Summer holiday 2002
Charente − France


Wednesday, 15th August

Sunny and warm, what a way to start the day! We decide to go to the weekly market at Piégut-Pluviers. Since this market starts quite early and closes at 12:00, we leave for Piégut at 9:00. Having arrived at our destination, we start looking for a place to park the car. This turns out to be somewhat difficult, since we are not the only ones here trying to do just that. The small village is totally overcrowded with visitors for the market. It is a bit "the law of the jungle" here. If you can find an empty spot then just park your car, because so does the rest of the world. The police seems to tolerate this behaviour, at least on market days.

As I said, Piégut-Pluviers is normally a quiet village, but during the weekly market it is over crowded. We merge with the enormous mass of people that is already out shopping. Listening left and right, I can hear at least three to four other European languages, other then French. The market is concentrated along the country road (D91) that cuts the village in two. The choice of goods offered here is impressive; you can buy just about everything here. Fruit, bread, vegetables, dairy products, clothes, agricultural machines, household equipment and lots more. We stay till around eleven pm. Then we leave for le Chat.

Because we were short of bread, we have bought some fresh French-stick bread and quite a large round bread and some olives (for me). The large round bread has a crispy, thick layered crust, which is a treat. The French bread in general is quite tasty, I think. And so does the rest of the family. When we arrive at le Chat the kids ask for something "nice". Generally this is a referral to candy. So I ask what they have in mind. May we have some of that bread and some goat's cheese, please? Not exactly what I expected, but ok!

The rest of the day we enjoy the beautiful weather and the quiet of le Chat and we indulge in some sun bathing and reading. The kids are out playing and swimming in either the lake or the pool with some friends they made earlier.