Housesitting in Montaigu-de-Quercy - Days 51 to 57

Not all cats immediately come up to Jackie

Where has a week gone? We have loved being here, they really are the cutest cats. William has spent every night on the bed, and most evenings in front of the tv on our laps, while Miel makes the most of him being outside a lot of the day to get her fuss, while deafening us with the loudest purr from a small cat.

Tomorrow Louise returns from England and her caring position, so we are doing a bit of caring and cooking her, and boyfriend, Charles, dinner. Judging by her herbs and spices she’s not afraid of a bit of heat, so Kashmiri butter chicken in the thermal cooker it is. Well actually butter turkey as the supermarket is a bit lacking, but hey...

Not all cats immediately come to Brian, but William cat does!

We’ve done no driving since we’ve been here, there is just something slightly weird about going on a day trip in Big Ted, though when traveling it’s what we do every day. Strange what the head says ... to be fair though, we travelled here so slowly we’ve seen everywhere in the near north anyway. We were tempted to go to a couple of markets on Sunday, but rain was forecast which is never ideal for a market and it appears that the fuel protests are still continuing which is a bit of a surprise. 

A tower on our walk into Montaigu-de-Quercy, but I could find nothing about it

Still we have a full tank of fuel, which should easily get us to Spain, so, hoping for a quick getaway on Friday we are planning a long driving day (3+ hours, it’s all relative....) to Lourdes, which I’m not really sure I want to go to anyway, having been to Knock in Ireland many years ago with Sarah and John. I rate Knock as one of the most unpleasant experiences of my life, the whole commercialism of hundreds of stalls selling Jesus shaped plastic bottles for you to put holy water in, and tacky, plastic souvenirs left nothing for the spirituality of the place. Lourdes may be totally different, and I hope it is, but I’m not holding my breath......

Montaigu-de-Quercy on the hill

Instead we have cycled and walked. The cycle into town (Montaigu-de-Quercy) is easy there, with just a little hill at the end on the way back, and Louise thoughtfully picked us up some walk leaflets from somewhere, so we’ve done some pottering. The market in town on Saturday was well worth a visit, much better than the previous week in Roquecor, we only bought apples, but it was real, not full of overpriced artisanal products.

Looking out from the village

We’ve relearned how to play cribbage, which we have both played in the past, it seems to be good, tactical, game. Read, though I just have to finish the last book, watched some rubbish TV and cooked lots of yummy dinners. We do have an oven in Ted, but it’s only very small with one shelf (I wonder if we can get another?) so a full roast just isn’t on. It’s either roast meat or roast veggies, which to be fair will work, I did roast pork here, which we ate on two nights, cold the second night with lots of hot veggies and gravy, worked fine. 

Fontaine de Prezon on another walk close by

I also did a moussaka as there was an aubergine beginning to look a little sorry for itself, having not been used by Louise for the Grand Bazaar after all, so I had to take pity on it... Crosswords (Jackie), cat cuddling, and piano practice (Brian) have all taken place as well as route planning (B) and sorting out our MiFi unit (J) the sort of geeky computery thing that makes sense to some, but drives the rest of us to drink. The MiFi is a little box, with a data only sim that we can connect phones, iPad etc to. Data is potentially a problem, though we have done ok so far on the 4Gigabytes B has on his phone, what we don’t know is how long this will continue abroad, with the ‘fair usage policy’ and we have had WiFi on a couple of campsites and tourist informations for posting blogs. We used the MiFi at home, where it worked fine, but hadn’t tried it in France, as we’d had no need. When we did, it didn’t work. Funny foreign phone signal..... In an erroneous way, it made sense to have a look at it on Sunday when we arrived, well I could ask questions on Internet forums hoping people would be sitting at home with nothing better to do, and use online chat to communicate with tp-link the MiFi manufacturer and 3 the data provider. Not to mention of course it’s one of those things, you need WiFi to correct your WiFi problems.....

