Adventures in France Episode 18

When the temperature soared to 33 degrees the week before last, we thought that that was very hot, but more was still to come and on Thursday of this last week we experienced our hottest day ever. Outside the pharmacy in Aignan is an illuminated sign has a large green cross on it and then underneath that, the time and temperature of the moment are displayed. We were told that at the height of the day, the temperature was reading 44 degrees, and believe me, that is really hot. A day or so later when we were out and about again, the ploughed fields were baked to a pale yellow colour whereas before the hot day they had been a lovely rich brown.
The unpleasantly hot weather has certainly put a stop to our aimless wandering along the back roads and lanes of the area, and all car journeys have been of the ‘strictly necessary’ type. We did, however, get to the market on Wednesday, and also did some shopping at the supermarket, and roused ourselves sufficiently to go and watch the Belgian Grand Prix on a friend’s television. We thought back to two years ago when Neels and Pieter made the trip from Oss to Spa to watch this same round of the World Championship, and also got rained on, just as it did this year.
During our wanderings, we have become more and more aware of the number of small shrines and crosses at the side of the road. This is a Catholic country, so one expects to see a lot of statues of the Virgin, but around here, almost every turning and cross-roads has a symbol of some sort. Sometimes they are plaster figures; sometimes carved wooden ones. Sometimes it will be a crucifix in plain wood or plaster; sometimes a painted one. But the crosses that have really caught my eye are the curly, twirly wrought iron ones that I had always thought were Templar crosses marking the routes to Santiago de Compostela, but when I looked it up, I found I was mistaken and they must just be religious symbols too, to protect the travelers on that stretch of the road. I started to look for a really ornate one to photograph, and more we looked, the more we found. A lot of them are almost hidden by trees or weeds, and many are in a sad state, but we eventually found a lovely example, and with a clear sky behind it, it made an excellent picture.
A very short blog this week, but with all the hot days we have really done nothing at all, and if we’ve done nothing, there is nothing to write about. Hopefully there will be more interesting news next week.