Postcards From Abroad - August
When cycling through France ten years ago for the first time (two glorious months on bike with tiny tent, sleeping bag and only a change of clothes) I was fortunate enough to happen upon Chédigny, the only village in France which has been certified with the label “Jardin Remarquable”. The Mayor of the town back in 1998 gave each resident one rose bush. This started such a love affair, with each gardener discovering the joy of gardening and now the village is so highly visited and acclaimed with a number of full time gardeners employed by the Marie, as roses spill over fences and buildings and gardens spilling out onto the roads…..an absolute transformation.
So to a beautiful village I was fortunate enough to visit a couple of weeks ago on a rainy evening when friends invited me to dinner at the Abbey/Chateau du Camon in the Languedoc in southern France. Driving into the village I was immediately taken with the beautiful climbing roses along each little lane and climbing up and over the shutters of each quintessential French home….so I returned and so fell totally under the spell. Here again it was the Mayor who gave each resident a rose - and if perchance your rose gives up the ghost, you can chose whatever you would like to replace it. And so the village is now considered the most beautiful in France and little wonder. All because of one person’s vision.
Close to Camon, another Mayor decided to bring the community together in the best way possible by closing off the Main Street of Leran each Friday evening throughout summer and lining the street with a long table and seats, and then inviting food and wine vans to set up either side of the street. Everyone and anyone is welcome, just bring along plates, cutlery and glasses and all sit down along the long tables while live music and a local band provide entertainment along with the many who can’t help themselves but get up and dance to the music, young and old and every age in-between. A weekly getting together of such joyousness and spirit and something I wish we could learn from in Oz!
So too in Arcachon, another wonderful village on the Cote Atlantique where the Mayor’s decreed to give anyone over the age of 70 a bicycle to enhance good health in his community. Never have I seen so many handsome men in their coloured trousers with jumpers draped around their shoulders cycling along with baguettes and newspapers in their handlebar baskets - all looking far younger than their 70 years!
And so it is homeward bound now pour moi and back again to la belle France in September, playing Pied Piper to a great group of Aussie cyclists through the Dordogne, along the Canal du Midi and then to Arcachon and down the Cote Atlantique to the Basque town of St Jean de Luz on the Spanish Border for two fabulous weeks imbuing that spirit and beauty of France….
….long live France and long live Le Sac! Trisha x
