Le Vignaud
Four Dordogne gîtes, on 250 private acres
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Why are we here?
We moved to France in 1991. I was a vet in rural practice in Skipton, North Yorkshire, and my wife, Sally, and I brought with us our four children, Rachel, Luke, Alexander and Robin. The fifth, Fleur, was born three months after our arrival.
Our life since then has been a busy mix of bringing up five children, restoring four farm cottages as well as our own home and bringing back into productive farming the “Domaine de Vignaud”.
The Farm
We have established a herd of 75 Limousin cows and a flock of 400 sheep on a farm that was suffering from several years of neglect and had no livestock whatsoever on our arrival. In addition to clearing many acres of gorse, broom and brambles, we have also erected about 5 miles of fencing to allow us to farm in an extensive manner with the animals spending as much time as possible outside.
The cattle are split into two herds, one calving principally in March/April and the other in October/ November. The sheep are likewise composed of a spring and an autumn lambing flock.
Our busiest times of the year are lambing, calving and silage and hay making, the two latter usually taking place in May, June and July.
During your holiday here you will be surrounded by the farm and its livestock, a situation most visitors seem to enjoy. Younger members of the visiting families are often delighted to find that we also rear hens, and it is quite surprising the amount of entertainment they seem to derive from feeding/watching them.
