Well, not all there anyway, but that should come as no surprise to anyone. After spending a few weeks reading this rubbish, you should have come to that conclusion yourselves.

This is where I am, at the Hotel de la Providence et de la Poste in Besse, down at the southern end of the département. And you’ll notice that I have my own personal entertainment, with a Celtic folk band right underneath my window.

It certainly was Providence that brought me to the Hotel de la Providence et de la Poste and no mistake. I’m here in my little room with shower and facilities and this is where I’ll stay until tomorrow morning, for I’m on my travels again.

And this is where I had my tea tonight, at the restaurant le bessoi in the medieval centre. And I have something interesting to report about the place, namely …
Our Hero – “could I have the ‘salade végétarienne’ but without the cheese please?”
Serving Wench – “why don’t you want the cheese?”
OH – “I don’t eat animal products”
SW – “well, I’m not sure what I could offer you instead – an egg is no good, is it?”
OH – “I could have a double helping of mushrooms”
SW – “that’s a good idea – and I’ll bring you a pile of bread too”.
And she did!
That’s the first time that that has ever happened to me in France. What a surprise! Things must be looking up!

So what am I up to then?

The answer is that Liz is off on holiday and needed running to the airport at Limoges. And seeing as I’ll be needing a hand to do the plumbing when I come back from Canada and Terry will be the most likely candidate, I need to repay the favour.

I’d have done it anyway without a second thought, but anyway, there we were, at 09:45, off towards Limoges. And I’d been up since 07:00 too, long before the alarm, and that’s not something that happens every day.

And here we are – or, rather, Caliburn and Strawberry Moose at our lunch stop somewhere on the D941 in the Creuze on the way back. We’d stopped at a Casino supermarket and bought a few things, and so we stopped to have lunch.

And, if the truth is known, I had a little doze too. after all, it was quite an early start and it was by now quite late, as well as having been a hectic day.

On the way back I had resolved to go to Olloix. This is a town that we are covering in the Radio Anglais travel and tourism sector.

We’re ready to leave but there is a variety of roads from which to choose and I couldn’t make up my mind. Consequently, I resolved to have a wander down there and decide upon that for myself.

One road took me past the Chateau de Murol. This is a 12th-Century chateau that was in the hands of the noble d’Estaing family, and for that reason it was spared from destruction by Richelieu when all of the other fortifications in the Auvergne were dismantled.

It escaped being ravaged during the Revolution because it was being used as a prison at the time, and after years of neglect, there was enough left in 1889 for it to be classed as one of the very first Historic monuments in France.

Here, I saw a signpost for the small town of Besse.

That’s an early Medieval walled city that at one time was quite rich. But it lost its fortifications (except the Belfry) under Richelieu and later during the revolution and, with the railways by-passing the town by miles, it fell into decay.

However, the opening up of the area for skiing in the 20s and 30s saw something of a resurgence and the town has recovered a little of its former pride, although there’s still a lot to do.

So tomorrow I’ll go back to Murol for a prowl around and then retrace my steps to Olloix to see what gives around there.