Friday was the day that Jeanette Alain and Morgan were off to England to visit my brother for three days leaving us as masters of our own destiny and in charge of the chateau!
We drove northwards to a village oalled Cette which boasted an old Abbey. Found it OK but the abbey was closed and we could only walk around it. Called innto the Touriste Bureau and saw a brilliant diorama of early village life.There were toilets outside the Abbey which proved to be very vintage -that is to say they were holes in the ground!!Authentic though!
From here we went on to Besse which is another ancient village with a 14th century church and a maze of narrow streets bounded on both sides with three stories of dwellings. As they are all shuttered it is a somewhat eerie feeling walking through them, and then one comes across the inevitable display of washing hanging from the opened window. The butchers shop here was most inviting, and we bought some Pate de pays,a few home made sausages and a large slice of sirloin. A little old lady emerged from one of the house on her way to the shops and stopped to talk to us (Carol) and told us of the Lake behind the church which we would have missed without her showing us the way. All of the people here were extremely friendly with everyone saying "Bon Jour" as you passed. I think one of my favourite pastimes in these villages is to sit in a sidewalk cafe and have an ice cold beer and watch the passing parade. There is a very special ambience about these sorts of places.
Home to "our" chateau and a lovely French meal of salade/pate and sausages,cheese and a bottle of the Sigalous red to wash it down- Alain had thoughtfully left 4 bottles out for our consumption in their absence! Loumie, the family's aged Alsatian accepted us as part of the family and passed her time sleeping on the stairs leaading to the bedrooms.
Saturday we went to Brignoles a provincial town of great antiquity dating from the 6th century. It is situated on the ancient Aurelia way which goes from Spain to Italy. It has not been maintained as welll as a lot of other similar areas, although therre was evidence of work being carried out. It gave a rather tatty appearance. We had a baguette in the city square, a pleasant space with plane trees yet to blossom. There was a marked number of Algrerian people in this town, which Jeanette explained was most likely due to the lower cost of property in the town as compared to coastal areas.
On to Saint Maximin where a Basilica was built on the site of a religious Merovingian site.The basilica is the only example of Gothic style construction in Provence and is quite outstanding. Adjoining the Basilica is the Royal Convent, another lovely old building now occupied as a hotel. The town square contains all of the traditional French attributes,plane trees/restaraunts and sidewalk cafes. Yes - we had a beer here!
Sunday was a day of rest. Carol worked on the English translation of the Sigalous Brochure, while I read on the terrace. Then Pierre (Alain's 28year old son) arrived with a friend to explain that they were having some cousins in for lunch and we were welcome to join them.Pierre speaks a little English but none of the others had more than a few words so, as Carol was busy and my French does not stand up to casual conversation, we declined their kind offer and decided to take a quiet drive in the country.
Monday we went into Pierrefeu, the local village perched on top of a hill,posted some cards and did some shopping at ACTA the supermarket.Home for lunch and then into Heyere which is where the Toulon airport is.Despite being Easter Monday, the market was in full swing and we wandered the streets admiring the many stalls. Carol bought a tablecloth for Sarah and a great big slab of cheese ($18)which we are still enjoying!
The old town is most attractive and we walked up to the lookout from where we had a wonderful view of the surrounding countryside and out to the Mediterranean. We saw the Ryanair plane landing at the airport and realised that this waas the one on which Jeanette and family were returning. A quiet beer at the cafe and then back to Sigalous where we learned that the family had had a great reunion in England and that the weather had allowed them to have a lunch at Jill's house in the garden!
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