It’s so nice not to be taking anti-histamines after 4 or 5 days of them. I actually feel alive and awake today! Having been stung by a wasp (or something) and my left hand and arm swelling up from the elbow down, I was given cream and drugs at the pharmacy which worked nicely but they made me so dopey I was off in la la land while Tony and Lorraine were with us.

After saying farewell (sadly) to our good friends, we took off yesterday to explore Carennac, Loubressac, Autoire and the mighty fortress/castle of Castelnau-Bretenoux. Our first stop was Autoire, where we had a formulae lunch’. It was so ridiculously huge we didn’t eat a single thing after it until the next day, which is unheard of for Colin. For 12.50 Euro, we were given a HUGE bowl of soup to share, entree, a delicious plate of pork and mash and then a tart for desert. Colin cleared up what I couldn’t eat and looked 6 months pregnant afterwards. I sure hope he isn’t!

The 3 villages we went to are listed in the top ‘150 most beautiful French villages’. We are definitely VILLAGE PEOPLE and don’t take to the big cities or towns too well. These villages usually don’t have traffic (cars don’t fit   down the roads!!) and have that sleepy feel to them. Dogs snooze on the road and people sit around chatting and sipping caffe. On that note…

Colin is trying his hand at French. He now orders ‘Coffee OLAY’… said with a beaut Aussie accent. ‘Caffe au lait’ (coffee with milk) would be better but what the heck? It certainly gave Lorraine and I a giggle. He greeted a French man with his usual ‘Gidday’ yesterday. The bemused guy replied ‘bonjour’. If Colin doesn’t know what to say he tends to say ‘Bonjour’. Often this is in place of ‘merci’ or ‘auvoir’. You have to laugh or you cry. Luckily the French laugh while looking nervously at me for reassurance.

Back to the villages and castles…
Both of us just love the feel of a castle which hasn’t been too renovated. The Castelnau-Bretenoux was definitely one of our favourites and the bonus was that we didn’t need to climb for hours to get to it. A very narrow spiral staircase with 50 people attempting to go up and down it, no lighting and a small child panicking half way up was challenging but it was worth it to see the view from the top over the coutryside.

 

 

 

 

 

 

One more day in Figeac, then off to Foix for one night and then back to Spain to report our damaged car to Sixt. Oh dear… we aren’t looking forward to that bit at all!