Girona Demo

Who chose the day the clocks went forward to have a demo? An early start and a long walk but a great atmosphere. There was probably about 15,000 people. All ages, all styles and once again the hat was a sensation. People came up expressly to take photos! Now I know how Carla feels!The march ended with speeches climaxing in fire crackers going off all along the nearby bridge presumably to remind the authorities of what could happen if the pylons come our way. There are now rumours that the THT might be built under the sea and it seems that a decision should be delivered at the end of June. There was just time before we caught the bus home to have a cold beer in a café on the ramblas. Then it was out of the demo gear and around to Michel and Joëlle's for a surprise apéritif dinatoire to celebrate Michel's birthday.
ps You really need to click on the fuzzy, oops artistic photo to get the best effect.

Soirée Anglaise

A quick whizz around to get ready for this evenings visiors. We entertained Adrian and Pauline, Kathy and Nick to an eclectic meal of a substantial apéritif, Delia's oriental pork and rice, cheese and apple cake. That reminds me.. what the heck is Delia thinking about with her new series. Rubbish or what?

On Parade

Christian's first official duty came this evening with the traditional laying of a wreath at the war memorial by the new Marie. It was followed by a public presentation of the team, a wee glass and petit four buffet all accompanied by a sample of local talent. I hope to lay my hands on a few photos, so watch this space, as they say.

An away day

A fine sunny day and the chance of a trip away from the village with Jean-Jacques and Michelle provided some welcome relief. When I add that it included a good lunch, wine tasting and a purchase with a discount, you can imagine the pleasure it brought. To put you in the picture, Jean-Jacques' sister and brother-in-law have a vinyard not too far from Pézanas and this day the mobile bottling team came to do the bizz. It was interesting to get our own personal tour of all the different aspects and see some of the 30,000 bottles being filled at a rate of 2,200 bottles/hour. As well as the wine, in the summer they organise evenings of music, dance and food for large groups and next month they'll have their two gîtes open for business.

The day didn't end there. There was just time when we came home to grab a bit of bread and cheese before heading off to see "No Country for Old Men" with Michel and Joëlle. Yet more blood and gore. I was about to say that I hope to see "The Boleyn Sisters" by way of something lighter but come to think of it that all ends in tears too.

Ships that pass..

Both very busy today. Christian had a couple of meetings with other councillors, I had a meeting about a small celebration for St Jordi ( St George to you and me), the patron saint of Catalunya, which will be held on 23rd of April. In between Christian went to the dentist and rather more interestingly, I went to the cinema with Joëlle and finally got to see "Les femmes de l'Ombre". I was right about the death and dying, only one of the five women survived. Still, despite mediocre reviews we both thought it was quite good.
On a more glamourous note,our telly like yours has been wall to wall Carla and Nicolas. How the "little fella" must have loved all that pomp and ceremony and wasn't he well behaved? We both loved the photo of everyone's feet. Not to difficult to work out whose was whose!

International Evening

There's no escape from meals out in this village, not that we're complaining. This evening we were invited to Linde's (Austrian)to meet Dutch, American and English friends. Well travelled people so the conversation was interesting and come to think of it the food wasn't bad either. Like us, Linde has a waist-high open fireplace in her kitchen and she grilled the meat on it. All very convivial!

Easter Monday

Bank holidays are the same the world over apparently - it's cold, windy and grey. Still, the decorations on our street bring a bit of Easter cheer. Rather than hunker down by the fire, after lunch we're off to the big city to the cinema. Later: It seemed like a good idea at a time but on arriving at the multiplex, the place was absolutely mobbed so we about-turned and came home for a cuppa and "the Calendar Girls".Even though it's so English, it went down well with our French friends who I think got the idea of what the W.I. is about. Jean-Jacques and Christian thought we might be able to deal with the Mairie's deficit by doing a calendar of the councillors' other halves in the same vein (nb.not the varicose kind)! Michelle and I think they should stick to more traditional methods of revenue collection!
The day didn't finish there. Jean, Françoise and Odette called in at apéritif time followed by Michel and Joëlle who ended up staying for a pot luck dinner.

