Wednesday 11th April

We stopped in Limoges on the way down, a really nice town.  In the morning I opened the windows, it was just getting light and was an hour earlier than England, I looked at my watch and it was seven-thirty.  Because we were further south the sun rises a bit later and a bit quicker, but I was amazed at the lack of people on the street.  Our hotel was on the main square where there were shops and banks and one would have thought people, but people there were hardly any; a couple of buses slowly pootling along, hardly any cars and almost no pedestrians.  I watched for an hour and even at eight-thirty there was hardly a soul out on this admittedly rainy morning.  It seems the French are not such early risers as we are in England.  Even on wintry mornings I am rarely on my own at seven and never if I go out at eight; here the pavements are bustling with early morning workers or dog walkers, all busily scurrying along.  In France it seems very little happens before nine, and then it takes until ten before most shops open     and the daily routine really gets going.   Given that most shops are notoriously closed too between twelve and two it makes you wonder how anything gets done.  But maybe they have the right idea, that work should be completed in a s short a time as possible before getting on with actual living.  In England I suspect that we have lost the idea of living, lots of us existing simply in order to work.