Woodland Walks - Sunday - Day 14

It was lovely first thing this morning and Dave and I took off straight after breakfast through the woods to the rear of Paul's place, past the wishing well and down the track to the road. Here we turned right and passed the house as directed and down a track which disallowed cars. We strode on enjoying the peace of the morning and soon saw the lake through the trees on our right.

We came out on a sandy beach and enjoyed the full panorama of the still waters of the lake with fish leaping, the restaurant on a knoll above and to the right of us, and a small well-worn footbridge over what we in Scotland would call a burn running into the loch. It was a scene of particular and gentle beauty. Having drunk in the views, we sauntered round to the Quai Sud restaurant for a cuppa and a sandwich before setting off in the direction of the swimming pool. No sooner had we set out than the rain started so we redoubled our steps to return to our starting point. The rain became a torrent and looking back we decided to take shelter in a log cabin almost completed and ready for occupation. As we drew near we noticed that the cabin was not empty. Indeed there were three adults and two young German Shepherd dogs also standing in the doorway.

My uncertainty over the dogs was only matched by my desire to get out of the pouring rain as we were already quite wet. However we were assured by the owners that the dogs were well behaved, and we were glad to join them in a house which belonged to neither of us. The couple were Dutch and the ladies' mother was visiting them from Holland, where she assured us that the weather was excellent. The young bitch ( the dog I mean), was taking an inordinate interest in me, and the young lady owner commented on this. I had to explain that we were staying in a gite where there was a handsome black labrador who was a real "ladies' man". They found this quite amusing so I suppose that's another visitor Sidney will be having before long.

We finally made it home over fairly wet terrain and spent much of the rest of the day trying to dry off our meagre supply of clothes. In particular we needed our towels which we had been trying to dry for three days. We could have asked Paul for more, but didn't wish to impose upon him. At last in the evening the weather cleared, we dried things off and went for a stroll before bedtime coming back by the light of the full moon. Maybe that's why the young dog took me for a canine companion!