Road trips are wonderful, never knowing what is around the next corner, we come upon beautiful villages, all sleepy and seemingly abandoned with all the shutters closed. What is it about shutters? I can understand the beautiful traditional ones, but so many of the homes have modern (ugly) aluminium roller shutters. I guess that they are designed to keep out the sun, but there has been precious little sun in the last few days and still in every village that we come to, most of the houses have all of their shutters firmly closed. It makes the villages look like ghost towns. Shuttered lives and secret folk?
Be that as it may, the villages and towns are still achingly pretty and occasionally, like yesterday we stumble upon ones that are full of life. Villareal on market day, the town (village?) full of stalls, selling perfectly ripe peaches and melons, clothes from the 'tibetan one size fits all -all tiny asians perhaps-...to long johns and granny knickers. And the food...oh the food, we had samosas..yes I know we are in france, but mine was chevre and tapanade..and gauffres (waffles) with nutella...mmm..Clearly we look like tourists and not just because of our very pale skin,  but the french (apparently) do not snack, they must be more resistant to the lures of hot waffles with dripping nutella. The sun shone too in the market and it was a perfect french morning, everyone had their dogs on leads, the cafes full of people sitting sipping coffee, hunched over old ladies buying fruit for the day. Monsieur with the daily baguette and of course a busker playing accordion music alternating with edith piaf style husky french ballads.....it is wonderfully affirming to see every cliche and generalisation alive and well...Oh how I love France!
 
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Day of the Triffids...only more beautiful
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my new house
Mostly the last couple of days driving was driving by enormous field after field of alternating wheat and sunflowers, as we moved further south the sunflowers were more and more in bloom. Words are not adequate to describe how beautiful the ranks of blooms are, the yellow is more yellow than seems possible. Standing next to golden fields of wheat in huge open countryside as you pass through pretty shuttered towns, and the occasional glorious chateau...I want to live here...I have found my new house..in a little village called Champagne, and yes you can all come and visit.

 The temperamental sat nav is still as quixotic as ever. This time she has decided that she doesn't like main roads at all. So we are driving through the smallest roads possible. She did bring us through the biggest wheat field in existance...wheat to the horizon in almost every direction. I tried not to think of that old move..'children of the corn'...but I did drive just a little faster out of there,,,

DW
7/15/2012 07:04:02 am

Hello again dears. What an amazing field of Sunflowers behind a relaxed-and-happy-looking Mollie : - ) glad to hear that ye are finally reaching the searched-for-sunshine. Looks like a lovely campsite, complete with hamocks and quilts. We will definitely come to visit you in your castle...did you say it was in Champagne? the little village where the bubbley comes from???
continued happy adventures.
love and hugs
ME [it's Dearbhla, just incase you can't figure :-) ]

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8/24/2012 04:28:24 pm

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