Tapas and Wine

A bity day; committee meeting at 8.30am(!), a visit to the museum to hand over the pintings that had been bought and to rearrange the rest as the exhibition has been prolonged until the end of October. In the evening we took Jen to the wine bar for tapas and a change of scene.

Wasted Journey

No repetition of yesterday's brush with nature, the only thing to cross my path was this grasshopper. Jen,on the other hand had a less easy day as when she arrived at Girona, she found that due to industrial action her flight had been cancelled so she's back with us until Sunday which is really nice.

Sight Seeing

Christian's day off and as we'd already been to the sea we went up the valley to have some mountain scenery. Stopped off half way up the valley for a coffee in the oddest place, well known not only for the age of the owner and her furniture but also for the size of the cheap never-changing menu. The weather was warmer and we were able to sit out under the suspicious glances of a couple of hunters who were already ensconced. Had lunch at the Bella Vista in Prats de Mollo and a stroll around the town. spent the evening quietly as Jen is off tomorrow.

Urghhh!

My goodness, it was cold this morning when we went to the lake. 4.5° and of course almost dark. I had the fright of my life when I suddenly came upon a coypu sitting on a rock; a horrible looking creature like an enormous rat so after that I steered clear of the lakeside. you can just about see it through the gloom.
This afternoon Christian was busy doing Mairie things so Jen and I tried to visit Collioure but all the parking was full so we continued down to Banyuls and had a cuppa overlooking Christian's reeducation centre. In the evening we were invited around to Laura and David's for an apéro and to discuss the possibility of an accociation visit to Scotland next year. Lots of brownie points to be earned if we pull it off.

Our Turn to Celebrate

19 year's of marriage to celebrate and we started off in the bar for a café but do you know what, There was no sign of a rose for me! Jen kindly offered to share hers but you would have thought ..... wouldn't you? It was windy and sunny so we went down to the coast for lunch at l'Archipel and then a walk in the sun and the wind. Came home to a joint birthday/anniversary cake, a bottle of champagne and foie gras

Long Time No See

Market day comes around as regular as clockwork but getting to meet up with Rowena is a blue moon event and it was marked with a lunch.Hope we manage to catch up again before we're into next year. No champagne today but we did make Joséphine's strawberry, lychee and cointreau cocktail with a bottle of cava. Salud!

Happy Birthday Jen!

Started off the celebrations with a coffee in the bar where Christian arrived with a rose. What a charmer. From there we headed off to l'Escala for a walk, all the time keeping an eye on the weather, before having lunch in the hostal at Empuries overlooking the sea. The rain did come in eventually so there was nothing more to do than to come home and open a bottle of champagne.

Catching Up

Jen gave the early morning walk a miss and I gave the language exchange a miss after the committee meeting. Instead Jen and I strolled and nattered our way around the village looking at all the improvements since last she was here. Made our way back to the bar for an apéritif and then just pottered.

The One that got Away?

No,it wasn't one of the sheep that the dogs failed to round up but a demonstration of old country bagpipes from the Aude. Was really funny to watch them being inflated and the little legs popping up to attention. It's a pity that Jen arrived too late from Girona to enjoy the music and of course, the apéritif.

One Good Turn

This morning's treat was to see a kingfisher as well as a woodpecker and this evening's was to be invited to Diana's along with Martine, Margret and Maggie. You no doubt know the saying "there's no such thing as a free lunch", well, it's true. Di's inveigaled us into bringing over her painting the next time we're in Uk but as that will be in return for B&B, we're quits!

Early Start

Despite a busy weekend we still managed an early start for a walk. Fewer people around so it's easier to see the wildlife. If you look closely you can see a heron through the trees.

Forum

The annual forum for the village associations was moved this year from October to September and instead of being for two days was for only one. More importantly, the other change was that I was only there for some of the time as I no longer had to be there for the village website. Christian, on the other hand, did more or less the full day as "Mr Communication", his new role with the Mairie. He's inherited this job as the person who did it before was "relieved" of the post as she and one or two others are taking the Mayor to court over the proposed building of 8 houses near where she lives ... in other words NIMBY!
That aside, it was a lovely sunny day day and there were some sheep dog trials and a dog obedience and agility competition. Given that the organised meal was another paella, we gave it a miss for a light bite at home.So you see, we can be reasonable from time to time.