Miel cat ready to come out on a bike ride with us

Motorhome forums were helpful, tp-link were not, and 3 really were, even though it wasn’t really their problem. I did the online chat, he finally decided he’d get someone to ring me to talk me through setting up a new profile which happened, despite the local phone coverage being very poor and Louise arriving home mid way through like a whirling dervish. Tried again this morning just to check, as everything had happened all at once, and ..... nothing. Totally depressed and clutching at straws I took it into town, shopping, as the phone signal really isn’t very good.... phew, it worked, I haven’t got to go through all that again, just as well as we have no gin!

William cat looking like he's disco dancing

So, little more chilling today, though we could do with putting half of our belongings back into Ted before tomorrow when rain is forecast and the temperature goes up! A little temperature increase will be very welcome as it has been very cold, though it’s been good practice for a ski resort....

A housesitting pause in the Dordogne valley - Days 45 to 50

15 minutes after arriving at our housesit in the Dordogne

We are now firmly ensconced in the ‘Old Presbytery’ a beautiful, square, old house with high ceilings and big windows. This makes for lovely living, but with temperatures outside below freezing it’s not the warmest house! However we’ve got the fire lit and cats snuggling. We’ve had either one or both on the bed with us every night, this is why I like to Housesit...

The cats, 4 year old William and beautiful young Miel, who has only been here about 6 weeks, are still trying to establish their positions in the house, so there is the odd scrap though we have had them on the bed together and on our laps at the same time. They are however both very cuddly and affectionate, we had one each on a lap within about 15 minutes of arriving, bringing stuff in and settling down.

Free Aire campsite in Roquecor (44°19'23.4"N 0°56'39.8"E)

We popped in on Friday to be introduced to the house, cats and Louise which was great. We then went about 5 minutes up the road to Roquecor a nearby village with a little Aire (Location and grid reference: 44°19'23.4"N 0°56'39.8"E). What a lovely village, it’s pretty has a couple of bars and a village shop, a good mix of French people with a population of British people, not to mention a charity shop for cat welfare! 

Lunch at the Cafe Central, Roquecor

Although we weren’t starting the sit for a couple of days, I had said for two weeks that this weekend I wanted to be settled, somewhere, with no intention of moving as due to the 23% increase in diesel prices this year, with another 6.7cents to be added in the new year, there were to be protests and demonstrations. We thought these were only going to be on Saturday, but there were certainly holdups still on some motorways yesterday and it may continue through to the weekend.

At our lunchtime table in Roquecor and, in the square the gilets jaunes (yellow vests) protest over fuel price rises French style. They've got red and white tape up high blocking roads into the square for high vehicles and are sitting in the sun at a table full of wine and lunch from the cafe. It's all very good humoured and, as far as we saw, no-one was put out (but we understand it has been very different elsewhere)

One of the neolithic caves at Roc de Nobis

Due to this we made sure we filled up with diesel, with LPG for our boiler (with assistance from a lovely garage forecourt man, yes he was only doing his job, but he whisked bollards out, directed us in and showed us how to use the nozzle which is different from in the UK all with a smile) and found somewhere local to our destination.

Saturday, after some odd jobs in the van and a lovely chat with a local lady, we went to the cafe in the square for our first lunch out. We were surprised to find that all the roads into the square had ‘no entry’ tape across them and there was a group of people, wearing the yellow jackets of this demonstration, sitting at a table in the middle of the square. Interestingly we could have driven into and out of the car park we were in without encountering them at all, but they did have a presence, good humoured, but there. When a delivery truck turned up to the little shop, the tape caught round his chiller unit, they were quickly there to release it so preventing damage to either truck or tape. The driver then came into the restaurant for his lunch, so whether he actually went about his delivery business we don’t know!

The Roc de Nobis caves beneath Rocequor

Rocequor perched high on a cliff

Anyway we, along with half a dozen other groups, sat outside in the sunshine having a lovely lunch, with a very pleasant glass of wine.

