C'EST LA VIE - THAT'S LIFE

Cahors 26th June

Today is our last full day in Cahors so for us it is time for a tidy up of the house, repack, checking up on arrangements to get home and plan a busy day in Bordeaux tomorrow.

Three months has flown past quite quickly, a lot has happened, we have seen and done heaps and eaten much more than heaps, some of us more than others. To show you what can happen in three months, below are comparative photos of the changes in rural France during our time here.

We arrived at the beginning of spring and will be leaving close to the beginning of summer. The flowers below reflect this, spring bulbs to summer annuals.

Our first long walk took us through fields of wheat that was still young and green; it is now fully grown and drying out, ready for harvesting.

The first colour we saw in paddocks was rape-seed flowers; these were soon harvested and sunflowers planted. The second lot of colour was fields of poppies; these were ploughed up and maize sown in their place.

Paddocks of scruffy grasses have been baled ready for the next feed out season.

Grape vines have gone from being pruned to showing signs of grapes.

The last noticeable difference is the walnut trees. They had no leaves on them when we arrived and now they are not only in leaf but have signs of nuts forming.

Today’s secret garden is just around the corner from us and is No.16 the Hospital garden. It contains plants that were used in medieval times to cure illnesses and diseases. The vines represent red wine as a cure for heart disease; cats also help long life. Apparently.

Today’s taste of France is our last meal (besides tomorrow’s breakfast) in Cahors. We went to our local restaurant/bar which is aptly named Bordeaux, our next destination. Roger had sautéed Canard with oriental flavours and I had an anchovy pizza; Chinese and Italian, very French.

French word of the day “depechez-vous”, it means hurry up. This word is seldom used in South West France, you queue patiently at the checkout while everybody has a chat, you wait in a bar until they are ready to serve you and you sit in traffic and never toot.

The funniest case we have seen of the laid back French is the ambulance pulling into the hospital driveway, lights flashing and siren blaring, but yet the driver had time to stop and chat up a lady standing on the footpath. We could see three blokes in the back constantly looking out to see what the chick looked like. We were too polite to take a photo; that and we were concerned for the patient in the back