Walnuts and Bastille Day

Martel..and..

We picked up some leaflets from the tourist information in Rocamadour, which put us on the road to Martel as we learned that there was a brass bands’ festival here this weekend.  After parking up on the good camperstop in the steam railway’s car park we were just in time to snap photos of the first train of the day getting a rousing send off from one of the bands.  Up in Martel we watched the other 6 bands, which were scattered around the town, all playing at the same time, and also saw notices pasted from last week when they’d had a Mexican weekend as they are twinned with Tequila!

the bands..

At teatime everyone gathered at the old covered square to see the trophies awarded and presented.   We spent the evening in the very pleasant company of Malcolm and Margaret from Bishop’s Auckland, in fact we spent most of the next 2 days with them!

played on!

We’d hung around in Martel because we’d planned to visit the local mill to watch the process of making walnut oil, for which they are open to view on Tues and Thurs afternoons.  Margaret and Malcolm came along too, after which we said our goodbyes and we drove to Souillac, only about 20kms away, as I’d read of the town’s plans for Bastille Day.

Bastille Day in Souillac

There’s a very large Aire here, which was packed every night, as they all are now that the French holiday season is underway.  We had a chat when we arrived with Jim and Caroline, a couple from Perth. We were treated to pouring rain all Wed morning, but the afternoon was bright and the rain stayed away on Thurs too, which is just as well because we had dinner on the terrace of the restaurant next to the musicians’ stage and dance floor on the square (they call it Place des Puits and the wells are still there, it’s the old village pump!).  Later on we watched the Flame Torch Procession through the town, followed by the traditional fireworks, which were set off on another large square, where it could be done safely away from the audience.