More Wedding Bells

As the wedding wasn't until 5pm, we were able to make our usual trip to the market but this time Margaret came with us.
Hardly knew anyone at the wedding but it was a good do none the less. The Mairie where the official stuff took place was a magnificent building set in lovely gardens and the meal back at the foyer was a huge paella. Yet again it took ages to munch our way through all the food and being tired we made our exit before the cake. We heard afterwards that in the tradition of all good weddings, there was a bit of a fracas, so all-in-all, it was just as well that we were out of it.

Keep your Hair on!

Jean and Françoise who organised a conference on nanotechnology invited us to join them,the speaker and a few other partipants for lunch. They seem to have a great knack of finding interesting, highly knowledgeable paople who are approachable, enthusiastic and down to earth. If that wasn't enough, the food was good too. Afterwards we both went and had our hair cut in readiness for tomorrow's wedding.
More food in the evening as we were invited along with Margaret to Juste and Joséphine's for tapas and watermelon that in the end didn't get eaten. Also invited were the couple staying in their gîte. She was an in-your-face haidresser and he, a wine-buyer from the East End. For a party piece Diane decided to cut everyone's hair, well, all except Christian. Even, I didn't escape her scissors! If I'd known, I could have saved myself the time and the money on this afternoon's visit to the hairdressers. Have to admit it but Diane improved on what had already been done. Christian didn't get his hair cut but as Diane's something of a "psychic" she told him a few things that she felt coming from him. Not far off the mark either.

Sunrise

The mornings are dark when we arrive at the lake but the sunrise is beautiful, isn't it?

Thick Skinned?

A quiet few days since our return on Friday apart from Christian's seminar at the Mairie on Saturday. It ended with lunch in the local bar to which partners were invited as long as they paid for themselves. No corruption here!
Today we whizzed into Perpignan to see a dermatologist as we both had wee unattractive 'skin bits' that needed removing and then straight afterwards we whizzed home again.

Doing the Rounds

Looks nice, n'est-ce pas? Well, it wasn't exactly sitting out weather so we ended up in the bistro part(ie, down in the cellar)of this quite grand hotel in the middle of Limoux. Food was creative but the service was a bit dour but not to worry, Marie Chritine and Pierre are always good company. After lunch we drove up into the Corbières to have great views and look at the wind turbines so we've now been taken up close to see them in New Zealand, Scotland and France!

Cross Country

Time to head East toward home. Had a cheapo lunch in Salius sur Sarlat and took some windy roads to Mirepoix, a beautiful bastide town full of Brits. The sun was out and we able to have tea out in the square surrounded by a whole lot of history. in the evening we were given shelter by Marie-Christine and Pierre after we'd driven across fields to get to their house as the roads were up and a lorry had broken down. Will our trials and tribulations never end? One good thing ... I wasn't ill this time proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that it was the mix of Sauvignon blanc and blanquette de Limoux that laid me flat twice before or maybe I just drank less!

The Rain in Spain

Being with friends and having a laugh at least made up for all the things that didn't work out on this trip and all too soon it was time to say "goodbye" to John and Jean. The rain was heavy but by the time we made it to Espelette it had at least stopped. What a wee place .... the houses decorated with strings of the red peppers that they grow ar quite something. How I regretted not having my camera.
From here we drove south to Pamplona (where the bull run is)and wandered around the town with it's grand architecture and pleasant squares. Found a good restaurant for lunch The drive back into France was through some spectacular scenery. Our hotel for the night was from one of those gift boxes where you get a voucher and a bookful of places to chose from, you know the kind ..... they look great at the start but when you try to narrow it down by situation, availability and with a restaurant on site, the choice in the end isn't so great. Still, our hotel, although in the middle of nowhere was comfortable and just what we needed. What we didn't need was the pounding rain and a characterless hostess!

Give me Chocolate!

