Montreal Sunday

 

 

 

 

Went in to the Condom market this morning. Bought fresh fruit & vegies & stuff for a tasty lunch.

 

 

 

 

It’s a nice break not driving, but letting John drive. After lunch, we visited an “ancien tracteur” ploughing competition, as you do. Some great old tractors, not sure about the safety aspect, standing on the drawbar of the plough. Here is a short video. Here is the link address to the video: https://youtu.be/UM_7k9RQa3g  Richard (and Gail), thought of you!

 

 

 

 

We went on to look at a small church in Luzanet that was restored from a shell with no roof to a beautiful, simple church by volunteer tradesmen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last stop was Poudenas, where we sat beside the river, beside a wonky cafe and had a glass of wine, chateau up the hill via narrow roads. Very peaceful. This is what travelling and retirement is about.

 

 

 

 

No sun at 9 pm tonight, but still 28 degrees and very comfortable outside for dinner.

Montreal Saturday

 

 

 

It was great to slow down last night and start our time with Joan & John having a glass of wine or 2 and a meal, in their very comfortable house here in Montreal. We’ve started relaxing. At 8 pm last night, it was still sunny with a bright blue sky.

 

 

 

 

We drove into Agen this morning for some house stuff and found a little creperie for lunch. On the way back, we detoured via some small villages and stopped at Larressingle, built in the 13th century as a residence and fortress for the Abbott of Condom and housing for the villagers. When it was realised that the fortress was not needed for defence, the Abbott moved to a new chateau, taking the roof beams and letting the old building  fall into disrepair.

Montréal-du-Gers Friday

 

 

Not sure what was in the town of Montauban, so we left the car in the hotel car park and walked in. Compared with many other places we have been, we were a little underwhelmed, we thought that the town was generally quite new, the “old bridge”, didn’t look that old and the brick church similar. Then we found out that the bridge was completed in 1335. Montauban is the second oldest of the bastides of southern France. Its foundation dates from 1144.

 

 

 

 

 

By the time we got back to the car it was late morning so we asked “her” to find us the way to Montréal-du-Gers to visit Joan & John. The main issue with using the GPS is that we really don’t have a good idea of which way we are going, or the towns we go through. We sometimes use the maps on our tablet for an overall view. An hour or so later we decided it was time for coffee, so we stopped in a village on the GPS way, Beaumont de Lomagne. It is reputed to be a perfect example if a 13th century new town. The marketplace and the (brick) church are the main medieval monuments in the town. Coffee was some of the best.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We passed so many crops of sunflowers, so extensive sometimes that there were sunflowers as far as the eye could see. Unfortunately many crops are nearing the harvesting time and were really hanging their heads.

 

 

 

 

Just back from a wine tasting with Joan & John.

Montauban Thursday

We thought we’d just drive through Villefranche-de-Rouergue on the way out this morning. So busy. We found a small car park with some people, loaded up with flowers and other stuff, standing beside a car. We asked them if they were going, which shocked them, they asked how did we know they spoke English. We let them know that the GB car registration was a little hint. With so many cars looking for parking spots (clever cars huh. Maybe it was the car’s occupants looking), we were very lucky to find this one. There was a big Thursday market on on a number of the squares (most are not square) and the town was full of people. There was the most fantastic selection of flowers, vegies, meats, breads etc. While Rick went up the tower of Notre Dame, Gill bought a selection of nice olives, then coffee overlooking the market. We were amused to see a nun with her crepe stall on the steps of Notre Dame. Another great place we hadn’t planned to visit, but spent a couple of hours. We missed a quick turn getting out of town and ended up zig zaging through the narrowest streets we have driven along. Right angle turns were rather close.

Now for more canal stuff. Must have been a few days since we looked at this stuff. We detoured to Moissac to look at an aqueduct, some locks, canals and a river. The aqueduct is 365 metres long and was built between 1842 and 1846.

Tomorrow we get to Joan and John’s house in Montreal-du-Gers. Seems like a lot of water has gone under the bridge (ha ha) since we were on the canal boat with them in UK. Looking forward to seeing them.

Villefranche-de-Rouergue Wednesday

The first destination today was Collonges la Rouge. Collonges-la-Rouge is entirely built with red sandstone, is a member of the Les Plus Beaux Villages de France (The Most Beautiful Villages of France) association and is one of the most visited villages. The monks of Charroux Abbey founded a priory here in the 8th century. Good coffee in great surroundings.

While were there, we heard about another of the “Les Plus Beaux Villages” near by, so……, yes we had to visit Turenne. While often the villages are more of the same, they are all different and we love visiting them. There goes another unplanned stop.

We left Turenne and dutifully followed “her” instructions. The narrow winding roads were attractive, but slow, but that’s what’s interesting about travelling through unknown places.

Our plotted route took us through Saint Cere, another attractive village. Don’t know how to put accents on letters, so there are none here.

We will be crossing our route south west in a couple of weeks, travelling through Figeac both ways. We had a short time today to stop and have a bit of a look, but will have another look at different parts of town when we pass through next. There is a lot to see, another very attractive town with old buildings. Very touristy, as is justified. Wish they’d all leave us to look on our own.

We’re now in the Hotel Balladins, which just happens to be beside a big Carrefour supermarket. We’ve discovered the fantastic salad meals that the supermarkets have and have bought a couple here, so we will eat in again. It is a nice relief to get away from the  fried and/or fatty food that many of the restaurants on the outskirts of towns, close to the cheaper hotels, serve. We tend to look for hotels just out of town as they usually have parking available and we usually don’t want to visit the big towns.