QUARANTE - COUNTRYSIDE WALK

For years, I played full court, 5 on 5 basketball at the YMCA in Allentown at least three times a week with guys that were younger and better players than I was. They pushed me. I was in shape.

I was so much older then. I'm younger than that now.

Wait a minute. Reverse that.

Now, I walk. Promenade. Just a few times a week. Maybe 5 kilometers or so at a clip. I use about three different routes. They all start with a long downhill stretch. If you live within steps of the church at the top of a French village built on a hill, you don't have a choice. And that means that the return trip ends with an uphill slog. Depending on the route, a rather steep uphill slog. I suppose that's the way that it should be...end the workout with one last push.

Here are the pics. Enjoy.

First, check out the blooming succulent on our window ledge.

Then down the Rue des Bichettes. The blue door on the left is to our cave (pronounced cahve), our dirt-floor cellar.

Still heading down hill.

We've hit the main road. Still down hill.

The local cooperative winery. Grape growers who aren't vintners bring in their harvest in September and October.

Just past the cooperative, the views open up. This is rural France. My trail runs along that tree line.

Still within the town limits, a grower of saffron.

And we've left town. Note the abbey's spire at the top of the village. Our house is just a few steps away.

The creek is called Le Quarante. 

On the road out of town, an abandoned vineyard on one side...

And on the other side of the road, new vines.

Le Terminus is a fine local restaurant in the old, converted train station between Quarante and sister town Cruzy.

Suitable for weddings and bar mitzvahs. And the public walking path begins in the parking lot.

Bicycles and walkers only, please.

With gates to enforce the ban on motorized vehicles.

The back side of the co-op. Freshly cultivated vineyard in the foreground prepping for spring.

The horses weren't at the fence checking me out. Maybe next time.

One of two trees that came down across the path during recent storms.

Starting to cloud over. And there's the steeple that I came from and am headed back to.

I almost forget to check out the view behind me.

Some folks live along the trail. Cabbage garden kept going right through the winter.

The trail hits a local road and jogs left.

But I head right, back to town.

Not bluebonnets, but pretty...

Almost as though cultivated, this field will be a carpet of red poppies in just a few weeks.

Into town along the back of the co-op.

The end in sight.