Monastere de Chalais

We had a perfect weekend. On Saturday we went into town and visited the Christmas market for the first time this year. We bought some tasty spicy cake and noga. But we also did some regular shopping for clothing, furniture etc. It’s something which we rarely do (together). And when we go together, it’s rarely the case that both of us enjoy the experience. But this time we did.

Today we decided to go for a hike. The weather is superb at the moment and perfect to go for a walk in the mountains. We found a walk on about 1000 m where we still could walk without real snowshoes. The walk started at a monastery, the Monastere de Chalais. It was just perfect.

When we reached the top, we actually were standing across our village, but the weather was very gloomy (it’s (f)/(sm)og season in the valley) so we couldn’t really see our house. It was impressive nonetheless. And the light made it maybe even more impressive.

Did you see the bench earlier in this image series? When we walked back the bench suddenly hosted this pretty cool couple! The forest was pretty well visited, not excessively, but we saw quite some people. Also nuns from the above mentioned monastery. All of these people were carrying branches back with them with green leafs and red berries, which they had picked climbing up bushes in the forest. It was a strange experience. We wondered if we missed a special date saying that you should start making christmas pieces this specific weekend.

And then we walked back and found this:

Crazy! Not only our car was broken in, but another car on the same parking space as well, in the same way. Fortunately we didn’t leave anything in the car, but the other folks had their valuables stolen, since the woman had left her handbag in the back side of the car.

We kind of wondered why they broke into our cars and most probably because somebody was looking at all the people who parked and watched if they would place something in the back under the hood. If they would, they probably assumed that something valuable was placed there. And in that way they probably chose where to break in and where not to.

But I said nothing was stolen from us?! Right? But I did place something in the back! Something that I always place in the back, my beloved knitting bag. I do that because I assume people will think something is in the bag if they see it through the window and they might break in. I never assume that somebody would be spying and looking who puts something under the hood. But probably they do!

So we found that my knitting bag was still there (phuh! apparently not valuable enough for them), but that they did move it around (it was all dirty) to see if there wasn’t anything else. The deception they must have felt! Eagh!

And what did we learn from this adventure? If we park somewhere in the middle of nowhere, it’s best to park at a place which is close to the central space, where it’s most busy. We would have then known that there were burglars active there, since later we saw that there was a sign that said: ‘Burglars active’. Yep! Then we also learned that if we see broken car glass on the soil underneath us at the parking space, that there are probably people ‘active’ around there. Not sure what we should do then, but at least we will be prepared. And finally I painfully learned that I shouldn’t take a big knitting bag with me in the car, instead I should only take the thing that I’m knitting with me and I can then leave it in sight on a chair or something. No more going to the back side of the car in these remote – though pretty busy areas.

So the weekend ended with a bit of an anti-climax, but it was great anyway. Tomorrow we’ll stimulate the economy again via our garage.