We had our first no-show today.

Yes, all the way out to Vergheas for our Wednesday walk but no punters showed up. That was sad.

Mind you, it was only to be expected, I suppose. There had been the walk here a few weeks ago - the good one that I had been on, and then the pilgrimage 10 days ago. I suppose that everyone is Vergheased out.

Mind you it was just as well because the sky was clouding over rapidly. We didn't want to hang around too long, but one thing that I did want to do was to see if I could find any remains of the old walls, seeing how Vergheas is an old (and I do mean old) fortified site. Anyway, after a good prowl around we found an earthen bank that looked like it might be artificial, overlooking the stream with a steep drop down, and the side of that was lined with dressed stonework.

On the way back to Pionsat the heavens opened and we had 6mm of rain and I can't say that I'm sad about that. We needed a good torrential downpour. I was going to carry on working when I arrived home but I went upstairs and crashed out instead.

This morning though I ws up early and met Rosemarie at Montaigut and we went in to Montlucon. She ordered her new window and I bought a load of stuff from Brico Depot and I was back here for 13:15 - plenty of time to put the final coat of paint on the new woodwork ready to fit it tomorrow.

And in other news, and a bit of malicious gossip, if the conversation that was reported to me means what a couple of people think that it might mean, no-one will be surprised if there's a tiny addition to our little expat community's population round about the start of the New Year.

You can tell ...

... what kind of day I was having today. When I looked at the clock after heaving a bucket-load of concrete into the lean-to wall, I noticed that it was 19:24 - 24 minutes after knocking-off time. But at least, the one part of the wall, outer shell, inner shell and infill, is now complete. That's the part from the field-end up to the window aperture. I can now turn my attention to the next bit. But not tomorrow - I'm fixing Liz's car. and not Wednesday either - I'm walking with Marianne.

In fact, Marianne and I were out walking this afternoon for a couple of hours. In a few weeks time she'll be doing a walk around the village of Vergheas and she needs to plan for it, and it just so happened that this afternoon someone from the regional tourist office was giving a talk in the church about the history of the village. Marianne accordingly blagged a couple of invitations and off we went.

It was quite interesting too, for Vergheas is a very important place for such a small village. It's right on the border between the Limousin and the Auvergne and during the 17th Century many of the locals made their living by smuggling salt - there were different amounts of salt tax - the gabelle - in different areas and while Vergheas was a cheap area, the Limousin just down the road was one of the most expensive areas. Buying salt outside your home area was not allowed, but the inhabitants of the Limousin came to Vergheas by their hundreds, with just 6 tax collectors to stop them.

But if Vergheas is famous for anything, it's famous for its statue of the Virgin Mary and Jesus, brought back here by some crusaders after the 4th Crusade. They donated it to the Church and here it sits, attracting pilgrims from all over the place and it is said that various miracles have been performed here.

The biggest miracle is what happened to the statue in 2001. In 1973 there was an inventory taken of the treasures of the church here - and when this was published the church was raided by burglars and the statue was amongst the items stolen. Nothing more was heard of it until 2001.

In 1997 an antique collector from Le Mans died and his executors hawked his collection around the antique shops of Paris to try to obtain the best price. They called at one antique shop in 2001 to offer his articles for sale, just as the owner was reading a 1943 book that showed a photo of the statue, and at the same time on his desk was a newspaper with a photo of the statue, and an article about how the local residents were pleading that, seeing as it was the anniversary of the theft, that someone might return it.

Truth being stranger than fiction, the shop owner duly bought the collection and returned the statue.

Apart from that, I've had the usual few hours on the website, and I've planted some more carrots, spinach, radishes and some lettuce that I had setting in a few pots. I've also noticed that a few of the lettuce seed that was out-of-date and so which I threw away on the garden a few weeks ago, some of that is sprouting.

But yesterday, I forgot to mention 2 things that happened at the petanque -  firstly, I saw the doppelganger of a very dear departed friend, and secondly I am apparently persona non grata with a couple of English people in Chateau sur Cher. At the petanque yesterday, one of them went to pay his entrance money with a €50 note. Me being me, I turned to Marianne and said "make sure that that one is dry!". Apparently my comment was not appreciated.

Ahh well - ask me if I care. I hate people who don't have a sense of humour.

We were in Vergheas today.

That's the farthest extremity of the Canton of Pionsat and so we had an early start. Not as early as my start though. Having had two consecutive early nights (and a third one in a moment) I was up and about before 08:00 - on a Sunday - with no alarm - and for no particular reason either. When was the last time that that happened?

The Open Day at Vergheas was by far the best-attended so far, and there were the local musicians in attendance. You can see the two old women there turning away on their vielles a roue for all they were worth while the men were having a good old go at the accordion. Everything in 3/4 time of course - nothing complicated here.

The Bourrées de Vergheas - the local folk-dance troupe - were in attendance too. And after giving a demonstration of a few dances (all in 3/4 time of course) they grabbed hold of all of the foreigners present and had them dancing. Even Marianne was invited to dance and I'll publish the photo sometime unless I receive a well-filled brown envelope. It was certainly an exciting way to spend a morning - much better than staying in bed.

The dance troupe, by the way, caters for all ages as you can see in the photo - a little girl of about two or three having an immense amount of fun there with her parents.

But Marianne is not well - she has her bronchitis again. Hardly surprising - I reckon that we will all be developing gills sooner or later if this awful weather continues. But Marianne became worse and worse as the morning wore on and in the end I had to drive her car home. All events are now cancelled for this week while she recovers.

This afternoon I finished the rock music radio programmes and not much else. I'm thoroughly worn out too and at all of 23:19 I'm off to bed too. I can't last the pace these days and I dunno what's the matter with me.