Rain Rain Go Away

Apparently it's not normal for it to rain and rain and rain here, or even for it to be a hot as it had been. It started raining last night. It pourred just before I walked home and started again just as I got in the door. There was thunder and lightening and the whole bit! And from what I can remember, it rained all night long. Or well, at least it was raining when I woke up this morning. It stopped just long enought for us to walk to the Inspection I and meet our ride to Nerac. Nerac is about 30 minutes away by car and is SO pretty. It was the place where Henri the 4th liked to frequent, thus he had a castle there (I learned this all today), but unlike most castles, it wasn't on top of the hill so the what's it m-called-- you know the round part which they use for defense (I've spent the day in French and now I can't find words), it's usually round at any rate and the ones on this castle were more triangular so that the arrows would brush off it. I can't wait to go there! I just have to find some way to get there now... At any rate, not all of the castle is left. They destroyed most of it to make room for the town way back when. But Henri the 4th's favourite walk still exists and it looks like it would be quite lovely on a nice day.


The drive out to Nerac was beautiful. The closest thing I can relate it to is it's kind of a mix between the hills of Vernon and the rolling hills that we saw around Bath in England. It was a really pretty drive out there, and the sun was shinning through the clouds. On the way back however, after a beautiful French lunch at a beautiful little French home of one of our resource people (with wine and champagne and coffee in little cups and everything!) it pourred. The thunder rolled in while we were still in our training and just didn't stop. These are some of the pictures of what Agen looked like when we got back. The lady who drove us, another resource person, said that she has lived here for 20 years and NEVER seen the roads like this. The puddles are incredible! One of them, that I didn't get a picture of, the entire tire disappeared in the water (which isn't saying much as the cars here are a lot smaller, but still, super deep). But really, where does the water go when it's all concrete but down the drain? And when the drains are all plugged with hail (la grelle sp? en francais) where can it go? It's made for some interesting puddle avoiding on our walk home (from viewing a studio apartment!) Hopefully, the sun will come out tomorrow and the puddles will disappear.








A puddle on our drive back to Agen and yes, that's water all the way across the road (both in this pic at the one at the beginning)

















A puddle we encountered on our walk back. We crossed the road, but it wasn't much better