Our home last night was once a flour mill and has been cleverly converted into a smart hotel. Dinner was over a noisy stream, and the view was of the same river, a weir, and a water wheel – a bit of luxury on the track. The reception people spoke no English so a chance to try a bit of French with the help of his google translate.
We left late because it was such a gorgeous spot and we wanted to soak it in. Time to go and it was past another weir and water wheel, over a stream and up our first very steep hill, a dark track through a forest. The land round here is much more hilly, with many forested hills and cosy valleys, one tenanted by a small beautiful village.
A farmer came out to talk to us wondering perhaps what our loitering was all about. His very big noisy dog bounced down the road ahead of him but it was just to talk to Corrie. It was his collection of wildflowers that had us hanging around to take photos. He seemed happy that someone appreciated his garden and showed us a short cut. Long cuts though kept us with our book’s directions and with past experience the short ones often don’t work out.
It was a busy time as his wife also came out to see what all the fuss was about, and later a father and son came by on their bikes. It seemed like a good time to move on, and leave the farm perched on a ridge, taking a long decent to a village below. Up the other hillside, hugging the forest and through it – the shade is welcome today, and there was a wild deer eating and not quite hidden in the tall grass.
I took a few shots as I walked towards this smallish brown/grey figure until the wind told him/her I was there. The sound or the scent sent it bouncing away through the field. If it was another kind of shot, easy pickings would have been had, as the bounce would give the hunter an easy target. Through the grapevines and across a huge river, it’s home again.
I’m not sure what the shop rules are on Pentecost (the French holiday today), but all the shops are closed except for 3 bars – luckily and unusually, one of them had food. Here’s hoping the ‘dinner makers’ are open tonight as they often are on Sunday, for example. No noisy stream tonight but a tree-covered hill framing the chimney tops will do just fine.
