It was 38 degrees yesterday - and today it's 19!!! 1st September dawns and suddenly it feels like summer's over...but the sunshine is forecast to return by the end of the week, so we'll just enjoy the very welcome respite from the searing heat and look forward to the more manageable warmth of late summer slowly heading into autumn.

We knew that rain was due, so Saturday saw us gathering the last of the plums - about another 20 kilos! After giving several kilos to friends and making yet more jam, crumble, pies and compote for the freezer, I'm now planning a good hot, spicy chutney for tomorrow to use up the remaining!
We've also picked most of the pears and have now started on the figs! They are, of course, absolutely delicious straight from the tree- and we had a great supper the other evening of figs, Roquefort cheese, walnuts and some nice thinly sliced jambon de pays - delicious!

We've also managed to squeeze in a very welcome day out - to further afield in the Lot, to visit some of the 'most beautiful villages in France' that we've never been to.
Carennac, Loubressac and Autoire are all in the north-east of the department and are, indeed all very pretty. Although, the spectacular cascade (waterfall) at Autoire was rather too depleted of water to be much more than a trickle!