A Jungle, Dune, Figs & a Jim

Dear Bo & Dud,
We were quite sad to be leaving La Sirotiere in Vernoil. The awning carpet had gone into jungle mode and, as it made getting into the fridge difficult, we thought we ought to be moving on. Ann & David had made us feel very welcome and as you can see from the photograph we had plenty of space to relax in. Robert & Peter were good company, and gave us a parting gift of a bottle of Saumur Fizz and a lovely card - we shall be enjoying this later on this evening while watching Last Night of the Proms (in France, how clever is that).

Our journey to Bois du Tauzan was a good one - we did not use the auto route and as Howard had predicted, it took 6 hours, including a stop for lunch. This will be our last visit to Debs & Keith as they are selling up and intend to do some travelling before deciding where to settle next.

We had a visit to Casteljaloux on Tuesday as it was market day - this is for the most part, a farmers market selling local produce. Selecting what to buy is very difficult, samples are given out freely, and once tasted, the need to take some home becomes overwhelming. We settled on fruit, veg, olives, tapenade and sun dried tomatoes - delicious! The guy at the olive stall was from Marseille and we managed to have quite a conversation with him about his home and our travels. We also bought some interesting white fish ‘filet de Panga’ - any ideas? I cooked it Greek style with some of the olives and sun dried tomatoes - it was delicious. Debs collected a huge bowl of figs for me and we had some for dessert with a glass of Floc de Gascoigne. Travelling on a budget in France is so rewarding in comparison to shopping at Sainsbury’s - in fact, no comparison!

We finished off our week with a visit to the seaside - just down from the Bay at Arcachon is La Dune du Pyla. As you can see from the photographs it is the most amazing sand dune formed between the forest and the sea. It is 105 meters high and the views from the top are spectacular. Fortunately, there are steps up the side of the dune which we also had to walk down. Now, I think they are missing a trick here - I think that a few sledges, tea trays even, could add a little excitement to the experience.
I was disappointed that there was not the opportunity to sledge down - Howard was relieved, he’s still not recovered from the experience of doing this in Australia.

And so our last full week in France has come to an end. We’re planning a trip out tomorrow and will be moving on mid week - it is our intention to be in Spain by next weekend. Don’t worry if my letters get a little few and far between over the next few weeks - once we get into northern Spain we will be ‘touring’. We’ve got about 4 stops planned and a whole list of places to visit.

This would have been my first week back at work - I woke up Monday morning with a grin and my behaviour became quite juvenile. Howard is now threatening to remove the grin without the aid of anaesthetic (or in my case red wine!).

Love & Hugs & Kisses
H & H x

P.S. As we were walking around Casteljaloux we spotted an interesting Police car - I may get a siren and flashing blue light for Jim on my return.

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