The Wall

It was a fun evening. Faculty and staff from SCAD-Lacoste plus Andrea and the librarian from Savannah, Jessica, gathered for a cook-out. I grilled chicken and everyone brought wonderful food- vegetables to grill, taboule, vegetables melted with chevre, bean salad, pasta salad. We went to a terrace near the top of Lacoste with a view of the valley. The night was cool, but comfortable, and the conversation was lively. Our tables were alongside a thirty foot tall ancient wall, but with the open view to the other side it felt cozy, not claustrophobic.

Throughout the evening, stones, some small, others larger kept falling from the wall. We usually looked to see where they were coming from and we even wondered if students were above us playing a joke. The wall had an odd angle since it had once supported a vaulted ceiling, but, hey, it had stood for 700 years- it wasn't going anywhere soon. It made some of us a little nervous, but others felt there wasn't a problem.

The party finally broke up and we said our good nights and went to our various apartments. Right after Andrea and I walked in our door, Eleanor called. "You've got to come back here right now! That whole wall just caved in!"

There were two steel tables and ten chairs where we all sat for three hours. They're now covered with ten or twelve feet of stone and earth.  In the third picture, you can see the remains of one chair. I'd guess that was the one farthest from the wall. The crater at the top is about twenty or thirty feet across and goes back about fifteen feet. You can see the remains of the wall on the left.

Eleanor and Peter, who live about fifty meters away, said there was one crash, quickly folllowed by another. I'd guess the wall came down and the earth gave way immediately after.

I timed the walk from that terrace to my apartment when I went back this morning to take these pictures. One minute, thirty-five seconds. We couldn't have been in the door more than a minute and a half when Eleanor called.