Rise to another breakfast - Into Gray for more McDonald's Wi-fi - hear about the McBaggette - good! Knud assures me - work arrives through the ether- deal with it - girls return from their gathering expedition laden down with breads, cheeses, meats, milk and french vegetables - Bernie is amazed by what she has seen - large packets of cryovacced mashed potatoes clearly imprinted on her mind - people will be subject to muliple iterations of her memories of this gathering escapade!
The sun reveals its presence and enters into an hour long battle for supremacy with the grey clouds that have reigned over Gray for the past two days - the Sun wins and its victory is celebrated by the newly bare- breasted males of Gray who emerge to play table tennis on the precast concrete table tennis tables that inhabit the recreational areas of at least this part of France
Home to another great lunch - melon and proscutto, bread and cheese and a beer - nap then rise to coffee and cake - discuss the increasing dimensions of my girth.
Unload the bikes - along the Soane - the sun encourages yesterday's red tinge in the fields to levitate to the sky - a rainbow crescent of reds, greens, yellows and blues lays across the landscape - no doubt the creation of some strange synchronisation of swirling winds that progressively deposited the forebears of the now wilting to red winter grasses, the now vigorous green sumner grasses, the yellow cheerful buttercups and the opportunistic blue wild flowers in progressively larger arcs across the field.
The village looks tired and a little tatty - the old church and the departed souls it oversees seemed loved but at the same time look neglected - this is a place that has seen better days - some of the inhabitants show pride in their homes and it is their homes that celebrate the emerging spring with box hedges that appear to have been recently trimmed with the precision of a compound milling machine. These same homes have vegetables gardens that would make even our grandfathers jealous. Stark against the mediocrity of much of the village is the Chateau De Rigni with its gardens stretching down to the banks of the Soane .
We turn back from Rigni and return to Linquenda - we sit In the wheelhouse - enjoy the sun - snack on snails - listen to the Cucoo's
Suddenly it is time to batten down the hatches - in comes a hail storm - the river becomes agitated and the rain pours down- the nature of spring? - the storm is soon over and the surface of the Soane returns to the stillness of a mill pond.
Our last night - dinner at a great place in town - one of the best dining experiences in our recent memory - we leave early tomorrow - we will be sad to leave these delightful and generous people that are the masters and custodians of Linquenda.
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