Croissants and Pains Chocolats

The figure in red has been to the boulangerie, and is taking breakfast for us and our friends to their home.

We are in La Placette, one of several small places, and you can see one of the seven fountains of Aspiran.

Just down the road from here, we pass through the Porte de l'Enfer (gate of hell), and across the stream of La Garelle, which is definitely not in flood, despite the overflowing condition of other (larger) local rivers.

The sun shone, and I think that the temperature reached about 22C in the shade in the early afternoon. After breakfast, we went to the very nice market in Paulhan, a village just 2 km from here.

Our host spent part of the afternoon hacking off all the branches from the mulberry tree in the garden. Apparently that is necessary before leaving for the winter, because the spring growth is so vigorous that everything is weighed down, and, when the mulberries come, there are just too many to handle. We had a rather interesting expedition to the local déchetterie to get rid of the leaves. But the most interesting part of the vicious pruning was that our host found a very large insect on the wall that had been shaded by the tree. It's body alone was about 7cm long, and it's obviously of the grasshopper family (sauterelle in French), but we don't think that it is a cicada or locust. Can anyone help us identify it?

And now there is crab being prepared for a starter for dinner, and that will be followed by local (med) fish, local cheeses (including some superb runny sheep's cheese: we aren't far from Roquefort) and some mulberries conserved in strong alcohol. Yum!

And then, tomorrow morning, our friends and we start the treck back to England. They have to fit us in as two extra passengers with all our luggage. That severely constrains the amount of French goodies they can bring back. Think of all that marc and calvados and wine, and confit de canard and foie gras that won't be coming this time! We have invited them for Christmas, and hope that we can offer some entertainment in recompense.