It is so quiet and dark here with the window shutters that even our early rising Tim slept in. What a great spot. Airbnb, you've done it again! It was still a bit drizzly so Karl and I decided to postpone our walk having got soaked on our last two walks and running out of shoe options!
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| Tim got our fire working magnificently! |
Luke was very keen to get out and play with the kids next door so it was a reasonable incentive to complete his school work for the day! The module he is doing at the moment is on growing and plants and fortunately we are surrounded by lush greenery and so much choice. He also has to grow and observe a bean. Thankfully, our kind hosts had a few beans to donate to the project and we had a glass jar, so the bean diary is up and running! It would be very difficult to do this unit if we were at a time when we were constantly changing accommodation.
We drove back to Rochechouart for more groceries, our Tom Tom leading us up narrow country roads to Aldi! All of the other shops are closed from 12-2 PM as the French enjoy their lunch. The town like most around here, was very quiet.
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| Wolfing down a waffle! |
It was excellent tucking into waffles, mascapone cheese and raspberries
for lunch while others had still warm baguettes and camembert! The
above products were so much cheaper than at home! The staples always
are.
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| Staples are cheap here! |
No one except Karl and I was particularly keen to go on our proposed walk. We had heard about our closest bakery in Pressignac and thought a 10 km round trip would be a lovely expedition with a cafe stop in the middle. Understand that this part of France has the lowest population density and there are no little shops any more. The countryside is just so peaceful and lovely but the kids don't necessarily see the beauty as we adults do! We took the "walking" route as opposed to the road route and found one part of our track to be heavily overgrown with brambles and nettles which didn't thrill Luke at all, nor did the barbed wire fence we had to crawl through!
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| Running towards us like we had something to offer them! |
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| Not many use this route! |
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| Avoiding the barbed wire |
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| Corner stone |
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| Hayloft on side of road! |
The track often wandered by unloved
ruins of stone dwellings but some had been restored. The value of the
cornerstone, as paralleled in the Bible is clear: without a
cornerstone, the buildings crumble as they have no firm foundation. It
was good to have a real life example of this to explain to Luke.
The
kids wearily trudged into Pressignac, which also looked particularly
quiet only to find that although it does have a bakery, the note on the
door told us that it was closed from 27 April to 25 May! Today being 27
April meant that we had timed it badly and got a "told you so" from the
kids. To add to their displeasure, the general store, which would
normally be open was closed on Mondays - and today is Monday!! Not
happy, foot dragging and hungry we made our way home. Tim ran ahead
which he likes to do and fortunately didn't get lost.
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| Trekking along |
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| Needed a bit more love |
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| Cellar and well |
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| Luke always fascinated by old |
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| Azaleas |
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| At Pressignac |
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| Luke checking how big he is! |
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| Idyllic |
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| Through the meadows |
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| Blue bell |
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| Ancient cart. |
Our hosts had given us some sensational pies to eat and tonight, it was time for a quick dinner after our long walk and the pies were perfect. Maelisa is an amazing cook! We have just finished a loaf of her bread, too.
The neighbours' kids came over to finish watching the movie they started last night so it was a happy end to the day for Luke. He quickly forgot how tired he was the moment we returned from the walk!
A lovely walk, albeit badly timed. The kids don't look too worse for wear :) those pies and the bread sound wonderful :)
ReplyDeleteToo true Jane...they are good walkers in general except when they choose not to be!! Karl and i love the ambiance here!
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