Run Aways in the South of France

 Let's just pretend I haven't been gone for a month and a half, like friends who start a conversation after being absent from each other.

This morning on a run, I was headed out the cemetery road because it's flat and easy to run on. It follows the river, goes past an abbatoir, an organic food store and the water treatment plant -- that doesn't sound like a great place to run, but it does go past the cemetery and there are fields where sometimes hay is rolled up and sometimes horses munch on grass, and many glimpses of the surrounding mountains -- but mostly it's flat. 

As I'm running, the postal lady passed me on her bicycle. She rides her bike to work then many times rides around town delivering mail on the post office bicycle. She always says "Bonjour" but this morning she held out her  hand and said, "Faites attention..." But I didn't catch that last part. What was I supposed to be careful of? 

"Merci," I called as I continued on my way and she in the other direction. It could be a snake on the road; a car accident; a wild boar; road work? 

Soon enough, I came across the culprit, two horses running free on the road. 

The runaways

The horses, tossing their heads and neighing, had been spooked by a big truck going to the water treatment plant. They began to run up the road toward me. The pony is black and white with spots like an Appaloosa. The bigger horse, which Earl says looks like a quarter horse, has some white patches like a palomino. I've seen these horses on the road before. These aren't the first runaways we've seen either. Rather than expecting someone else to take care of it, I've seen French strangers clap their hands at horses to send them in the direction of home. But horses are big and I figured I should just stay out of it. 

I stopped running so I wouldn't scare the horses. The smaller one is much more skittish, wanting to race past me. I didn't have much farther to go before I turned around on the 5K run. I saw that the horses had entered a field (Reminder to self that I must learn to say 'field' in French -- reminder to self, you already know that word - champ, as in Champs Elysees) but I couldn't think of the word as I ran this morning. 

The fence had an opening and the two horses had entered the field and were placidly munching grass. A woman was entering the enclosure from the other end. "Are these your horses?" I asked her in French. She let me know they weren't and she had been saving this grass for her horses and she wasn't pleased the horses were taking it. 

At least the horses were safe, I thought, as I continued toward home, my "run time" totally ruined by the horse incident. But I got to practice some French and horses don't go running down the road higgeldy piggeldy very often, so I might as well enjoy it.