More Elections

30.3.14:

The clocks went forward overnight and as we had nothing organised, we didn't hurry to get up to meet the day. Elsewhere in France, where there had been no clear majority, round two of the elections were being contested. Nearby, there had been  anonymous tracts, personal verbal attacks, threats and graffiti on the walls of the town hall. I spent the day either in front of the computer or the tv, Christian slept for a good part of the time. Nationwide, there was a swing to the right and the National Front took 14 Mairies. Thankfully, in Perpignan, they were kept at bay though of course, they will have a presence on the council. Béziers, the 4th poorest town in France moved farther to the right with the election of a candidate "supported" by the FN.  The left kept Paris and the Greens won Grenoble.
Of course, now there are expectations that Hollande will reshuffle his governement. We can only wait and see if the next lot do any better.
Weather:
13° in the morning, 16° in the afternoon. Rain overnight , dull, grey day


29.3.14:

This morning the members of the Town Council elected the Maire and the 5 Adjoints. The head of the opposition stood against André but he was defeated (unsurprisingly) 20:3. Her's Christian in the process of casting his vote. The three from the opposition then abstained from voting for the adjoints who had been nominated by the Maire. After all the formalities,  there followed .... no prizes for guessing ...... an apéritif. After the apéritif André, Nany, Carmen, Martine, Mireille, Jacques and ourselves went to the restaurant for the menu du jour. The afternoon and evening were spent quietly at home.
Weather:
16° The day started sunny but dulled over later.

Saga Trip

I was up and about and at the bus stop for 8.30am ready to join a trip to Girona organised by another association in the village. My first with them. There were 47 of us and I reckon that I was more or less the youngest but there again, I could be kidding myself. One or two gave the visit to the Jewish quarter a miss  but the rest were game. I didn't manage to take many photos as I ended up with a 90 year old on one arm and my bag and her bag on the other! The little narrow streets and interesting boutiques made me think that we should do an overnight at sometime just to soak up the atmosphere ....... just the two of us.
From here we drove to the exterior of Oix, a village in the Garrotxa region for lunch. Even though we were well served, several complained that there weren't any chips! Then it was onto Besalu for a tour of the town on the little tourist train (how sad is that!), a visit to the church which was open for once, a visit to a chacuterie shop for a tasting, then a stroll back to the bus and home. Quite an experience but I'm conscious that it's important for people on their own without transport to have the chance to get out of the village.
So while I was on a bus trip with a group of "wrinklies", Christian and Jean-Jeacques were off in the convertable  to La Plaça in Garriguella for a more sophisticated lunch. Such is life!
With a bit of bad management we'd booked for the restaurant's latest quiz which was on music the same day. Terry and Anne made up a team with us but none of us covered ourselves in glory, coming somewhere in the middle. Sadly, neither Christian or I could do justice to the great tapas that were on offer. We really need to avoid two restaurants on the same day. We'll just have to make some sensible choices.
Weather:
18° Sun

Reaching Saturation Point

27.3.14:
The usual language exchange and drink in the bar afterwards. This time, there was no sign of the opposition. Decided to eat at home again rather than going to the restaurant as there was left-over kedgeree to finish up. This evening Jean-Jacques came back with Christian after their meeting for a bite to eat though none of us tucked in as we might have done. It's all getting too much and there will be no let up tomorrow
Weather:
15° though feeling cooler. Blue skies and sun, cloudy later

 26.3.14:
My back is feeling a bit better; just as well as the anti-inflamatories are finished. My ear problem is a lot better too. This eveing we were invited to Nany and André's for something to eat along with Henri and Michèle. She gave us "tartiflette", a tasty cheese and potato dish from the Alps. It was excellent but if you have a look at the recipe, you'll see that it's unlikely to ever feature in the Weight Watchers Cookbook! http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/tartiflette_59096
Weather:
13°, Cloudy
Headlines:
A woman in the States has just been released after 30 years of false imprisonment!! Land of the Free?

