Tapp's Travels

But not yet!  We haven’t eaten at the Tête d’Ail in Roquecor yet.  Nor have we visited Montcuq!  The first was easily fixed.  Glenda was sure they would be open on Thursday.  Checking on their website – fermée, closed, shut, not open.  “Rubbish!” said she who has to be obeyed (some of the time).  They’ll be open.  When we arrived, shortly after noon, the terrace was indeed full of diners dining away merrily.  So ‘defo’ open then!  Sam (possibly not his real name), the proprietor, has told Google to delete reference to his restaurant (good luck with that, Sam).  He leaves the entry as “closed” to avoid getting too many customers!  An interesting business strategy.  But at least it is A strategy!  But clearly worth ignoring Google once again!

Rugby Steve has recommended we visit Pujols, near Villeneuve sur Lot.  So we obey!  Pujols is really two towns.  Old Town and New Town.  We followed signs for “Pujols” and ended up in deepest, darkest New Town.  Soon rectified.  We looked for the nearest hill and went up to the top.  Surprise, surprise.  Ancient French-folk clearly had a pathological hatred of river plains!.  Access and parking at Pujols-le-Haut were easy, but I’m not sure I’d want to be here in the height of the Summer season – whenever that’s going to get here.

Steve was right.  It’s a very pretty place.  Somewhat over-gentrified and clearly focused on being a tourist attraction.  But very pretty.

Oh no, we’re on the Camino Trail again!

The main church in town was the Romanesque Saint Nicholas.  It’s outer wall actually forms part of the town’s fortifications.  We couldn’t enter as there was a funeral in progress, but I bet there was an enormous vaulted ceiling supported by massive pillars, tall stained glass windows and lots of chairs.  Sadly, the chairs in use this time.  There is a second smaller Chapel on the edge of town, the Église Notre Dame de Pujols.

The view of what might have been the approaching, marauding English army (back in the day, of course!).  Or rampant, Aussie rugby players, more recently!

Does that bring back memories, Steve?

We had been on site so long that thousands of ants found their way up our electrical cable, into the battery compartment and thence into our private living quarters!  We must have killed THOUSANDS of the little b*****s.  We used up all our anti-fourmis spray.  Saskia and Reim arrived with two types of high-strength killer spray and ten kg of nuclear-sterngth ant powder.  All our “bits” touching the ground were extensively sprayed and a powder barrier was established all round our residence.  The cable was routed through a water filled plastic bottle (patent applied for) cutting off that route into the caravan.  Very effective transit inhibition.  But sadly that worked both ways.  The blighters aboard were marooned aboard.

It got so bad that evening when Saskia came back to check up on her senior campers she found the caravan in uproar.  Every moveable item of furniture was pushed into a pile while ants were sqished.  It was getting dark.  She insisted that we decamp to one of her gîtes for the night.  I think it took Glenda about two seconds to see the benefits of this extremely kind offer and another two to pack the night-time essentials!

The presence of ants in the caravan continued for weeks.  I think today, as I write this two and a half weeks later, is the first completely ant-free day.  And we’ve moved campsites three times since “A-day”.  Anyway, that’s part of life’s rich pattern while on the road.  Just not a good part!

You will be able to see this for yourself when the film is released!

Back to our sightseeing.  Back to Montcuq.  Yet another hill-top bastide.  They really are two-a-penny around this part of France.  They were, apparently, first built following the Treaty of Paris in 1229 at the end of the Cathar Crusade. The aim was to bring a sense of societal structure to south-west France, which had been largely destroyed by 20 years of fighting. A previously scattered population was invited to dwell in the town.  The purpose being to make it is easier to rule over them.

There are 300 – 500 bastides in existence, depending on who you believe.  You’d really think a nation with access to Google Earth would have a better handle on such a statistic.  There were possibly another 200 which have fallen into disrepair and “vanished”!

Two factlets about bastides:  1. The narrow streets that surround the central square of were designed for horse and cart traffic.  They are still referred to as “carriageways”  and 2. Original residents of a bastide (when first built) were called “poblans”.  Just thought I’d mention that, but I don’t think many are still alive!  Although the foul-mouthed resident of Moissaguel might be one.  Now in his retirement accommodation!

We ignored all the large parking area on the way (up) into town.  We acted like we were residents and parked in the main square, which is really a very elongated rectangle.  We wandered around a bit.  We found the little boulanger at which we had coffees last time we visited.  Shut in the afternoons.  A discussion at the office de tourism with a very helpful English resident identified two places for a drink.  We chose the Anglo-French bookshop and tea-room.  They had a lovely garden …

Which ends in a little balcony overlooking the square.  From here we could keep an eye on a fairly serious-looking game of boules taking place rather close to our car!

And the tea was really excellent.  Just like at home!

Back at base, it was time for another table d’hote.  Saskia and Riem do these twice a week. To our knowledge nobody on site (campers or gîters) ever missed one.  They aren’t compulsory, just exceptionally good!  We had three while in residence!  Here is a selection of photos of the third evening.

Us sharing a good joke!

Reim in TOTAL control of the BBQ duck!

Salad dish.  Sorry, no picture of the duck magret.  Too busy eating it!

Mother and son!

The inside table

Father and son

The outside tablers join the insiders – just because of a little rain.  I ask you.  No stamina!

Hetty, Saskia and us.

Leo and Ida after a few bottles of wine!

Thank you Saskia and Reim.  Absolutely fabulous week we had with you… apart from the small matter of the “Invasion of the Ants”.  We have already sold the book and film rights.  While La Brouquère may get the award for best chemical toilet emptying point, Le Côte du Fumel gets the hospitality award!

Now it REALLY is time to move to pastures (and adventures) new!  However, we really enjoyed our time at the Côte de Fumel.  Thank you too, Hetty for introducing us to this lovely place and looking after us while we were there together.  We really enjoyed our time with you sharing the occasional bottle of wine, lots of happy memories, some dodgy jokes and the lovely sunsets from the terrace.  We had such a lot of fun together!  Mini Magnums will always remind us of this part of our holiday.  Better not wait another eight years for the next reunion!  Obviously!!!