Cahors, Le Tour & Rebecca

One thing I forgot to mention about the party last week was how polite everyone was. Without exception all the men shake hands on meeting and all the ladies give each other, and the men, three kisses on the cheek. I can't remember the last time I was kissed by so many young ladies. Probably never come to think of it. The other noticeable thing was that all the young ones attending the party smoked and the older ones didn't. Smoking in all public places, including cafés, bars and restaurants, is banned from next February and it's going to be really interesting to see what the reaction of the French people will be.

It's been a busy week with a trip to Toulouse to meet Rebecca, M. Lagarrigue turning up, bit of landscaping, a big surprise in Cahors and just a little progress on the Land Rover front. We experienced the French rail system for the first time on Tuesday when we took a train down to Toulouse to meet Rebecca. It started off well with the train only a few minutes late it was only when we came to buy the tickets from the guard that it looked like things may not go completely to plan. We asked for a day return to Toulouse and were originally told that we couldn't buy a return ticket on the train & would have to purchase single. We acted the dumb English couple (wasn't hard) and after a few shrugs the guard was able to find a way round the problem. She did explain that it would have been much cheaper to have payed for the tickets at the station or booked on line. I couldn't resit seeing how much we would have saved - €1.57! We spent a couple of hours wandering round Toulouse, a beautiful city and well worth a visit, had a spot of lunch & headed back to the station. Rebecca who was on the train from Marseilles having spent a few days with Alan's mum & husband. It was really great to see her and we were able to jump on the next train back to Najac and catch up with what's been going on her life.

Whilst we're in VDR stocking up with food for Rebecca's visit Thierry rang to say M. Lagarrigue was on his way and would be starting work this PM. So it was a quick dash round Hyper U and back to await his arrival. At just before 2:00 he arrived with three machines and after a quick re-cap of what we wanted him to do he was on with the job. It wasn't long before things started to take shape & watching him making the JCB 'dance' made me think we'd made the right decision in getting him to do the hard landscaping for us. Can you imagine what damage I would have done with that machine? By Friday the jobs finished and it's now up to Barbara & I to do a bit of 'soft' landscaping so I think it'll be a visit to the local garden centre once Rebecca has gone home on Monday. These before & after pic's really make us feel like we're eventually getting somewhere.

The weather has been beautiful this week, must be because Rebecca's with us, so Friday we planned to do a little sightseeing with her. We'd passed through Cahors a couple of times but never stopped to have a look round so what better place to head for. It's about 1 hour away and after a late breakfast we got there just before 12:00. 'Seems very busy there must be something on' Barbara says as we hunt for a parking space on the outskirts of the city. We're really lucky as someone pulls away & we make a quick reversing manoeuvre much to the disgust of the driver of larger BMW 4x4. As we wander across the bridge over The Lot it soon became clear what was going on. Le Tour is in town! I had wanted to see the race when it was in Albi but had thought it would be far too busy and we wouldn't get anywhere near the action. I couldn't believe our luck, we arrive at 12:15 get a brilliant viewpoint and the riders pass at 12:30! A text to Matthew informing him that we were watching Le Tour brought the following response 'Try & stop one of them and pick up half an ounce for me. The best one to ask will be the one at the front wearing the yellow shirt & isn't breaking in to a sweat'. When you see all the effort that goes in to the event it would be such a shame if if it were to be cancelled because of the actions of a few & having seen all those bikes I couldn't resist dusting off mine and having a spin on Sunday afternoon. Think it's going to be along time before I'll be joining them, unless of course I get some of that stuff they all seem to take!

I've mentioned before that Albi is a good place to visit and especially on a Saturday morning when there's a brocante on. We had a good wander about but I think we were a little too late for the bargains. Either that or I haven't got an eye for a bargain & keep thinking of Harry Enfield's character 'I Saw You Coming'. We had a nice lunch by the cathedral & headed back to meet up with G & S who had just returned from the UK. Rebecca was given a guided tour and was most impressed with their home especially the excellent job that has been done on the painting. So much so that I think we'll end up with a few jobs back in Ealing when we spend a few days with her & Alan in October. Sunday it was a very quick visit to St Antonin-Noble-Val because as Rebecca said 'it's busier than Oxford Street on the Saturday before Christmas'. Don't think we'll be back for several weeks. It's been great having Rebecca here and we'll be sorry to see her go, not least of all because we'll have to get back to work.