Wiley old Joan has only found the parts of the broken fridge we'd stashed behind the septic tank. She's used them to make some ersatz electronic tags which she insists we all wear whenever we leave the site. Her 'one size fits all' philosophy is a bit rough on the little ones who's tags tend to look a bit like callipers. Merri stood still for too long outside La Poste in Partheney and a French crone tried to jam a 2 Euro coin into her head as a donation to La Societie des Spastiques.Anyway, we all got used to hobbling around after a while. You know what they say about people from Yorkshire... kick one and they all limp.
Wednesday is market day in Parthenay which lies about 15 miles south of Airvault (which is actually pronounced 'Airvo' rather than Air Vault... explains why we kept being directed to a gymnastics event when we asked for directions on the way down). So, yes, back to Parthenay. A nice little town with a mediaeval quarter which we skipped today and a more modern (but not too modern) market town centre.
Less chi-chi than Saumur but hustly and bustly nonetheless. We wandered the market stalls, picking up fruit, local goats cheeses, more fantastic gateaux (a chocolate eclair, with rich chocolate cream inside, a chocolate Royale and a Rum Baba with Chantilly cream).
The haute couture isn't quite what you might find in Paris, as you can judge from the picture below and the men's stores look as if Greenwoods won the war..
However, Lisa did pick up a sexy number from Parthenay's very own branch of Ann Summers. Ce soir is definitely le soir!
After drinks at the Cafe de Theatre we headed off for Bougon to visit another stone age tumulus. Rather than the usual mound of rocks in a farmer's field, this place had a full museum attached and some fairly lengthy pathways to get to the actual burial mounds. It was 31 degrees by this time so we did the place justice, but didn't hang around.
Back at base, we had a lazy afternoon by the pool and had garbanzos for tea. Grace had seven helpings!
No comments:
Post a Comment