And the next, next day!

This was the day I had been most looking forward to as we were to visit Rocamadour. I'd seen photos of it and was hoping it was as lovely as it looked - and indeed it was. It is a famous medieval site where people did (and still do) undertake pilgrimages to the Black Virgin, the protector of mariners! We parked at the top of the site and then caught an elevator which was carved out of the cliff down to the first level, although had I realized what an easy walk down it actually was I would have preferred to walk. Either way, this was where the main square was leading to seven churches and the 250 carved steps where some pilgrims climb up the steps on their knees to atone for their sins and ask for forgiveness. It's a bit like pilgrims at the tomb of Our Lady of Fatima in Portugal but this is up concrete steps! In fact we did see one youngish woman doing just this and she seemed to be in an awful lot of pain! I guess when you're not of that faith you probably don't understand it (I certainly don't) but all respect to her!

Pilgrims at the tomb of
Our Lady of Fatima - a google image

The whole site was
built into the rock!

This is where we saw the
young woman climbing the
steps on her knees!

Cleaning work being
carried out!

The chapel of the Black Virgin was very small but the church adjoining it was much bigger and absolutely stunning. While I'm not a church-goer, I love to visit churches and this one was just amazing!

The Virgin used to be naked but
they added a red cape sometime later!

Our guide told us there were 250 steps to the "town" so we could either take the next elevator down or walk. This time I decided to walk - and it was just fine!

Before lunch we had about an hour to wander round and I bumped into Philippe so we went and had a drink together. He was telling me pretty much the same stories about the old fogies' committee as the others but said that if they could get rid of the current president he would consider staying on. After that it was off to a very good lunch and then on to visit the 14th century (and still functioning) flour mill of Cougnaguet. While the workings of the mill were pretty interesting, quite honestly I felt our group was too big for the visit and since the lady giving the tour was really tiny, anyone standing at the back (i.e. me) didn't really get to see or hear much, so I would honestly rate this place as the least-interesting place on our trip. Still, you can't have everything in life can you!

Rocamadour - picture taken from
our travel guide (since I don't have
a drone and I can't fly)!

Google picture of the ancient mill!

After that it was back to our hotel for dinner and a game of lotto! I remember thinking "oh gowd I could do without this", but in the end it was quite fun - a bit like bingo but not 100% the same. The hotel owner (who could sell sand to Saudi but was great fun with it) had 29 items picked out from their home-produced goods and we worked our way through our "bingo tickets" until all 29 items were gone so that left just one person with nothing - and guess who that was! Me!!! I mean, how can you come last out of 30 people? But not to worry, he had an extra prize and I came away with a nice bottle of local wine (for being a good loser?), so I'm not complaining!

In other news, earlier this week I attended my first meeting of the Old Fogies Club committee members, where it looks like I'm going to become the new Treasurer after the AGM in November - along with the new President and Secretary. When I asked how many members there were she told me 185!!!! What on earth have I left myself in for???

And finally, in an effort to keep moving forward with decluttering I packed up my kiddies' playpen (barely used) and will be giving it to Jen on Wednesday to see if she can sell it at the upcoming yard sale type sale of children's goods in their town (she's welcome to keep the money). So then I decided I was going to get rid of the old stereo set that my ex had installed in the small bedroom which serves as the computer room (it's so old it still takes cassette tapes). Well I managed to lug both the speakers downstairs but when I went to unplug the main component I first had to figure out which of the many plugs belonged to it at the back of my computer desk. Eventually I found it, gave it a good tug to be sure I'd got the right one, and when I realized the plug was too big to pass behind the computer desk I decided to just cut it off with scissors - except I'd somehow managed to get the wrong cable and cut through a still plugged in electrical cable. The spark was interesting, to say the least, but fortunately I wasn't hurt, even if my hair is a bit curlier now. Not my finest moment though!

Going further back in time!

