Thanks to advice from chums who read this via Facebook, I decided to brave the market at la Flèche, armed with my attestation and a shopping list. I was glad I did - for a start it was a lovely drive up, with magnificent leaf colour most of they way. Parking by the river was easy, and I could stand and watch this view for hours!
Pretty well all my regulars were there, except the bread, croissant and cake stand, which was a real shame as I had been looking forward to croissants later in the week (although the porridge is still magnificent). I came home laden with local produce including a very fine cauliflower and a christophine - probably the only one this year, as the guys who manage to grow this tropical delicacy found that the polytunnels were too hot for it this year.
This afternoon I finally started on a rather nasty but essential task, and progressed it as far as I could, at which point I felt that I needed a treat and some exercise. Armed with another attestation (fortunately the paper supplies 3 normal and one work related per day), I set out on a short but beautiful walk. First I turned up the mediaeval Rue Basse to the Church.
I then walked down to the Pont de Godeau (once again, he didn't turn up). Passing by the wall of the mini-chateau, I noticed they had a very fine crop of olives this year. If they have a couple of kilos, I'm sure they could get them pressed for oil at the oil mill - we are thinking we might get some walnut oil made, if I spend a period of confinement cracking them.
I then went up to the Route de Beaufort, along a bit and back down the Rue de la Croix de la Mission. I had to go over the old railway line, now a walking and cycling path. I did pass a jogger at one stage, and spent a few minutes contemplating how far he was taking the Mick, as he had clearly come and intended to go further than 1 kilometre from his home base or his place of work. But what the hell - people are working within the spirit of the regulations, and keeping their distance, and that is surely the point. I was wearing a mask too, so should have been safe from any droplets he was shedding around him.
Anyway, on the field side of the disused railway, I spotted this magnificent spindle bush covered in bright pink berries. The higher up berries are hawthorn and can be cooked, but spindle is pretty poisonous so is best admired at a distance.
And then towards home and the road back to the village - a very nice walk, but not the longest I can do in my allotted hour and within the radius of one kilometre, but more about that another day. Now I must join a Women in OR and Analytics virtual conference.
A demain!
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