Last days in France

Monday was quiet


Tuesday we walked for a coupe of hours through villages along the southern ridge of the valley we have been staying in. the walks were well marked,and the three villages we visited were all quite old, small and austere, but pleasant.

After lunch we drove to Ales to visit the gallery which was surprisingly interesting, as it was built around the collection and work of a lesser known artist, Benoit, who was quite well connected with many of the modernist artists in France in the early part of the 20th century. His glass work, and prints were terrific. The museum itself was well presented, and a pleasure to visit. We then drove to Sommiere to the south, a town built around a roman era bridge, seven spend of which are still standing. We were less impressed with this place.

Tuesday was quiet, as I was tired of driving every day for most of the day. We visited local market in St Quentin de Poteries, a lovely town just north of Uzes. After a pleasant meal in a local Salon de The, we headed back to Audabiac and just rested up. That afternoon we visited a local woman, Giselle, a friend of the inn keepers we were staying with, at her invitation for tea. She had lived in Canada and the USA, and seemed keen to engage with us as she had clearly been quite outgoing throughout her life, but she was now constrained by her husbands illness to care for him. We learned a lot about the village, is various interest groups, and so on.

Wednesday, after farewells dot our hosts at Domaine d"Audabiac, a lovely place to stay, we drove to Toulouse via a detour to a Nimes gas station where we queued for nearly two hours due to a national strike, a visit to Pezares which was interesting, and finally a walk around the centre of Toulouse and dinner in a local Indian vegetarian restaurant.

Today, Thursday, we flew to London, again with a two hour delay on the tarmac due to the strike.

We are staying in Spitalfield in north east London, lots of energy, restaurants, markets, and funky shops. We did some exploring, but will need an early nite given our early start.

I have to apologise for the sparce tone of these notes, but am too tired to provide more than a brief summary of our experiences.