C'EST LA VIE - THAT'S LIFE

La Jemaye 14th April

We set off for a geocaching day around the ponds of La Jemaye via the Riberac markets. It is school holidays and obviously a bank holiday as the market was busy and so was the beach at the ponds. The ponds are artificial, shaped in the middle ages by the monks populating the abbeys in the area. I couldn’t find out why they made the ponds as the local council is only interested in promoting the site as a reserve where you can picnic and swim under the watchful eye of a lifeguard and your parents as they lay on the fake imported sands of Flamingo beach. The reserve even has a massive restaurant and bar to cope with hordes of tourists and locals that flock here in the summer. We walked around the not overly attractive forest in the mud and found 2 out of 3 geocaches.

Today’s word is ‘interdit’ = not allowed; everywhere you go in the reserve there are signs saying no swimming here, no fishing, no dogs, no entry, no crossing. There is even a no noise zone for the observation of wildlife. Again we didn’t see the turtle, the mink or the African bee-eating rainbow bird, but I saw spiders, skinks, field mice (Ed: and a bright green snake) and an insect home to attract the pests

A taste of France comes from our own home cooking of eggs Benedict, which is apparently a New York creation. Although traditionally made with an English muffin, Canadian bacon, French Hollandaise and an egg, we made our Egg Benedict totally French, by replacing the muffin and the bacon with baguette and French salmon. Excuse the Hollandaise made from scratch in a microwave. Roger even managed to find a half decent French beer to accompany his tea.