Welcome to Loutses!

This site is all about the Corfiot village of Loutses that we call home.

Regular visitors to this site will recognise that it has undergone yet another makeover. Whereas it was the repository for our monthly newsletters which were invariably late, it is now being presented in the form of a weblog or blog as they are normally referred to!

Please note: In the event that you are looking for past newsletters, you will now find them in our archives accessible through the menu on the top menu bar, not the ‘Archives’ in the righthand column.

Where is Loutses?

For those unfamiliar with Corfu, Loutses is situated to the north of the island and sits upon the eastern side of Mount Pantokrator and is a little over 300 metres above sea level. It commands spectacular views of Mount Pantokrator to the south, Albania to the east and the Ionian Sea to the north.

My wife, Tricia and I have lived in Corfu since April 2002 and moved to Loutses in October 2003. We originally rented a property until we were sure that we really wanted to settle in Greece. There have been some trials and tribulations but generally, I think that we are pleased with our decision.

Having made that decision, we found and purchased a piece of land in Loutses where we subsequently had our current home built. We have documented the trials and tribulations of having a house built in Corfu on another website which you will find at www.thehelm.co.uk. If you are considering building a house, or having a house built in Corfu, we would suggest that you will not waste your time viewing that site. House building in Greece bears no similarity to housebuilding in the UK!

The aim of this website

This site exists to give an insight into the village that we now call home. We do venture outside the village and obviously we will be including details of such jaunts. When we originally started this website, we were anxious to show that just because we had chosen to live in a ‘foreign’ country that is a holiday destination to many, that life was not just one big holiday. To do so would be beyond our means and I doubt that we wouldn’t have the stamina! I hope that by now we have put that myth to bed!

Living as a foreigner in a Greek village is certainly different. It goes without saying that it is totally different to both the life of the tourist and life in the anonymity of a city. This project continues to be a ‘labour of love’ as the publishing of this site is fitted in with our normal lives. We have included a small image gallery which we will be adding to as time permits.

Administrative Notes

Important!

Firstly, please be aware that logins from the previous site will not work! You only need to login to post comments. This will require registering again. Sorry for any inconvenience.

Because our musings are now in the form of a blog, it is quite likely that we will be having several ‘Posts’ during the month. Subscribing to the RSS feed will keep you up to date. Clicking on the ‘Blog’ menu item will always produce the latest post at the top.

In a previous version of this website, we used to include images inline in each newsletter. We know that this feature was missed by many as they didn’t like having to ‘find’ the relevant gallery that accompanied the article. We hope to strike a compromise here in that we will still have galleries that appear in the main menu but we will insert a thumbnail into the posts where relevant. Clicking on the thumbnail should cause the respective gallery to open in a new page.

We welcome any comments or for that matter criticism. (Preferably constructive!) Please feel free to contact us.

Enjoy!

Bob & Tricia Giles

Loutses, Corfu.