Heading north and hoping for flat roads...

May 15 - Today, Sunday we went back to lovely St Antonin Noble Val for its big market. We hoped for much and got more. The town sits in a stunning (OK ' majestic' said some noble in French) valley. Opposite the town is a 100 metre high cliff about four kilometres long. It is vertical, or appears to be. The river is the Aveyron, a tributary of the Tarn eventually and quite delightful. The town is a maze of ancient streets and houses, some beautiful, some impressive and some sad and forlorn. It has a covered market which is still used although today the weekly market spills out into many more streets. It is brilliant, full of real artisan and fermier products sold by enthusiasts. Joy!

This was also the day on which we decided to stay here another week. If we ever won the lottery this is where we would buy a house, probably along the Carou river between Cordes and Monesties. Wonderful, quiet, pretty, charming. Oh yes please....

May 22 - Today we set off for our next stop, in the Dordogne, or since there is no such place really Perigord. But we shall be about 15 k from the River Dordogne on a pretty little site (we hope) at Salignac Eveyques. One significant hill on the route of about 160 kilometres. Here's hoping.

May 24 - We are now settled in on a charming little site, well shaded and we need it. It hit 33C yesterday and not a breath of wind. Today has been a little cooler. This is an area we have visited before of course but it is 20 odd years ago. Today our first impressions are that it is indeed as beautiful as we remember and as it is said to be. But today it is full of recently restored and new houses. Most are in the charming apricot stone of course, although fewer today have stone louzes for roofing tile; most are tiled. No surprise as the stone weigh we are told two hundredweight per square foot - that's approaching a tonne per square metre! And it is busy here. Where we drove for miles in the Tarn and Averyron without seeing a car here there is traffic in most places and some of it a bit too fast for its own or our good frankly. The English are here in numbers of course but so far less visible than we expected (or was it feared?).