Things looked brighter this morning aided by a good breakfast. Went back to Bayonne around which we did several circuits trying to get to Darty to buy a camera. The euphoria of the breakfast soon wore off as we could see the shop but couldn't find the right way through to it. A real waste of time in the shop as the assisstant didn't know much about the cameras and said that if we took one, it would take quite a long time to charge so we ended up not bothering. In great need of a pick-me-up we went in search of the best chocolaterie in France (well, according to our friend, Michel it is)to drink hot chocolate and then to wander around the town. Had an indifferent lunch on the main square seved by a decidedly grumpy waitress. Went onto Biaritz and St Jean de Luz where we ended up in the wrong part of the resort. More Southend than Basque fishing port. Shouldn't have forgotten the guide book, I suppose! We had more success after that visiting some very picturesque villages and found a Logis de France for dinner which didn't disappoint.

You Win Some, You Lose Some!

Our lunch stop today was in Bayonne, yes, that's right, where the ham comes from, in a restaurant overlooking the river called the Vivaldi. It was fine although on the next table there was an
elderly man who put more food on his face than in his mouth and his very loud rather odd daughter. The city is just charming with it's cathederal and old narrow windy streets. Being Sunday, of course, there wasn't much open.
Stopped off in Biarittz on the way to meet John and Jean at the B&B. Joined the throngs of people on this warm sunny afternoon fora stroll along the prom and then took tea on the terrace of a 4* hotel. Gulp, nearly 8€ for a cup of tea and a coffee. Luckily the view over the sea was stunning and the chairs comfortable. By the time we arrived at the B&B which wasn't the easiest of places at nearly 7pm to find, we found John and Jean with steam coming out of their ears! They'd arrived at about 3.30pm and as there was no sign of our hostess, they sat in the garden getting and were on the point of giving up and looking for alternative accomodation when we showed up at the same time as Madame (an artist, by the way) who'd spent the day on the beach.
A very old farmhouse, the exterior looked exactly as shown on the website but the interior whilst having a lot of character with some nicebits of furniture didn't warrant the 130€ p.p/night that we paid for our 2 rooms; John and Jean ended up with one that was tiny with a sloping ceiling resulting in Jean bashing her head every time she got out of bed. Our's was larger but shabily furnished with a tapestry of the Virgin Mary facing the bed. I covered it up with a towel as I said it was probably the first time that Christian had slept with a virgin!
Dinner which we ate on the terrace was rustled up in record time and even though it was not worth the 20€ a head we managed to restore a happier ambience.
Oh dear and Jean had previously emailed me to say that I usually managed to come up with nice places to stay ... think I might get the sack next year!

Pays Basque, here we come!

Managed to get ourselves packed and into the car by 10am but in doing so left the camera in the house. A real shame as there was so much gorgeous scenery and charming villages to take in.
Our first stop was in St Pée de Bigorre just outside Loudres which we studiously avoided having had a picnic for lunch en route. Well, the trip does promise several days of over indulgence. The B & B had a lot of character (for which we paid many euros)and our hostess's electrician husband came up with a great meal. There were another couple, a mother and daughter also around the table and it was all very convivial.
A good breakfast at 8.30am and then we were on our way.

Pictures from an Exhibition

Spent Wednesday afternoon (1st Sept) helping Margaret hang her pictures, Thursday there was the AGM of an Association which supports women in the RDC who have been subjected to systematic rape during the course of the war and now apparently the hostilities have subsided, this barbary continues. The women's histories are just too awful and of course are well under-reported.
To more banal matters; Joëlle and Daniel popped in this afternoon to bring a belated birthday gift and to have a cuppa. Then it was a quick change, well, we couldn't let Margaret down, and it was off to the vernissage which was an out and out success.
Never seen anything like it. People were falling over themselves to get a red sticker on the paintings. The most popular was the one of the old mairie for which she's received two requests for copies! There was a great buzz created by all the folk there who universally remarked on the quality of her work. All this was accompanied by music played by Penny on the flute and Don on the guitar. Margaret bravely gave her speech in French with a few prompts from Mr Le Maire. Afterwards there was the usual apéritif and more unusually, 13 of us went to the bar for something to eat. Food's going downhill and is overpriced so the sooner, the new restaurant that is rumoured to be opening does so, the happier I'll be.
By the way, "Pictures from an Exhibition" played by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra was the first ever classical concert I'd been to and I just loved it. Went with another student who was studying worms, if you can believe that. funny, how your mind can hop about from one thing to another.