Bon Soir:
We we were caught up on e-mails until today and now we are 2 days behind, but that you will understand later in the report.
We got up and had a light breakfast and said our good byes to Jo and Roy and headed to Vals, France and the Chappelle Notre Dame Du Val D’Amour. I could sit here and try to describe this Church, but a picture is worth a thousand words, and this holds true for our next unscheduled stop in Montradit, France, to a road side church which was built by the local priest one rock at a time. It was a special place and the story is also below.
The drive to both place was uneventful for me but poor Susan was slightlyterrified on a couple of the back roads through the mountains, that were hardly big enough for 1 car. When we travel these roads we hardly ever see any cars, as was the case today, but the blind turns tend to make you a little cautious.
Vals was very unique and secluded in a small town in the hills. We actually ran into some British folk and shared a few laughs. We didn’t stay to pray because it was very cold and we only had 5 layers of shirts and coats on, not to mention the bat that was flying around….unbeknownst to Susan…..or she would have flown out of there. We said the Rosary on the way to our next stop.
Montardit was a different story, this little church mesmerized us. It was so unique and you could tell it was built with a lot of love and 33 years of hard labor. We spent some time here, praying and leaving our intentions
We sat out front at one of the picnic tables and enjoyed half of the rest of that sandwich I made the night before. We were going to save some for tonight if we got hungry at our next B&B (read on, and you will see that was not going to be a problem).
More mountain roads and tremendous views and some white nuckles later we arrived in Forgaron, France. For the most part this is a one street town of good roads. All the other off streets are so small that even I wouldn’t go on them. It was close to 3:00 p.m..
Not being shy, I asked the first person I saw, who was standing in the drive of this beautiful house, if he knew of B&B Fouargon. He broadly smiled and said “you’re here, I’m Bob”. Bob said to park right on the street and I guess I looked a little concerned, so he offered his spot in the drive. I asked if it was safe and he laughed saying that the only 4 people passed him were already home and the road ended. I pulled close to the curb and bushes and had to start over as we all laughed since Susan couldn’t get out of the car. I said hello to BeBe, Bob’s wife when she came out. I knew her name from the e-mails as we corresponded before our trip. I did cancel once and rebooked as we changed our plans and routes to give us more time to relax. We were glad we did and they were taking bets if we were coming or not.
Bob and BeBe helped with the luggage into the house and we started to talk about our journey and their beautiful house. He offered us a drink so they had wine and I had a Courvoissier VSOP that I saw on the shelf and laughingly he said to BeBe, I told you to hide that bottle.
We went and sat on their back patio sheltered from the wind and the fun began. We all clicked as if we had known each other for years and started laughing so hard at the stories we told each other it hurt.
Having finished our wine we went in to go to our room and He said that we should use the living room or dining room for our computers, so Bob and I only had 2 bags to carry up … 3 flights of stairs … Bob was “NO DUMMY”.
We came back down after a few minutes and I hooked Susan up to the computer. She spent all of 5 minutes and Bob and BeBe invited us to have dinner with them. That sandwhich was still in the car, and it could stay there for a home cooked meal. Bob opened up another bottle of wine and back to the patio we went. From that point on and throughout we had a fun and enjoyable evening, we never stopped laughing.
I don’t know what time we started dinner, but it was dark out when we sat for the 2nd course, so it had to be close to 10:00. We got thru the first course of Coquille St. Jacques in a puff pastry along side a one with goat cheese and a small salad. I thought that was it when he had said light supper and we were almost full. Back to the patio we went.
After dark we went back in and BeBe next brought a cream of carrot soupthat was just as delicious as the first course.(S) Little did we know thatthere was more to come but I think we all had faded and just shared a little cheese to help finish off the 6th bottle of wine. It was a perfect a perfect day except for the lack of peanuts. LOL
As the church bells rang 11 PM and we were all exhausted, not from the wine, but the laughter….. well, the wine helped. So we hugged and kissed each other good night and went to bed. Susan just hopped in to bed clothes and all and was out in seconds. I managed to get my jammies on and crashed right behind her.
Au Revoir
We fly to thy patronage, O holy Mother of God;
Despise not our petitions in our necessities, but deliver us always from
all dangers,
O glorious and blessed Virgin.
Amen.
Love
Tom & Susan
