Photo credit - Studio Yuki
In the last week of school holidays the Stevens tribe decided to fill the week with 5 different activities. Each day one member of the family would get to do whatever their heart desired and the rest of us would promise to join in and support their choice with no temper tantrums and arguing! We had discovered we could never all agree if a vote was involved and if we wanted to get anything done we would have to go down the road of submission to an elected leader.
We started DAY ONE with a visit to ROCAMADOUR. A Medieval hillside town of Pilgrimage balanced precariously on the side of a rock face.
This was Vikki's choice, she had fallen in love with the image above and wanted to visit the famous Rocamadour cheese shop. The Fromagerie is a quirky ancient cottage with a hugely sloping roof and nestled downstairs is a cheese shop that looks like it was built for hobbits in a fairytale.
We arrived slightly seasick from the drive along a winding road that brought us down to the valley floor, tumbling out of the car to climb aboard a little train that took us up to the town. Running past all the tourist shops we scrambled down the main narrow town street looking for the cheese shop. It was there, on the edge, basking in the sunshine. In we went and found there was not much to see. I bought a cheese and then we left.
Having exhausted our delight over finding the shop we set off on the upward climb following the Pilgrims trail to the top of the hillside and a lofty church that sits on the highest rock in the valley. It was a long climb up hundreds of steps that led out of the main town & along a precarious path carved into the hillside.
There were images of the stages of the cross along the route and a couple of places to stop and catch your breath and offer a prayer. Below, Oliver holding up the roof of a prayer cave.
Instead of lighting candles there were wooden pillars for adding a tack to mark your prayer and personal pilgrimage.
Below - Oliver celebrates reaching the top. A couple of hours later he was filling a paper bag with sweets as a treat. He handed over his bag explaining that he had a problem with mathematics and although he had tried to stick to the limit of spending 3 euros his sweets weighed in at an incredible 16 euros!!
DAY TWO was Alexander's choice = KAYAKING.
After a picnic lunch in VERS we headed down to the river and an afternoon cooling off gliding smoothly down the river. My highlights were taking the kayak down the little side slide that runs alongside the weir. The picture below is of Oliver and I before we hit the weir. I was wearing a ridiculous pink bonnet of a sunhat strapped on with a scarf. Fashion disaster!
And I enjoyed this swing hanging over the water. I didn't get a photo of the final highlight, a farmer irrigating his crops with a hugely powerful arching spray of river water that hit us as we paddled past.
DAY THREE was Sam's choice = GO KARTING
We had to wear hair nets for hygienic reason's.
Of course Alexander was fastest! I was held up by Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee ( Vikki & Samuel) blocking the road in their double slow, double wide driving Miss Daisy re-enactment.
DAY FOUR was Oliver's choice = WALLIBI THEME PARK
Only picture I have from the day is this one below that Alexander took of us on the chair swing which was easily my favourite ride of the day. Oliver loved the BOOMERANG which was a terrifying rollercoaster ride. I thought my brain was going to explode, so overwhelmed was it by the adrenaline rush, the fear, the speed, the shock of going so fast backwards and upside down!!! I hated it, Oliver loved it.
DAY FIVE was my choice = a bike ride, a drink in the late afternoon sunshine from a great bar with a view and dinner in Montcuq.
Saying hello to the French Gruffalo on the way.
Next stop was Belaye & my favourite little bar in the hills with a huge view, the portrait of Jacques Brel in the field below and an evening session of Petangue in progress.
Rolling back down to the car from the bar.
Dinner in Montcuq. This was our game of Guess Who I Am in French when Vikki got stuck on the idea that the solution was someone from Portugal and we couldn't get her to correct herself.
Finished with a climb up to the tower and a view over Montcuq.
Obviously I think my day was the best day. Thank-you to the Stevens tribe for all the shouting & arguing and all the fun and the laughter!
Next week, back to the agricultural year in France and the final August night market, plus what to do with a flourishing bountiful fig harvest!