Saint Germain de Confolens, and Our Life in The Charente Department of France

Week 16 in France 11/16-11/22/2025

Welcome to the 44th weekly post of our Baby Boomers Move to France blog. We are officially into our fourth month of full time living in France.

The weather for this week has been downright cold with some rain and even a little snow.

As you know we are still in Saint Germain de Confolens. The picture below is of the 14th century bridge that leads into town across the Vienne River. I was standing in the park upriver from the bridge when I took this. The trees are losing their leaves, so I grabbed this chance for the photo. The river is too shallow and rocky to allow serious navigation. However, there were mills and tanneries along the river in town. I looked for the telltale steer horns protruding from the walls of the tannery buildings. The tanners used the horns to hang the hides to dry. I didn’t see any horns protruding from building walls. Of course, the tanneries are no longer here.

The hillsides on this side of the river are made of granite. There was a granite quarry on the south side of town, but the residents didn’t like the noise and dust, so it was shut down. There is still a quarry at the north end just across the Issoire River where it joins the Vienne. The photo below is an example of the granite from the old quarry.

The above photo is at the old granite quarry. It is gated off so, no climbing on the granite.

Things on the agenda this week:

• Test run to Poitiers
• Pick up my banjo form the repair guy
• Check out potential sites to visit when Cindy and Don are visiting
• Check out Belle Vue
• Review paperwork required for the driver’s license exchange and the Carte Vitale medical card applications
• Send the final house purchase payment to the notaire

Why this Blog?

Long story short, we are a couple of “Baby Boomers” that have moved from Venice, Florida to the beautiful French countryside as retirees. After a little over a year of planning and fretting we sold everything and made the move on 1 August 2025.

We started this blog to share our experiences. We publish a brief update on our life in France every Sunday.

If this is your first visit to our blog, WELCOME!

To all of our regulars, thanks for being here. It means a lot.

If you or anyone you know is thinking about a move to France, we are happy to share our thoughts and answer questions. Just drop a question in the comment section below and we will get back to you.

If you are wondering what got into our head and inspired us to make the move check out some of our earlier posts. Again, if you have questions about our adventure, drop your questions in the comment section below.

We are learning a lot about the French culture and lifestyle as we make our life here and each week, we include some thoughts on what we learn.

This Week in General

More Exploring

We went to Poitier on Monday to check out the drive and the directions to the OFII office. We don’t want to get lost on the day that we are to be there for our meeting with the health official to finalize our visa certification. Potier is a good size town. We will want to do a little exploring there eventually.

Banjo Man, Atelier de Lutherie Bruno Torres

I picked up my banjo from the repair shop on Wednesday. It looks good and sounds good. Bruno is a character and loves to talk. Below is a picture of Bruno in his shop at 5 rue Marchedieu in Saint Germain de Confolens. Check out his website at https://banjos-brunotorres.com. By the way a Lutherie is a person who fabricates stringed instruments.

He is busy building another banjo to order. When I walked into his shop he was busy inlaying mother of pearl into one of his banjo projects. He invited me to stop by anytime just to chat and he will show me how to play the banjo claw hammer style.

He also plays the fiddle.

Staying warm and cozy

We pretty much stayed inside all day on Wednesday as the temps were in the low 40s during the day and the off and on rain made going outside miserable.

That’s okay, it gave me time to research phone and internet carriers and check out other utility providers. One thing for sure, electricity is highly taxed. No wonder so many homes are heated using oil fueled boilers and wood or pellet stoves. That said, I recently read that France has one of the lowest inflation rates of any of the countries in Europe.

The gite that we are staying in is cozy and is heated using an oil boiler. The drawback is the smell of the oil. However, we only smell it when we go downstairs. Our place in Chabanais doesn’t use oil. The town has a town gas supply and we also have some solar panels too.

We had temps in the 30s on Thursday. I broke out my fleece lined pants. It was another quiet day inside. We did get a light dusting of snow in the evening. It stuck to the cars but not to the street. However, we drove through Confolens to Ansac-sur-Vienne on Friday and noticed the snow was deeper. Ansac-sur-Vienne is just maybe 5 miles away and the snow definitely was sticking.

I did practice on my banjo a little on Thursday and again on Friday. It seems like a year since I practiced so I’m a little rusty but better than I expected. I’m starting from page one of my original book just to shake out some of the cobwebs. There are good tunes in this beginner book so it will be fun.

