"You Are Never in Ouides" our neighbor said...

In the summer of 1997, we rented a small house in the Auvergne; the house was located in a village called Ouides. There were no shops, only a church with three bell towers,  and Ouides was a quiet place at the best of times; at last count, there were 26 houses lived in year-round, 46 second homes, and one vacant house.  Amy and Vince, American friends who came to visit us there, used to take what they called "cow walks" before bed at night, accompamied by the sounds of soft cowbells and the occasional low mooing from the cows in the nearby fields.  Our principal entertainment came from local marchés; there was a market each day of the week somewhere around us. We even found a town totally dedicated to mushrooms, and had our fill of morels, for the first and last time in our lives. We also explored the nearest city,  Le Puy-En-Velay, where there were restaurants and where we washed our clothes and attended a massive flea market (called a brocante); here is one of the flyers:

We also spent some time at the nearby Lac du Bouchet, a very pretty little round lake with an inn at one end that served lunches and dinners:

Here is our anniversary dinner bill (Amy and Vince bought it for us... the prices are in francs):

So, it's no wonder our neighbor said we were "never in Ouides."  I am writing about all this because I am placing my latest odalisque in Ouides ... she is having a hard time fitting into the setting I am painting for her, and the setting itself has been re-painted and scraped and sanded and is still a work in progress. Here are a couple of pieces of the 2 x 4' painting, so far: