wc.