And so, as our holiday in France draws to a close once
again, we have time to look back on all the memories we have made – places we’ve
been, people we’ve met and things we have done and seen. We have certainly been
extraordinarily blessed in meeting and knowing so many people here. People who
are not only very kind and hospitable but who open their homes to us even when
they are not there themselves. I sometimes wonder if they ever realise just how much richness they add to our
holiday experience. Staying in hotels around the country would certainly be
another way of doing things but only by living in a village, amongst the
locals, can one really experience the local culture. And it is this that brings
back to France time after time.
This year we visited a new area – the Charente – where we
had visited briefly last year and the year before that, but this year our two
month stay there gave us far more time to get to know new friends. We were also
able to join in with some of the community events which drew us even further
into the local lifestyle, and which we enjoyed immensely.
Every week we have religiously bought a lottery ticket for
the French National Lottery, (not the Euromillions, we are not greedy) hoping
that by supporting the national game, we might have a better chance of winning!
We tell ourselves that if we won a huge sum of money we would just stay here
and not go home, but luckily we haven’t had to make that decision and our total
winnings over the four months has been the grand sum of six Euros. It’s a nice
dream, but only that. Moving away from South Africa at our age would be
ridiculous and extremely difficult, but we have nothing against dreaming.
Meanwhile, for as long as possible, we will holiday here each year, enjoying it
hugely but always knowing that at a set date we would return to our own house
and home.
Since we arrived back in Espas, our home-from-home, the good
weather that we enjoyed in the eastern half of the country disappeared, and to
start with it was very cold and miserable. After a while though, days became
warmer and today is a whopping 30 degrees. During the past week, we have done
very little but we did take a very
pleasant amble along some of the country roads that we have not explored
before.
Starting from the house, we took the ‘back’ road to Manciet
and then went on to St Christie d’Armangnac, a little place slightly off the
road that we would normally whizz past. Here we found probably the oldest
chateau and church combination that we have seen. Neither were terribly
attractive, the church was, surprisingly, locked and both were in a shocking
state of decay. At some stage, the two buildings had been joined by a second
story gallery, no doubt so that the Lord of the Manor could attend the services
without getting his feet wet, but what a sad sight. Parked in the portal of the church was one of those old
horse drawn hearses with the coffin stands for use inside the church, standing alongside.
It was in remarkably good condition, and having seen so many of them, I begin
to wonder if they are still in use.
Continuing along our chosen route we ambled along through
the prettiest countryside. The wheat fields and vineyards are lush and green at
the moment, while the maize is just starting to appear. The Gers landscape is
one of soft rolling hills with patches of natural forest in the gullies. It
really is one of the most attractive areas of France.
We must have driven through about four little villages and a
number of tiny hamlets before we came to Monguilhem at about lunchtime. This is
quite a large village with a sizeable square surrounded by the usual plane
trees. When we got there though, the square had been covered over with a deep
layer of sand and wooden walls had been erected all around, with grand-stands
outside that. Being ever nosy, we climbed the stairs that led to the stands and
discovered that the square had been converted into a bull-ring. Had we been
going to watch, I would have opted for a seat on the top row of the stands as
the walls looked far too flimsy for my liking. In any case, the bull fighting
was only planned for Monday, which is Pentecost. I have no idea why, but Easter
and Pentecost are the two big bull fighting occasions around here. And they don’t
kill the bulls – they just annoy them and the bull fighters get chased around.
The town also has a very old church which was re-dedicated
in about the 1850’s to Our Lady of Salette after two children had a vision of
the Virgin and were given important messages to broadcast to the world. I
looked it up on the internet and the messages were mainly about living a good
life, in the religious sense, and encouraging world peace.
We found a delightful restaurant to have lunch in before
ambling home again taking a slightly different road back. Tomorrow is going to be busy as we try to squeeze everything back into the suitcases it arrived in,
which always seems to be a battle, and then on Tuesday we will take the car to
our friends house where it lives in the garden until we return, and then they
will take us to the airport to catch our plane to South Africa. And so comes to
an end the latest Cannyvanners blog.
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