We are always told, in life, that we should be careful of what
we wish for and I do believe that is true. However, I would like to add
something to that, and that is that we should be really specific when we wish
for something just so that there can be no misunderstanding. For example, last
week I wished that the sun would shine and on Monday morning it did. The sky
was a clear bright blue without a cloud to be seen; the sun was shining
brightly; birds all chirping away merrily and brilliant daffodils to be seen
everywhere. So why am I complaining, you may ask? Well, it was all a case of
not specifying. When I wished for sunshine, I didn’t add that I didn’t want too
much wind to go with it, so to go with our stunning sun-shiny day we got a
howling, icy gale which hadn’t been part of the plan. I did a load of washing
and hung it out to dry, which it did in double quick time, but most of the time
it was hanging horizontally on the line. Oh well, every cloud has a silver
lining, I suppose, and at least our washing got dry really fast.
Bored with staying home on what seemed to be such a
wonderful day, we took off for a drive without any destination. We took ‘Jane’
with us just in case we got completely and hopelessly lost, but kept her in the
glove compartment. Our route was mainly on the back roads which we were reading
off a map and to be quite honest, although the scenery was spectacular, the
little villages we came across were rather dull, and of course, being Monday
all the shops, potteries, and museums were closed. Suddenly though, just when
we thought there would be ‘nothing to report’ on our drive except scenery which
my little camera is no good at, we rounded a corner and were confronted by a
massive ruined castle on the crest of a small hill. The village is called
Roumegous so presumably it is the Chateau de Roumegous but apart from the local
authorities forbidding anyone from venturing into it because it is too
dangerous, I can find out nothing about it. It is enormous and looms over the
four or five remaining houses in the village. Quite a scary kind of place to
live, I would have thought. And way off the beaten track.
After a haircut for both of us on Tuesday, we both felt a
few kilos lighter, although I must admit mine was rather short – a lot shorter
than usual, but it will grow and since no-one around here knows what I look
like usually, it isn’t a problem for me.
Had I had any qualms about showing my face (and short hair)
in public, I needn’t have worried as the next day was the coldest we have had
this year and we didn’t move out of the apartment all day. Midday temperature
was a miserable 6 degrees with an expected minimum of a scary -2! What a
surprise then to find that Thursday was bright sunshine, windless and not
really freezing cold. We jumped into the car without delay and took off in a
westerly direction without any real destination planned.
As we ambled along enjoying the views, we came across a
strange little building at the side of the road. We had noticed as we travelled
that the building style had changed from the area we staying in to a slightly
more westerly area. In other words, from the Aveyron department to that of the
Lot department. The Aveyron features houses built of rather jumbled stones,
apparently without mortar, similar to the dry-stone walling seen in the north
of England. The Lot, on the other hand, which includes a vast limestone plateau, had flat stones
a-plenty. When limestone is taken out of the ground, it can be removed in
layers of different thickness – thick pieces for door and window lintels; for
roof beams and for flooring , or thin pieces for constructing the walls and
roof. Anyway, this little place that we came across was the whole farm – a 'garriotte' - comprising of a
central rectangular building where the family would have lived, with a round
building with a conical roof on each end. One may have been used as a store
while the other was for livestock. It couldn’t have been very cosy but I
imagine the folk were a lot tougher then.
Our route then took us to St Cirq Lapopie, perched high on a
cliff top overlooking the Lot River. It is a charming village built up and down
a steep slope, so there was a fair amount of struggling up some of the streets
until we gave up and had far too much lunch. After that, there was no more walking
– we couldn’t! Back in the car, the road took us back down to river level and
along the river bank with enormous cliffs looming over us. People will do
anything to build their house in the ‘perfect spot’ and for some it was a tiny
piece of land between the road and the cliffs. A lot of them are so pressed for
space that the cliffs form the back wall of a house which is only one room
wide! Amazing!
After that, as the day was dying and we had wandered a bit
off track we had to do a bit of cross country travelling on the really tiny
roads to get home before dark. When we arrived back, it was to be met with a long
faced host who told us that the central heating boiler had mysteriously stopped
working. Neels was all for trying to fix it straight away but he said that he
had phoned the ‘boiler man’ who would be along the next day. It didn't affect us as the gite has it's own heating.
After such a long drive, Friday was, as usual designated a ‘rest
day’ for the driver. Not that I noticed much resting going on. When we arrived
to stay in this gite, we noticed that there was a half constructed Plexiglas
shelter over the front door of the house – obviously a work in progress. So on
Friday Neels and our host got stuck in, in spite of a really chilly wind and
made quite a lot of progress. As there was plenty of chat and laughter, I think
both had a good time. The boiler man arrived after lunch but shook his head and
was full of doom and gloom but said if he could get a new part he may be able
to repair the boiler before our hosts left for a week’s holiday on Sunday. On
the assumption that nothing ventured is nothing gained, Neels took the
defective part to pieces, cleaned the dirt out of it and put it back together
again. And hey presto! the house had heating again. I’m not sure if we are the
boiler man’s best friends any more, but our hosts were certainly delighted.
Saturday and Sunday passed in misty, drizzly gloom but the
weather forecast says that it will be bright sunshine all day on Thursday and
Friday, so we shouldn’t complain. I hope they are right!
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