May Day:- Bring out the warm clothes!!

 Greyrocks has previously noted the accumulation of Bank Holidays in May in France. This year May 1st and 8th were  Mondays, so we have two consecutive "long weekends", and it was pretty dumb to plan long motorway journeys on the Saturdays, but we did!

"Fete des muguets" & freezing!

The second was from Lattes to our overnight in Cahors, and involved passing round Toulouse at lunchtime, but we survived - missing some "nasties" reported close-by on the radio. In fact we put the stay down as a great success. (We have bad memories of unintended encounters with Cahors, and the weather forecast was bad!) We arrived early and sat in the sun outside the Campanile hotel with beers and sandwiches.  It was hard to believe we were on our way North! The topography of the Tarn area is stunning.

By next morning the meteo was insistent: orange alert for two-thirds of France, with high winds, rain and hail. we set off in fear back up the A20:- destination Confolens and our old friend George! it was a smooth (free) run on this scenic road, and even the non-motorway bit after Limoges was fine - with threatening skies, but no weather events! We met up at the brand new house (occupied for only a couple of weeks!) and during an extended lunch the storm started with a vengeance - including the hail! During a slight let-up we drove down into town and checked in at the hotel: L'Emeraude. It is known by an almost rhyming and medical name by the local ex-pats, and it is - indeed - past its golden age, but friendly, adequate and we had a good dinner there!

Next day we had a lunch date with George but beforehand girded the loins with freshly unpacked warm clothes and headed off to beat the bounds of Confolens. We bought a bunch of lily-of-the-valley as is traditional and stopped on the old bridge for a photo opportunity. Five minutes later we were running back to the car as another thunderstorm started. Lunch was at Lesterps where we have been twice before - and the food was well up to standard!

It rained for most of the day and we had a long drive the morning after (in Greyrocks terms) that was also mostly in the rain - frequently torrential! Frustration was not helped by a major diversion adding 20 slow miles North of Limoges and more HGVs than normal after the Bank Holiday. We were bound for Brienon on the Canal du Bourgogne and had a booking for a week in a chalet on their campsite. We hoped there would be good heating!