Midday in Mirepoix

Today is the day when S sets off on his annual trek along the Pyrenees. Having got the all-clear from the knee doctor, he's hoping to make it to the Mediterranean this time.

Getting to the start point (i.e. where he left off last time) is always awkward because it's usually in the middle of nowhere. Taking all the various factors including weather forecast and amount of snow into account, he decided to set off from a point in France and walk across the frontier before getting a taxi to where he really wants to be (I told you it was complicated!). So today we drove to his starting point, l'Escolan.

We decided to make a day of it and stopped off in Mirepoix for lunch. Predictably, the restaurant I'd selected on Trip Advisor was closed on Tuesday lunchtimes. Neither of us was that hungry so we ended up just picking one of the places on the main square more or less at random, and eating a very indifferent salad. Next stop was Foix where we ate ice cream and failed to find a copy of a book that S had been trying to get hold of for a while.

Driving on, we stopped in the excellently named town of Seix to visit the really nice épicerie where they roast their own coffee and sell excellent local cheeses. It was closed, so we went to the nearby bar for a coffee. Here I had a strange sense of déjà vu, because exactly the same thing happened as the last time I was in this bar. We sat down outside in bright sunlight, and had just finished our coffees when the people at the next table, spotting the storm heading down the hill opposite us, leapt up and raced back to their car. Very sensibly, as within two minutes the rain was lashing down and everyone left on the terrace created a logjam in the doorway as we all tried to get inside the bar simultaneously.

One woman must have left something outside because despite enraged yells from the barman, she promptly opened the door again, letting in approximately one cubic metre of water in a massive gust of wind and soaking herself to the skin in the process. We sat quietly and ordered another drink while we waited for the rain to ease off -- it certainly wasn't going to stop.

The weather was slightly better when we got to l'Escolan, but it was still raining, so I stayed just long enough for a cup of tea and then set off on the long drive home. One of the things I like about where we live is the amazing variety of landscapes -- in this three-hour drive I passed from snow-capped mountains, through flower-sprinkled green pastures with sheep and cows in them, then rolling expanses of beans, sunflowers and wheat, before getting back into familiar vine territory.