Saturday 2rd November

The sun has come out again now after a spell of rain, and everywhere looks different.  Autumn is only just arriving here and many of the trees are still green.  The vines are a yellowy colour, and some in particularly low and sunny places are already brown, the grapes have all gone.  Where there were fields of yellow plates all nodding in the same direction, and then late in summer dark brown and almost black sunflowers there are now freshly ploughed fields, the furrows dark mulchy and glistening in the early morning sunshine.  The orchards of plums, this being the prune capital of France, are still mostly green or a yellowy pale colour.  Unlike England there seem to be very few red leaved trees here.  The gently rolling hills are so beautiful, with their serried rows of vines marching across the valleys, and so little traffic we are often apart from the obligatory tractor the only car on the road.

A short trip into Bergerac confirms that it must be one of the least interesting cities in France.  They are redeveloping the ‘Vielle Ville’ yet again, if that is not a complete contradiction in terms.  The road are all up and posh new pebble stones are being laid.  We did manage to find a lovely clubby bar where we had a nice coffee and listened to a selection of country blues being played via a laptop from You Tube and through the speakers.  I could have stayed there all day just looking out of the window watching the world go by.

Today is our last day proper here, as we are driving back tomorrow, all day.  So this might not get posted until later on.  But I can assure you that even if I do not appear on Facebook, Catherines Story is always thinking of you.