Saturday June 12th

Day 54

Leaving Avignon we drive west into the sun - a golden river streaming through the windscreen, blinding us. Later as the sun sinks a little lower it outlines the clouds - which are dragons and castles and mountains in the country of the pink sky. We arrive in the nearly dark. While the owners show us the house and the garden a nightingale serenades us in a tree by the pool. A long three pronged trill, a rippling sound, opening the night air. A peacock next door answers it like a human shriek.

When they’ve gone, reluctant to unpack, we make tea and stand in the kitchen eating pistachio nuts we find in one of the cupboards and half a packet of Tyrell’s crisps. I can see that this is going to be a good place to be, even in the dark.