Feeling Energised

It's amazing how some warmer weather makes you feel less jaded. Today, not having had time out of the village together last week, we decided that lunch and a stroll by the sea would be just thing. First of all we had a coffee in the bar where we learnt that the hairdresser's had been broken into last night and the church warden fell at my feet after kissing me!
Went down to Argelès and had lunch in the town in a small restaurant serving good food that was well presented. The owners, two brothers, have both worked in top restaurants in the area and it showed. It was reasonably priced too so that's a winning combination as far as I'm concerned! Doesn't Christian's starter look nice? I had fish soup because I just love the ritual of putting the rouille and grated cheese on the toast. After a good lunch we were virtuous and went off for a stroll along the prom before having a cuppa overloking the marina where at 17° it was warm enough to sit out and feel that all's well in our world. Stopped off at our local chapel on the way home where there are fine examples of 11th century frescoes, not to look at them, no, it was the new dustbin shelter that Christian wanted to inspect! What ever rings your bell, I say ...

Wearing the Green

Market in the morning, an apéro in the bar before watching two carnival floats accompanied by a marching band pass through the streets of the village. I know it doesn't sound very grand but there was a great atmosphere with some adults and all the children in fancy dress. The kids were having a wonderful time throwing confetti everywhere and squirting people with foam and come to think about it so were the adults. In th evening there were tapas and a disco vaguely along a 60's, 70's, 80's theme though in fact it was more of "anything goes". My era was more flower power so it was fun trying out the punk look. The green hair went down a bomb and Irelend did beat England in the rugby! The emir sitting next to me who sadly has been cut off in his prime is of course Christian (I'll need to ask around for a better photo) and on the other side is the undertaker and his wife.
Called in at the bar on the way home where at 12.05am, the Gendarmerie stopped outside and told the patron that someone had complained about the noise. Of course we know who it is as she takes great pleasure in doing this at regular intervals. Hey ho! That's village life for you.

Out of Sync?

Looking at this photo which I took when I was out and about in the village, you would think that Spring had sprung. The perfume of the mimosa filled the air, the sun was shining and the birds were singing but a little farther on Father Christmas was still climbing up onto a balcony! Someone is obviously still living in hope.
These last few days have been so taken up with the exhibition for me and the Mairie for Christian that we didn't even manage a day out together. Never mind, I have managed to get myself relieved of secretarial duties as Martine who is bi-lingual and a retired secretary to boot is ready to take over. I will concentrate on the membership which is much more my forte so things are really beginning to fall into place. As for the wider world of France, the blocade of the refineries was lifted but air traffic control are still on strike, the pensioners were on the march on Wednesday and Regional elections are only 2 weeks away.

Trouble and Strife!

Lufthansa on strike yesterday, French air traffic control on strike today, a blocade of Total oil refineries which is spreading, Gordon in the headlines for his bad behaviour, the degree of which depends on what you read or who you listen to. Oh dear!
Luckily life here is quiet and even though there's a lot to still do for the expo and coffee in the square on the 7th, I've had time to bake a cake and cook a civet de sanglier /wild boar stew. Of course there's still a couple of baskets of ironing but that's hardly urgent, is it?

Economical and Ecological Travel

Two of the Association's members gave a film show of their trip to Peru and although the fim was nearly two hours in length it wasn't in the least bit boring. Set to music, the descriptions given hit just the right note as there was no feeling of being lectured to. The break half way through gave the 13 of us present the opportunity to sample some quinoa cakes and a sort of marrow egg custard which in fact was delicious. Geneviève is an artist and the photo is the cover of her travel journal and as she and Philippe do one long haul travel a year there's the promise of more to come.

In need of a Fix

As Christian was having withdrawl symptoms from driving the car, we went out to lunch over the border. The meal was fine but overpriced - there was no menu and we had to pay for the bread so I don't think we'll be going back there again.
In the evening there was the latest "vernissage"which gave a chance to look at photos and pen and ink illustrations of some poems and of course the chance to chat yourself hoarse!The final chapter of my "official" involvement with the village website is now closed after a handover meeting a meeting after the vernissage. I will still be involved as an occasional contributer so I can now go to events with my own hat on and not that of the site's. It feels as if the days without obligation aren't too far away!