25.3.14:
Once again we met up with Jean-Jacques and Michel, this time chez Jean and Françoise's who had invited us to eat lentils and sausage. By now, you'll know that this is Christian's favoutite dish. From theirs we did some supermarket shopping, well, we have to from time to time.
Weather:
15° but feeling cooler in the wind. Sun early on, clouding over with rain later


24.3.14:

After such a late night we had a late start this morning. Christian did go to the Mairie however where he met Michel who invited us along with Jean-Jacques to have coffee and a slice of  ; no ordinary bun but a speciality from the North of France. What's more, it was warm enough to sit outside on his terrace while we talked of the election and village politics.
Weather:
15°,  Sun and a little high cloud

Judgement Day

Christian spent all day at the polling station in the mountains while I attacked a mountain of ironing at home. Got a welcome break at lunch time though as I was invited to Annie's for lunch along with José, Violette and some one called Michel. (by the way, Annie and Violette are identical twins, even their voices are the same).  Roast pork, chips, cheese and apple tart were on the menu. Sadly, I'm still off the wine. Afterwards we went over to the Mairie to vote. I took one of the bulletins into the booth and fortunately put my glasses on ... I'd only picked up the wrong one! (Here you don't put a cross by the name and your bulletin goes into an envelope.
WE WON!!!
André arrived in front with 20 of the 23 seats available. The system here is that you have to vote for the entire list which is a change from last time when you could cross people off the list , add others from the other list or people that weren't even standing!
Registered Voters: 2251
Voters : 1524 ( 67.7%)
Void 177 (these included torn papers, crossings out, comments, a dirty kleenex and a 20€ note for the primary school)
Abstention : 32.3%
From the Mairie we went up to the village hall for a celebratory drink and a few nibbles. I couldn't resist a glass of fizz. Does anyone know why you shouldn't drink with antibiotics? Feeling tired, I left before Christian and at 9.30pm I was just thinking about heading to bed when he arrived with a couple of others for a omlette. Finally ended up with 15 of us continuing the evening with the diehards Christophe and Laurent leaving at 3am.
Weather:
12° sun, clouding over later with a cool breeze
Headlines:
The National Front have won a few Mairies outright and came in front in Perpignan; thankfully there's a second ballot.

Countdown to the Count

22.3.14:

Felt a bit brighter so went to the market and had coffee at the bar with Chantal and Gaby then an apéritif (though not for me) chez Michèle and Henri. From here we all came over our way for a copious lunch up in the hills.
It was great not to have to read  and get angry at yet another opposition tract. This time tomorrow it will all be over.
Weather:
14°, cloud with rain later in the afternoon

21.3.14:
Woke up to find that my ear was red and very swollen (think rugby player). Luckily I managed to get an appointment with the GP in the morning. She's baffled by it and wants me to go back when things are back to normal so she can see into the ear and investigate further.. More medication to take; this time antibiotics and something to protect the intestinal flora. Decided against going to André's last public meeting of the campaign in the village and went to bed instead. At midnight, all campaigning has to finish by law. Thank goodness for that, it's been hard and stressful.
Weather:
17°

20.3.14:
 Did the usual Thursday stuff though we didn't eat at the restaurant as we were going to eat up in the mountains after André's public meeting. What an experience! There was a lot of aggressive shouting which almost led to fisticuffs between two blokes who have a private quarrel going. Dinner was an altogether calmer affair though I could feel that I was in for a bout of the ear infection that flares up from time to time. Add that to my sore back and I was glad to get home.
Weather:
17° sun

19.3.14:

Took myself off to the GP this morning as my back is giving me quite a bit of trouble and came away with a prescription for anti-inflamatories and something to protect my stomache from their side effects. This evening there was a "cérémonie patriotic" to mark the end of the hostilities in Algeria in 1962, a period of French history that was pretty inglorious. As usual there was an apéritif after the wreath laying and speeches then it was on to Jean-Jacques' with André and Nany. Helène and Gérard, who are visiting had been left in charge of cooking the main course while Jean-Jacques was doing his civic duty. Nany made a salmon and leek tart for starters and I made Delia's coffee cake (yet again) for dessert. Well, it's grown up and never fails to please. Jean - Jacques made the coffee. I must ask him how he managed to get everyone else to do the work!
Weather:
19°, sun

