It was with great relief that we contemplated a lazy Sunday after our two busy, albiet very interesting, days. The hotel prided itself on its Sunday buffet BBQ brunch and had gone to the trouble of emailing me a few days before we travelled to say it was booking up fast and asking if I wanted to make a reservation. Intrigued, we had. But not sure we could last until 11 o’clock without a little something, I had bought some croissants the day before so we had them with coffee in our room and had a slow start to the day.

However, I was keen to search out the ‘mur piente’ I had spotted as we drove into town and after checking on Google earth realised it was only a few minutes walk down the hill. So off I went to hunt it down.

I walked through the little park below the hotel and hoped the black clouds would not tip their contents all over me! As I walked I was aware of just how steep the hill actually was and very glad we hadn’t attempted to do it together with the wheelchair.

Down at the street corner I saw one of the steep flights of steps the first hotel receptionist had told me about. Angouleme residents must be very fit!

I soon came across a different kind of street art and a sad one.

I was reminded of the war memorials in our local towns relating to the deadly skirmishes that took place as German troops were called north due to the D-day landings. Later research revealed that this one commemorated the liberation of Angouleme by the ‘maquisards’, resistance fighters, on 31st August 1944. So brave and so young.

A little further on I found another one , this time with flowers, presumably a family descendant still remembering.

My own search felt trivial after that but I told myself the current artwork was celebrating the life that was able to continue in the city due to their sacrifice.

As I turned back for the hotel and that brunch I spotted another artwork that made me smile. It seemed no piece of street furniture was immune from the painters’ brush..

I decided to return via the street that is used in the hotel’s address, a very narrow one that it was impossible to turn the car into despite the protestations from the GPS….’recalculating route!’ As I did I was delighted to find two ghost signs as they are called. Signs for businesses that have long since disappeared or those painted onto house walls that are now protected by law from being removed. Two windows had been set into these, probably before society thought about preserving them.

I was particularly delighted with the absinthe example. Walking up behind the hotel I came upon a beautiful doorway set into its wall which seemed to confirm the hotel publicity that stated its building was an old presbytery.

The brunch lived up to the hotel’s hype and we started on a buffet of salads accompanied by cold smoked salmon and meats, moving on to an entrée served by our ever smiley waitress who whipped between bar and restaurant. The poorly one was very happy with his oysters while I had the creamiest and best scrambled eggs ever. Now for something from the barbecue? I passed but himself enjoyed a particularly good Toulouse sausage and chips. Then it was back to the buffet for cheeses and a sizable selection of pastries and desserts.

Phew! We noticed that the majority of the diners were not from the hotel so it was clearly a popular place for Sunday lunch amongst local residents.

Feeling very glad we didn’t have far to go we staggered back to our room for a siesta. Later, I went to laze by the pool and found several brunch customers still enjoying beers and a swim.

The restaurant was closed that evening but was not a problem for us as we were still pretty full after our lunchtime feasting. I had bought a couple of sandwiches alongside those croissants yesterday morning and had stashed them in our minibar so we settled down with them while watching the very good Welsh – Fiji rugby game. But only after a last aperos in the now deserted hotel garden.

It had been a wonderful weekend, thanks especially to the lovely staff at the hotel, and proved to ourselves we could cope with our changed situation. The Peacocks would continue to promenade!