Argentat: Corrèzes : France July 2018
It’s the next day and another beautiful village is on our itinerary. I mean you might get bored, we didn’t!
It’s not far to Argentat and we found the municipal camp site. It’s lovely and the lady is so excited we are from Afrique du Sud and even more so from Cape Town. She had travelled there a year ago and was excited to discuss it. My French her English made for a lovely conversation. And to top it off she gave us a huge site with a shady leafy tree all to ourselves. Voila!
It was Sunday and the Football World Cup final was the big event of the day ! Especially as France was in the Final. We had a lovely shower as the ablutions were clean and lovely and NOT unisex. We walked into town along the river edge and it was such a treat, beautiful leafy path right alongside the river. Argentat is fairy tale like with the buildings alongside the old quay all decorated with flowers and quirky objects hanging from the balconies. It’s actually a little like a movie set. Originally the quay was used to transport wine barrels made in the area and then shipped on the flat bottom boats called Gabares towards Bordeaux where the wine was barreled and matured.
I think Chris was a little worried we would not find a suitable pub with enough supporters to watch the game but no worries we heard the pub before we saw it! The noise level was high as we walked through the bar into the little garden at the back. It was all decked out with tables and chairs and the draught machine was set up dispensing copious amounts of pression. The local football club had the honour of selling food to raise funds. No prizes for guessing the menu….yes frites with sausage! Oh well, you can’t have it all and the atmosphere was electric. Everyone had a French t-shirt, French stripes on their faces ,a flag and hat you name it. We felt naked.
We got a good spot and we must of had about 4 rounds of drinks before the game even started as it was so hot! Around 33deg! I was even drinking beer, well my new favourite pression peché. In France they make a shandy but using syrups in all different flavours. So you can have lemon( the usual everywhere else) and then peach, grapefruit, strawberry, cassis and mint etc etc etc. It tasted great, not artificial. Too nice as it’s a bit like a cool drink. Anyway, I digress. The football…. so France won! Yes, they did.
Every goal scored was a celebration with people jumping up and down and waving the French flags madly. The French are so passionate and the singing was loud with everyone joining in as if we were in the football stadium.
Once the game was over everyone spilled out into the street. It was so funny to watch as they decided( they being 3 drunk guys) to close off the road with makeshift barriers they found. And the party became a street party. Although everyone was fairly inebriated, no one was aggressive or disagreeable or even in your face. It was just fun. We did have a good laugh as when we walked around the corner the ambulance was outside the next pub attending to someone with an injury clearly obtained in the celebrations. When the ambulance left with sirens going, everyone clapped and cheered. We also saw a group of fans climb into a farm truck and parade around town hooting and cheering and generally making a fool of themselves!
Walking home we had that same ‘frenchie’ feeling.
The words of ‘ La Marseillaise ‘ ringing in our ears.
The next morning we felt lazy probably much like 90% of France whom I’m sure woke up on Monday morning with a hangover. But not us we were just lazy. And it was raining. Which made a pleasant change from the intense heat. So I will admit to you all, that we stayed in our pj’s till that afternoon and did not venture further than the river bank.
Tuesday morning we were up early and Chris managed to catch the bread truck for a lovely stick of bread and a pan raisin.
PS:We packed up with our friends the donkeys. Yes,see below our neighbours walking through France with donkeys. The donkeys have panniers to carry the tent and provisions and they even have a dog. Well the people have the dog I mean!
PPS: When you find a shop with all the french brassieres marked down half price, and your husband treats you, then you know he is going to have a good day!
Parsleys Pursuits 
What a wonderful time!
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Just thinking Chris and yourself can come and set up some food market stalls!
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