The village of the damned??

Not much going on here today - in more ways than one. It was a lot fresher this morning, although still sunny. We got up late and had a leisurely breakfast and then an extra cup of tea on the patio, before the Mechanic did what the Mechanic is here for and the little woman was dispatched to the supermarket (about 100 yards away). The shop was manic, no doubt because it only opens for 3 hours on Sunday morning, but I was on a mission to get cleaning cloths for the bikes. We normally use  J cloths, but we haven't been able to find the equivalent over here, so I got a pack of weetex cloths and the Mechanic has cut one up to replace the rogue gel pad from his shorts which as been left in a hotel somewhere to alarm future guests. 

Jobs done we read our books for a while, planning to go to a neighbouring village on the bikes this afternoon. Before we set off we noticed the black clouds rolling up so we decided to take a walk round the village we are staying in - Linxe or, as it should probably be called, the Village of the Damned. Not a person was to seen, the odd dog barked and most of the houses were shuttered and dead looking (grass not cut etc). A few cars drove quickly through looking neither left nor right, the inns were closed, the church had no service and everything that might have been open was closed. The one hotel was shut.........  We felt ourselves being watched from behind the shutters, roads that on the map were connected to each other just ended in a track leading into the endless forest. Then it started to rain! We are now back in the accommodation, doors firmly barred and bolted (well maybe not quite barred and bolted, but this place is very strange).

I forgot to say, a few days ago, that we reckon the card game 'Happy Families' is being updated for modern times - you know the sort of thing, Mr I Pad, Mrs I Pad and their children the mini- ipads. Well we came across the prototype for the fat family, while having lunch by the beach somewhere. There was Mr (very)Fat, his wife Mrs (horribly) Fat, Master (flabby and) Fat, Miss ( catching up with all of them) Fat and as an added bonus the joker cards 'Baby Fat' 'Granny Fat' 'Grampa Fat' and to complete the set 'Puppy Fat'. We were speculating on what would happen to global sea levels if they all decided to bathe at once.........

Anyway I said I would tell you about the family who run this place. They moved out from England 9 years ago with three kids aged 14, 12 and 4. The only one of the 5 of them to speak any French was the wife and that was only 'A' level French which she had done 20 years earlier. They did up the property themselves, the kids went straight into school with not a word of the language and the non French speaking husband set up his own business as a plumber.  I was really surprised, but there is a lot of new housing round here, so perhaps plumbers were in short supply - either that or they were on the run and I didn't really feel I could ask them if hat was the case.

Have to tell you that the Mechanic has developed a bit of a twitch - we have just gone 24 hours with no French bread passing our lips and he is having withdrawal symptoms, although before you start to worry too much, normal dietary standards will be resumed tomorrow. None of my portrait photos have condescended to download tonight so I have put in a few from previous days. One of the lad at work his morning, sunrise from the ferry we took from Royan, the church in this village which appears to have had one end chopped off and a couple of random shots of the route.