But, despite the awful weather and at great personal inconvenience we went boldly out to survey the vineyards and monuments that are in our immediate area.

The local church at St Peys de Castet is high on the hill above town – its a bit the worse for wear and tear (name that tune – “a little bleary and worse for wear and tear”) but there are contractors working on the roof and inside – this explains the extension cord coming out of the door in the main image above.

The altar area has been refinished – I guess that explains the need to fix the roof!

The doors are very textural.

 

And there is no one around to stop you ringing the bell.

Most of these smaller towns are organized as communes – I’m not exactly sure of the political division but each one is in many respects self governing in the same way a municipality is in our towns. The centre of each of these is the mairie which sets the rules and regulations and is the “township office” for many purposes. Here is a typical doorway.

After a few km of rainy drive we came to the site of an old abbey.

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbaye_de_Blasimon

Former home of Benedictine Monks and now sadly out of repair. The chapel has some very good carvings out of local limestone and the interior is still in use as a church.

Doorway with great stone carvings.

Altar area.

What kind of eyes did she have?

Inside there are plaques for each of the former priests of the church – clearly some things are not forgotten around here.

Mauriac is a pilgrimage town not too far from Blasimon.

A good tour and on several occasions we found ourselves adrift on a tiny road surrounded by a veritable ocean of vines.

And finally some of our new acquaintances:

A demain, M&M.