When I was chatting to a couple of the ladies on our trip we were talking about how the cost of groceries has shot up over the past year or so when one of the ladies said she always buys her fruit and veg from "Marcel" at the La Roche market. I rarely went to this market because it clashed with my pilates class, but since I haven't re-enrolled this year I went down there today, immediately found a parking space (I should remember to play the lottery) and sussed out where "Marcel's" stall was. His name wasn't Marcel, in fact I think he was North Africa judging by his accent, but she was right about his prices. My goodness his stuff was really cheap by local standards. I got three cantalope melons for €3 and he was offering all the other plastic bowls for €3 apiece, or €10 for five bowls!!! I realized I didn't want five bowls of fruit and veg but bought eight nectarines, six lemons, four oranges, three melons, two cucumbers and five huge tomatoes, all for €9!! That's a real deal, I can tell you. Of course I don't need all that but since that was the way he was selling it I'll give some to Jen next time I see her. There was also another man selling stuff from his garden so I think I'll make it a habit to go to the market when I can rather than shop at my usual store!

Anyway, since I want to get this written up before I forget everything, I'm back in the Périgord for another couple of outings, but this time going further back in time. Our first visit was to the Grotte de Lascaux, which is a treasure trove of prehistoric artwork. The grotto was discovered in 1940 by four young boys out walking their dog. All of a sudden the dog gave a yelp and they found he had fallen down a hole which eventually led them into a huge cavern. Apparently they swore to keep it a secret but about three days later the whole village knew about it and the Grotte de Lascaux found its way onto the map! Originally it was opened up to the public (you were even allowed to smoke in there - which seems incredible nowadays), but after 15 years they found the site had been so degraded that they decided to close it back up in 1963 in order to preserve a site which, they believe, is 21,000 years old - so we ended up visiting what is a replica of about 80% of the grotto. The paintings depict a nomadic people who seemingly followed herds of reindeer for the most part, much as many indigenous peoples in harsher tundra-like locations still do to this day. Apparently they burned animal fat (tallow?) for light and worked out a sophisticated system to get up to the roofs of the grotto to draw their art. Since we weren't allowed to take pictures even inside the replica grotto, I had to use google pictures for this post!

Surprisingly (to me at least) these people didn't actually live in caves because (a) very little light, (b) their fires would smoke them out and (c) who would want to wake up a hibernating bear or tiger! No, they actually made their homes in holes underneath overhanging cliff ledges which were known as cro, and discovered on land owned by magnon, hence Europeans (apparently - I didn't know this) referred to prehistoric man as cro magnon! So that's another piece of probably useless information I can file away for next time we play Trivial Pursuit!

After lunch we headed back out to the Gouffre de Proumeyssac which is a 42m high cavern filled with stalactites and stalagmites and absolutely stunning. Again we weren't allowed to take pictures but the light show was so impressive that even google pictures don't do it justice. Known as the Cristal Cathedral, locals heard many legends of the ghost of the gouffre, but it wasn't until 1907 that the entire cavern was "discovered" and explored!

Gouffre de Proumeyssac!

You could either walk down into the "cathedral" or take a kind of cable car but I think we got the better view by walking and taking our time down there!

When we got back to our hotel we found another group of visitors all dressed up in 1920s fashions, so one of our ladies went over to ask them what it was all about and they told her that at least once a year they visit a tourist attraction in France and dress up accordingly - with this year's attraction being Josephine Baker's castle! How cool is that!

This isn't them - they were older like us - but
this gives you an idea of what they looked like!
I think there's a name for these kinds of groups
but I can't remember what they called themselves!

While we were having a drink before dinner a couple of our group decided to go off "mushroom hunting". The hotel owner said he always found loads of mushrooms (cepes) which they used at the hotel but if he told them where to look he'd have to kill them afterwards!!! They found just one mushroom but a couple of days later they saw the owner coming out of the woods with two baskets full!

And finally, a belated happy birthday to Anne in Alabam! I missed it on FB the other day but I hope you had a lovely day and hubs spoilt you!

And the next day ....!

