Five Photos, Five Stories: St. Marsal

Five Photos, Five Stories Day 5

Jude at Travel Words invited me to take part in the Five Photos, Five Stories Challenge.  The challenge is  to “post a photo each day for five consecutive days and attach a story to the photo. It can be fiction or non-fiction, a poem or a short paragraph and each day nominate another blogger for the challenge”.

This is the village square in St. Marsal in the Languedoc-Roussillon region of southern France, snuggled in the foothills of the Pyrenees. We were out for a drive, just following the road when we saw a restaurant and realized we were hungry.  We parked on the side of the D highway and approached but were told they were closed.  They directed us a few steps along the highway to a set of stairs.  Up the stairs we found this idyllic spot.  It was about two in the afternoon and those who travel France will know that is not a serving time.   However, the owner approached and accepted our ill-timed arrival graciously.  When we asked if he had sangria his first response was no, but then he brought us two tall glasses from his personal stock along with a tasty lunch.    It turned out to be one of our favourite memories that only come with happy happenstance and no expectations.