We’re very ashamed to have left it so long between blog posts so here at last is some overdue news from Port 80. It’s hard to keep up with blogging during the summer months: so many activities happen in the area like vide-greniers, concerts and fetes – all of which we’ve been taking advantage of with relish.

Every July, our local town of Saint Pardoux-la-Rivière throws a big party called La Nuit du Spardos which we never miss. The streets are thronged with stalls and live bands play into the night. The event gets its name for the mysterious drink, Spardos, which is ladled out of a giant vat by men dressed as monks. No, we’re not making this up – and believe us, whatever’s in there, it packs a punch!

Another reason for our recent silence is that we’re amateur musicians and usually perform a few small gigs in summer, so our spare time has been taken up with rehearsals. This has stepped up a notch this year as we’ve recently been adopted by a local association called Musique en Herbe.

They’re a lovely group of volunteers who offer free music lessons here in the Périgord Vert and also put on concerts at local events. They have an Aladdin’s cave of a music studio that is crammed full of state-of-the-art equipment that allows them to put on very professional-looking concerts, and we’re thrilled to get involved with them.

We played a gig with them last weekend at Nontron’s annual Fête du Couteau and it was a great success despite unfortunately falling on the only drizzly day in a string of beautiful ones.

But it’s not been all play here in Mazeroux. Since our last update, we’ve introduced a few new businesses to the internet. These include Action Carp Fishing France, Infiniment Belle and Perth Lifecasting, all of whom took advantage of our Quick & Simple service to get online at a great price. We also redesigned the website of a local wedding photographer, Peter Antoine Photography.

There’s plenty more in the pipeline too: currently projects include an ecommerce website for a supplier of UK paints based in the Charente and a wordpress site for a ski instruction school in the Alps. And of course, what kind of web designers would we be if we didn’t help our new friends at Musique en Herbe get online? They don’t know it yet, but a modern and funky new site is underway for them as we speak… 🙂