Vacation in a work place

                               This pretty scene was taken much earlier this autumn

We have had a rare lazy day today, walking around Beaune in Burgundy. The reason it is rare is because as long as we two have been together, this has a place we visit half a dozen times a year, whilst driving a truck and working moving heavy furniture. The reason it was lazy, is because even on work trips here we usually have plenty of time to get some running in or to ride our bikes around the amazing Burgundy countryside because we are not able to start working here early in the day because the people we work with do not open until later so 6am to 10.30-11 am are generally free time hours and we are early birds. 

 There is a fine market every Saturday morning

We meet more people we know here than we do walking around the town we live in. More people we know will toot their car horn at us when we are out on our bikes or running. We have eaten in pretty much every restaurant in the town; we know where all the shops are and where the best cafes are, and which is the best cake shop too. We have stayed in all of the hotels, we have rented gîte’s, where I have stayed on my own and had an actual training holiday and may do that again sometime next year before our race season starts. It’s a lovely place to train because the French are not unkind to cyclists like they are in the UK; nobody shouts abuse and nobody makes rude signs, nobody drives very, very close. Cycling is a national sport and cyclists are treated with respect. It is a town with many faces.

The last time Steve was working here, I was not with him and he bought himself some pretty Rose and Vanilla delicately perfumed tea and this morning we set off to buy some more but he could not remember which shop he bought it in and we tried five different places before we found it again. I made him buy four packets of it. We also went to a shop where I buy a waterproof eye liner that really is waterproof and that I cannot get in the UK, he made me buy three of them. My husband has his own loyalty card for that makeup shop; it’s called Sephora, because he gets things for me when I do not go on the trips. He doesn’t mind going in an entirely ladies store like that. They always fuss over him and give him lots of samples. He went to a different specialist tea shop for my favourite tea with tiny blue flowers, specs of fruit and peel in, I bought two large packets.

After all the shopping we visited friends whose family homes are here, we hugged and kissed and delivered Christmas cards and exchanged good wishes. The snow that fell last night as we arrived had quickly disappeared when the snow turned to quite heavy rain. The weather today has been cold enough and very dull with not much in the way of sunshine, a dreary old day but for us it was most enjoyable not to be in a rush to get things done or under pressure to finish any work.