EB finished crocheting a pretty scarf just in time for the cold weather. She is on to a blanket project that she will drape over the new couch in the Chabanais house.

Rosie keeps warm under her blanket and has been finicky about food lately. EB has started cooking chicken for Rosie and on Thursday EB bought some beef patties just for Rosie.

Snow in Saint Germain de Confolens

Picture out of our 2nd floor window. The car wasn’t there very long.

Thanks to John and Denise for telling us about Rummikub. It has been our go to game for the cold evenings.

French Lifestyle and Culture

About Saint Germain de Confolens

I don’t think I told you much about this village. First it is a small narrow village sandwiched between granite hills on one side and sandstone hills on the other. The village actually straddles both the Vienne River and the smaller Issoire River. The Issoire is a tributary to the Vienne, which in turn is a tributary to the Loire River.

These rivers were perfect for powering the tanneries mills and for creating the tanneries soaking ponds. The tanneries were a major source of income for the area, and they thrived along the river. Well, they thrived until they didn’t. They didn’t keep up with technology and thus faded away.

I did a little research and found that the history is actually pretty interesting. There have been some archeological finds dating back to ancient times including the presence of the Romans in the area.

Legend has it that the original castle was destroyed by the Saracens in 732.

From the 11th century onward the Lords of Saint Germain were powerful. They were in charge of a huge area and many villages. The new castle (now in ruins) was built around the 14th century on the site of a 12th century fortress. The War of Religion was hard on Saint Germain as it stood on the front lines of the war. The castle was taken in turns by Protestant and Catholic factions throughout the war.

The tanneries are gone, and the mills are gone. Now it is a quaint little riverside village with a population of about 84. There is a nice cafe (Cafe Naomie) in the center of the village and a nice restaurant and bar at the southern end of the village. We like the cafe and have had lunch there a couple of times. We did try a glass of wine at the restaurant; we might try lunch there as it looks pretty good. EB tried the Bordeaux wine, and I went for the Languedoc. To our taste the Bordeaux was better.

I took the photo of this tree is at the north end of Saint Germain de Confolens. You might be wondering what all those ball shaped clumps of green stuff are in the trees: That is mistletoe. It is semi-parasitic evergreen shrub which forms large spherical balls in certain tree species. It is poisonous and if ingested causes mild symptoms or even death. It is also used as a medicinal plant.

Did you know that according to legend mistletoe was declared a symbol of love by the Norse Goddess Frigga? From then on, anyone standing beneath the mistletoe was to receive a kiss of peace and affection. So that’s where that custom comes from.

These clumps of mistletoe are more visible now that the trees are losing their leaves. It is wild how much there is out there. I haven’t seen anyone harvesting it though.

Thanksgiving

As I mentioned last week, France does not celebrate the United States holiday of Thanksgiving. We usually celebrated with my sister or with EB’s aunt. This year we will be on our own. We will miss celebrating with family. Since we will be busy signing our papers for the closing of our house purchase on Thanksgiving Day, we will probably just chill with a glass of wine and unwind from the stress. No drama.

We are super excited about making new memories in France and adding to our long list of things to be thankful for. Not the least of which is the chance to spend time together in this beautiful place.

Christmas Market in Limoges

During November 28 through December 28 Limoges has a big Christmas Market with something like 600,000 visitors every year and all kinds of events, we will definitely have to see it. Pictures and commentary to follow.

Next Week (la Semaine Prochaine)

Speaking of lists, we have a few things to do next week:

• Send payment for the furnishings that we agreed to buy with the house
• Send payment for our stay in the gite for the month of December
• Drive to Chabanais for the final review of the house on Thursday
• Drive to Ruffec to sign the final closing documents for the house on Thursday
• Start gathering paperwork for the OFII visit
• Driver’s License follow up
• Explore Confolens city center
• Check out Esse and Belle Vue

Signing off for the week

As always, we sign off wishing you all a good week and remind you to take care of yourselves and your family. ENJOY YOUR HOLIDAY.

Keep in touch and leave questions, suggestions and comments below. We really enjoy hearing from you. Your kind and encouraging words remind us that we can do this.

A bientot (see you soon)

Mark and Elizabeth Beiley

Babyboomersmovetofrance.com