Tapp's Travels

It’s  Monday.  Time for a change of scenery.  Our pitch has been booked by some perishing Dutch (probably) campers!  Moulin de Campech has our name on it.  On the very edge of the largest man-made forest in Western Europe.  The Landes.  10,000 km² of trees.  Largely maritime pine.  Why are we surprised to find ourselves in fairly densely wooded valley?  The site is pretty nice if rather too shaded for us.  It has very limited morning and evening sunlight and full sunshine in the hottest part of the day.  And there’s no real outlook.  But that’s trees and valleys for you!

Also, the facilities must have been ancient when they were first installed 30 odd years ago.  They REALLY do need modernising!

On the plus side, there is a lovely sunny terrace by the old mill-house.  In the evenings, Sue and George serve a very passable menu.  Grass snakes were seen two nights in a row at the edge of the patio!

… and the pool is at least two degrees warmer than Woulter’s!

Tuesday is market day in Casteljaloux.  It’s small and largely serving locals with stuff they need.  Things like veggies, fruit, cheese and meats.  Plus some garden flowers.  A genuine local event.

The town also has the air of a “lived-in” place with real shops, cafés and a nice looking auberge restaurant (which, with hindsight, we should have eaten at).

There was also the compulsory “little” church  the eglise Notre-Dame de la Assomption.

With it’s massive, vaulted ceiling.

The current church was built between 1680 and 1773, and stands on the foundations of an ancient “Collegial”.

There was also a very French municipal campsite on the edge of town which looked like a good base from which to visit Casteljaloux and the area.  Next time, maybe!

Another tiny bastide is Le Mas d’Argenais, some 15 kms North of Damazan.  We decided to live dangerously and drive right into the centre of town.  Surely the mayor won’t have banned parking in the middle (see later)!  The road got smaller and smaller until it eventually petered out beside the ancient covered market (La Halle) and the (typically) massive church.  We didn’t so much park, as abandon the car on the front step to the Eglise Saint-Vincent.

Glenda had read that the church is home to a Rembrant masterpiece painted when the artist was just 25 years old.  A genuine masterpiece.  The church is bound to be locked!  But it wasn’t!

Not a nice subject for a painting, but there were no queues to get to admire it.  The security amounted to a glass screen.  Probably pretty tough glass.  And possibly fitted with surprise anti-theft devices as seen in Indiana Jones movies.  Massive rolling stones, collapsing floor, flying swords etc!

Walking to the edge of town through the tiny deserted streets …

… we found ourselves overlooking an “interestingly ” narrow bridge over the canal and the River Baise. 

That needs exploring!  (And I can confirm now that, without our extended wing mirrors, we could indeed cross the bridge – but it was tight!)

First we have to extract our car from the church forecourt!  A 29 point turn or reverse around the Halle?  Reversing wins.  But it was an interesting manoeuvre under the watchful gaze of the café owner and her two cyclist customers (the total living population of Le Mas!).

We relocated to a peaceful spot between the river and the canal with the exciting name of ” Le Canal Lateral de la Garonne”.  I think it transmogrifies into the Canal du Midi somewhere near Toulouse.

Time for a quick walk on the tow path

… passing rural properties with no visible access routes apart from the canal!

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Maybe that explains why there was no living soul in these places!

It’s Tuesday – maybe.  Damazan is our nearest bastide.  Another very pretty and twee historical centre.

If I was elected mayor here, the first thing I would do would be to ban parking in the central square.  OK, that’s a pretty unlikely scenario!  I’d say the parking spaces are fairly safe!

The town well and some old buildings.

We had decided to give Buzet-sur-Baise a miss.  It’s nearly lunchtime.  Vianne (another bastide) looked more likely to have restaurants.  In hindsight and retrospectively with 20:20 vision, a bad decision!  Vianne did indeed have two eateries on the central square.

One was closed, the other too touristy for us!

Just outside the “city” walls …

… we met four Aussies from Melbourne cruising on the canal.  They were off for a tourist lunch in town.

We headed back to Buzet-sur-Baise where we found a highly recommended auberge – recommended but shut!  And a lovely restaurant – packed and “complet”.  Looks like it’s food at the caravan this evening!

Trying to make the best of a gastronomic disaster, we pretended we had only visited the town for another walk on the canal!

But it’s time to move on – we are off to see Hetty!