Mar 2

No valid reason for the delay in getting this up...being in France has become so normal that I am not thinking of informing people about it.

Friday I managed to sprain my ankle badly. I was 50 yards from the house, got in put an ice pack on it and after an hour or so felt good enough that I went and helped to remove the top 8 feet of a yew tree. Boy, did it look short and ugly when we were done. Guess it is one of those things that you have to put faith in the future for! Celebration of the stunted tree involved a lot of pastis, no food, and resulted in my walking home in a state that would have been more logical for falling!

I awoke to an ankle that was interesting colours, and more than it's usual size and headed off to the big town to get medications and support bandages. In France, pharmacies sell just medications and a few other health products, and they all use a green sign. To my certain knowledge there were 3 in Castel, all easy to see from the road. After parking I walked to all three to discover that apparently French people get sick on weekdays only. There was a not on each door telling me that the pharmacy on Rue de Marchal Foch was open. Could I find the Foching rue...no way!

Fortunately I remembered a small village on the back way back to Labecede had 3 businesses in it: a boulangerie, a bar (disappointingly been closed every time I went through) and a pharmacie. It was open! I walked anxious to get Arnica (thank heavens the hoemopathic medicenes are international!) and said in a practised way "Je suis désolé. Je ne parle pas anglais, seulement français !"

Whereupon both the staff members burst out laughing and said in fine English "We hope you speak another language better!" Whoops, I had that the wrong way around! Clearly I have not met one of my goals...to be able to converse to a small degree in French! And that ain't gonna happen in the 10 days I have left.

Today's picture: une maison du maitre...that looks like it is a deserted museum but is lived in. I have been around enough that I am starting to be able to evaluate some of the quality of the architecture, take a stab at the age, and even work out when it is a warehouse instead of a home. Things I take for granted in both the US and the UK, but that flummoxed me here!