Easter Sunday

This morning Christian and I amazed ourselves by going off to church to listen to the village choir singing at mass. Afterwards there was another rendition of the "Goigs dels Ous" and a sardane. To everyone's surprise, the sardane was danced to the music of the cancan!
I can't think of two dances stylistically farther apart and I bet this was a first for the village. After so much excitement there was nothing else to do but to go to the bar for a coffee. Then there was just enough time to go home and decorate the simnel cake we were taking to Michelle and Jean-Jacques' for lunch. We never had this cake at home but apparently it's traditional at Easter (and on Mothering Sunday) as the 11 marzipan balls which decorate the top represent the Apostles (minus Judas who'd obviously been sacked!)

Easter Saturday

Felt pretty sluggish all day. Went to the market which was busy with tourists, mostly Spanish and the usual clutch of Brits in sandals and lightweight clothing. Went to the Auberge du Chêne for a late lunch where we were invited to join Papy who lives in the village and was celebrating his 89th birthday with his family. By the time we made it home there was just time for a cuppa before we went out to watch the "Goigs dels Ous", the Catalan version of Easter carols. The singers processed around the village singing and in return received eggs, saucisson and bottles of wine. These will be used next weekend for a pascale omlette. What a shame that after weeks of no rain, it came down just at the moment they started. Still, it gave us an excuse to retire to the bar.

Transfer of Power

This evening André and his team were officially given the keys of the Mairie/Town hall after they had gone through the process of electing the Maire/Mayor. No great surprise there, it was André, the only candidate. I'll be adding a couple of photos soon so that you can see Christian in his best bib and tucker. Then everyone was offered an apéritif chez Jean-Louis before the faithful (60 of us) headed off for a paella. We ate well, had plenty to drink and diligently listened and applauded to several people doing their party pieces. There's no such thing as free lunch, as they say!

Spring is in the Air

The first day of spring and the sun is shining in a clear blue sky, the birds are singing, the fruit trees are in flower and all feels well with the world. As I write I'm singing along to the "Gold" music channel and it's possible to kid on I'm still young. Elle est vraiment belle, la vie!

Sock it to 'em!

What a scandal! The presiding officer in one of the electoral areas of Perpignan is in custody after being found with 12 or so voting slips in his socks. The sitting Mayor from the same party as Sarko was re-elected and continues the Alduy family dynasty. From father to son since 1959! In protest against the debâcle, people gather every evening before the town hall, cat calling and waving socks.
On the subject of politicians, apparently, our "beloved" President is having a behaiour make-over since his party's poor showing in the local elections. Texting during high level meetings ( as he did with the Pope and the the Chinese Prime Minister) is out and his love of a "bling" life style is to be toned down. His first test will come when he meets Her Maj. Carla has managed to appear in public dressed discretely (or should I just say, dressed!) so he should be able to make an effort too.
My own pet politician has his first outing this evening for a commemoration of the end of the Algerian war to be followed by a meeting when the various future roles should be made clear.

The Garden Girls

Our first official photo in the "Jardi dels Angels" where as well as taking photos we examined the trees, inspected the water channel, passed the time of day with a neighbour and imagined that our garden would one day be like his (bottom right). The line up, from left to right, Me, Joëlle (French), Linde (Austrian), Andrée (Belgian), Michelle (Pied Noir). If you look hard enough, you'll see the wings! Still on the subject of digging, this time for oil rather than veg, we went to see "There will be Blood" with Michel and Linde. A pretty grim film about the greed for money and power sought by one character through turn of the century capitalism and another through religion and the interface between the two. The pervading images were bleak and devoid of human warmth. Despite all this, Daniel Day-Lewis merits his oscar and it's a film worth seeing as long as you're not on a downer that is.

Top o' the Mornin!

May you have the hindsight to know where you've been, the foresight to know where you're going and the insight to know when you've gone too far! Where ever you go and what ever you do, may the luck of the Irish be there with you! Happy St Patrick's Day!

Today's the Day!