About 10 days ago I received a letter from the old fogies club in St. Pierre (I really should use its proper name I suppose - it's called Carpe Diem, but old fogies club seems to just trip off the tongue more easily) announcing that the entire committee would be standing down in November and they were looking, in particular, for a new president, secretary and treasurer. Well I thought about it for a few minutes and decided against it, but on the bus heading out to the Périgord I asked Marie-Jo (also on the committee) if they had had any volunteers and she said not - and this is where I should probably ask people to fill my mouth with quick-setting cement next time I open it because I vaguely floated the idea of offering to fill in as treasurer! I knew I didn't want president, potentially wouldn't mind secretary, but figured treasurer would probably suit me better. Well her eyes lit up and before I knew it she'd called Christine (the secretary) over and was telling her that maybe I would be joining the committee!!! Why oh why do I do it!

It turns out the reason they all want out is because the current president - who is in her 80s - is becoming somewhat "over zealous" and seems to think that she gets to decide everything, as opposed to putting things to a vote! So then I got talking to Christine at dinner and she was regaling me with stories about "the one" (you know, I say there's always "the one" when I go on my trips) and I was starting to question my sanity. She did mention that if I joined the committee she might be willing to stay on as secretary, so that would just leave the president to be replaced along with the wider group of committee members! I was quite shocked when she said there were about 160 members (!!!) and quite a lot of money in the bank account, so it would be a shame if it all fell apart because people couldn't see eye to eye!

There were two Portuguese brothers on this trip, although having been in France over 50 years, you wouldn't know it from their accents. They both seemed pretty nice with José being married to Christine and the other living with "the one". After a few days I saw what they meant because she was forever taking digs at him with there being something wrong with everything he said (makes you wonder why some people stay together doesn't it). As a "for instance" when we were leaving a restaurant one day I turned round and told her to watch out for the dog poop on the pavement and she barked at me that she was not blind, thank you very much, and could see it perfectly well (I wish she'd slipped in it to be honest)! Then there was "the market lady" who used to sell clothes on her market stall and was such a rude, aggressive woman I wonder if she ever got any customers! As an example of people's feelings for her, at one point she asked "if this place was free" at the dinner table and was told words to the effect that they would rather not have it occupied by her - so she ended up sitting at our table! Apart from these two women though, pretty much everyone was really nice. There was 85 year old Carmen from Barcelona, Collette from Laos, Roger with the bald head and booming voice and 82 year old Christiane who looks about 70 and routinely hikes up the mountains at the back of my house (and who made me feel totally inadequate)!

Anyway, after giving you a flavour of the group, it was on to day two and our next outings. The first was to a local distillerie where they would pretty much distill anything into liqueurs or eau de vie with no part of the fruit going to waste. I bought a bottle of mirabelle plum liqueur and a walnut eau de vie - nice, but not something you'd want to be chugging down too often!

After lunch we set off for the Bastide de Domme, one of many fortresses in such a heavily contested region. You see when Henry Plantagenet (Henry II of England) married Eléanor of Aquitaine (France) in 1152 this region fell into the hands of the English. Local noblemen fairly routinely switched sides though, and since many of the local militia were only paid when they were actually fighting there followed the 100 year war (more than 100 years actually) between England and France (and so ends the history lesson for today)! It was a pretty little town (fort?) though and well worth the visit!

A google picture of the Bastide
de Domme

I would give my eye teeth to
own this book shop!

On the way back to our hotel the owner/guide pointed out a field of small trees and told us that they used to have a handyman who worked for them for many years. When he retired he planted "truffle oaks" (that's my translation of the French for oak trees which encourage the growth of truffles) in that field but since it usually takes about 10 years for truffles to start growing, the poor man got to enjoy them for just three months before he subsequently died!

On the property there was the daftest, sweetest dog who would roam around carrying a ball looking for anyone to throw it for him. He had all the markings of a border collie but was way bigger than any border collie I've ever seen - but man was he sweet and just wanted to play! I suppose when you have all those grounds to roam around with your ball and a never-ending supply of willing visitors to throw it for you, life can't get much better than that!

