Sorry about last week, but it was really boring week and one
that you wouldn’t have wanted to read about.
This week is a completely different story and it started on
Sunday which is my usual ‘writing’ day and may account for me running out of
day before I had started to write anything. We started out by going to the
village market in Villeneuve on Sunday morning and then somehow managed to get
involved with our neighbours who were sitting in the square having an aperitif. They are both part of large
families and seemingly the whole world arrived in dribs and drabs to dole out
kisses all round, and then most of them moved off again, although our circle
did get quite a lot bigger in the hour that we sat there, chatting. It
certainly turned out to be a jolly morning.in the parking area, we came across
a most wonderful campervan, painted to look like a wooden cabin. It was
certainly eyecatching. Oh I forgot to mention that we had had a late breakfast/brunch
before leaving home so we didn’t bother about lunch but went straight on down
to the big open area at the bottom of town where a grand vide grenier was being held.
There were masses of stalls but most of it was pretty dull, although we did buy
some caramelised peanuts which were delicious. They, needless to say, were not
secondhand!
After having done a round of the stalls, we thought we had
seen enough so went home for a late lunch barbecue, cooked by Pieter on the new
barbecue. Yum! There was no time to sit around and savour it though, as we had
to be in Foissac at 6 pm for a concert. At least, that was what it said on all
the posters stuck up around and about. When we arrived, we were surprised to
see so few cars, but thought that we were just a bit early. Anyway, we made our
way to the venue, which was really attractive with long tables covered with
white cloths, underneath big shady trees. The bar, at least, was open and
operating so we got ourselves a drink and found perfect seats. Then sat down to
wait, and wait, and wait. Eventually at about 8.00, people started to slowly
drift in and at by 8.30 things were starting
to happen. After such a long wait, it would have been a disaster if the music
was terrible but luckily it wasn’t and soon people were up and dancing and
things got really lively.
A few days later, we went to another event, this time a
night market in Najac. It was called a night market but as it started at 6 pm (again) it was still broad daylight when
we got there. Again there were rows of tables laid out in rows and stalls all
the way along the road. We noticed that the closer we got to the tables, the
more stalls were selling food. It all smelt wonderful! After finding a stall
that sold us a bottle of wine, we made our way over to the food stalls and
found ourselves something to eat. There were a range of interesting foods like
sliced grilled duck breast served with aligot,
which is basically mashed potato mixed with cheese which gives the potato a
strange elastic quality and makes it extraordinarily rich. Then there was a
kind of flat fried patty made of bacon, spinach and egg which was also very
tasty. There was barbecued sausage and chicken pieces and numerous other things
which we didn’t even get to see. Meanwhile the band was playing up a storm
especially the accordion player who tried to call all the younger children out
of the crowd and get them to dance with him which was quite entertaining to
watch. After a while we thought we should perhaps move on home so started
ambling up the road back to the car. We had almost reached the gap in the
buildings which forms the entrance to the square when a loud whistle from
outside caught our attention. Next minute a brass band started up and came marching
into the town, preceded by some snappy drum majorettes. But we weren’t staying any
longer so we left them to it.
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