Good Gracious! Winter has gone and Spring has begun with a
vengeance! Temperatures that, last week struggled to reach double figures are
now raging along with 15, 19 and even 21 degrees forecast for this week. We
won’t know ourselves without heaters and electric blankets and four layers of
clothing. What a lovely change. The daffodils which always seem to come up too
early, have now been overwhelmed by a myriad of pink, white, mauve, blue and
yellow flowers and the fields around us are a real sight. What a difference a
little bit of sunshine makes.
Monday was a good sunny start to the week but the wind was
still bitterly cold and we stayed home and jig-sawed. (Got to get it finished,
you see!), but Tuesday was beautiful with much less wind, so off we went on a
drive of discovery. For those of you who like to know where we go to, let me
just say that it was a huge circular drive. We first drove in to Villefranche
and out the other side, choosing the small yellow road between the two big red
main roads. This took us to Toulonjac, then on to Sainte Croix, La Capelle
Balaguier and Salvagnac-Cajarc before we
crossed the River Lot and landed in Cajarc. From there we followed the Lot
valley all the way to Capdenac then
hauled ‘Jane’ out of the glove compartment and asked her to navigate to
Peyrusse le Roc, Lanuejouls, Rieupeyroux and finally home using only the back
roads. What fun! And what amazing scenery. Castles and chateaux were
everywhere; all surrounded by those lush green fields that I spoke about last
week. One chateau that we passed was, we
think, fairly newly built and had two strange little turrets attached to the
two front corners of the building, but starting about halfway up the wall. They
looked for all the world like a salt and pepper set. Another chateau which had
been restored had the tallest ‘donjon’ we have ever seen. A Donjon is a
fortified tower which also served as a lookout point, so had to be tall enough
to see a long way off. I have climbed the stairs at the donjon in Bassoues
which I though was tall enough, but this one probably outdid it by quite a few
metres. Although now privately owned, the castle is open to the public every
summer.
Driving along the riverside was beautiful. The trees are now
starting to get that pale green haze around the ends of the branches and twigs,
and at places both the road and the river were lined with trees. The Lot is a very fast flowing river and with
all the rain the country has had, it is roaring along now. It is one of the
main rivers of France and eventually joins the Garonne which finally runs in to
the sea near Bordeaux. Further
downstream from where we were, it is possible cruise on the Lot, but further
upstream there are a lot of natural weirs and rapids which would probably make
for quite uncomfortable cruising. It would be fun in a canoe though.
Wednesday was of course, drivers day off but we did go into
town in the afternoon and just wandered around looking at everything in bright
sunlight. The flowerbeds are all starting to bloom and in a week or so it is
going to be really pretty. On Thursday the wind howled again, although it has
certainly lost it’s ‘nip’. I did a load of washing and had horizontal washing
on the line again. It certainly gets dry quickly like that and doesn’t seem to
wrap itself around the line like it does at home.
The next day we thought it was about time to put our threats
into action and do some house-hunting! What that really means is that we go and
‘bug’ the estate agents and see if any of them can possibly come up with
something that ticks all our boxes. It’s a tricky one as we have champagne
taste but beer pockets, but if someone can find a champagne house for a beer
price, we may seriously consider it as a holiday house for the family..
One agent came up with a really cute house, stone-built,
completely restored and at a bargain price! We were very, very tempted and even
made an appointment to go and view it on Monday. By the time we got home,
however, sanity had returned and we realised that it was not at all practical.
It would mean completely furnishing the place, and putting in some sort of heating so that it would be usable
year-round. But that didn’t stop us from going off on Saturday morning to have
a sneak preview of the village and a further look at the exterior of the house.
I have to admit that we are smitten, but common sense tells us that we must
walk away. Perhaps we’ll keep our appointment on Monday and just go and look at
the interior – we might find something radically wrong with it! In the mean
time we will continue to buy lottery tickets in the hopes that if we’re in it,
we may win it!
Our hosts arrived back on Sunday afternoon after a week away
and seemed to find everything still as they left it. We spent a very pleasant evening
with them exchanging news of what we had all done while they were away.
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