18.3.14:
Back not getting any better and there's another larger than life (in this case not just literally) figure who's departed from this earth. Clarissa Dickinson Wright, she of the "two fat ladies", the one in the sidecar, has died in Edinburgh aged 66. She famously said "I'd rather eat cream cakes than take prozac!" I certainly wouldn't disagree with that.  http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/mar/17/clarissa-dickson-wrighthttp://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/mar/17/clarissa-dickson-wright
Weather:
22°, sunny

Bejeezus (And to Be Shure)

If you've been following this blog, you'll know that we normally go to the bar to toast St Pat with Linde and sadly it was always in scotch as Jean-Louis never had any whiskey. This time we encouraged him to mark the day properly with a meal and some music and lo and behold, he did. Lizzie, Patrick, Jacques and Ade provided traditional music, there was a meal with Irish overtones, Guinness, Paddy's and the bar was decked out with shamrocks and lepraucauns. We made up a table with Nany, André, Michèle, Henri and Martine after we'd had an an apéro chez nous. The opposition were there too but this time we were outside and they were inside. Yes, it was warm enough to eat out and we only went inside about 10pm.
Yet again, I have to remark about the richness of You Tube .... you name it, it's there. Of course there was not only  loads of Irish music which I was actually looking for  but also a couple of films that I've earmarked for later on. One about  Irish Brigadistas in the Spainish Civil War and one about two kids under the care of the church being shipped out of Liverpool to the Commonwealth.
On a more fun note heres a link to a popular French musical tribute to Conemara. Catchy, n'est-ce pas?
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbz8YQZscRA&list=WLfVUqZ6d8FJkxkpa5S5LA5zG-Bg80Mj4Z&index=25
Weather:
25°, sunny 

Out Again

No need to cook again as we were invited to the village hall with José and Violette's other friends to celebrate their wedding of last week. There was a wonderful spread, too copious to describe, suffice it to say that we ate and drank well. The only cloud on the horizon was me missing a step when I was helping to clear up and doing my back in!
Weather:
21°, blue skies
Headlines:
After pushing the Ukranians out of the Crimea, a vote was taken there today to rejoin Russia.

Eating Out Again and Again

15.3.14:
Whizzed through the market and went to the café for a glass of wine in the sun then came back to the village for lunch at the bar.
 Weather:
21°, sun and blue skies

14.3.14:
Tony Benn has died which naturally brought back loads of memories of demonstrations and protests in Glasgow back in the 70s and 80s. Now there was a man who could hold a crowd. His speeches were never boring.  
“The House of Lords is the British Outer Mongolia for retired politicians.”  
“If we can find the money to kill people, we can find the money to help people.” 
are just two of the comments from this Guardian article. http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/mar/15/10-of-the-best-tony-benn-quotes-as-picked-by-our-readers
Back in the village we were invited to lunch at Michel's along with Nany and André.
Weather:
20°, sunny 

13.3.14:

Internet still off and I'm starting to get the shakes. The opposition were at the bar having a drink when we arrived for our after language exchange apéritif and Christian remarked how the elections were proving good for business! They were inside and we stayed outside and made the most of the sun. As we were booked at the bar this evening with the rest of the list, we went home for a light lunch.
Christian is responsible for getting all the tracts printed and our cave has become the collection point for those who are doing the distribution so we were up and down the stairs enough times to work off a few calories. Put them back on again, however, with the excellent meal that we had this evening!
Weather:
17°, sunny

12.3.14:
 Grrrhhhh! The internet is off ! Grrrhhh, the opposition tracts are pushing hard at the limits of "fair play" so it was with interest that I read a recent Fidelma Cook article in "The Herald Scotland" that Liz had flagged up. http://www.heraldscotland.com/comment/columnists/election-daze.23560137    While I went for an "apérobio" with les anglaises, Christian was joined by Henri for an apéritif at ours this evening thus making a welcome break from the annoying stuff.
Weather:
16°, sun

