Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
17
Hard Hats and Hairpins
We drove in convoy for about five kilometres on a road unsullied by white lines. It became
increasingly narrow and very quickly reduced to a little over a car's width. The sheer drops
on one side, unhindered by any form of crash barrier, and the fragile cliff faces on the other,
created a visible uplift in Jack's concentration levels but not his humour.
“I hope we don't get behind a couple of Tour de France look-alikes or we'll be here for
the rest of the bloody month,” he grumbled.
Ever the optimist, I suggested there were bound to be passing points at regular intervals.
Before that positive suggestion had even been acknowledged, we were confronted with a
roadworks warning triangle. The need for a warning was obvious because the road in front
of us had partly subsided into the valley. The works part was not so obvious because there
was no sign of any form of activity. Jack looked at his watch.
“Bugger! We've come up against the two-hour lunch hour again.”
Not just on this trip but based upon previous holidays, Jack has never got to grips with
how a whole nation can afford to grind to a standstill between midday and 2:00pm. In fact
he often postulates that it wasn't just the superior tanks that got the Germans to Paris so
quickly: it was also the fact that they brought sandwiches and a thermos.
Thankfully, before he could restart one of his top ten rants, we noticed Thierry was
peering over the edge of the cliff and appeared to be talking to himself. This trait was not un-
known to us. On visits to rural France there had been several occasions when we've thought
we were being engaged in conversation only to find the person was actually telling
himself
that his wife considered this type of mushroom the very best for her
Boeuf Bourgignon
.
It transpired, however, that Thierry had not yet developed such a habit. We walked over
to him and found he was in conversation with six workmen in orange jackets and hard hats,
sitting on a very small horizontal shelf, part of which was actually underneath the remaining
part of the road. It was difficult to understand what the workmen were saying because their
mouths were full of food but, from the Thierry half of the conversation, we gathered that
they thought it okay to proceed with caution provided we had normal size cars.
