Gramont 17-20 June

Gramont, near St Clar, train station Agen

Rodney's cousin, Guy, and wife Rosemary, are house-sitting in this very lovely area of rolling countryside, hilltop villages, sunflowers and grain. The house has a swimming pool -refreshing - a great view and a separate pigeonnier that has been transformed into a self-contained tourist gîte. We could have stayed there for much longer, just enjoying the surroundings.

Such is life that we were able to visit some of the 'local' sites - several fortified villages, where you can still see ramparts, ex-moats, high towers;

a Gallo-Roman villa, or at least the remains thereof, whose size fairly dwarfs that of others we have seen in Italy and includes a full set of baths (thermes); 

an old collegiale, with beautiful cloisters, some restored and many showing the erosion over centuries, and with a high tower to the roof of the church and beyond. 

Here we negotiated the steepest, narrowest spiral staircase ever, with a cunningly concealed second (secret access) staircase within the first one, at least for the first 12 steps. 

This was also the village of various cat images, as the village is said to have been saved twice by cats in the 14th century.


Add to that the colourful markets, the handy places to eat fairly cheaply (in the shade), the great covered barbecue by the pool ( with it's shaded table), and you have an amazing holiday atmosphere. We really enjoyed our few days there, extending our stay while the train strike continued but in the end getting the one train left per day to get us to La Rochelle, where we would pick up our path from 2013.