Tuesday, May 12, 2015 - St. Cyprien train, the other side of Sarlat, and friends for drinks

With tickets purchased in Bordeaux, Pat and Chuck are making their way to Paris today, starting in St. Cyprien. Having checked it out before, we know there's only the track and a bus-type shelter for waiting for the train. It apparently stops here when people need to get on or off. Exactly how they know, I don't know, but it works. The train stops and Pat and Chuck board while a conductor watches to know when to signal the engineer to start moving.

In addition, there are wild poppies growing for Judy on the side of the station.

We're alone for the first time since coming to France. We're not sure what to do with each other, but over lunch, we take stock of the places we've been and the ones we still want to see. Hopefully our next guests will be willing to see these unexplored places with us.  We do a little planning and list-making for the last 3 weeks of our stay here. (How can the time be so short?)

We've been to Sarlat several times, but have never explored the non-touristy part of the old town. Our Sarlat guide has a tour, so we decided to take it.

Dave found a café to wait for me while I went into Sarlat's needlework store. Not much available, although some interesting quilt fabrics I would have bought if I had room to bring them home.

On the way home we stopped at LeClerq. Turns out to be a huge Walmart type store that sells everything including groceries. This one looks pretty new, so we think we'll probably be back to explore more the next time we need a big groceries type shopping.  Of course, Dave found something he couldn't resist.

Some notes for friends:
Janis, here's the latest on walnut trees - leaves are out, shade is starting to be seen under the trees, although the leaves aren't yet fully out and most still have a reddish tinge.

Here's a photo of how the wisteria looks today. Jeri and Paul are thinking of replacing it with climbing roses since it only has drop-dead beautiful flowers for one week during the year.

Once home, we have aperos which continue into a green salad with left-over duck on it.  Later, Jeri and Paul come down for wine and to share the warm and pleasant evening. We're now at a time where it's not truly dark until almost 10 pm. And it's one of the first evenings since arriving that have stayed warm enough to stay out till dark.

I'm really going to miss Jeri and Paul. They are full of stories and anecdotes about living in France. They are easy to talk to about just about any topic and the evening passes too quickly with lots of laughter. This is how life is meant to be lived.