Holiday on Mars.

  I expect the more quick-witted of my readers will have worked out that we did not pass our week`s holiday on the planet pictured to the right, but in the village with the same name situated in the Gard near Le Vigan and Nîmes. That is not to say that we didn`t spend an out-of-this-world time. The little village of Mars is absolutely charming and I can thoroughly recommend a stay there to anyone who likes peaceful, mountain scenery. The houses straggle up the mountain valleys from about 300 metres to some 800 metres of elevation, and it`s not for people who like walking on the flat!

We were very lucky in that a friend had lent us her old family home to spend a week. The only problem was that she was very vague about the address or how to find the house. All we knew was that it was in Mars and that it had a terrace.
We had to pick up the keys from a café in a village in the valley. This was a problem in itself as the sat-nav tried to take us, not to the main road passing below where the cafe is, but to the village centre, served by a mule track, blocked in turn by a crane lorry loading tiles onto a roof. Below is a pic taken from a distance of the surroundings! We managed to turn round on a table cloth and found the cafe in the valley with the aid of the artisans on the crane-lorry. We then had the keys, still no address but continued hopefully to Mars. We tried the keys in a couple of likely looking doors with no result, (perhaps luckily!) We then did what we should have done earlier and asked the Maire. He was helpful, and we found that the house was not in Mars at all, but in a little satelite village forming part of the commune.
At last we were able to locate the missing house at the top of a flight of stone steps. Our keys opened a front door leading off the terrace and we were in, We had a bed for the night! It had been a long day and I reflected at times that it would have been almost easier to reach the red planet...

  Still, it was worth the effort. The house was charming though slightly primitive, a bit like ours at Mort Limouzin, I suppose. It seemed like the family had got married, moved away but left the family home fully furnished and equipped as if they had popped out for the day. The weather was hot and dry all week, and we soon got used to sitting on the terrace for all our meals. I am an early riser and to see the dawn breaking over the valley with all Mars spread out below was a daily delight.

In my next blog, I`ll tell you about some of the fascinating and dramatic places we visited from our new base. Don`t go away, watch this space!

  Bye for now.