Le PLUS beau des plus beaux

Perhaps the most beautiful of the most beautiful villages in France is Saint Cirq Lapopie.  Aside from a name that's fun to pronounce, it has lots going for it...a dramatic siting perched on a 100 meter (330 feet) cliff overlooking the river Lot, well maintained traditional architecture, impressive 12-14th century fortress, church and castles, lots of blossoming fruit trees, an abundant selection of eateries and galleries and a convenient (overnight) parking area within easy walking distance.

We visited on Easter Sunday and got a taste of how these charming villages might feel in the height of summer (which is a kind way of saying that there were LOTS of tourists and campers/caravans).  Despite the hordes, St Cyrq Lapopie is so attractive and the weather was so dramatic that we took loads of photographs.

Even though this isn't our perfect place, we were glad we spent the day and were further rewarded later on our route homewards by a lovely drive along the Lot river and a short visit in the town of Cahors.

  






Le Pont Valentré in Cahors

Out and About

We still have a few days to go before we leave our first HelpX host in France and I don't think it's a great idea to write about our host while we're still beholden to her, so here's a glimpse at some of the journeys we've taken with the use of her old Volkswagen van.

We are staying in the south of France in the département of Tarn-et-Garonne which is part of the region called Midi-Pyrenees.  It is a region of rolling farmlands and bastide towns.  Bastide towns are fortified villages built in the 13th and 14th centuries in the Southwest of France for purposes of colonizing the wilderness and allowing the land owner to extract taxes from the new inhabitants and farmers.  Nearly 700 bastides were built between 1222 (Cordes-sur-Ciel, photo below) and 1372.


 Cordes-sur-Ciel

Many of these villages are now classified amongst the 152 Most Beautiful Villages in France (Les Plus Beaux Villages de France), an ingenious designation which brings tourist revenue to these picturesque little settlements, which might otherwise be on the verge of dying out. 

 
Two of the Beautiful Villages:  Najac and Cordes-sur-Ciel

  
Najac and Albi, a large town with an impressive brick cathedral from 1282


Albi on the river Tarn

We've spent our weekends visiting some of these lovely villages but there are tons of them and one can easily get "cute, little village fatigue".  So we've limited the number of bastide towns we've visited and tried to take lots of back roads to see the countryside. Though we can often say of the landscape, "This is pretty," we don't have the feeling that this area is one in which we'd like to settle down...which is why on Wednesday we are moving south - closer to the Pyrenees.


Natural granite boulder sculptures of the Sidobre

Did you know...?

You can extend the life of an opened bottle of champagne in the fridge if you place a metal teaspoon into the bottle (handle inside and spoon sticking out).  A good amount bubbliness lasts for a day or two; however,  a much better recommendation is to finish the champagne when you open it.

Cheers!

Tired

I realized the other day that my crankiness was caused by something more than being awakened at 6:30 AM by our hostess rummaging and banging around in the room next door.  I'm tired.  I'm not just talking about the kind of fatigue that comes from doing manual labor and struggling to put together comprehensible French sentences at the dinner table.  I'm deeply tired...tired of searching; tired of living in other people's homes and laboring for their benefit; tired of eating when and what my host chooses; tired of being managed by people who have no business being managers; tired of living without a personal space or boundaries; tired of sharing the very private lives of people who we wouldn't necessarily choose as friends, much less roommates and tired of starting projects that we'll never see to fruition and starting plants we'll never see growing. Ok, so it's not  the kind of stress - kids, work (or lack of it), mortgage, finances, etc - that most people have, but even so, I think we still deserve the opportunity to vent once in a while.

Yet, despite our complaints, we are still convinced that volunteering through HelpX is still the best way for us to reach our goal.  So though our personalities (especially mine) may not be particularly well suited to living communally and having little control over our daily lives, we persevere.

Fortunately, we are (cautiously) optimistic about finding a (predominantly) perfect place here in France.  There are countless, charming little towns and plenty of opportunities to find out-of-the-way spots with land and a house (though it may be in ruins).  Being in France has made us aware (by contrast to Spain) how much we missed trees and green and there seems to be no problem finding a place with lots of both.  It doesn't hurt either that Spring has arrived and with it, a profusion of daffodils, wild flowers and blossoming trees...so we keep on finding reasons to smile.

En France avec beaucoup de stress

A terrifically stressful journey from the Netherlands ended successfully yesterday afternoon with our arrival in Southern France at our first French HelpX host. We left Michiel's dad's house in the darkness of early morning but I hadn't really factored in enough time to de-ice the car so poor papa had to race to get us to the train station in time.

We made it, but the high speed train to Paris had so many mechanical and personnel delays that we arrived one hour and 15 minutes late and missed our connecting train. The Thalys train company was very helpful by apologizing profusely and announcing in three languages that we could get some reimbursement and assistance in the station. The train representative stamped our onward train tickets with "authorization" to change trains to one leaving in a half an hour from a different train station.

We quickly navigated the ridiculously chaotic metro area and took a long journey across town to the Montparnasse Station. With just minutes to spare, we ran through the station, found our train and hopped on. Next hurdle - explaining to the conductor why we had no reservation for the TGV (high speed (read SUPER expensive) train) we were riding on and why he should honor the cheap tickets we had purchased for a slow train. Perhaps he took pity on us or perhaps (more likely) it was just too much hassle for him. Greatly relieved, we settled in for our 5 hour ride towards Toulouse.

The day's series of adrenaline rushes had completely worn us out, but we had to do our best to greet our hostess cheerfully. We got off to a great start with a trip to the supermarket where she purchased everything we desired (we were very modest) and we got a chance to see that even in a fairly small village, the supermarket had a good variety of ethnic food ingredients (at least Mexican, Chinese and Italian) and peanut butter (well...if you consider Skippy peanut butter). The real treat was the mind boggling selection and quantity of wine. It's a good first impression!!