An interesting day…. Part II

Visiting the ‘Centre de la Mémoire’ reminded us of the Giant’s Causeway, where all the signs indicate that entrance to the village is only accessible through the centre. Yet, after you have paid for your ticket, the accompanying documentation indicates that access is in fact free. No matter, the exhibition was moving and informative and we are glad we did it.

As we left the centre we met this pretty babe…. don’t think we could manage a road trip in her though!!

As I said previously, our destination was Adriers. Doreen, Hazel’s sister has a house here. The previous day Doreen had suggested that we might like to visit Montmorillon, a pretty market town. Looking at the map MORTEMART was enroute, a short distance from the memorial village, so off we set!

We are firm believers in serendipity. Whilst we had headed to the wrong place what we found was an amazingly pretty village. Despite the time, 3.00pm, and pouring rain at this stage, the cafe sign said ‘ouvert’. Paul kindly confirmed it was open “pour manger”!

We met the loveliest English couple, Rob and Tania from Hereford. They have had a holiday home on the square for 6 years and in December bought the restaurant and retired here. They were very engaging, and whilst the food wasn’t W&B standards, it was tasty and filling – and they gave us butter with our bread! The craic was good and we headed on well satisfied.

The market hall dates back to the 17th century and was restored in recent years. Surrounding the market hall are the lovely stone houses of the village. Some of these are notable and attest to the prosperity of the village.

Mortemart can trace its origins back to a castle that was built here in 995 AD by the Duc de Mortemart

The church of Sainte Hilaire. It was built in the 14th century as the chapel for the couvent des Augustins and in the 17th century became the village church. Its interior includes some carved stalls from the 15th century and a beatifully decorated baroque style altarpiece. It also has an attractive bell tower.

There are two convents in Montemart. One is now the Marie and the other has artists in residence….

Having stocked up on basics, bread, wine and cheese we landed in Adriers. It was raining heavily when we pulled up at the house. Having negotiated the gate and garden we were shocked to find that the ground floor of the house was flooded and had obviously been for some time given the damp and mould. We set to sorting out the problem as best we could and then got back on to good old Google, booking.com, air B&B to find alternative accommodation. We needed somewhere close by so were available for the plumber the next day.

RESULT…. We located a pretty, quirky little one up, one down in L’isle Jourdan, just 10 minutes away… The owner, via email, sorted out the keys and whilst Paul was ‘sent’ to explain our predicament, it transpired that the lady who looks after the property was English!! In a very a very short time, plied with bread and milk and butter and eggs we were settled in for the next chapter in our tour.