The race to Milly

Milly's market.

Today we learnt what the average walking speed for an adult is.

Milly la Foret is 7km away from Maisse and quite a different place. I was trying to find a way to describe it as we walked in to it. It’s like one of the towns in a British detective series; Midsommer Murders, something like that. Large enough to sustain a murder a week during the TV season, and yet still small enough to look charming and be filled with interesting local characters.

Sweeping the river in Milly.

Each week Milly hosts a market and people come from miles around to do their shopping. There’s a variety of produce from cheese, to olives to fish and then a rather strange mix of household items – makeup, knives, dresses and toy cars all jostling for attention.

The market is held in a huge covered square which had been hosting a market since the 1400s. That and an abbey, a chateau and a lovely bridge and church form the heart of the town. The river appears to be lined with cobblestones here and we were amused to see a street sweeper, standing ankle-deep in water, sweeping the cobbles.

Almost at the goal.

Today we had a race. The boys and I set out for Milly on foot; an hour later Jennifer, Marta and my mother all caught the bus.  The male contingent won the race, covering the 7km in just over an hour. I must say we were tired by the end and the boys deserved their reward of a crepe from the market.

It turns out, by the way, that average walking speed is around 5km an hour. So we were pretty chuffed with our 7km in an hour effort today.

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