The walls were thin in the hotel. Turns out I wasn't the only one staying there. They must have gotten in late. At some point after I'd turned off the light and gone to sleep I could hear them talking, turning on taps, walking around. Bah!
I woke without any alarms. I lay there for ages awake but not thinking of anything in particular. It was a lovely way to welcome the day. My first day of holiday on my own. My first day of me not being at the office when everyone else was. Didn't miss it a bit!
I handed my key in to a real person in the morning although they were just wrapping up from breakfast and getting ready to leave again. I've never seen such a automated hotel system before. It's interesting. It's efficient, but it's somewhat cold and soulless. I wonder if they have one of those robotic maids that they advertise in Skymall?!?!
I set out to look for breakfast and it proved to be no trouble whatsoever. Overnight, the quiet town centre had transformed into a huge market. I only discovered later that Monday the 15th was a bank holiday. Ah ha!
There was the usual clothing shops (from bohemian to old-lady styles), butchers, bakers, (no candle stick makers!), cheese, fruits and vegetables, olives, spices, toys, jewelry and hat vendors (apparently Caussade is the hat capital of the area). Hundreds of locals and tourists pushed their way through the crowds buying their wares on this gorgeous sunny day.
And then I hit the road. I was plugging in towns into the GPS as I worked my way to Les Tilleuls. Turns out there are several towns in France with the same name! When it said the journey would be 5 hours, I figured I might have chosen the wrong one. When I chose one that appeared nearby and drove out of town in the opposite direction I'd come, my spidey-senses kicked in and I tried another town that took me in a more sensible direction. GPS's are great but they can make you stupid, reliant on them and can cause you to forget to look at signs. As someone once said, they're GPS's, not auto-pilots!!!
I went up and down many hills, past gorgeous forests and fields and through several quaint villages. It was a pretty drive and I didn't mind taking the scenic (read:long) route. I stopped and had a bite to eat in this small town that was nearly deserted save for a group of young hikers nearing the end of what looked like a pilgrimage of sorts as they stopped and gathered at the town church. I ate my fruits, bread and cheese and watched them for a while feeling a bit guilty that I had food as they searched in vain for a store that was open so they could buy something to eat or drink.
As I approached the last town on the map I'd studying and pre-loaded in my iPad Map app, I figured it was time to look at Melanie's written instructions for the fine tuning of my route. Hmmm...no mention of the town of Cazals on my route. The GPS told me it was 20mins in a direction I didn't expect to go. The next hour took me down roads I wasn't supposed to go down beacuse I'd misread the next line of the instructions. My spparent lack of common sense and the heat were making me frustrated. I wished I'd plunked her instructios into Google Earth prior to arriving. I'm so much more of a visual navigator and without a co-pilot to read the instructions to me, it took twice as long as it should have. Still...it was pretty countryside....it's the journey, not the destination...can I be done driving now, please?!?!?
I initially felt frustrated at the lack of signs. Come on? How hard is it to put up a few breadcrumbs? Then I got here. I was greeted by Melanie and shown around. I saw this place and got it. There is no need for signs. There is no place for signs. This is a retreat. Somehow even advertising it on the road seems to take away from how special a find it is.
I settled in to my gorgeous room, did a little happy dance at my luck in finding this place and joined Melanie and Natalie, the only other guest tonight, up on the balcony at the pigeonerie for a welcome drink. It was so warm in the sun and I didn't last long before feeling drawn in by the lure of the swimming pool.
A swim, the cracking open of a new book, a happy-hour drinks/nibblies and a 4 course dinner outside from sunset to the twinkling of the first stars made me a happy girl.
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