Our main outing this last week took us to Mielan, about sixty kilometres south of where we are, to visit the very pleasant young lady who cuts my hair. Quite a long way to go for a haircut, I can hear you all saying, but I got to know her early last year and as she cuts my hair well; speaks English and, because she works from home, charges about a third less than any of the local hairdressers, we make the effort to get there. It is a lovely drive and we have enjoyed seeing the restoration of their home progressing each time we have visited. Interestingly, what they bought initially was a house with a large barn attached to the one side. What they have done is to convert the barn into a charming and very attractive house for themselves, and turned the original house in to beautifully appointed and equipped self-catering cottage, known here as a ‘gite’. There is now also a pool, horses and splendid views. It would make a wonderful base for anyone wanting to discover more of rural Gascony. Needless to say, the fact that it was a simply glorious sunny day, probably did make everything look even more attractive.
On the way back home, we had chosen to stop off in Tillac which is a sweet little mediaeval village, and the one we had been to a week ago to visit the market and the floral fair, when the weather had been so unfair and gloomy. We wanted to have another look at it without the market stalls up and down the main road, and had noticed a rather nice-looking little restaurant where we thought we may be able to get a reasonable lunch. It was not to be though! In spite of a notice in the restaurant window announcing that they are open every midday, it was as though the whole village had died! Not a soul was to be seen on the streets; all the shutters were closed and there was no sound of radio or television from behind those closed shutters. Admittedly it was during those two hours of the day when the whole of France closes down for lunch and a siesta, and it was also very hot – about 28 degrees but the closed restaurant was a disappointment. Still, it was not the end of the world, and we still had to go past Marciac which we know well and where we consoled ourselves with delicious grilled duck breast and ‘frites’. Goody! No need for me to cook that night!
All along the route we had chosen, we saw vast fields of brilliant yellow rape-seed which I am almost sure is the same thing as the canola which grows in the Overberg. The fields are so bright and make a wonderful splash of colour in amongst the rest of the lush greenness.
The rest of the week was taken up with all sorts of chores around the house. Apart from the usual house-hold chores of cleaning, washing and ironing, the grass got cut, some overgrown bushes were trimmed and a broken shutter was repaired – a job which entailed using quick-setting cement. We now know what those nasty Mafia guys made the ‘concrete boots’ out of for their victims! This cement is positively scary as it sets rock hard in just five minutes, or less if the day is very hot. As that particular day had been very hot indeed, we waited until well after 7 pm to do the work and even then it set almost immediately. We learn something new every day!
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