Today is our last day in Languedoc. We leave tomorrow for the Dordogne.
This morning, we all got up early and left the house before 7:30 to take Janice to the airport in Montpellier. She changes planes in Paris to go home to Washington DC. It has been a lot of fun to have her with us for this past week. We took her to many of the places we had been before, but we saw them differently because she was with us. It was also fun to discover new places with her. The Montpellier airport is so easy to get in and out of, it hasn't been the least bit difficult picking her up and dropping her off -- of course, we had been there before.
We opted for a low-key day today. We spent the morning in Pezenas, walking through part of the old town, and making one more attempt to see if the quilt shop was open, and it was! They were having a class this morning. The same woman owns it -- she lived in the UK for a time, so speaks excellent English, as does her daughter, who sounds like a native English speaker. The fabrics are actually the same as the ones we have in the US -- many of them looked familiar. I bought some fat quarters of the most French-looking fabrics I could find. Their fat quarters are a little bigger than ours because they are a quarter of a meter, rather than a quarter of a yard.
We had lunch in Pezenas at Cafe Le Glacier, and sat outside under the plane trees. It was so peaceful to be outside in the sunshine and warm breeze. Mom had moules-frites again, saying these were better than the ones she had last week at Sete. I had a small steak with salad & frites (fries). It was a really nice lunch.
After lunch, we drove around some of the back roads that we hadn't been on before, enjoying the tree-lined roads. There must be 10's of thousands of plane trees (or maybe they are sycamores) planted along the back roads of Languedoc and Provence -- nearly every village and town has an avenue of trees approaching it from both ends. Many of the trees are huge and form a canopy or tunnel where they meet at the tops. When the sun filters through, it's magical. We ended up in Clermont where we topped off our gas tank, so we don't need to do that in the morning. Then we took a road up and above Clermont to a "poterie" or pottery place that we had visted last time we were here. It is still there and we bought a couple of plates. Heading home, we drove through Lezignan, so Mom could see more of the village than she normally sees from the main road.
For dinner tonight we're cleaning out the fridge. We have some pate and fromage, and I took my last walk into the village this evening for bread, so it should be a good dinner, augmented with a pear (hope they are ready to eat). We'll have the left over bread for breakfast tomorrow, so I won't need to take the time to go into the village in the morning.
We've planned our route to our next stop, opting for a more direct, but rural route than going by autoroute all the way. It may take a little longer, but will be more scenic -- and has the added bonus of being able to go over the Millau Viaduct (see prior post). We want to get an early start in the morning.
We're both a little sad about leaving our house in Lezignan. We've stayed here for a total of 5 weeks now and it seems almost like a second home. We're very comfortable here, and know our way around. There is something about the quality of the sunlight that just makes this a special place.
It may be a few days before I can post again as our house in the Dordogne doesn't have internet access -- so don't be concerned... I'm hoping there's a McDonald's in Sarlat where I can get online. (Did I just say that? Oh, well, I think McDonalds has become a part of the scenery world-wide.)
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