We arrived in Lezignan about mid afternoon on Sunday 11 th
May. It was a painless drive as there were no trucks and we used the motorway
all the way. We hadn’t seen pour hostess for about a year so there was plenty
of catching up to do. She warned us that the two days that we had before
heading off to the eastern side of the country were going to be fairly busy,
and she was quite correct. Luckily she had a shopping list to fill at a
supermarket which is right next to a MacDonalds, so I was able to nip in there
and do some internet work. That evening our brains were given a severe workout
as she had invited some French friends for dinner. Our hostess speaks fairly
good French; Neels acquitted himself very well and I stumbled along with a word
or two here and there. Of our guests, the wife speaks pretty good English but
her husband, not a word. That may sound as if it could have been a very awkward
dinner party but in fact it was good fun and we all laughed at each others
mistakes. I feel they must have enjoyed themselves as it was really late when
they finally left.
The next day a friend came along to do some jobs around the
house and stayed for lunch too, while we tried to sort out our clothes for the
next week. Knowing that we would have haul everything up four flights of stairs
made us opt for the least amount possible, while still making allowances for
snow on the nearby mountains as well as some possibly very hot days. Eventually
we made our decisions and were able to pack, ready for our departure the next
day.
The following day’s 550 kilometre drive to Breil-sur-Roya
went very smoothly. The last few kilometres along the Cote d’Azur are always
frustrating as the road consists of a series of tunnels, each one followed by a
high level bridge. The glimpses one gets of the coast from the bridges are
tantalizing but there are no stopping places whatsoever and certainly no photo
stops! We found our friend’s apartment with no trouble and, having lugged
everything upstairs, settled ourselves in. It was an early night for us all.
As the 15th was our hostess’s birthday, we drove
out to Sospel for lunch and either impressed, or terrified, her with the twisty
hairpin roads. When we arrived there, it was market day which is always fun.
Having been to the town twice before, we could show off our knowledge of the
town by going directly to the various ‘sights’ without having to waste time
wandering around the unattractive parts of town. We treated the birthday girl
to a delicious lunch eaten out of doors under a canopy with the river tumbling
along next to us.
Over the weekend we had a bonus visit from Pieter, our
eldest son. He is currently skippering a large motor yacht which is, at the
moment, moored in Genoa, about two hours’ drive away. He arrived on Saturday mid-morning
so we all went out to the tiny village of La Brigue and then up to the chapel
of Notre Dame des Fontaines. This little chapel was built after prayers for
rain were answered by a spring suddenly appearing high up in the mountains. The
chapel was built on the spot, in the 12th century and the interior
was decorated with frescoes in the 15th century. The amazing thing
about it is that the frescoes have never been re-touched and are still as vivid
as they were when first painted.
We just had to show both our guests the wonderful village of
Saorge which tumbles down the side of the hill some ten kilometres north of
Breil so we had booked a table for lunch on Sunday in the ‘Belle Vue’
restaurant in which the tables are in an area which apparently hangs out over
nothing, and which has a most spectacular view of the Roya River valley. The
food was good too! All too soon it was time for Pieter to leave, but what a
bonus to have had him to stay for a while at least. On Sunday night it rained
during the night and was quite a bit cooler when we got up the next morning.
However, we had promised ourselves a trip down to Menton on the bus, so off we
went. The 1 euro bus now costs 1 euro 50, but is still a bargain. We could all
sit back in comfort with no worries about hunting for parking at the other end,
and the bus leaves from almost outside our apartment so what could be better!
The centre of the city is pedestrians only and it was a
pleasure to amble down the street looking first at this shop and then that, but
the goods for sale were astronomically expensive and we did not buy anything.
There was also a cold wind blowing that kept catching us at the intersections
that made things a little less pleasant, but we had a good day and managed to
fill the time until the bus returned to Breil. And that was really our last day
there as the next day was spent clearing up and cleaning up; doing laundry and
finding somewhere to hang it to dry.
Then the following day we were off back to Lezignan.
No time to rest though (as if we needed it!) as the very
next day, Thursday 22nd, we had arranged to have lunch with a friend
who has a house close to the little village we stayed in last year when the
family visited us. Although her house is brand new, it looks for all the world
as though it has been there for about 100 years. It is stone built, and all the
doors and windows have been recovered from old buildings, as well as much of
the interior décor and fittings, while the garden is mainly indigenous plants
which are looking fantastic at the moment – wild geraniums, lavender, cosmos
and many evergreen shrubs. It is really hard to believe that it hasn’t been
here forever. Having ooh-ed and aah-ed over the house we then all hopped back
into the car and went off to a small village nearby called Cucugnan to have
lunch in a restaurant. Cucugnan is a most delightful village, dominated by a
restored windmill. After lunch we walked up the hill to the mill and found not
only a grain mill and a bakery, but a shop selling the goods baked in the
bakery, and then a forge and someone making wrought iron bits and pieces, as
well as a few rather nice little general shops. A real gem!
What should have been a simple and fairly quick outing
turned the following day into an all day affair. The basis of it all was that
another friend was taking his car to be resprayed at a workshop in Narbonne
where we would meet him, all go and have a bite to eat, then take him home
where we could all make use of his internet connection. I’m not quite sure just
what happened to the day but we eventually only met up at about 1.30 pm and had
lunch before dropping off the car and things sort of went from bad to worse and
we finally got home at about 7pm.
Saturday was just the opposite. It turned out to be a
stay-at-home day with lots of odd jobs to do around the house. First, Neels
finished off a fairly major plumbing job that he had started a few days back. Then he began sanding the
doors to the cupboard under the stairs so that they closed properly. At the
same time, I mounted a small plaque next to the postbox requesting that no junk
mail be delivered here. Then I had to go and hold doors so they could be sanded
along the edges. Meanwhile, our hostess was fearlessly clambering around on the
roof removing a strange weed which grows on the tiles in this area, after which
she painted a small section of wall and went on to do some gardening. At the
end of her garden she has a small shed, built of brick, and a barbecue next to it. Because one
could easily sit and eat out there, such a thing is known as a ‘cuisine d’été’,
or a summer kitchen. To make hers more attractive, she has pasted a giant
photograph on to the back wall, put a frame around it and attached windows on
each side to give the impression of a view through an open window. Next to the
barbecue, she has pasted another blown-up photograph of a view through the
vineyards to a castle. The picture is the shape of a Gothic arch and this one
has a stone surround so that it appears to be a scene from one castle of
another. They are amazingly effective and lend a certain amount of depth to both
areas.
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