Brian & Jans visit

Apologies for lack of photos on this post. My camera was (for a while) refusing to talk to my computer so I lost a couple of hundred images.

A week ago we said goodbye to my cousin Brian and his wife Jan, who had spent 5 fun days with us. Again we packed quite a lot in but did not move at quite the same pace as we had with our previous visitors. Brian & Jan were content to stop and smell the flowers a bit more, and both have done a lot of travelling in the past, so perhaps the excitement was not quite at the same level.

Again we took them to some of our favourite haunts, but also discovered one or two more. We were also a bit more physical during this time, probably because Brian & Jan are some years younger than us (in fact Jan celebrated her 50th birthday while here), and are also both quite fit. The highlights for us were an 8km paddle down the Tarn river (in 2 person canoes), and a challenging two hour trek over part of the (pilgrim trail) out of the beautiful village of St Guilhem l’Desert. The canoe trip was especially rewarding, through the “oh so stunning” Gorges du Tarn that I have mentioned repeatedly. I am sure we will always bring visitors here if nowhere else in the south of France. We would have liked to do a longer journey but were talked out of it by the “hirers” who said it would be very cold by the time we finished (around 4pm) - and weren’t they right! I was foolish enough to paddle in shorts and bare feet, and by the time we finished my feet were totally numb from the cold. Now I have some appreciation of how mountain climbers must feel. It took almost an hour to get full feeling back. The others all had joggers (and long pants) on so were spared the grief.

On the subject of Jan’s birthday celebrations – she did not know until 2 days before they left Canberra that Brian was bringing her to France (and primarily Paris) as a birthday gift. He had been planning and organizing it for 8 months and had somehow kept it a total secret. On the night we had dinner at a Michelin starred restaurant in a nearby town that had been strongly recommended to us. It is in fact the first Michelin recognised restaurant we have been to in five visits to this country. The young chef (26 yrs old) is the son of our friend Michel Canac’s medical associate (the partner in his practice), and has received his first M* less than 12 months after opening. It was superb, in classical French style, in every respect and not overly expensive (much to our surprise). We will have no hesitation in returning there next time we are in Lodeve (hopefully 2011).