Travelling again Part 5

Another slow starting week, but by Thursday, when it dawned fair, warm and sunny, we thought it was definitely time to get out for a bit. After studying the map for a short while, we decided on a circular tour which started and finished at Manciet which is a small town about eight kilometres from here. For those with detailed maps, our route went from Manciet to Gabarret, then across to Labastide d’Armagnac and Villeneuve de Marsan before turning back towards Manciet via Estang. All in all, a very short trip by South African standards – probably not more than about sixty kilometres – but it took us almost all day.
At our first stop, Gabarret, we bought some suitable eats for a simple picnic before wandering around this unremarkable small town. It is obviously ancient and the buildings have been well cared for, but it has a lot of boarded–up shops and houses which is always a sad sight.
On the other hand, Labastide d’Armagnac is of a similar age but is simply charming. The central square, the Place Royale, has colonnaded pavements on all four sides, with the original village water pump a central feature. It really does have royal connections as Henry of Navarre, who became Henry IV, used to stay at a house in the square and was apparently so taken with the architecture that he modelled the Place Vosges in Paris, on it. Apart from a really good restaurant at the top of the square, a number of shops are occupied by artisans and craftsmen, one of most prolific being a man who does metal sculpture, using just about any scrap metal he can find. The results are both delightful and entertaining.
We had eaten our picnic lunch just before arriving in Labastide, sitting in the warm sun on a bench in the grassy square of Betbezer d’Armagnac, but enjoyed a cup of coffee in Labastide watching the world go by.
The rest of the drive was pleasant but unspectacular, but enjoyable as ever.
There is something I feel I really must share with all of you, although it may be something of a digression. Earlier in the week, we had asked friends at home to forward a particular item of post, to us by courier. This they did, but when it hadn’t arrived four days later, I decided it was time to ‘track’ it. Imagine our total amazement when the tracking record showed that it had left Hermanus on Tuesday for Cape Town, leaving there on the same day for London, then Brussels and Lyon. For some unaccountable reason it was then sent to Leipzig where someone realised their mistake and sent it back, first to Lyon, then to Brussels and finally back to Lyon. At the time of writing this, the package hasn’t yet reached us, but we are suitably impressed at the distance it has travelled in less time than an ordinary letter takes to get from Hermanus to Cape Town. No wonder the courier service costs so much!
Finally…………Spring really has arrived and we have masses of flowers and blossom to prove it. I don’t know why it always surprises us so much, but Nature is really quite magical sometimes.