Another early start for Christian and a "Garden Girls" meeting for me over coffee and cake. While the cat's away and all that. To make up for the 2kg that seem to have piled on in the last two days, I resisted joining Christian et al at the bar for lunch. So now it's just a question of keeping busy until the count starts at 6pm.
.....Bravo à Christian!!! The count was much quicker tonight, finishing around 9.30pm and the result was as we hoped. Christian did even better this week, polling in 4th place; I'm really so pleased for him and would you believe it, someone even voted for me! I've a secret admirer somewhere in Maureillas. The celebrations in the hall went on until about 2am and then a couple of people came back to our place. I had to bail at 4am, Christian came to bed at 7am having fallen asleep over the computer. As they say, 'victory is sweet'.

Not Long Now

A week of meetings, discussions in the street, speculation and rumour. Yesterday promised to be the first politics-free day so we thought a trip out across the border for a lunch in the sunshine would do us good. Well you all know about the best laid plans..... 2 new tracts appeared in letterboxes and a strategy meeting was called to decide how to deal with the innuendo and untruths. No time to go too far from the village but the drive up into the mountains was lovely. At the restaurant we ate a copious meal and talked politics with Claude, the owner. In the evening we were invited to Jean and Françoise's for apéritifs where at last politics didn't dominate the conversation. No market this morning as one of the opposition lists held a meeting in the square. There was more debate about why they'd not managed to booked the village hall thanabout policies. Couldn't hear very well but it was fun to see so many people out and about and Jean Louis was more than happy with the extra takings.With little enthusiasm for cooking, we went back to the bar in the evening for dinner. Also dining was a group of 13 young people on a night out so what with that and USAP (congrats to the Welsh, by the way)winning their televised rugby match, it was all quite lively. A bit different from the typical Saturday, get-yourself-legless, night out enjoyed by young Brits. While there we met Jacques, a neighbour and his visitors and ended up going back for what was an apéritif for them and a nightcap for us! Then it was home for an early night.....night, night, yawn, yawn

Green Welly Brigade

After a slow start to the day, I went out with Michelle to buy an allotment! When it came to the negotiation , we took an elderly village resident with us and after he'd told the guy the fruit trees were passed it, the access too difficult and the ground uncared for, we finaly agreed on a price. Geronimo thought we should have beaten him down more as he obviously didn't need the money but we were well pleased and shook on the deal. Linde and Joëlle are coming in with us so for little investment we'll have a tranquil space of 400sqm to have bbq's, pick fruit and while away our time while the men of the family are running the village (if they get elected that is!). Grandad's tools will finally do more than gather dust in the cave and there will be advice a-plenty from the old 'uns who garden beside us. With trophy-winning gardeners on both sides of the family (Dad and Grandad) I'm hoping the genes will out; at least to grow a few tomatoes, enough fruit for a pie and flowers for the house.
Comment: Alan Titchmarsh eat your heart oot! Belated Birthday greetings to the Boss!(Crofter)
Comment: Would rather think of myself as a Charlie Dimmock than an Alan Titchmarsh!(Nous)
 
 

Nitpicking!

On tenderhooks for the outcome of the vote which closes at 6pm. For those who have less than 50%+1 vote, there'll be a second vote next week. Christian is on duty all day at the polling station dealing with among other things, the proxy votes. Here, a large number of the jobs are done by members of the lists rather than paid local authority staff. As people have the right to cross names off the lists, make composite lists and add in others names, the count can take a long time."Nitpicking" is the term for the count which starts after the polls close at 6pm and given the process seems very appropriate! More later........ well, the nitpicking finally finished at 3.30am. Christian was on duty just until the end. He did well coming 6th out of the 57 people standing on the 3 lists. What's more, he was the first non-Catalan!His list was well but not far enough in front to have an overall majority, so we've got to do it all again next Sunday. Will there be new or changing alliances? Will one list drop out. Can our nerves stand it?

