Time ...

#LotValley#PlaceGambetta#Cahors#France

How quickly time seems to go ... in reality  it does actually go quickly!

Just look around you ... the seasons change rapidly from one to the other unless of course you live in an area with long hard winters and then you wonder if you will ever see Spring and Summer again.

This time of year it is particularly noticeable to me. 

Another school year has finished and all the little people (my darling grandchildren) in my life have again grown and sprouted like beans in the garden.

I am missing them all very much and look forward to spending time with them during their Summer vacation.

We are on the last part of this year's European adventure ... a few more days in the Lot Valley and then we will spend our last week in the Langedouc region of France. 

On our first day back ... we made a stop in Cahors for lunch in the Place Gambetta.

We had a day of rest ... then our "French Connection" friends visited us.

I had a chance to cook today and we enjoyed a delicious lunch on the "Belgian Connection's" terrace and quickly caught up with all that happened since we last saw each other.

Welcome back to the Lot Valley!

Lourdes

The last day of our Santiago road trip took us to Lourdes, France.

Lourdes is a small town lying at the foothills of the Pyrenees. It is famous for the Marian apparitions of Our Lady of Lourdes ... purported to have happened in 1858 to a young girl Bernadette Soubirous.

The mist hanging over the mountains ... 

The fortified castle rising up from a rocky escarpment...

Saint Bernadette ...

The fast flowing "Gave de Pau" River ...

The Grotto ...

Candles of every size ...

A walk through the sanctuaries, lighting of candles and prayers ...

Tomorrow on to the Lot Valley ..

Basque-ing in Bidart

Today (Monday) we travelled from Pamplona, Spain to Lourdes, France before heading back to the Lot Valley.

Molly (our dear GPS) made a pleasant detour into Bidart where we enjoyed a nice lunch under the shade of the plane trees in the square and we walked above the ocean.

Bidart is a small hilltop Basque village overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.

This was where last year's adventure ended.

After our couple hour detour we were back on the road ... next stop Lourdes.