{"id":4132,"date":"2023-06-03T14:01:14","date_gmt":"2023-06-03T14:01:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/?p=4132"},"modified":"2025-12-24T22:28:03","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T22:28:03","slug":"5-les-jours-feries-bank-holidays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/?p=4132","title":{"rendered":"5. LES JOURS F\u00c9RI\u00c9S (BANK HOLIDAYS)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Our new campsite (Camping la Brouqu\u00e8re) near Gondrin turned out to be a little gem!\u00a0 Little, in that it comprises only 20 pitches.\u00a0 \u00a0Our “terrace” is almost 90 metres in length and is home to just three pitches.\u00a0 \u00a0That’s us at the far end – in a different time zone!<\/p>\n

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A gem BECAUSE it\u00a0 IS little – and quiet (adults only) – and spotlessly clean.\u00a0 The Dutch owners, Wouter and Sonja, claim that people arrive as strangers and leave as friends.\u00a0 \u00a0Well, we are well on the way to that target after our first few days.<\/p>\n

Glenda became our next “disaster” when she broke a tooth.\u00a0 Her back molar split in two.\u00a0 Needing a dentist, we were advised to go in person.\u00a0 It’s harder for them to refuse to see you if you are in their surgery rolling on the floor in agony!\u00a0 Excellent plan – we tried that and were told we can have a preliminary investigation – at the end of August or possibly early September.\u00a0 The explanation was simply “It’s compliqu\u00e9, d\u00e9sol\u00e9!”.\u00a0 OK Glenda.\u00a0 You can get up off the floor now.\u00a0 Not convincing enough!<\/p>\n

Wouter lept into action the next day and drove about 13 kms to Montr\u00e9al.\u00a0 He pitched up at the office of a semi-retired dental practitioner he knows and persuaded him to see Glenda in three days time.<\/p>\n

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Dr Ivan Fiegen.<\/p>\n

Excellent.\u00a0 But he speaks no English!\u00a0 So Wouter drives us there on Friday and translates.\u00a0 Fifteen minutes and \u20ac24 later, Glenda gets the news that the remains of her tooth look fairly stable.\u00a0 The sharp corners have been smoothed.\u00a0 “Get it sorted properly when you get home.”<\/p>\n

Although we are in a very rural setting amongst huge vineyards, there are lots of pretty villages nearby.\u00a0 There’s Montr\u00e9al for starters, strictly speaking, Montr\u00e9al-du-Gers.\u00a0 Allegedly the oldest bastide in France (founded in 1255). \u00a0Villefranch du P\u00e9rigord (1261) has tried to dispute that!\u00a0 But, to be fair, 1255 did come before 1261!.\u00a0 Narrow streets on a grid with a central square surrounded by covered arched walkways.<\/p>\n

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It is built on a promontory on the right bank of the river Auzoue.\u00a0 Very pretty, very peaceful, not much going on apart from one art gallery where the lady artist (Fran\u00e7oise Amadieu) paints elaborate 3D pictures on corrugated cardboard.\u00a0 Sounds odd, but actually very clever.<\/p>\n

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A few kms south-east of the village, on the road from Gondrin, there is an internationally significant palaeontological site.\u00a0 It was discovered in 1987.\u00a0 Over the last three decades, four previously unknown species have been found there, among many other animal parts.<\/p>\n

Going a\u00a0 little further North from Montr\u00e9al we came to Fourc\u00e8s.\u00a0 Apparently the only circular bastide in France!<\/p>\n

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It was virtually deserted when we visited but the carpark on the edge of town has space for about 500 cars.\u00a0 We had great difficulty choosing our space…<\/p>\n

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More covered archways, but this time the circular “square” contained a small forest.\u00a0 One interesting restaurant with six tables – full – and one street caf\u00e9-bar-micromarket with one table.\u00a0 We had coffee there.\u00a0 Everything else was closed.<\/p>\n

All round, there were interesting alleys radiating outwards…<\/p>\n

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Then, back to see if we can find our car in the carpark and onwards and upwards to Larressingle, a fortified village.\u00a0 Viewed from outside the walls…<\/p>\n

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… and inside.<\/p>\n

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At the only, open tourist shop (with the pink parasol, next to the entry gate), we had a delightful croque – cheese on toast.\u00a0 When asked what cheese she used, the lady told us that it was a closely guarded family secret.\u00a0 A secret passed down from her grandmother.\u00a0 If she told me, we would not be allowed out of the village gate.\u00a0 Ever!\u00a0 However, after ten minutes of interrogation, she gave me a list of the SIX ingredients.\u00a0 Six different cheeses!\u00a0 And we did manage to escape by climbing over the walls.\u00a0 Obviously,\u00a0 I can’t put the recipe on the Web for confidentiality reasons!<\/p>\n

Apart from one group of locals (Probus or U3A?) on a group visit, and the lady with the cheesey secret, the village was deserted.\u00a0 This happens a lot round here.\u00a0 Places are either deserted or packed.\u00a0 Partly as a result of Les F\u00e9ri\u00e9s.<\/p>\n

France does do bank holidays rather well – and quite frequently… While we were at Dax, the Ascension weekend was dragged out over five days.\u00a0 Now we have just had Whitsun, or Pentecost as it’s known hereabouts.\u00a0 On the Monday, everything was closed – even the big supermarkets.\u00a0 We chose to visit Condom that day for their flea market.\u00a0 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!\u00a0 We arrived a little late, totally missed the parking area and ended up in Central Condom.\u00a0 The one great advantage of holidays is that no locals are around.\u00a0 It’s easy to park really close to all the closed shops.\u00a0 So, from my perspective, that’s two advantages – easy parking and closed shops!\u00a0 A double whammy!<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 Some have more than one (January 6 having five).\u00a0 As I write this on the first day of June, I find I’m celebrating with St Justin.\u00a0 Well, that’s OK with me!\u00a0 Incidentally, St John’s day is a smidgeon late.\u00a0 They missed my birthday by two days.\u00a0 I’m talking with M. Macron about getting things changed.\u00a0 I mean, clearly someone has made a mistake!<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 A massive boules tournament completely blocking the car park.\u00a0 And then there was the occasion when we visited the (usually) sleepy town of Vic-Fezensac about 20 kms south of Gondrin.\u00a0 The day we chose – a public holiday – the town was hosting the regional bull-fighting fiesta.\u00a0 We wouldn’t have wanted to get involved with that, even though, at the time\u00a0 we had absolutely no idea what was going on!\u00a0 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.\u00a0 So we came home for a cup of tea just as a major thunderstorm struck – complete with hail.\u00a0 And a caravan is noisy enough inside during heavy rain – let alone hail!\u00a0 But after the incident with the alarm, we are quite used to noisy accommodation!<\/p>\n

But we survived and the holiday will continue!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our new campsite (Camping la Brouqu\u00e8re) near Gondrin turned out to be a little gem!\u00a0 Little, in that it comprises only 20 pitches.\u00a0 \u00a0Our “terrace” is almost 90 metres in length and is home to just three pitches.\u00a0 \u00a0That’s us… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spain-and-france"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4132"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4132\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4253,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4132\/revisions\/4253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}