The ladies of Segur

One fine Saturday morning in Geneva, Antonia awoke with a hangover. In a different apartment in Geneva, Alice awoke and tore herself away from the Bavarian. She trundled over to Antonia’s house and packed her into the car for a drive to the country. Soon the girls left Switzerland and entered France. Six hours later, and after taking the non-toll roads, they arrived in Segur le Chateau.

As the VW pootled into Segur, Chris and I were ready and waiting, with glasses of rose. Antonia’s hangover subsided immediately. The girls toured the house and Chris soon developed height-envy. Both Antonia and Alice, could clear all of the low beams without ducking. Clearly, medieval French houses are well suited to petite Canadian women.

Having two Canadians staying in Segur we thought it best we show them our outdoor delights. We took them, a picnic basket and a couple of bottles of rose to our favorite lake, Rufiac. Bathed in spectacular sunshine we enjoyed a substantial amount of cheese and wine, and in depth discussions about the relative merits of Derick and Clive’s “Get the Horn” video. We also found some time to swim across the lake.

In the summer, the night market is the centre of Segur. It attracts locals, tourists, loads of kids and miscellaneous village canines. Antonia, Alice, Chris and I arrived early to ensure we snared the good seats, raspberries and wine. We sat as close as possible to the stage, as Chris has grown fond of French cover bands that play Status Quo, and enjoyed the market produce. Things got a litte strange when two small girls came running towards Alice shouting. They explained whilst we’d been enjoying our cheese, a local, mad, black, fluffy dog, had bolted past the table and cocked it’s leg on our basket of food sitting on the grass. Looking down at the basket it was clear our basket did contain both food and urine. The culprit was nowhere in sight. We laughed about it for the next few hours... and Alice insited the basket could be decontainated and enjoy many future markets.

As the sun went down and the band ran out of songs, we bribed the wine seller for one last bottle and headed back to Jeanne de Albret. We finished off the evening with a courtyard disco. Entry was allowed through the laneway door, to those who answered the question “who’s got the funk”.