Sunday we visited the cat shop, to find it manned by Jenny, the lady we’d had our long chat with on Saturday, we also discovered that Louise our homeowner also volunteered there. I guess everyone does know everyone, even the waitress in the cafe knew about us as Louise had mentioned us the previous week! The market wasn’t really worth the bother, but I think it’s more impressive in the summer. We also walked round the Roc de Nobis, another set of previously inhabited caves though these had been beautifully landscaped and gardened by Jenny’s neighbour.

Big Ted parked up at our housesit.

Back to Ted for domestic chores, not just the usual emptying of grey water and toilet cassette, but fresh water and, for the first time, draining of the boiler. It has a frost sensor on it, so if the temperature drops below about 3degrees it drains all the water to prevent damage. The forecast was for cold, so we thought it only sensible. As ever it read like something really complicated, though realistically we knew it couldn’t be. The hardest thing was starting the water draining, don’t know why it wouldn’t, or how we started it, but eventually we did. It does all seem a bit odd though, we can run the boiler for heat without water in, so can heat the locker to the required 7 degrees to allow the reset button to be pushed in, but can’t turn the water pump on as this will immediately fill the boiler, so there is no water for toilet flushing or anything else.

Miel and William cats asleep on us. I think we're accepted!

We then popped to ‘The Grand Bazaar’ a charity sale being organised a little further up the road by Charles, Louise’s boyfriend. We went in looking for a book on card games, as we sat in the van the other night realising we couldn’t remember the rules to anything! It’s not often you find exactly what you are looking for, though I do think it’s the same book that is probably on Mother’s bookshelf! Having been introduced to all and sundry, we took ourselves off to the sit and let ourselves in. Louise popped in to get her suitcase before heading off to the airport and an overnight hotel, rather than doing it in the early morning as she was going to go along little backroads to avoid the blockades.

Our housesit village. Big Ted is in this photo, but in case you can't see him....

A zoomed in view. He's in dead centre in front of the church, partly hidden by a tree

And here we are, chilling with the pussycats, we’ve had a couple of walks and cycled into the nearest town to the supermarket. Roasted a chicken, something I can’t do in Ted, well I can, but the oven is so small it’s either roast chicken, or roast potatoes and veggies, there is no space for both! We’ve caught up on Strictly come dancing and this afternoons task is to inventory our food boxes... we are loving it.

William cat chilling out 

Miel cat wondering if French onion soup with croutons is something she might like

The Dordogne Valley and Bastides - Days 41 to 44

Cave dwellings and the Dordogne river at Roque Sainte-Christophe

Sunday in Montignac was a chilling day, I used the thermal cooker again and made a Chinese stock which then made the most delightful Chinese pork. We chatted for a long time to a couple from Ross on Wye, and soaked up the ambiance of a little town.

I may have boycotted Brian’s Neanderthal cave painting, after chatting the previous day, and took us to La Roque Saint Christophe a troglodyte village (website link here). I’d read this and assumed more Neanderthals, and yes they did live there, but the 1km long, 80 m high limestone wall was inhabited on five levels as a fort and town through the Middle Ages until the start of the Renaissance. 

Roque Sainte-Christophe

It was a really interesting visit. We could have stayed there in a beautiful woodland, but it was only lunchtime so we felt we should move on, which we did, towards Domme, our first Bastide town. A Bastide was a ‘New Town’ in the 13th century. They then became associated with fortifications as the English and the French built more and more of these towns and needed to protect the villagers from the other side! The Aire was good (here's the location at grid reference: 44°48'02.5"N 1°13'18.4"E), though we, along with the other two vans all parked horizontally rather than straight on in the spaces, but that was ok, what it would be like in the summer.... it was free, the ticket machine had a sticker on saying gratuit, but they had locked the toilets. It’s not been that cold yet! The route to the Aire was also fairly convoluted, they were not letting us camping cars in the town so began signposting from about 10km away. Still it worked.

More cave dwellings at Roque Sainte-Christophe

The city gates of the walled town of Domme

From Domme we headed toward Monpazier, past Pechaud where we stayed in Judith and Richards house three years ago, they have since sold it, so we didn’t pop in. We had slowed down our travel a smidge, a Housesit had come in on the email, about 70 km away on Sunday for two little cats. Would we get it?

