Mermaids, Oranges - Oh, and Christmas Lunch

 Yesterday’s theme turned out to be mermaids. We started the day with Graham finding a mermaid’s purse down on the beach and, despite moving inland, we ended up finding two mermaids on a pole - in an 11th century church at Plahecq. 

Mermaids …

And…

Their purse

We were spoiled last night with free electricity and water and this morning our neighbours, a Dutch couple who live in Portugal, gave us some free oranges from their garden. Hugo wasn’t so impressed with their dog, Jenny. They’d saved her from the rough streets of Portugal only to be growled and snapped at by our very grouchy, and very jealous, chorkie. Despite the grumpy advances of Hugo she had a lovely temperament and performed some very impressive tricks including spins, rolls and weaving through legs.

Hugo now being standoffish

Oranges R Us

We’ve now moved on to spend Christmas Day by The Lake of the Moon in Clérac, not far from Bordeaux. Our festive repast consisted of a prawn ring (my fave), stale (ish) bread and some paté, all washed down with a couple of cups of tea - we know how to live. Goose cassoulet for dinner though.

Not a bad spot

Lunch

Graham’s Bit 

(NB: I had to cut and paste and can’t make the text smaller - not loving Blogger)

Yesterday’s drive was interesting. 
We deliberately planned the route to avoid the impressive, but very high, suspension bridge at St Nazaire as Kerriann hates (is terrified of) crossing these structures.

Unfortunately our route did take in a lesser, but nonetheless equally frightening to Kerriann, flyover. 

She grabbed the side of her seat and her knuckles turned white. An atmosphere of terror filled the van. On this occasion I sang ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’ to help lower the tension - it didn’t work.  Maybe I was off key?

It was at least half an hour before the atmosphere in the van returned to its usual calm state.

 

Oh No, It’s Not A Rhino!

I realised my mistake as soon as I ejaculated the words, ‘look, there’s a rhinoceros!’ Mr Fluffy looked out the window to see a HIPPOPOTAMUS leisurely munching on some straw. He, or she, was surrounded by some bumpy horses otherwise known as camels. The Circus had come to Ubeda and it looked like they had a rather diverse range of animals at their disposal. Sadly we were driving out of town so we won’t be able to enjoy whatever tricks the comfy hippo had up its wrinkly sleeve.

A touch of oil anyone?

We’ve driven through vast groves of olives to our current destination, Doña Mencia, where we partook of our festive Christmas lunch: a pork and salad sandwich for me and blood sausages on a stick for the fluffy one.

Sausages on a stick

Thrilling pork sanger 

After this vast feast we took a stroll through an adjacent grove in search of the Fuentes de las Pilas but it did not want to be found so we took a few shots of the trees instead. These trees here feel ancient and I’m sure house the odd elf or two in their gnarled trunks. Graham swears he met one called Oliver but I think that festive Coca Cola he had with lunch may have gone to his head.

Strolling through the grove

Oliver’s house

Feliz Navidad readers :)