how to even catch up. 9/21/2007

whew! alot has happened in the past week. nance put a quick post out with our latest portraits. since then we have bought a volkswagen passat station wagon, insured it, and picked it up. we dropped the dog off, got our gate fixed (it was dragging the ground), and left for our trip to aveyron and the dordogne. the bank called today and turned us down for a car loan. they said something about sub-prime. tant pis for them. i will move my account. about 4pm wednesday we left for a 4 1/2 hour drive to millau, site of the famous viaduct de millau, the longest suspension bridge in the world. it was a long way.

we spent the night at the chateau de creissels, an old chateau with a wonderful view of the viaduct. a quick, 2 hour visit to maison causse, a ganterie...glove maker and we were on our way to cross the viaduct. the glove factory was very interesting, and the lady running the boutique let nancy try on every glove they made. she was wonderful, and very interesting. needless to say we left with a pair of very fine gloves.

the viaduct was incredibly beautiful! we left millau to travel south to go north. someday i will find out how to post the map of our trip. may need walker's assistance to do that. the viaduct was constructed to route traffic coming south towards the mediterranean coast over the gorge of the lot river, and keep it out of the town of millau. they say it saved five hours of travel.

after crossing the bridge, we headed north for the valley of the lot. the aveyron department has 10 of the most beautiful villages in france. we managed to see three of them. they were indeed beautiful. well preserved medieval villages, not too touristy. the scenery was beautiful, weather couldn't be better. but, the roads. our gps, marge, must have been set on, "choose the route with the least traffic." we saw almost no cars, and the continued for two days.

our last village was conques. it was a stop on the route to santiago de compostella. how they found it in the middle ages, how they built it, and how we found it were all miracles. we will post a couple of pics from here later. needless to say it was pretty incredible, tucked away in a valley in the middle of absoulutely nowhere. incroyable!

the rest of the evening was spent driving to our resting place for the evening. domaine de bel air. sebastian had dinner waiting...really, they had started. walker called it the best place he ever stayed. chambre d'hote, table d'hote. we were a group of about 14 around the table for a wonderful meal prepared by sebastian, the son of the owner. salade with summer truffle, veal browned in duck fat, then cooked until it fell apart, cheese, fig tart, and no lack of animated conversation.

we went to bed too late again, and will continue with our saga when we get back. will also try to fill in the gaps we have left while hurrying on to the next adventure.

a bientot!