In the evening the owner gave us a lesson on how to cook foie gras! Now I know it's long been held as cruel to force feed geese and ducks to produce the foie gras, which I suppose it is, but our guide was explaining to us that they are only force fed twice a day for about two weeks and are otherwise free to roam. Compare that to battery hens and I suppose she has a point. Anyway, our foie gras was indeed cooked to perfection, but to be honest, I'm still not keen on it. I don't much like the texture so I doubt I'll be partaking again any time soon!

And finally, my neighbour's moving truck came today and loaded up most (but not all) of what was left in the house. She has worked so incredibly hard these past couple of months to get rid of so much stuff and I think even she was shocked that some stuff had to be left behind. I'm guessing her kids will take what's left to their homes and ferry it over to her as and when they can. She asked me if I'll come and visit (as she was feeling a bit wobbly) and I told her of course I will once she gets herself settled! That being said, seeing what she has just gone through makes me more determined to get rid of as much stuff as possible (something I'm struggling with at the moment) because I never want to have to go through a big move ever again!

Home again!

I got home late Sunday night and am still trying to corral my thoughts so I can make them coherent in a few blog posts. Most importantly, I absolutely loved my trip to the Périgord, but more on that in a bit!

On a very sad note, remember I wrote about the local lady who went missing in early June - Lucienne - well they found her body last week on the forestry road between St. Pierre and St. Laurent wrapped up in a plastic bag! What the hell! My first thought was that she had been found by hunters now that hunting season has started but in fact the police had their eye on a young man who eventually confessed to killing her and told them where to find her body. He was doing work at her home as she was having it adapted to accommodate her disabled brother so I'm guessing he was always going to be a prime suspect. Without knowing the full story it sounds like she caught him stealing, he must have panicked - and that's where everything went sour. He's a 24 year old man from St. Laurent and while I understand panicking, and putting aside that he took the life of a good woman, what in the hell can justify (in his mind) destroying his own life and surely ruining that of his family!!! While I'm glad her children will now be able to give her a decent burial I'm so sad for them that they lost their mother in such a dreadful way!

I finished listening to Entitled and in many ways it just seems to be a listing of how people were finding ways to "donate" money to Prince Andrew who, it would appear, has always been an obnoxious w@nker. What is it with these people always having their snouts in the trough - isn't the trough big enough for them all to get their fill??? At the moment I'm listening to Frank McCourt reading his book Angela's Ashes and absolutely loving it, hearing him telling stories about his poverty-stricken childhood, but with his lilting Irish accent. I can highly recommend it!

Anyway, back to the Périgord! Well apparently there are four Périgords - the black, white, green and reddish-purple, the simple explanation being it refers to the different colours that predominate in those areas. We were in the black Périgord which, apparently, is the area where the most interesting historic attractions are and most of the over 1,000 castles!!! Can you believe that, over 1,000 castles???

The Périgord!

Our accommodation was ok but my studio could have done with a little TLC. That being said, my bed was clean and the shower was hot and since we were out every day it didn't really matter in the end. Our first outing was to the Cabanes du Breuil where the young owner showed us round the different "buildings" all made using the dry stone wall method. The land had apparently been given to his grandmother on her wedding and she and her husband wanted to retain the buildings as intact as possible to preserve them. These cabanes were sometimes used for storage and even lived in by itinerant farm workers, but one of their biggest successes had to have been as a backdrop for (I think) 17 films!

It was too cold to swim unfortunately!

The grandparents stayed true to
their desire to maintain the
authenticity of the cabanes!

The grandparents in later years!

Geese everywhere!

Les cabanes du Breuil!

