Yesterday afternoon was fraught. The trials and tribs of dealing with La Banque Postale continue. I used their secure facility to cancel accounts and attached all the documents I could think of and waited. Ping! in comes message.., Sorry, computer says’no’..or wtte. Apparently I missed off one page of Adrian’s passport and did not send an official RIB from Nationwide. So I message Nationwide and ask for one. They don’t produce such a thing - you have to copy the one on your App account info page. So I screenshot the lot and send off zillions of photo pages and we await results.
I need relaxation and it's a sunny warm evening. Off to the Café du Centre to sit by the fountain, where two kirs turn into four and then mushroom ravioli and some glasses of red. The lights come on. It is very pretty.
Today, rain promised but we don’t believe them. It is a bit grey but still warm. Adam is due on Monday so we need food supplies! Off to Ste Cécile and a few essentials are obtained.
Then we ventured off to Valréas - an historic town with many fine buildings, just a bit run down in places. It was a centre of silk manufacture and this is a piece of art representing the ventilated box invented to import the worms.
They do try hard though and today there just happened to be a food fare in the beautiful castle square.
Old fashioned children's games and a jazz band - all very jolly.
Not all the history is jolly though. One of their grimest. memorials is the wall against which many were shot in 1944 as the Nazis retreated. I am not photographing that.
The building is now a printing and packaging museum, a memorial to the town’s past industry. We’ve been before years ago and it’s really interesting. These are litho stones.
The Massacre: In retaliation for the resistance occupation, German troops executed 53 people in Valréas (27 captured resistance fighters and 26 civilian hostages chosen at random) against a wall that is now commemorated as the Mur des Fusillés (located in front of the local museum/Cartonnage et de l'Imprimerie)
And finally, over the hills through Vinsobres to Mirabel aux Baronnies and a drink in a new bar restaurant… just about to close for 10 days holiday so no chance to eat there this time!
Mirabel’s had quite a face lift round the Mairie - this resto is actually the back of one on the main street and it opens onto a nice space with mini supermarket and landscaped passageway.
