Tapp's Travels

Our new campsite (Camping la Brouquère) near Gondrin turned out to be a little gem!  Little, in that it comprises only 20 pitches.   Our “terrace” is almost 90 metres in length and is home to just three pitches.   That’s us at the far end – in a different time zone!

A gem BECAUSE it  IS little – and quiet (adults only) – and spotlessly clean.  The Dutch owners, Wouter and Sonja, claim that people arrive as strangers and leave as friends.   Well, we are well on the way to that target after our first few days.

Glenda became our next “disaster” when she broke a tooth.  Her back molar split in two.  Needing a dentist, we were advised to go in person.  It’s harder for them to refuse to see you if you are in their surgery rolling on the floor in agony!  Excellent plan – we tried that and were told we can have a preliminary investigation – at the end of August or possibly early September.  The explanation was simply “It’s compliqué, désolé!”.  OK Glenda.  You can get up off the floor now.  Not convincing enough!

Wouter lept into action the next day and drove about 13 kms to Montréal.  He pitched up at the office of a semi-retired dental practitioner he knows and persuaded him to see Glenda in three days time.

Dr Ivan Fiegen.

Excellent.  But he speaks no English!  So Wouter drives us there on Friday and translates.  Fifteen minutes and €24 later, Glenda gets the news that the remains of her tooth look fairly stable.  The sharp corners have been smoothed.  “Get it sorted properly when you get home.”

Although we are in a very rural setting amongst huge vineyards, there are lots of pretty villages nearby.  There’s Montréal for starters, strictly speaking, Montréal-du-Gers.  Allegedly the oldest bastide in France (founded in 1255).  Villefranch du Périgord (1261) has tried to dispute that!  But, to be fair, 1255 did come before 1261!.  Narrow streets on a grid with a central square surrounded by covered arched walkways.

It is built on a promontory on the right bank of the river Auzoue.  Very pretty, very peaceful, not much going on apart from one art gallery where the lady artist (Françoise Amadieu) paints elaborate 3D pictures on corrugated cardboard.  Sounds odd, but actually very clever.

A few kms south-east of the village, on the road from Gondrin, there is an internationally significant palaeontological site.  It was discovered in 1987.  Over the last three decades, four previously unknown species have been found there, among many other animal parts.

Going a  little further North from Montréal we came to Fourcès.  Apparently the only circular bastide in France!

It was virtually deserted when we visited but the carpark on the edge of town has space for about 500 cars.  We had great difficulty choosing our space…

More covered archways, but this time the circular “square” contained a small forest.  One interesting restaurant with six tables – full – and one street café-bar-micromarket with one table.  We had coffee there.  Everything else was closed.

All round, there were interesting alleys radiating outwards…

Then, back to see if we can find our car in the carpark and onwards and upwards to Larressingle, a fortified village.  Viewed from outside the walls…

… and inside.

At the only, open tourist shop (with the pink parasol, next to the entry gate), we had a delightful croque – cheese on toast.  When asked what cheese she used, the lady told us that it was a closely guarded family secret.  A secret passed down from her grandmother.  If she told me, we would not be allowed out of the village gate.  Ever!  However, after ten minutes of interrogation, she gave me a list of the SIX ingredients.  Six different cheeses!  And we did manage to escape by climbing over the walls.  Obviously,  I can’t put the recipe on the Web for confidentiality reasons!

Apart from one group of locals (Probus or U3A?) on a group visit, and the lady with the cheesey secret, the village was deserted.  This happens a lot round here.  Places are either deserted or packed.  Partly as a result of Les Fériés.

France does do bank holidays rather well – and quite frequently… While we were at Dax, the Ascension weekend was dragged out over five days.  Now we have just had Whitsun, or Pentecost as it’s known hereabouts.  On the Monday, everything was closed – even the big supermarkets.  We chose to visit Condom that day for their flea market.  This is where the locals sell a whole range of stuff that they don’t want and that we didn’t know, we didn’t need!  We arrived a little late, totally missed the parking area and ended up in Central Condom.  The one great advantage of holidays is that no locals are around.  It’s easy to park really close to all the closed shops.  So, from my perspective, that’s two advantages – easy parking and closed shops!  A double whammy!

In France, as well as having eleven public holidays in a year, every day in the calendar has a saint’s name assigned to it.  Some have more than one (January 6 having five).  As I write this on the first day of June, I find I’m celebrating with St Justin.  Well, that’s OK with me!  Incidentally, St John’s day is a smidgeon late.  They missed my birthday by two days.  I’m talking with M. Macron about getting things changed.  I mean, clearly someone has made a mistake!

During this trip, we had found a huge accumulation of people at Lac de Luc in Pouillon where their Spring Fair was in full swing.  A massive boules tournament completely blocking the car park.  And then there was the occasion when we visited the (usually) sleepy town of Vic-Fezensac about 20 kms south of Gondrin.  The day we chose – a public holiday – the town was hosting the regional bull-fighting fiesta.  We wouldn’t have wanted to get involved with that, even though, at the time  we had absolutely no idea what was going on!  However, that problem didn’t arise because there was no space in any of the parking areas or on road verges or pavements within walking distance of the centre.  So we came home for a cup of tea just as a major thunderstorm struck – complete with hail.  And a caravan is noisy enough inside during heavy rain – let alone hail!  But after the incident with the alarm, we are quite used to noisy accommodation!

But we survived and the holiday will continue!