Car's Day Off

Friday 12 September

Another glorious day in southwest France!  We have spent the week visiting many beautiful places and enjoying our countryside drives so today we gave the car a day off and stayed in St Antonin-Noble-Val (no hardship really).

A shady tree in Place Bessarel - just the spot for a day off

Gerri was content with her knitting and I was in need of some exercise, so I headed out of town on the road to Caylus - did think about making the whole 12 kilometre walk to the next town but not so keen on returning in the heat of the day.  As St Antonin is quite small, it does not take long to move from the tightly packed medieval streets, past the larger houses with lovely gardens and into the countryside.  The road to Caylus ascends gently along side the River Bonnette (in this dry weather more of a creek) and I decided to walk for an hour out and then back on the same route - not having a map of the little country lanes.  The road is very quiet with a nice grassy verge so easy to move aside for the occasional vehicle.  Much of the way tall plane trees line the road which made for a very shady and pleasant walk, especially as the temperature climbed.

Heading out of town on the road to Caylus

  It was such a joy to be out here with only the sound of birdsong and the babbling of the river in the still morning air.  To the west are high hills covered with thick woods and the river side of the road is a mixture of green fields and copses with the hills climbing high beyond. I only passed a couple of farm houses as I walked.  Finally the road began a steeper ascent into thickly wooded terrain so I decided to return - did find a little lane with a sign to St Antonin so I was able to get back into town by a different route.  Have now vowed to fit in a good long brisk walk every day if possible - not that we don't walk a lot on our sight-seeing (and usually up hill!).

Little stream near St Antonin

This afternoon was a bit of a chance for a lazy lunch in the interests of clearing out the frig, and then some packing.  We become really settled after a week in one place!  Around 4.30 we decided to "tour" the village, look in the shops and then have dinner at one of the restaurants in the town square, which seems to be the centre of activity.

St Antonin - view from my third floor bedroom window

 Actually it does not take long to stroll around the little streets, so we managed to fit in some nice chats in both English and French with the shopkeepers, an ice-cream, a stop for coffee and even a bit of shopping.  There are a large number of English people living in and around this town and apparently our rental house is in the process of being sold to Australians.  Michelle, originally from the UK, who owns a  lovely home decorating store told us that this is because the summers are long, the winter are short and the lifestyle is brilliant.
By 6.45 we were ready for dinner but the rather atmospheric restaurant we had selected still showed no signs of opening.

Posh and pretty - the restaurant with no diners

 The table outside the cafe and pizza bar in the square were crowded with people enjoying the beautiful evening so we sat down for an apero before dinner.  It was so nice there and the pizzas arriving at the surrounding table looked and smelled so delicious that we decided to forgo the posh restaurant and eat pizza too.  Very yummy but oh so filling!

Pizza in the square

 With the almost gone we strolled home - just a couple of streets and finished our preparations for a nice early start on Saturday - a longish drive to Collioure. we have had a fabulous week in the Tarn-et-Garonne.

St Antonin - view from our house