It was very sad to leave the homeless cats (Scot found it very hard to leave the beach). It had rained overnight and only Meow was there in the morning for me to say goodbye to. I left food enough for the 6 cats and we headed off.
We were heading due east and the weather was supposed to be a little cooler. I had a small aire near Albi marked for the night at Lisle sur Tarne. The place was a fortified village, quite amazing like others we have visited. It was the first time arriving at an aire we felt unwelcome. There was only a couple of places to park and a few people came out of their vans to watch us and see where we parked. Scot waved to them but they ignored him and continued staring and pointing at the couple of spots we could have parked. They were still watching well after we parked up and their body language said it all. That is a first. We had a walk around the village before dinner.
On our way heading east we encountered horizon to horizon fields full of sunflowers, corn and wheat. They are starting to harvest the wheat and so we encounter multiple tractors and harvesters on the road which slows the traffic up considerably. Scot had many attempts at photographing the sunflowers but since they all face the way the sun travels, they were often facing away from the road. When he got a perfect shot a tree or truck got in the way – a bit like the fish that got away….Lol.
We had let our friends know we were on our way but when arriving in Albi, they said they had been inundated with family so instead of staying we just went and visited for the next day and we headed north afterwards.
These friends live in England but they have their own French chateau which was amazing. Their property is on the Tarne river by Lincou. The drive down was ok but very steep as we were going down the side of the mountain into the valley. Amazing countryside but also a little scary with huge drops over the side. The house was absolutely amazing. Scot had a swim in the river Tarne which looked so lovely. It was a hot day. We had a lovely lunch with their family and then we headed off. The roads around the area were quite hairy and we ended up deciding on going partly back the way we came and then north and ended up in a little place with nothing much in it but a small aire, a playground, a petanque field and a handful of houses called Saint Just Sur Viaur. The road down was awful and we met a truck head on at the bottom and we couldnt pass so we had to back until we could get off the road. I was dreading us encountering this on our way back the next morning which kept me from sleeping all night.
We maybe the only ones stupid enough to travel down these roads. We had big storms on their way so we settled in and the storms hit. It rained for a few hours which really was welcome relief to the heat we had been having. On the road by the aire we would have had maybe one car an hour pass by, so incredibly remote.
The next morning we took off with me dreading the climb out, but thankfully all was ok and we didn’t encounter any combine harvesters or tractors until after we were over the worst and narrowest part of the road. We had decided we need to head north quickly now as school holidays start for France in a week or so, so best to be away from the southern parts where they all descend for the summer.
Driving though some of the mountainous country like we have encountered is a double edged sword or as Scot says good cop bad cop. If you don’t go there you never reap the benefits of the amazing scenery, but going there is a scary prospect with a van, unlike a car where you just can’t always manoeuvre it out of the way when you need to.