International Women's Day

Even though one day is only a token, I still support the idea of marking International Women's Day and being the day before our municipal elections it seemed even more appropriate. Have a look at the list of when women won the vote in different countries at www.ipu.org/wmn-e/suffrage.htm Some real surprises.
At last the wind has dropped and the sun has come back. Although the market wasn't very busy we met lots of people so made slow progress around.
Met up with Madeline for lunch. Only saw the start of the Scotland v England match. The rendition of "Flower of Scotland" brought a lump to my throat and the result, a smile to my face as the wooden spoon will stay in the drawer! Had dinner at the bar with Philippe and Danielle. There was yet more rugby and USAP won against Paris, so there was much celebration there too. Three meals out in a row...... not a good idea. Will need to be more reasonable this week or all the good work will be undone.

Living Happily Ever After!

Once upon a time, 21 years ago at the Riverside Ceilidh club a French Prince Charming said to his friend, "faites attention, la blonde est pour moi" and the rest is history as they say...........There won't be any intimate dinner 'tête à tête' for us, as we're eating with the electoral team in a restaurant up in the mountains where highway robbers used to go to ground. Somethings never change, you might say!

March brings breezes

Or in our case, winds of over 100km/hour for the last 3 days! The election machine grinds on ~ another opposition public meeting, another post mortem over a glass. This time it was in the bar where a card competition was in full swing. Five "diehards" came back to chez nous for a bottle of champagne, not because Christian was being optimistic but to celebrate his birthday again.Hey ho!

When I'm 64!

Christian's birthday and no let up from his obligations. Date with the diabetes specialist in the morning. Pleased to say that all is going well and she's reduced his medication again. The wind was blowing ferociously so there was no thought of doing anything other than going off to the restaurant. Perpignan has boasted a Michelin 1* restaurant for the last year so we decided that today was a good day to try it out. Mediterranean decor, attentive but not stifling service and well presented, creative food. As well as à la carte, there was a 50€ menu and lunchtime menu at 17€. Can you imagine that in the UK? We ate well but Christian was left feeling (like most blokes when served nouvelle cuisine) that there was still a wee space to fill. Then it was home for a siesta before he went out canvassing. Apéritif time came and we were invited with seven other friends to Joëlle and Michel's where we drank champagne and tucked into lots of sweet and savoury nibbles. With Macca singing "When I'm 64' in the background Michelle and Jean-Jacques gave Christian the following card:

Bon anniversaire soldat sans spécialité! Christian est ton prénom
Caressant, les femmes te le diront
Héros à ta façon
Railleur nous le déclarons
Irréstible nous le savons
Sentimental c'est évident
Tendre avec me love, nous le voyons
Incorruptible, quelle réputation!
Amical, nous en témoignons
Noble serviteur d'un village catalan

Would bring a tear to a glass eye! Knowing Christian,you can probably work out what it says. After this it was back to business and another meeting while Rowena and I went next door to Phil and Jane's for a glass of wine before heading home to catch up on all our news.

To the Hustings

Our list's main public meeting this evening went better than I'd anticipated. André spoke for an hour covering their programme for the next 6 years and came across as competant and well up for the job. There was no heckling, no coughers or sneezers and no difficult questions. The evening was rounded off with a glass of wine and the inevitable post mortem. Tomorrow and the next day the other two lists will have their say and then Sunday it's over to the ballot box.

Ze Muzzer

A Mum for nearly 59 years ~ she still looks good, doesn't she? This is just to say that this comes with lots of love and that we hope you have a great day. Happy Mother's Day, Mum xxxx

Non à la THT!

.
Off we set at 8.30 on the bus organised by the mairie. There were 15,000 people (the police said 10,000 ~ it's the same the world over) on the demo which wound its way around Perpignan. A great atmosphere with lots of Catalan music and human towers
My horned tartan hat (thanks Ray and Paul) went down a bundle and I was even interviewed by French national telly. I'll let you know if they use it. There was not much of a (visible) police presence and no trouble. Let's hope that it does some good as we certainly don't want these high tension powerlines here. Photos to follow. Arrived back and had a late lunch with Jean-Jacques, Michelle, Joëlle and Michel at one of the village restaurants; then it was home for Christian to have a wee snoozette before going out to leaflet. This evening we were invited to Diana's for dinner but ended up eating in the other village restaurant where we found 9 other Brits! Now it's time for bed and a long lie tomorrow.