Back in February on an excursion to the Duomo Valley in Portugal, I met Thierry and his son, Odin who were from France. Another single traveler, Tina, from New York was also with us. Our tour host was Jose Figueri. The five of us spent the entire day together seeing the wineries that create Port Wine; experiencing how they are made, what makes them different from other wines, doing some taste testing, going on a short river cruise and having meals together. It was just a wonderful day and I was so happy to make some new friends in other parts of the world. As we were discussing our plans for the rest of our time in Portugal, I found out that Thierry and Odin were also taking a baking class with host, Ines, the very next day. Amazingly, Tina had also wanted to take that same class, but when she tried to get in a few days before, it was already full. Nonetheless, all of us vowed to stay in touch with each other. And we have. Tina now lives in Florida with her brother and is hoping to travel some more in the future. As I mentioned, Thierry owns a chicken and soy farm in France and his youngest son Odin is in college. Jose continues to give tours to the Duomo Valley, both by car and hiking tours and Ines’ Baking Class is done both in person and online.
Thierry doesn’t speak any English, so Odin has acted as our translator. He does a fantastic job. And for a kid who is just 20 years old, he is mature, knowledgable, and amazingly astute for someone his age. He has an older brother and sister who live on their own in other places in France. When I mentioned to them that I was coming to France, Thierry insisted that I come visit. Thierry and Odin kept saying that they lived near Toulouse. So, when I told them my available dates, Odin told me to take the train from Bordeaux to Toulouse and then the local train to Auch. He would be able to pick me up after he was done work. The train from Toulouse to Auch took an hour and a half and the car ride from Auch to Thierry’s house was another half hour. There is nothing but farmland as far as the eye can see from one direction to another among beautiful hillsides and among field after field of sunflowers.
My first night with them, we went immediately on a drive to the old Gall-Roman aqueduct/wall. Probably built during the 1st Century or before when the Romans and Galls occupied this area of France.
We then drove into the town of Barran to see the town and the church, originally built in 1073, dedicated to St. John the Baptist. The church was closed, but we were fortunate that the groundskeeper was around, knows Thierry and Odin well and was more than happy to open up the church for us. Although it is a small church, it is known mostly for the unusual helical shape of its tower. There are only about 50 of these kinds of towers in the world. If you zoom in on the picture of the tower, you can see that it twists as it rises.
After we returned, Thierry made a wonderful dinner for us from the bounty of his garden. Odin needed to work the next day, so we wouldn’t have a “built in translator”. I was a little worried that Thierry and I would have difficulty communicating, but we have Google Translate. In the morning, Thierry made breakfast with eggs from the household chicken group, French bread and apricot jam that he’d made. When we weren’t using Google Translate, we tried to have a conversation; he would say something and I’d guess at what he was saying and I’d respond, then he’d do the same. Back and forth it went. Who knows if we were even talking about the same things. We drove around to the chicken houses and guinea fowl to check on them as it was very hot, then we drove to pick up a friend of Thierry’s, Patrice, who would spend the day with us and act as our translator. That worked out so much better than us trying to use Google Translate for every word or guessing at what we were each saying.
Patrice proved to be a wonderful conversationalist and I was a bit concerned that we were sometimes leaving Thierry out of the loop. But we had a wonderful day together. Visited an old church/fortress that has been turned into a museum with a rotating exhibit. The current exhibit included glass artists - amazing work. Another ancient/restored town where we had lunch at a restaurant with a beautiful view and some wonderful gardens. Below is just a bunch of photos from the day - not in any particular order.
We climbed the steps up to the top of the tower. It got more and more narrow as you ascended.
When we returned, Odin and his girlfriend were just getting back from work. They both changed to go down to the lake to swim. Thierry and I went down a bit later, so that he could show me the lake. His parent’s house sits just to the north of it.
In the center of the picture below is a crawfish.
We went back to the house for dinner and again, Thierry (at some point - I can’t imagine when) made dinner for us out of the bounty of his garden. On Thursday we went to Auch and visited the Cathedral. The old town sits on the top of a hill and we climbed all the way to the top!
Notre Dam of Auch. The carved woodwork in the Choir Box is simply breathtaking!
We also toured an even older church - St Orens - that had modern art paintings on the walls and modern stained glass. It was an interesting combination.
And finally some pictures from Toulouse, wasn’t there long enough and most everything was closed:
I’ll keep you posted on my week in Avignon. All this well. I’ve gotten some great recommendations of things to see and do. So, we’ll see what I end up doing. I’m a really good solo traveler, partly because I’d hate to submit another person to my mental calisthenics on what to see and do, where to go, how long to stay, where I should have gone instead, etc…. It’s a constant background conversation that I have with myself - choosing and then second guessing every choice. Adding another person/s to that mix is sometimes too much. However, when I don’t really have an agenda and don’t really care what I actually see or do, like now; it would be nice to have another person along to help go over those options together.
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