Aurignac: Eagle-Eye Johnston Investigates!

During our short house sit in the French countryside in October, we took a drive over to Aurignac to check out the town and get a bit of Carrefour shopping done. 

In order for you to understand just how far into the countryside we were, I think this picture sums up the situation nicely.

Aurignac, France

Parking along a quiet street, we quickly found a boulangerie and scored ourselves a fresh baguette. We also took a gander at the market that was on, but it turned out to be predominantly flowers on offer so we carried on up the hill to the old town. The gate to the ruins of the 13th-century castle was shut and Yannick was quick to pronounce the site closed, but I used my expertly honed detective skills to deduce that we had visited during opening hours and that a four-digit code was needed to enter, which was handily tacked to the information board.

We were the only people there, and we climbed to the top of the castle remains via a narrow and winding staircase (once again the chic boots proved a bit of a hinderance). The panoramic views out over the surrounding landscape and Pyrenees were breathtaking.

One of my favourite sights was a very old looking tower poking out from the top of a modern house. You've got to love Europe - you'll never know when you find some bygone artefact that has been incorporated into a new structure, as it was in the case of the carried-off stones from the castle of Belcastel.

This sundial is telling you to carpe diem, bitches! You had better listen. 

Benque, France
After stocking up on supplies at the supermarket we began the drive back to our house sit. On the way, we took a quick pit stop at Benque's church for a photo op. (Excuse me for not including any information about the church. If you Google it, tourism websites seem to tell you lots of other interesting things relatively nearby like Lourdes and Mont Perdu. Helpful.)

Yep, that's a teacup. Nope, it doesn't have tea in it. I had the idea to procure a teacup in order to establish more cohesion into my blog. Teh Travels = tea travels. And yet thus far, there really has been hardly any mention of tea. But my little cheap hen teacup from the Aurignac Carrefour Connect has changed all that! Look out world, here comes teh!

We also spotted a less impressive church even more in the middle of nowhere than usual. It was encircled by crop fields and looked as though it hadn't been used for several decades. In fact, if it had been used at all it was probably as a film location for a horror flick (just imagine it at night with eerie candlelight emanating from inside and nobody around).
We spent the rest of the journey home hotly contesting whether said crop fields were corn or wheat. Clearly we're not cut out for country living.

Today's post was almost called: Carpe Baguettum!