France — Arrival

 So we returned our rig, flew from Cape Town to Addis to Paris on the 31st -1st, picked up our Renault at Charles de Gaulle, and headed to our first destination, the lovely village of Mortemart, France. It was a five-hour drive from the airport and we were so tired! Luckily the drive was uneventful, minus an unfortunate detour through the center of Paris during rush hour— 😱😮—but we survived. By midday we were in Mortemart in a 13th century monastery. Gorgeous! 

We found a great cafe bar tucked away on the main square, just adjacent to the town’s 10th century castle.

The cold and snowy village square

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While in Mortemart we also visited the site of Oradour-sur-Glane. This village stands exactly as it did after the Nazis came through and killed everyone in the town—642 men, women and children—and burned the village. Crumbling shops, homes, burnt out cars—all of it is still there.  It stands frozen in time. In the museum there is a corridor of pictures of those who died there. Seeing their faces and seeing all the children is heartbreaking.