We woke to the morning bells from the church two doors down, our last relaxed morning here in the Semois Valley. It wasn't on our original travel plans to be here but when the financial crisis hit Greece earlier this year, we decided against going to Greece and looked for alternatives. The Semois Valley came up on Airbnb and we figured it was a feasible spot to stop. Until then I had never heard of this area! It has been so lovely and probably our last bit of country air on our travels as, from here on in, we are staying in cities.
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| Sunday bakery treats |
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| Luke and Karl washing our car |
Packing up, schmacking up,
not much fun but has to be done! Mid way through our packing, a walk to
the bakery was in order for a Sunday treat. Delicious of course!
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| The joy of packing! |
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| Our bedroom view...irresistible! |
We
had planned to walk to Florenville through the forest to go to the Fete
de la Pommes de Terre (Potato festival) but some way down our track
there was a barricade and a notice about a Chasse (hunt) happening today
which meant we couldn't take the risk of walking through the forest.
It had been a nice walk to that point! We were all quite disappointed.
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| Our walking path |
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| Friendly cows |
So, we drove to Florenville instead and
there was quite a crowd gathering for the potato festival! The town
square was filled with marquees of local producers selling their wares -
not all potato related as we'd thought. There was lots of cheese and
wine tasting and various small goods and harvests. The number of cars
seemed to outnumber the number of people at the festival so we wonder if
we missed something but we couldn't find anything else. We did try
Gallettes which were French style potato cakes and very tasty.
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| Potato festival |
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| You know you are close to France when there is so much pate. |
Although
I am not sure of the origin of the potato festival or for how many
years the people of Florenville have gathered to celebrate their
harvest, I am sure it is a century old tradition.
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| Pumpkin hedgehogs |
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| Pumpkin grandpere |
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| Snails |
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| The Semois Valley |
We took the opportunity to buy Luke some
shoes as I discovered yesterday he'd worn holes in the soles of his
current shoes and they really wouldn't last much longer.
When
we arrived home, Tim, who had stayed back, greeted us with delight as
our hosts had dropped by with an amazing chocolate cake from the posh
chocolate shop in Florenville. Wow! We really don't want to leave
here!
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| Chocolate cake from our hosts |
I think most of our travel plans are in order for the journey and all the school work is submitted for this module. All those loose ends are tied off, so to speak. It would be good to have an early night, but the night before we travel is never a restful one. Travelling slowly is different from the fast paced one month in Europe tour and we do feel privileged to take things a bit more slowly and have time for forest walks and local life.
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