We are prolonging summer a little by visiting friends in southwest France for a week. There was a fantastic sunset when we left home on Monday evening but as we were on the motorway, no photographic opportunities. Sometimes I feel that I spend too much time spotting potential photographs that cannot be taken from trains and the motorway. We had an easy run to Liverpool Airport where we stayed overnight as we had an early flight the next day. I got woken at around 2.30am by a woman screeching at her children in the hall and only slept fitfully afterwards. A few hours later we were checking in and the very friendly woman at the desk said that I was the second Carol Anne she had seen that morning and that it was also her name. The flight was uneventful and we were soon on our way to Cambes. We took an afternoon walk up around the vineyards above the village and through the woods back down towards the river. There is an autumnal feel to the air with some trees beginning to colour and the vine harvest starting in some places.

Today we awoke to fog which eventually cleared as we visited the Citadelle of Blaye. It was market day so we wandered past the stalls set out alongside the abandoned railway line before exploring the Citadelle which has fantastic views of the river.
<

Lunch was in Bourg.

We ate in the same restaurant as four members of the local gendarmerie who were having a very leisurely three-course lunch with beer. The old wash house still sits in the town.

We walked by the waterside where there was still some mud left by the recent thunderstorms.


We then walked up some steep steps back to where our car was parked, passing a local resident and a little free library.


After being diverted by road works we were soon back at the house where I needed some medication and a rest to get rid of the inevitable post-sleep deprivation migraine which always catches up with me a couple of days later.