March 11-13: A french diversion

One of the joys in life with modern communications is the relative ease and speed with which one can track down old friends and get back in contact after a period of lost time. So it was recently with one of my oldest childhood chums. We had been in touch over years on and off despite  our lives going separate ways  after school - he went off into business and I ended up in the environmental industry- and we met  from time to time when we were both in the same country at the same time Then about 5 or 6 years ago we lost touch. But  as chance would have it earlier this year I met my mate's cousin and there was an email address so within seconds we were back in touch. The explanation for the loss of contact was simple, my friend and his wife had retired to France. Turns out they are living not too far from Bergerac in the Dordogne and it would be great to get together again.
So I am on a plane again.hradky week since the last time it seems and I was in the Vienna Airport waiting for the early morning Austrian flight to  CDG Airport Paris (not one of my favourite airports) then a short change time (but a long walk)  and an Air France flight  to Bordeaux then a Hertz car to the village on the main road to where my friends live near Bergerac.  It is a super area,  if you are into wine especially, as  the  route went through Bordeaux and St. Emillion and Bergerac  amongst other famous names of "Appellations controlles".
I met up with my mate at a late luch time and we then drove in convoy to the house. A smart new bungalow  with a lot of land and superb views of rolling vineyards and farms  on the outskirts of a very small village - really wonderful.  

We lunched on red wine (local of course) and bread and pate then a walk around the area to see more of the countryside, all the time reminiscing about the missed years and what all our respective families and mutual friends had been doing. It was great!  Unfortunately my chum's wife was away visiting their daughter in UK so we  were two old fat grey farts alone in the countryside - and we really enjoyed it!
 and celebrated with the local red wine of course. A fine dinner of local pork fillets
Saturday was a rather grey and damp day so we started at a leisurely pace, did a bit of shopping which was fun; then headed off to see a few of the local sites including some old chateaux,

"bastide" villages

and  the stone that marks the starting point for the 100 years war!

Of course the poor weather meant we headed home early-just in time to watch the 6 nations rugby on TV - what a coincidence!  We saw the memorable victory of Italy over France and then the Welsh beat Ireland.
Then John cooked a fine dinner of local pork fillets, we had another bottle of a localish red wine which was  and lots more chat.
Sunday was an early rise to enjoy more chat on a morning that was  a bit overcast and blustery but dry; a bacon sandwich breakfast was very much enjoyed before it was sadly time for me to head off back to Bordeaux.   .....after a final photograph.......

The drive was OK as it was Sunday morning but I still managed to get lost twice on the trip to the airport - the  problem is the signposting on the ring road, absolutely appalling!
Hertz were OK, Bordeaux airport is small but efficient and basic but actually quite nice.  I was impressed  by the Air France self service automatic check-in which not only worked well but also printed only one boarding pass for two sectors of travel,  a real first.  The journeys were OK - Air France and Austrian again.   and home just in time to realise I had missed the England  versus Scotland  Calcutta Cup match but I was told pretty quickly that England had won and were still on line for the Grand Slam if they beat Ireland  on  19 March.

It was really good to meet up with one of my oldest friends again after such a long time and we will both be sure to keep in better touch from now on!