One of the other things I love about being in't country, particularly around here, is that you can walk from the door and in minutes be in woods or fields, out of sight of houses. This village, this whole area, is a walker's paradise. There are short walks and long walks in all directions, the routes carefully and conscientiously marked out by . . . well, I'm not exactly sure who, but whoever it is, they make a brilliant job of it. You can start in the lane outside our house and follow the signs, and as long as you go clockwise, eventually you'll come back round again to the place you started from.
There's a local booklet with maps and descriptions of all the walks and a large scale plan in the village square.
That clockwise business threw us a bit at first. We've used the booklet to try out many of the walks and not having any idea that there was a 'right' way round, went the 'wrong' way a few 
times, which turned into a kind of weird but infuriating cherchez les signes game - you'd see one of the coloured markers on a tree, say and then miss the next two or three and wander miles off the path and have to retrace your steps. Eventually the retracing would reveal another marker on a tree and you'd set off again, sometimes in the right, sometimes in the wrong direction, but not bloody-well knowing why. I just assumed it was because I was one of those women who can't read maps, and as long as I eventually arrived somewhere, I didn't care all that much, but it drove Mr Mountain-Leadership-mapreading-is-my-core-business completely bonkers. Absolutement nuts. Hopping-up-and-down-on-the-woodland-path-mad.
times, which turned into a kind of weird but infuriating cherchez les signes game - you'd see one of the coloured markers on a tree, say and then miss the next two or three and wander miles off the path and have to retrace your steps. Eventually the retracing would reveal another marker on a tree and you'd set off again, sometimes in the right, sometimes in the wrong direction, but not bloody-well knowing why. I just assumed it was because I was one of those women who can't read maps, and as long as I eventually arrived somewhere, I didn't care all that much, but it drove Mr Mountain-Leadership-mapreading-is-my-core-business completely bonkers. Absolutement nuts. Hopping-up-and-down-on-the-woodland-path-mad. Until we . . . no, fair does . . . it was he who realised, what you've probably realised already, that round here there is only one way to walk a circular path and that is clockwise. Just as some French roads only have the destinations on one side of the roadsigns, so path markers are only on one side of the tree. If you're coming at them from the other side you miss them. Simple. Probably something to do with Napoleon.
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