No more El Bulli

Well, apparently other people than friend shave looked at the blog as two people have left comments. One spoke about there being no beauty without virtue which I don't agree with and the other was in Chinese which I didn't understand so I didn't publish them. The power of the censor!
On a more serious note I've just read that "El Bulli" is closing its doors forever and is thinking of opening a Cookery Academy instead. Even with a menu at over 250€, apparently they were losing too much money. So for those of you who were just longing to go and eat or would have a taste experience be a better description, you're too late!

Return Journey

It was -10° when we left the Auvergne with blue skies and 11° and pourring rain when we arrived home. didn't fare much better for lunch on the way back either. Stopped in Pezanas to find everywhere apart from a Chinese restaurant was closed. Mardi Gras = carnaval= rampant youths apparently and the local commerce was taking no chances. We'd stopped there once before and despite being old and having a strong association with Molière, we'd found it a dreary sort of place. Always ready to give a second chance we'd put that down to it being a Monday with everything closed ... I don't think there'll be a third chance ... the streets were still littered with paper and dog poo and neither one nor the other has anything to do with the day of the week.
the journey back was without problem and the car clocked up it's first 1,000 kms and we've only had it 12 days!
PS Christian couldn't resist this photo before we left. It says "Honneur à Notre Élu"; I don't think that it will catch on here, do you?

Well Wrapped Up

As we had the whole day to pass and we don't ski, we went into St Flour which has a pretty old town, full of character on top of a hill. Narrow streets full of interesting shops .... only problem is that all of them are closed on Mondays. Wandered aimlessly in the cold, wrote a couple of postcards over a hot chocolate and had lunch in the Hotel d'Europe which is one of those old- fashioned places who's hey-day has passed. The local cheeses such as Cantal and Bleu d'Auvergne figured heavily on the menu which we ate next to a large picture window overlooking the snow- clad fields. Back to the B&B for a siesta before heading up to the ski station to have dinner with Christophe, Valérie and the kids which afterall was the object of the trip. People were still around the dinner table when we arrived back so we were invited to join them for coffee and homemade liqueurs and to be polite we were unable to refuse.

St Valentine

No time for romance this morning as I had to go around to the President's with the photos for the competition before we went off to the Auvergne. Still, we thought we would leave the motorway and have a nice lunch somewhere in a quaint village to make up for it. We started looking at 12.30pm and an hour and a quarter later we still hadn't found anywhere. If a restaurant was actually open it was full so we came back to where we'd left the motorway and ended up at a service station. It was ghastly! Escoffier would be turning in his grave. Gone are the days when you can just leave things to chance; from here on it we'll need to do some forward planning. You'll be fed up with this same old story but if I keep repeating it, some day we will really get ourselves organised. We managed to stay calm, maybe the chocolate bar helped, and enjoyed the scenery. I just marvelled at the giant icicles that had formed on the slopes.
Found the B&B which was a pretty stone house in a hamlet, thanks to Tom-Tom, dropped off our bags and went into Murat for a cup of tea. It's a pity that the French haven't caught on the the kettle in the room idea. The town was dead but the salon de thé was full of charm anddone out like a sitting room. The tea came with a triple egg timer as different teas need to infuse for different lengths of time; Darjeeling for example needs 3 minutes and they say that the English are obsessional about tea!
Once back we cracked open a bottle of champagne to finally celebrate St Valente's. That evening we ate in the B&B along with our hosts , another couple and their children. It was plain honest food served in gernerous quantities and we all hit it off which is always a blessing!

In the Line Of Duty

The phone went at about 10.30am and it was the Mayor asking if we could go and represent him at an Association lunch. We cancelled our trip to the market and put on our glad rags and went to strut our stuff. The meal was excellent starting off with foie gras and there was dancing until our feet gave up in protest. It was fun and for once we escaped the cleaning up!
On the way home we stopped off at a new wine cellar where Sandrine was doing a tasting of 'St Amour' in honour of St Valentine's Day. St Amour is one of the ten AOCs and like having to name the seven dwarfs, you can never remember them all. It's been made all the more difficult as 3 others have recently been added to the original list of seven. At over 11€ a bottle we only bought two and thankfully it's nothing like the Beaujolais nouveau that is so commercialised in November. A wine to savour when our thoughts turn to romance.

Cold Comfort!

A house without heating or hot water does little to put a smile on you face. It's just freezing here both inside and out. Wednesday we escaped to Figueres for a walk around and to have lunch. Ended up at the Figueres Park hotel on the road in. The food menu was good but there was no character in either the service or the surroundings. to cap it all, I've now succumbed to Christian's cold. I managed to the chess meeting (not to play but to help organise it) last night and to the Association committee meeting this morning but apart from that, it's been a hotwater bottle, cups of tea by the fire and the telly. The language exchange, tapas and a meeting this evening all took place without me. Me thinks, I'm starting to learn!

