French Mountains and French Movies

Saturday, May 4th, 2019

Today we discovered another mountainous winding route as we drove in direction of Capendu to Olonzac. This massif peaks at 600 meters we reached about 400 meters, more than high enough for me.

No big plans just a little tour. 

The skies were broody all day.

We found fields of poppies ...

And an antique wagon ...

The rain arrived at the same time as we did in Olonzac.

We had a quick wander and then ducked into the Cafe de la Poste for some refreshments. 

We stopped by Sainte Helene to say “Bonjour” to Kay & Mark, unfortunately they weren’t home. We stayed in their apartment for a week in July 2014. 

A colourful garden border ...

We headed back to Montlaur. 

I had stopped into the Boucherie to pick up the beef I had ordered yesterday and prepared a beef bourguignon for our dinner and we settled in for a marathon of movies filmed in France ... 

“Chocolat, Paris Can Wait & My Old Lady.”

We enjoyed our delicious traditional French dinner and of course French pastries for dessert. 

Just what we needed on a drizzly day in Montlaur! 

Out and About in Lagrasse

Tuesday, April 30th, 2019 

We awoke to birds singing and church bells ringing under bright, blue skies. We had a good night’s sleep. 

We were aware that tomorrow was a « bank «  holiday here in France (banks/post office/ stores/ restaurants/cafés closed) ... restaurants only open in tourist towns, as such we needed to plan/ shop for provisions for Wednesday. 

Just down the street from us is “la boucherie” ... we were told that the butcher has good quality meats. 

We visited the shop, met the proprietor, Jean Louis and purchased some Toulouse sausage (Monsieur’s favourite). 

Then we were off for a short road trip to Lagrasse which is classified one of the most beautiful villages in France.

We visited here five years ago when we spent a week in Olonzac in Sainte-Helene’s beautiful apartment.  

https://www.sainte-helene.com/

We wandered the narrow lanes/ streets. 

We picked up a fresh baguette at the local boulangerie and then soaked up some sunshine while enjoying an“al fresco” coffee at a café on the Main Street. 

We will be visiting Lagrasse again during our stay with a more extensive tour. 

The abbey 


It was scenic drive out of the village, of course the “French Lady” GPS never takes us the same way back home.

I should have paid more attention when we were looking at the area on Google Earth. I looked closely at the village of Montlaur but didn’t think to consider the surrounding area. The scenery is all so beautiful but I didn’t realize we would be travelling on twisty, winding roads up and down the gorges with switch backs. If you know me I’m not good with heights and the narrow roads with no guard rails! Yikes it was a heart thumping, sweaty palm ride ...

You want me to go where? Did you read the sign, Monsieur? 

Translation: “narrow and winding road caution”

I will be definitely checking out the maps for a different route in the future.

Later in the day we went for a walk around the village of Montlaur, then checked out the tiny weekly Tuesday market in the square and a shop at the local mini supermarket “Vival”. 

Too many pics for one post ... will be doing a separate one on the village of Montlaur.