The beautiful Dordogne valley from the ramparts at Domme 

We walked to an old windmill, but this water tower conversion was much more interesting

Yes we did, so we are now on a very gentle potter, except we want to be very nearby by tomorrow night as Saturday may be a very bad day to be on the roads. The cost of diesel has gone up dramatically in the past year, it’s more expensive than in the UK for the first time ever, and there are country wide demonstrations and drive slows planned for Saturday!

Arriving at the fabulous square at Monpazier

Monpazier was a beautiful town, the standard town square with arcades all around and a market place where the daily cep mushroom market takes place at this time of year. Apparently it gets used in many movies set in the Middle Ages. We also went on a nice walk over some fields, found a book exchange, with a good English shelf, in an old phone box and had a long chat with an American couple who moved there 18 months ago. Here's a link to the Aire we stayed in: 44°41'05.0"N 0°53'40.4"E

The amazing Medievil square at Monpazier. The walled town is one of hundreds of Bastides in the region. A Bastide is a fortified walled town, some constructed by the English, when they possessed this western part of France, and others by France. They were fortified during the Hundred Years War and changed hands a number of times. Monpazier was an English Bastide, constructed by King Edward I

The corners are cut away to allow pack horses to enter fully loaded

A long drive was on the cards, about 20 minutes, to Biron. I don’t think we realised that all that was at Biron was the chateau, but that seemed to be it. It is in the process of being beautifully restored and was a good visit. There was some really interesting sculptures about the place though we couldn’t work out if they were being put up or taken down. We’d parked in the car park planning to stay (location: 44°37'49.2"N 0°52'17.1"E), but everything then conspired against us. The restaurant was shut on Wednesday and were planning on finally having a ‘formule’ set lunch as we haven’t yet, at all. 

The covered market at Monpazier. All Bastides are laid out in a similar way, all have a central market place, all have covered walkways round the outside, they are laid out in a square grid pattern and all have a church that is close but not in the market square (something to do with religion and politics being kept separate

Jackie finds a book exchange in an old phone box in Monpazier

The tourist information was closed, but the WiFi worked, we could almost see the building but our WiFi booster let us down, so despite the beauty of the pitch we decided to move on. First to Villereal where we found a funfair pitched up on the Aire, so no stopping there, we carried on to Castillonnes where we had an appointment this morning with Dick Boggs a local raconteur and guide, but the municipal campsite was shut, and it was a bit early to stop on the non van specific roadside parking, though I’m sure we would have been fine. 

The chateau at Biron

Beginning to feel a bit desperate having left our beautiful pitch we carried on 15 minutes to Lauzun where we found the Aire, a tiny fenced off bit of ground big enough for two 8m vans (just) next to a house and the bins! (location: 44°37'39.5"N 0°27'35.2"E) Actually the view the other way was the lake and despite being quite bizarre was a spot we were really happy with. The toilets here were open, so that’s a bonus. Lauzun was nothing special, but worth a walk around and the lady in the tourist information was lovely.

The chateau courtyard

We saw this little bat clinging under the stairway on our way up the tower

On leaving this morning we walked down the road to check that yes, we could get past the red car. B returned to Ted while I heard a mewing, only to find a kitten on the window sill I’d met a cat yesterday. OMG it was beautiful, and wanted fuss, and climbed back up me when I put it down..... it was so nearly in the van! On our way back to Castillonnes then to meet Dick, a young looking 75 year old who has lived here 20 years, he’s now on the council and does walking tours of an hour and a half, charging €3 a person that he is made to charge that he then uses to fund the museum that he has bought and set up. Thoroughly enjoyed our morning with him, such enthusiasm is infectious so we learnt loads. Here's his contact email if anyone is passing and wants to do his walking tour: dick.bogg@wanadoo.fr

They used very big nails in the roof of the chateau and didn't seem too worried about cutting the ends off