Back to School

A small group of us from the Association met with Michel to learn about computers and their security. Scheduled for 2 hours, it overran by half an hour and it still wasn't finished. It was interesting and helped fill some of the many gaps in our IT education.
The heating has gone off again and apparently it's the hotwater tank that needs replacing...... miserable!

Women United

Thankfully the sun was shining for the photo of as many women from the village as possible. There was a notice in the paper and about 60 of all ages turned up. I'm not sure if I'm disappointed or not; those who were there were at least enthusiastic and it did mean that we were able to finish off all the cakes and chacuterie that was left over from Friday! Can't put a photo of the whole group on the blog as there are children on it and I wasn't able to get permission so you'll have to make do with women from the association instead. (When I get it from Christian that is)

Back in Business

Yesterday it was off to Perpignan for my annual mammogram (all normal) and to BMW to collect the new car. I'm pleased to say that despite the cutbacks there was still a bottle of champagne in the boot. Went to the casino for lunch as we'd heard that it was good and it was. Well, the chef does quite a lot of radio and has written a book so you wouldn't expect anything else. Wonder why he doesn't have his own place?
Today has been about the Association's tapas evening ... cooking, setting up the hall and preparing some publicity. There were about 60 of us altogether and food for 160. All went well and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves until it came to clearing up. Hey ho, c'est la vie.

Time to Go

The end of the holiday and time has gone so quickly but we still managed to do some site seeing on the way to the airport as we went by the largest wind farm in Europe on the Fenwick Moor. It was absolutely freezing and the visitor centre was shut but we had a wee walk (without managing to fall over) and took a couple of photos for posterity. Called in at the Fenwick hotel for some hot chocolate and toast and arrived in Prestwick in good time for our flight which was problem free. Arrived home to find that the house was freezing cold as something had happened to the storage heaters and all the electricity was off. Obviously the theme of the day!

Take to the Hills

It snowed in the night and it's bitterly cold but hey, when in Scotland, do as the Scots do ... wrap up warm, grit your teeth and head out into the great outdoors. Well, Suzanne and I did. Christian and Eddie settled for the golf range. despite my moaning the countrysie, what we could see of it through the fog, was lovely and there was a nice lunch at the club house waiting for us at the end of our walk to Loch Humphrey in the Old Kilpatrick Hills.
In the afternoon Suzanne and I went to the garden centre to buy, what else but snowdrops. Eddie and Christian decided to pass ... they obviously didn't realise that there was hot chocolate and gooey cakes to be had. Still, hell mend us, we both wished we hadn't indulged once our plates were empty but by then it was too late. Fortunately, I had the chance to walk it off as I went along to see Marlene (my boss from Social Work days) and this time was able to say "no" to the goodies. Just as well as in the evening we were booked at Chillis on Woodlands Road for a curry. Not to worry, said Eddie "they're just tapas sized portions" and so they were but we had loads of them, all delicious! Well, no trip to Glasgow would be complete with out a curry and we can worry about the excess at home.

Republicans, Reformists and Brewers

Took the train into Glasgow and walked down to the Clyde to see the sculpture to La Pasionaria, one of the prime movers in the Spanish Civil War. Much to Christian's chagrin we then continued walking over to Glasgow Green and the People's Palace, a wonderful museum of Glasgow's social history. First on the agenda was a coffee in the Winter Gardens followed by Billy Conolly's banana boots, a single end (a small flat in Glasgow parlance) with a range which Suzanne wanted for the house, two suspicious looking characters on seaside donkeys, an even more suspicious character in a prison cell,and lots more besides. Outside we could only gaze in wonder at the tallest terracotta fountain in the world. I'm just sorry that I can't put more photos on the blog to show you what a great visit it was. We then wandered over to the old Templeton's Carpet factory which looks as if it's a Venetian palace but which is now a brewery (members of the Temperance Movement honoured with statues on the Green must be turning in their graves!) and German bar and restaurant. Apparently Eddie's neice's wedding reception plans are up in the air as the Pope has just announced a surprise visit to Glasgow and he'll be preaching to the faithful on Glasgow Green thus making it nigh impossible to get to the restaurant. One more reason why this Pope doesn't head the popularity contest.