As you will have gathered from the lack of text yesterday,
this week was quite eventful. Our guests who were expected on Sunday or Monday,
eventually managed to get away from their small-holding on Monday afternoon,
spent a night along the way and arrived in the afternoon of Tuesday.They were
only ever going to spend one night with us , but it seemed an awfully short
time once we got talking. There was so much news to catch up on – their family
and our family; what they have been doing in the past few months and what we
have done in the same time; tips from them about living in France; all sorts of
topics flowed back and forth. As they had taken only three days ‘off’ from the
farm, they left the next morning to continue their mini-tour.
On the next day we had to take a drive to Caylus, about 30 kilometers
away to collect some documents that we had had to have translated into French.
Stupidly, we didn’t take the time to look around but will certainly go back
there again and look at all the sights.
On Wednesday we also had to prepare for our next guest, due
to arrive on Thursday. The refrigerator and larder were restocked and the bed
clean and aired, and we were just waiting for a message some time on Thursday
to tell us when the train was going to arrive in Villefranche. We already knew
that our guest hadn’t been able to put her phone onto international roaming and
was communicating with us by email, so when we hadn’t heard anything, we
assumed that she just hadn’t been able to find a wifi hotspot, and prepared to
leave the house to go to the station. Suddenly, my phone pinged and there was a
message – but not to give us an arrival time in Villefranche, but to say that
she was still stuck in Amsterdam as all the planes had been cancelled due to an
air traffic controllers strike. After waiting in a queue for four and a half
hours, she was given the last seat on the following day’s flight, and a hotel
voucher for the night. What a disappointment. It now meant that her two and a
half day break was only one and a half days, but we tried to make the best of
it. The Friday train came in much earlier than the Thursday one would have, so
we were able to come back to the house via the ‘Monkey’s Leap’ (Saut de
Mounine) viewsite which gives one a magnificent view out over a great horseshoe
bend of the Lot River. It had been a glorious day so the view was quite
spectacular. The next day we went off to Figeac as it is the birthplace of
Jean-Pierre Champollion, the man who translated the Rosetta Stone. It seemed
particularly apt as our visitor told us that Champollion was one of her heroes.
He was an incredible linguist and knew about twelve different languages, one of
them being the Demotic Greek which helped him with the translation. Sadly he
was only 42 when he died in 1852. What a waste! We visited the museum which is
dedicated to him, after having done the walking tour of the town, and found it
immensely interesting. It is a museum of the evolution of the alphabet and
writing, which was his specialty. On the way home again, we took a more
roundabout route, joining the northern bank of the Lot River a short distance
from Figeac and then followed the course of the river all the way down to
Cajarc, where we could once more cross back to ‘our’ side of the river. Along
the way we came across several little villages, all of which have their own
special charm.
Sunday was to be her last day so we went into Villefranche
which we had only skirted previously when we picked her up at the station. The closely
packed houses in the old part of town are very picturesque and also have a
charm of their own. The fountains were playing in the town square and she
seemed amused by the random squirts of water from the flat jets in the paving.
We thought of going into the Cathedral but decided against that idea when we
found that there was a service going on and the church was packed. We should
have known!! This weekend is the Festival of St Jean also known as St Iago,
whose famous cathedral at Compostela is the
destination of thousands of pilgrims every year. Just time to get home for quick lunch and then it was time to get back
to the station. When we had driven in in the morning we had seen the barricades
all standing ready at various intersections, but the penny didn’t drop until we
tried to get back into town that afternoon. Every road leading down to the only
bridge across the river Aveyron was blocked and the station was on the other
side! Aah! La! La! What now? The next bridge was a little way down the river,
so we fought our way out of the traffic and roared down to the next bridge and
returned on the other bank. We were still in time and even had to wait a short
while for the train!
Having seen our guest on to the train and seen it leave
(absolutely on time at 3.42 pm) we returned to the station car park where a
huge second hand goods sale was on the go. As we were wandering along not
really looking for anything to buy, although I wouldn’t have minded finding a
large gardening fork, we became aware of the sound of brass band music. So we
tried to trace the source and found that it was coming from the top of the main
street through town. Crowds of people were gathering in front of the Town Hall
where some temporary stands had been erected, so we found a shady place to wait
and joined them. On the dot of 3 pm the parade started – ten floats, ten brass
bands and about as many groups of gymnasts, majorettes and other entertainers.
As each group got to the Town Hall, they would stop, go through their paces and
move on. It was a marvellous show. People were clapping their hands, tapping
their feet and jogging their heads in time to the music and it was a truly
happy occasion. After two hours, the parade was over and although we could have
gone along about two blocks to the town bandstand for more music, we decided
that we had had enough and came home – tired and quite sunburnt after a
gloriously sunny day.
When we got home I had to download (?upload?) my photographs
which took a very long time as the computer was having one of its silly spells
and wouldn’t do anything I wanted, which is why there was no text yesterday. I
hope I am forgiven.
No comments:
Post a Comment