Indian Summer

 

At last a sunny day. A walk round the vines revealed a few new houses but OK ones. One patch of vines had heaps of juicy fat bunches discarded on the ground. We know not why.

Lunch at Roaix where we were greeted with enthusiasm and could once more sit under the mulberry trees with our boeuf bourgignon. David even recognised me with my mask on!

Then a short trip to Rasteau and a walk round the square.

The clock struck two. Views as good as ever. But here as everywhere there is masses of renovation work. So many houses getting the beauty treatment in Rasteau, Sablet, Séguret. Good time to be a builder by the looks of it.

Small successes

 Today we went to Gravillas and got wine. Almost the end of the harvest and the last trailers are trundling about loaded with juicy black grapes. Then to Ste Cécile to visit SAUR the water people. They had billed us in June for an estimated consumption because they couldn’t get into the meter. Odd because they never have before either as it is a bluetooth job. We obviously have used nothing since last November. Anyway I masked up and went in and the very helpful lady accepted the current reading, rebilled us and refunded 32 euros. But she said it was illegal to padlock a water meter and we must remove it! Trouble is we once had louts remove the insulation which is why we padlock it. 

Next stop the supermarket at Tulette for more supplies. We can withstand a siege now. And once again to Ste C for a coffee in the Bar de l’Union. Very quiet. As we sat under the menu board we became tempted so stayed for lunch. By which time a few more clients appeared. Jolly good - simple but a gesture of normality.

Last Supper

 Bit of a grey day yesterday. We settled in, did washing etc. Many techie trials and tribulations! Landline not reconnected for some reason and I couldn’t make phone calls on iphone. Spent ages on a fruitless live webchat with an Orange operative to try to sort landline to no avail. But fortunately I had the trusty Nokia basic and managed to speak to O2 lady who sorted my iphone call issue. John came and fixed our satellite dish so we have TV again. Mr Fernandes has already been to assess the broken gutter. What heroes!

And then the evening at Terrace Towers for one last time. Lovely meal and company but so sad to think that’s it. They are off in the caravan today for who knows where. We went to Kaisers for morning tea and saw Louise and John again for a few minutes as they came to say goodbye.

Anne and I have been to butcher and baker to buy supplies and exchange grumbles about our various governments. Mme Moulin has bought Mme Pradier’s boulangerie so now has a monopoly in Sablet - what larks! The town is looking quite smart and it seems many folk have used lockdown to have façades rerendered. The Old Village Association have attached various perspex interpretation panels to notable sights. And in the Wine /Tourist Office window is this impressive 9 litre bottle - a Salmanazar apparently.

back home

 We left Cahors very early and slogged along to what we vaguely hoped might be breakfast in the boulangerie cum café we’ve frequented before. The place where slices of prune tarte are to be had. It was cold today, and drizzly. Not very joyful. Even less so when we got to the boulangerie.  As half expected the café side was empty - obviously too small to be worth social distancing. So we took six croissants and plodded on to Villefranche and a brasserie bar with outside under an awning. Chilly but OK and good loos! Most important.

Then off towards Millau and the Viaduc to give Anne the full experience. We stopped in the interpretation area/farm for a look from beneath and for me to buy some Aligot. Then  Anne took the front seat for the ride across and to spare me the awful helter skelter down the motorway to the sea!

We failed to find anywhere for lunch that appealed and as we were now in the Red Zone of France didn’t feel like popping down to Marseillan. So...a quick supermarket shop in Tulette and home to find shutters open thanks to John and Louise.  All mostly well except no phone ! Dramatic skies and more rain but we are promised sun next week.

As for wifi, I am on personal hotspot so it will be brief but hopefully regular.

sun and showers

Day Two in France. We woke to dry and clear in defiance of the forecast storms. La Rochelle knows better! Then off down south via Rochefort to Royan for breakfast. 

The sun shone, it was warm. We parked right on Le Front de Mer of happy memory and had a full petit déj at La Souris Verte for a reasonable €7.50 a head.

A quick stroll to the seafront then off again along the estuary taking in the familiar sights.

But as we headed inland the clouds gathered and it started to rain, eventually heavily, just as we wanted to stop for our sausages and hard boiled eggs. In the end we gave up and parked in a farm track overlooking desiccated sunflowers somewhere south of Ste Foy ...

The rain persisted until nearly Cahors then miraculously cleared! We settled into Ibis Budget and zoomed straight off to show Anne Le Pont Valentré. And our evening meal was in Campanile next door. Sigh... but not bad.

We venture abroad

Well we did it. After endless nail biting weeks waiting for the hammer to fall, we managed to get on board Pont Aven in Plymouth last night. A rather dull passage across the Western Approaches. No one wanted to stride about the ship bemasked so Anne, Adrian and I slunk to our cabins to await the dawn on the other side. It was a smooth crossing but for some reason our cabin did not gently waken us with Celtic Harp music at 6. Instead, the first we knew was bing bong, we arrive in 45 minutes and breakfast is being served. Yikes...rapid dressing and application of eye liner somewhere approximating to lid and a fast croissant and yoghurt before we scuttled down to car. There we waited...zzz. Eventually an announcement that they could not open the bow doors!! That’s a new one. But all was well and we left into French drizzle that soon became torrential rain for much of the long trek out of Brittany. 

However, The Gods relented and we made it to Port du Bec in the Vendée marshes where moules frites were consumed under the awning outside. Very wet. Now sustained and in a better temper we visited the Passage du Grois and proceeded down through the wetlands to La Rochelle. 

Here as always the sun shone and allowed us a stroll to the port for kirs and pastis followed by a salad at the pizza place. Our room in Première Classe is vast with a wet room. It’s the disabled room, though on the third floor!

We are not massively impressed by the middle aged bar flies of La R. Kissing, handshakes, close contact drinking. The Young Folk are much more careful.