His mum was there but with no English, so she showed us to our grand room in this ‘2 large courtyard’ mansion renovated carefully back to its original look. Her boy, the mayor, who spoke English, was very engaging helping us with ‘making dinner tools’, and ‘eating dinner utensils’.
But before eating, he showed us around his ‘Pan de Bois’. This huge wooden structure which has another courtyard and building behind is made from wood and chalk stone. The wood stands vertically because it allows the house to extend higher, as is not so if they are horizontal. In between the wood lengths, there is hay filling plastered with wet clay and chalk.
His place is like a museum with records and photos going back 5 generations – 3 are living there now. A personal tour of the interior brought us to the end of an unexpected outing, and, like our hosts before, joined us at breakfast time. It was here he told us about the church with Roman and Gothic design, which we saw on our way out, and, it was open!!
After the light and sound entertainment outside our 3 double doors during the night, it seemed there was nothing left in the tank. A heavy mist instead saw us out instead. It was there when we walked through open country, the sun appeared when we walked through the forest, and the wind came from behind when we needed it – all the forces seemed to be encouraging us on.
We’re feeling good and looking forward to more variations of topography, oh, and I forgot, after touching on the vineyards a few days ago, they have now returned, and walking along a windy ridge was the perfect place to see them climbing up one side, with the sweeping fields on the other. A couple of quiet villages and a still canal later, we were in our 3-star ‘Chambre’ preparing to look for dinner and a boulangerie for our breakfast tomorrow as we leave early.