Franck had forgotten to buy coffee the day before, and it gave him an excuse to go back into town and return to civilisation. He also had to download the thirty scripts he had promised to read on holiday, and print them, if he ever managed to find an internet café or shop where they would do that. He drove down the hill with a bit more confidence this time. The slope was so steep in some places that he was looking down on the dashboard, the weight of his body thrust over the steering wheel. He was starting to get his bearings now, and knew which parts were a bit tricky, like the two very narrow sections bordered by box trees on one side and protruding rocks on the other. And he knew where there were stones that stuck out and scraped the rocker panels, long branches that spilled over onto the path and coarse bushes that caught on the car.

Once down on the tarmacked road, he suddenly let go of all his stress and drove at a low speed. He still didn’t want to put on any music, much less listen to the news, and he had no desire to know what was going on in the world. After two days he was already feeling strangely disconnected. In a way Lise had been right; he would never have felt so far away on a cruise or beach. Here, he felt that he had not only left his life behind, but civilisation as well. He would never have believed there were such isolated areas in France, and it probably explained why a handful of unusual individuals had sought refuge in these causses at one time or another, from Louis Malle to Romain Gary, André Breton to Nino Ferrer or Léo Ferré. All of them had come here to lose themselves or to escape from the world.

He didn’t pass anybody on the road into town, nor did he see any houses round about. Sometimes there were turnings down country lanes or paths of grey asphalt to left or right. If he looked over as he passed, he couldn’t see anything: invariably the path plunged into the greenery or round a bend. Just as abruptly, the road ended at the town. After a high cliff and a tight bend you would see the sign for Limogne, and very quickly the first houses appeared. A rather dense suburb led to the town centre, so you went straight from the isolated country road to the little streets of the town.