My Goodness!! What a hot week we have had. It was almost as
if the mercury had got stuck at 33 degrees for the days with night time
temperatures of around 19 degrees. Not a breath of wind for relief and a clear
sunny sky every day. Needless to say, the only way to deal with this sort of
weather is to stay indoors with all the windows and doors closed, during the
day and all the windows and doors open, at night, with the shutters closed.
Fortunately, just when it started to become unbearable, we had a light shower
of rain. Not really enough to do any good to the crops or gardens but at least
some of the steaminess was washed away.
Of course, we still had to go out to get fresh vegetables,
mainly salad ingredients and, since the air-con in the car works well it was a
good time to go for a drive. So we attempted the impossible.
A couple of weeks back when we went to a village called
Boisse Penchot, to look at a bicycle for Jenny to borrow, we set the TomTom to
take us there as we hadn’t been before. Along the way, we turned into Villneuve
because we needed to buy a stamp, and then we took the wrong road leaving the
town. However, nothing fazes ‘Jane’ and
she quickly worked out another route for us and we were soon zooming along. Zooming along so well, in
fact, that we missed the next turnoff and she had to re-calculate again. What a
bonus that was! Our new route took us past a most magnificent Chateau called
Chateau de Marinesque. It is privately owned so one can’t go inside, but just
from the outside it looks wonderful. It is actually a fortified monastic castle with a four storey battlemented square
tower and a round tower which is really the staircase to the upper floors. The grounds
around it are beautifully manicured and are obviously irrigated as they are a fresh
green colour when most of the
countryside is dry and brown. When I got out of the car to take a picture,
there was a lovely fresh smell of mint
and when I looked down at the ditch running along the roadside, I saw that mint was growing all along the sides.
Much better than a farmyard smell, I can
tell you!
Further along this ‘wrong’ road we passed a stunning little
crucifix at the side of the road. I think I have mentioned before that one sees
crucifixes all along the roads, at intersections, and I believe they date back
to the Middle Ages. Because travelling was quite dangerous – highwaymen and
bandits were quite prolific – travellers would stop at each intersection and ask
God to bless their onward journey. Some of them have disappeared, or
disintegrated, leaving only a stone plinth behind; others are still there but
are badly in need of some TLC but there are plenty that are obviously well
looked after . The one at the entrance to Ols stands on a small pillar and has
a small trough of red geraniums at its foot. However, every now and again we
come across one which is really special and this was one of those.
At the time, I knew that I should have said ‘Stop!’ and
taken pictures of both these scenes, but I didn’t, thinking I could do it on
the way back, but of course, on the way back we did what “Jane’ said and didn’t pass that same way again. So while we were out, I suggested
that, as it was really quite cool in the car, we should go see if we could find
the ‘wrong’ road again so that I could take my pictures. It was a bit difficult
because we weren't quite sure which wrong road we had taken but after a while
we found landmarks that we recognised and were soon back at the Chateau and shortly
afterwards at the little cross. I keep calling it little because it is – only about
35 centimetres high but so beautifully carved and decorated that it made us
glad we had gone back again.
Apart from that one small excursion we have stayed put and
tried to stay cool. Thank goodness for a fan in the bedroom and one at my desk.
They are our saving graces.
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