As I have said we were in Mausanne-les-Alpilles 2 years ago. It’s a very upmarket little village, full of restaurants, artisanal shops and most of all Estate Agents! This is not surprising since a single sale in this neck of the woods will yield them sufficient commission to keep them going most of the year. In much of France depopulation in the villages due to a general movement to cities means that house prices are pretty reasonable, even cheap; but a quick glance in the Estate Agent’s windows here and it becomes clear that even for the smallest detached house you won’t get change from €500,000 and there are many for sale at many million of euros. It’s surprising really that they let campers slum it anywhere near the place.
Despite our familiarity with the village we went for a longish walk after breakfast and found few places we hadn’t seen previously. Most interestingly we discovered a large scale map of France made out of stone. Not any old stone, but each department on the map was represented by a type of stone particular to that area. It seemed to have been constructed by and dedicated to a guild of stonemasons – what a clever and original idea.
We just managed to reach the weekly market as it was shutting down, but we remembered from our previous visit that it was fairly expensive and so we were not too disappointed. On the way back we had a look at the old “laverie” built in the reign of Napoleon III. Unlike anywhere in Britain that I can think of, many French villages retain the area where people washed their clothes before running water and sinks arrived. This one is fairly elaborate and under cover, others we’ve seen are much smaller and out in the open.
We looked at the menus in several restaurants, but the one we had hoped to use has yet to open. It had served us one our best meals in France for many years, and was dog friendly. Maybe there will be a next time. In our opinion France is becoming a very expensive place to eat out compared with anywhere in Europe with the exception of Scandinavia and perhaps Belgium.
Our attention was drawn to a road leading to a school just off the main street which had an official looking car park parked across the junction blocking all access. There was a notice adjacent making clear that no cars could use the street during school hours as part of “Plan Vigipirate”. A quick Google revealed that this is part of a French national security alert system, presumably to thwart terrorism!
Melek and Mabel, we have realised, have travelled without their Scalibor collars which they require in Southern Europe, in particular to reduce the risk of contracting Leishmaniasis from sandflies. This is a very dangerous disease and so we needed to acquire some collars pronto. Luckily there is a vet opposite the campsite, so off I went with some previous dimensions in the notes section of my iPhone which I thought were their neck sizes. In my best French I asked for the collars and the vet asked what types of dogs I had. When I told him he suggested small/medium collars, which sounded sensible. Having paid for them and started walking down the street I noticed the maximum size of the collar was 42 cm and my measurements said Melek had a 44 cm neck and Mabel over 50 cm. So I returned and explained this. He looked at me surprised and asked if I was sure these were neck measurements and I said they were and added that Melek was a very big Shih-tsu! He still looked puzzled but swapped the collars for large and off I trotted. I gave the collars to Sarah and she put one on Melek and it nearly went round his neck twice – I realised that the measurements I had in my iPhone must have been chest sizes for when I last bought the dogs harnesses! I just hope the vet doesn’t have nightmares thinking about a Shih-tsu the size of a Saint Bernard.
Tomorrow we are Italy bound.