Silent witnesses

In the last ten years I don't know how many times I've driven past these landmarks and thought, "I really must blip these one day." And finally today, as I was driving back from Narbonne blipless, I noticed this rest area on the A61 has finally been freed of roadworks (not that the works themselves, which have been going on for three years, are done yet). I didn't yet have a blip, so I stopped.

This "autoroute art" by sculptor Jacques Tissinier is very much of its era (1979). It's called Les Chevaliers Cathares and is intended to commemorate Cathar "warriors". You can see the so-called knights in extra 2: you can climb inside and look at the view. The first extra shows the general scene.

I think the sculptures are pretty terrible. The last time I stopped to look at them was probably 25 years ago, and they and their environment seem to have suffered general neglect since then, which hasn't improved them. Popular singer Francis Cabrel hated them so much he wrote a song about them -- probably the only composition ever dedicated to autoroute art. It begins: 
Les chevaliers cathares
Pleurent doucement,
Au bord de l’autoroute
Quand le soir descend
Comme une dernière insulte ...

The Cathar knights
Cry softly
At the side of the autoroute
While the evening falls
Like a final insult

He concludes:
C’est quelqu’un du dessus de la Loire
Qui a dû dessiner les plans.


("It must have been designed by someone from north of the Loire"). But actually Tissinier was from Toulouse, so he doesn't even have that excuse.

I went to the market in Lézignan this morning, for the pleasure of buying fresh seasonal fruits: apricots, more cherries, flat peaches, lemons. Jam and compote are on the cards. I also had a coffee with S and T, who can always be found outside the Conti. The market was buzzing, and it was good to see more local producers than usual.

In the afternoon I had to go to the Fiat garage in Narbonne as they won't order a part for you unless you go and pay for it first. This is necessary after a little contretemps with a low, protruding bit of concrete in a parking space I was reversing into just before I went to the UK ... luckily no serious damage and the part is not expensive.

Now just wringing out the last of the wine box and baking an apricot clafoutis ...