It was such a pleasure sharing the bottom floor of our little cottage in Beduer with Floriane and Florise (Flo and Flo)  yesterday. Floriane is from Mauritius in the Indian Ocean and Florise is from Melbourne, Australia. We were able to carry on an easy and enjoyable conversation in English without working out the French translation for a change.

Floriane is a survivor after having a serious health scare five years ago. She feels strongly that positivity and exercise are keys to her good fortune, her survival. After retirement, she taught human values to troubled young people as a way of “giving back.” Sadly, Flo and Flo are not walking in the same direction as we are today, so we may not see them again. 😢 

Dave and I thought we were going to have almonds and water for dinner last night. We scouted out Beduer for an eatery or a grocery store but found nothing. The only place where we might have eaten was temporarily closed and we had doubts that it would open at seven like the old sign indicated. We were in our room discussing our options when there was a gentle knock on our door. Floriane told us Jackie (our host) had left dinner in our fridge and all we had to do was heat it up in the microwave. If we wanted wine, we just had to let Jackie know, so we did! 😃 Dinner consisted of chicken, greens, salad, potatoes, bread, and flan. It was so plentiful that my leftover chicken, salad, and baguette became today’s lunch.

What a gorgeous morning! We climbed down a narrow trail from Beduer to the valley floor. All was quiet except  for the birds and the gentle flow of the Cele River. We saw fields of corn and (appropriately enough) the first village we came to was named “Corn.” The French word for corn is “mais,” so who knows how the village got its name. There were gentle ups and downs, with the river sometimes alongside us and sometimes far below.

We don’t have a “Wise Pilgrim” app for this Cele Valley variant, so we were hopeful that the signage would be good enough so that we wouldn’t get lost. There was a little confusion when we got to a junction in Corn, but we sorted it out before going too far out of our way.

The temperature was perfect at 21°C at first but by the time we reached Espagnac in the early afternoon, it had risen to 28C. We are in a private room with bath at Celezen in Espagnac and we love it! It’s got character and it’s lovely and cool but step outside and it’s a whole different story! 🥵