Day three started with breakfast at the hotel, taken with the other guests, the couples talking to each other in muted tones! We had fresh squeezed orange juice, croissants, baguette, jam etc, yoghurt and coffee. We packed a haversack, took our maps and drove off to the start of a walk that we found among some old papers about this region. On the way we stopped at a little village, hoping to find a charcuterie to buy lunch. All we found was a small epicerie with a little counter of pate, pizza etc. We took two slices of something called 'Italian...' I forget the second word. It looked like pizza. When the girl handed over the package, I was taken aback by the weight! We had water and fruit so, satisfied we had enough for lunch we went to find the start of the walk which was by the village wash house in Bonnetré.
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| The washing place, bottom left, and on the walk |
The wash house was hard to find as it turned out to be more of a trough with green water in, the washing machine having done away with communal al fresco laundry. A kind woman directed us to it and we found a wide verge to park on. Booted up and carrying two maps and a compass, we set off at about 11.00 am. The weather was perfect. Sunny, warm but not too warm, and with a slight breeze now and again.
The circular walk through the forest was varied with some ascending and descending stoney paths, some flat sandy paths through woodland and some sudden glimpses of the countryside and rolling hills and the odd lake. The walk was supposed to be 7.5KM long but a small mistake made it at least 8KM. Fortunately, the missed path brought us out to a road which we could recognise on the map and we were able to re-orient ourselves. We stopped for lunch on a narrow path between hedges and perched on a bank and tackled the 'pizza'. The topping was thick with ham, cheese and tomato and the pastry was like lead but it filled a hole. We left some of the pastry and when we deposited the remains in a rubbish bin it hit the bottom with a loud clunk!
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| Dun Les Place war memorial |
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| The shop where we bought the 'pizza' |
The rubbish bin was in the same village where we had bought the lunch, Dun Les Places. We had hoped to find a cafe for a cold drink, but everything was closed until 4.00pm. Instead, we looked round the church and stood, sombrely, in front of the war memorial. Dun Les Places was one of the martyred villages of the liberation in 1944. The retreating German army terrorised the village for several days and then shot several men and the priest.
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| Inside the church and on a bench outside |
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| Siesta time for some |
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| French humour? A corner in Dun Les Places |
We returned to the hotel and had a cold drink in the garden and then a long rest before dinner.
Tonight we had: an amuse bouche of something we couldn't identify and which didn't taste of anything. Assiette de crudité for me and oeufs poché for Peter, then calves liver for Peter and lobster for me. The lobster was a little disappointing. The cheese cart did not fail us however, and the ice creams were good. And so to bed!
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