After that it was back to our hotel/residence for lunch (the food was sublime, but more on that later) and then off to the Château des Milandes which was owned by American vaudeville star Josephine Baker! I get kinda fed up listening to audios or guides on these trips so I wandered off on my own, but I really want to learn more about Josephine as she seems to have been a very impressive woman indeed. She was born in St. Louis, Missouri and married at age 13! I don't know how she ended up in France but I see that there is an autobiography on Audible so I'll be listening to that after I've finished the McCourt book. She had, I believe, 12 children (10 of whom were adopted), had worked in the civil rights movement and was a very risquée star in France, earning what I would guess would have been considerable sums of money. Unfortunately she never kept her eye on her finances, repeatedly double paying bills from unscrupulous traders without checking and eventually was forced out of her castle by her unsustainable debt. As I say, she seems to have been a fascinating woman, so I'll hopefully talk more about her once I've listened to her autobiography. Until then, enjoy Josephine's castle!

Josephine Baker, 1906 - 1975

The Château des Milandes!

A falconry display in the castle
grounds!

Crikey!

I mentioned in my last post that some weirdo (that's the politest term I can find for him) has been "bothering" women at the lake in Passy and on another occasion about 10 minutes away in a place called Sallanches - seemingly the same young man. As far as I'm aware, the police haven't caught him yet but I hope they pick him up soon (the woman at the lake said she had to fight him off to get away from him)! And then yesterday, I saw on FB that there had been a landslide at Sixt Fer à Cheval (the Horseshoe Gorge) which is another one of my favourite places to go whenever I have visitors over. Well yesterday the weather was glorious so the gorge was busy with people either hiking or eating at the restaurant when part of the mountain gave way. Thankfully,despite it being a popular hiking spot the landslide missed the hiking trails and stopped short of the restaurant. There is also a small pony enclosure nearby where kids can take pony rides along the trails and, again thankfully, none of the ponies were hurt. The whole place is closed off for the time being but I'd say it was one helluva near miss!

My nephew and his girlfriend
at Fer à Cheval!

You can see the landslide in the following video and exactly how close it came to the restaurant here!

Anyway, this is just a short post to say that I won't be online for a week as I'm going away tomorrow to the Périgord Noir. That's the "black Périgord" as opposed to the "white Périgord", although I have no idea how those two areas got their names. Guess I'll find out soon enough. See you in a week and stay safe!

Raising the colours!

The weather has cooled down considerably here - in fact it feels like somebody cut the cord on the summer balloon and the autumn balloon moved right in to replace it. Still, with the cooler weather I've managed to get more done around here so I'm not complaining. That being said, the other day I noticed that the lamp next to where I sit in the evenings had a bit of a wobble on it, but when I tried to straighten it up what looked like a cement base dropped out of it, scattering cement all over the TV room. I wasn't best pleased of course, but since I had nothing planned that day I decided to drop it off at the tip and run out and buy another one. There is a small LIDL-style supermarket near the tip and I was tickled to see a couple of African women carrying their shopping home on their heads. I mean, no wonder they have good posture! If I tried that I'd probably end up with scrambled eggs all over my head!

A couple of times this week a camera car from Google Earth has driven by, so I'm pretty sure at some point there will be a satellite image of my backside while I'm working in the garden! One to look out for I suppose, and maybe even a motivator to get back to the gym when I come back from vacation (I'm off to the Périgord next week)!

Last week I had another medical check-up in Geneva and as I was driving towards the border (I always park at the border and catch the bus into town), I happened to glance at my purse on the passenger seat and a ruddy great spider crawled out of it. Now I hate creepy crawlies in any case, but talk about feeling trapped, what with not being able to stop! As soon as I parked I emptied my bag and tipped it upside down but never found anything so I'm hoping Archie the arachnid has managed to escape somehow as he was a nasty looking bugger!

I swear it was this big - although my chest
isn't quite so hairy!

While I was waiting for the bus, I spotted two young girls walking what looked like greyhounds or maybe whippets and it struck me how much the girls, with their long slim legs, looked just like their dogs. Do you think we chose our dogs based on familial resemblance, in which case, I wonder what that says about me because I used to have a border collie mutt! Then when I got on the bus, a man was standing quite near me but obviously not wanting to sit down because there were plenty of spare seats. After a few stops, a couple got on the bus with two dogs and at one point the woman ordered the dogs to "sit", at which point the man immediately sat down too! I guess you had to be there, but it tickled me no end! What's the saying, "little things please little minds (and little trousers fit little behinds)"!