Interesting sculptures in some of the rooms

Our final stop is Monflanquin, another Bastide town, so walls, streets in a grid and central market square, again very picturesque, but perhaps we’ve seen enough. We will nip back into town to use the tourist information WiFi to post this though. Here's a link to the Aire we're staying at: 44°32'04.1"N 0°46'11.0"E

We are planning to go and meet Louise and the cats tomorrow as she is busy Saturday and Sunday at the local bazaar, and will be setting off from her partners mid way to Bergerac airport at 03.30 Monday morning. So we’ll stock up with food, fill up with fuel and be local to our destination. Anything for a stress free time!

The two vehicle Aire at Lauzun

Lauzun chateau

Jackie finds a little kitten as we leave Lauzun

Another Bastide, this one is Castillonnes, where we had our guided tour. It changed hands between the English and French no less than nine times during the Hundred Years War

Our campsite tonight at Monflanquin

Monflanquin is another Bastide (a French one), built on the top of a hill, and laid out in the same grid pattern

Here's the market square (where I'm sitting right now uploading this blog using the Tourist Offices free wifi)

Our stop for afternoon tea and cake on Monflanquin

The horrendous story of Oradour-sur-Glane - Days 38 to 40

The ruined city of Oradour-sur-Glane

On the morning of 10th June 1944 the villagers in the town of Oradour-sur-Mer were going about their daily business as best they could in Nazi occupied France when a column of SS soldiers rolled into town in a convoy. The bemused villagers watched as the soldiers spread out and surrounded the town to stop anyone leaving. Gradually they moved in towards the town searching the fields, outbuildings and then the houses in town, gathering all the population of 642 into the town square.

Burnt out cars rusting where they stood on the day

Men were separated from women and children, the men were then split into 4 groups and led off into outbuildings in different parts of the town while the women and children were led off and locked in the town church. They were told that the village was to be searched for weapons, a fact that put them slightly at ease as there were none stored there, so they chatted among themselves while they waited.

The town square where everyone was gathered by the SS

The real reason was retribution as, in the preceding days, an SS officer had been captured and held prisoner, followed by another SS officer and his driver. Orders from high up stated that this must stop and an example must be made to show what could happen to anyone helping the French resistance.

One of the building where men were shot and burned

At a given moment all the men were machine gunned to death and then the bodies and buildings set on fire. We read one report that the Nazis aimed low to cripple them so they would be burnt alive, but the film we watched in the museum made no mention of that, so we're not certain. Apparently 5 men managed to escape, one of whom was lated caught and shot. The women and children, amounting to over 300 souls, one as young as 8 months old and lying in a pram must have heard all this, but their fate was on its way. The Nazis set fire to a box of asphyxiating explosives inside the church, sprayed machine gun fire into the smoke and then threw in some hand grenades. Only one woman managed to escape through a church window and she was shot as she appeared.

Approaching the burned out church

The Nazis then went on the rampage through the town, taking what they wanted and then setting all the building on fire. Every building, all furniture and cars were totally destroyed by the fire. A platoon of SS kept guard overnight and the next day a team went in to remove the remains of the bodies and bury them in a mass grave so identification would be impossible.

The church where over 300 women and children were burned alive

It was sometime later that someone visited the remains of the town and saw the full gruesome details and bodies part buried nearby. There were reports of two children locked together in a tight grip as they met their end, the 8 month old burnt in her pram and a young child with head bowed in a confessional. The person reporting was unable to continue and had to leave.

After liberation it was decreed that the town must be left as it was found and a new town built alongside the ruins, so the full horror of this act will forever be remembered. A sign as you enter reads in French 'Remember'. The SS general who ordered the massacre and was present on the day escaped justice until 1982, when he was located in East Berlin, still then under Soviet control and was arrested and tried. He admitted being there but said he had only a dim recollection of what went on.

