Wednesday 17 Sept 2008 – St Girons

Weather set to be good again today, so after having a mad French driver whiz across the roundabout right in front of me I followed him in the direction of Cos, which is where I had been indicating that I was going.
The road meandered upwards into the hills and eventually became a one lane road with passing places. The views of the hills from some of the properties that we passed were exceptional. Unfortunately there was nowhere to stop and take photos.
Eventually we popped out onto a main road and headed left to St Girons.
We had been passed the town in March whilst house hunting, but this was a chance to visit it. We parked on the sunny side of a street on the outskirts and followed the signs to the centre of town. It is much bigger than our town and cars hurtle along roads that you would swear must be shiny pavements.

Once again this is a town with a river running through it, lined with picturesque houses. This is the view used in our guide book. Although we searched the town, we did not find any other outstanding bits, although there was a short run of arcaded shops.

Here is a photo of a plaster saint that I met in the church. St Jude in fact.

There was unfortunately a hell of a lot of dog shit in the town, and we watched while someone with a big dog, let it crap on the grass before he set off again. Not far away was a dog crap bin, but unfortunately it was invisible to the dog owner. Still it provided local colour and a new aroma for the people eating their picnics a short distance away.

On the way back just after 2pm, the temperature was still in the mid 20s. We stopped off by a long stretch of river, shaded by trees, and which has facilities for mobile homes etc and a local produce shop. Once again the stench of dog crap in this beautiful spot was overpowering.
We crossed the wide main road and went to explore the small village. There was a bread shop and a sign indicating that cheese was for sale down one of the 2 streets. We never found the cheese, but there was a house for sale that we had seen in an estate agents in St Girons. There was also a house on the main road with their washing hanging out of the windows. Black seems to be their favourite colour.

It was back to the car and onwards to Foix to collect my file storage unit. Despite being metal, it comes flat packed, so that will be some homework for me. Possibly not tonight though as choir practice starts tonight.