Anyone who has been reading my blog for any length of time has probably realized how much I enjoy going to the lake at Passy to walk. Well this week, on one of the FB hiking groups I follow, a lady posted about how she had been "bothered" by a young man when she was walking in the mountains near Passy. Just a day earlier, Jen had posted a report by another woman who had been more than "bothered" by what appeared to be the same young man while walking round the lake. She managed to get away from him and reported it to the police, so I hope they are on the look out and catch him soon before anyone gets hurt!

I see blogland's favourite troll, Rajani Rehana is back doing the rounds too. The other day I was surprised to see that all of a sudden I'd gotten 10 comments on a blog post, only to find out that this eejit (or is it a bott?) was active again! Still, it doesn't take long to hit delete does it!

I looked after Charlie again last Wednesday and I always try to take dinner for everyone so that Jen doesn't have to think about cooking when she gets home. Apparently my stuffed peppers were "delicious", according to Charlie, and I was told I could make them again any time! Then he was telling me about the visits they'd had to the local fire station and the gendarmerie and he was dead impressed! Later on he was "playing guitar" and asked me to sing a song, but he was less impressed with Old MacDonald and asked if I knew any "real songs"!!! (We're still working on pushing English, as you can probably tell)!

My ex was over here the other week for Elynn's first birthday, so we all went out to lunch and then back to Jordan and Jen's for birthday cake. At one point Charlie went over and sat on pappy's lap to show him his cars and my ex looked at me and said again how much he missed France. To be honest, while he didn't look as bad as last time, I still don't think he looked well. He has a pretty vacant stare and I feel he looks unhappy - I guess he realizes how much he is missing over here. And oddly enough, for the first time in years I realize that I no longer loath him and I can only thank God for that. I hated carrying all that anger around with me but now I realize I just feel pity for him, not anger. Mind you, that doesn't mean I'd want to live anywhere near him ever again, but it is a relief to have finally let go of that anger. He was telling me all about the problems his sister has had with her son who, for no apparent reason other than his fairly recent marriage, has cut off all contact with the family - just like my sister in Denmark did. I know the family well and know for a fact there would be no good reason for this but I guess that can sometimes happen when the new spouse seems hell bent on isolating you. Heck he never went to his sister's wedding, nor did he go to grandma's funeral the other week. I just hope he realizes what he is missing out on at some point because they really are a pretty nice family!

On the Saturday we all went into Switzerland to a park we used to go to frequently as it was just 10 minutes from the apartment we first moved to when we came back from the States in 1989. They've built it up so much and Charlie, in particular, had an absolute blast (as did my boys) - brings back happy memories of taking André up there a couple of times a week in the good weather to wear him out before bed!

And finally, you may or may not have heard about the "Raise the Colours" movement spreading throughout the UK at the moment. It started when someone put up an England flag (the red and white cross of St. George) in Birmingham - and were promptly told to take it down!! This despite the fact that the Pakistani flag, the Ukrainian flag, the Palestinian flag and the Pride flags have been allowed to fly freely for ages! So not only did they not take them down, they put more up. The Council took them down and so more and more were put up. Then they started painting pedestrian crossings and traffic islands red and white (and potholes - in the hopes that maybe the Council would do something about them too). The whole movement has escalated throughout the UK and people are now also flying the Scottish, Welsh and Irish flags - and I'm delighted. I mean, can you imagine trying to tell someone in the States to take down their own flag??? From what I'm hearing, the movement is starting to spread across Europe (Spain and Germany for sure, and now starting in France). Peaceful protest at its best!

The caption under this photo was:
"try taking this one down you w@nkers"!

Manchester!

And the best of all:

You can watch the video here. Pure genius!