Bullet holes in the walls

The monument to the 642 dead in the cemetery

We visited and walked round and it was an incredibly emotional visit. The buildings are all still identifiable although only half standing with still blackened walls. Burnt out cars rusting away in the places they were in on the day, iron beadsteads twisted from the heat, bicycles, sewing machines, heaters and all sorts of unidentifiable bits of metal lying in their place rusting. In the main street are the old trolley bus lines and overhead cables and old signs on buildings. The buildings where the men were shot are marked with a notice and bullet holes can be seen in the walls and that was bad enough, but the approach to the church in what could be imagined to be a very pretty part of the town before, was full of apprehension. The roof was gone and some of the walls blackened, but it has been cleaned of rubble and the door was open. I really wondered whether to go inside as it seemed so wrong, but we did with a very emotional feeling. It was relatively small for a building crammed with over 300 women and children, bullet holes could be seen in the walls and the altar was badly damaged. What went on in here cannot be imagined.

We next visited the cemetery where all 642 are buried, along with relatives who died later and are buried there. Some tombs had photographs of the men, women and children on them. There's a monument at the far end with a couple of glass topped urns showing some of the charred bones and remains. Nearby there's an underground memorial with everyones name and their ages engraved on three of the four walls. Little rooms leading off have stone cabinets containing some of the personal items found in the ruins, cutlery, medical equipment and one containing childrens toys, a model train set, toy car and other things.

The old town square

I took quite a few photos on the walk round and in the church, but all the while I wondered whether I should, it just didn't seem right. I couldn't take any inside the memorial, nor could I take any of the charred bones, but I've wrestled with myself whether to put any here on this blog. In the end I decided to as we need to remember how cruel human beings can be to other human beings in these situations.


      This is a satellite view of the burnt out town of Oradour-sur-Glane. Click on it and zoom round and in and out 

This is now the second site of human cruelty we have visited, the other being one of the Killing Field in Cambodia, that we did three years ago and both have left us in disbelief and emotional. This one is now over 74 years old, but it's not possible to say 'lets hope it never happens again' because it is, somewhere in the world, even now, Syria and Yemen to name but two. Why can't we live together?

The town square at Pahecq

A little bit of practicality now, we drove here after leaving Ile de Re via a stop off overnight in a place called Pahecq, just outside Niort. It was a small town with a nice church, a few shops and a bar and the Aire was located within an easy walk of the town centre. It was free to camp there for the night and even had free electricity plug-in and a free service point where we could fill our fresh water tank, empty our grey water and our toilet. There was even toilets provided, all for free, how good is that. Here's a Google Maps link to where it is and it's location coordinates: 46°15'47.2"N 0°20'47.4"W

The free Aire at Pahecq (Big Ted third down on the left)

We stayed in another free of charge Aire on the edge of Oradour-sur-Glane new town and it was an easy walk into town and on to the old ruined town. Entry to the ruined town was free but we paid to also visit the attached museum which we thought was well worthwhile, as well as giving something back to the community. The Aire didn't have electric hook up but the services were free (we didn't need them) and, although it had toilets there they were closed for the winter. It didn't affect us though as we have our own on board. Here's a Google Maps link to where it is and it's location coordinates: 45°56'07.6"N 1°01'29.7"E

The free Aire at Oradour-sur-Glane (Big Ted on right by the tree)

We left Oradour-sur-Glane this morning and are now about 130km south in a place called Montignac in the Dordogne area. Here's a Google Maps link to where the Aire is and it's location coordinates: 45°04'03.4"N 1°09'57.0"E. It's a little bit more hilly here, the first we've really seen since arriving in France, the rivers cut impressive lines through the hills and it's very pretty. The limestone cliffs contain many caves of various sizes, most of them in use in prehistoric times with cave paintings, so we're hoping to visit one or two of them while in the area. To see where we're staying follow the links in this entry or click on the map on the top right of the blog which shows where we've been, where we are now and, by clicking the list, brings up more details of each site with more photos.

Big Ted on tonights Aire in Montignac (we have to pay for this one, but it's only €6) (location: 45°04'03.4"N 1°09'57.0"E)