11.3.14:
Had a glass of wine at the bar this lunch time on the terrace and discussed the forthcoming St Pat's night with the patronne. Being Tuesday, I made up a platter of nibbles for after the council meeting in anticipation of Jean-Jacques, Michel and maybe André coming round but they all had something else on. Best laid plans and all that.
Weather:
18°, dull

"Steak" Holders

Did a lot of domestic stuff during the day before eight of us from André's list went up to eat in one of the Commune's restaurants. This one is in a hamlet, at 336m, 3kms out of the village. The menu hasn't changed in donkeys' years and we did our best to do justice to the charcuterie, hors d’œuvres,  mixed grill and chips, cheese and fruit tart but even then we didn't manage to finish it all. Good news is that the patron says he'll vote for us. Hopefully, he's not of the Bruce Forsythe "you're my favourite" brigade!
Weather:
23°, warm and sunny
Headlines:
A plane of Malaysian Airways disappeared overnight with no clue how, where or why.

Coffee and Cake Al Fresco

International Women's Day was yesterday and in the village the association organised its usual get together in the square over coffee and cake served by willing volunteers of the masculine kind. Christian donned his pinny for the 6th year running and did his bit. There was glorious sunshine and it was a really pleasant way to pass a Sunday morning.
At the end of it all, Michel and Marguerite invited us to take an apéritif with them at the restaurant where they were going to have lunch. We went home to eat and were joined at the coffee stage by André. Aimée and Jean-Louis left to return chez eux in the afternoon and we took a breather before Jean-Jacques came round for supper. Fortunately, there was more than enough to go around as André turned up again with a new electoral bulletin that he'd written for comments from his two elder statesmen.
Weather:
22° warm and sunny

More Celebrations

We all made a pretty slow start though in fairness, we were up and about before the others. They went off to the market while we went to watch José (one of Christian's colleagues) and Violette get married -  in the Mairie, of course. The ceremony was followed by a "vin d'honneur", nibbles and chat. After that we were in the mood for lunch so went with the others to the bar for the menu du jour.
In the afternoon Pierre and Marie-Christine left for home and I took Jean-Louis and Aimée for a wlk around the village and then across the border for some booze shopping. The evening we spent quietly at home.
So, in two days we've had a funeral, a wedding and a birthday. All of life is here!
Weather:
17°, warm sunshine

Decision Time

Well, you've had a night to reflect; what is he? Angel or Demon?

Feel free to comment!

Angel or Demon?

Before being able to let our hair down at Christian's birthday bash there was a funeral to attend at the crematorium in Perpignan. Elizabeth had been a gardener so there were little posies for people to keep or put on the coffin and there were little bags of seeds for people to plant in her memory.
Then it was back home to get ready for Aimée and Jean-Louis, Marie-Christine and Pierre who were staying overnight as it would be too far for them to go home at the end of the evening.
There were about 100 of us to make merry and wish him well and there were about 20 or so apologies. Christian was spoilt rotten with lots of presents (surprisingly of the liquid kind!) and 480€ in the "pot". He thinks that we'll probably use it to take the train to Madrid for a weekend at some point.

Jean and Françoise's slide show was a great hit and brought a load of laughs. The theme was "Angel or Demon?" and a vote was taken at the end to decide.  He was given a devil's tail, horns and trident so no prizes for guessing which way it went. Funnily enough, Pierre and Marie-Christine gave him a magnum of red wine which was called "ni ange, ni demon"; the box which it came in has been converted into a behaviour barometer to hang in the kitchen! Needless to say, the six of us stayed up talking until the early hours once we arrived home but hey we oldies need to make the most of life, do we not?
 What do you think? Angel  or Demon????
Weather:
18°, sunny

Living with a Septuagenarian!

6.3.14:

Started the day with a copious buffet breakfast and what a surprise, Miguel gave Christian a bottle of the hotel's wine as a birthday gift. We must go back for a weekend, it was a real pleasure being there.
Wended our way slowly back and made for Can Xiquet for lunch  (http://www.canxiquet.com/en/) and a bit of luxury.
It was back to earth this evening for Christian  who  a campaign meeting. Ah well, it was short and very sweet so can't complain.
Weather:
16°, sunny

5.3.14:

A morning at the Mairie and lunch at home before setting off to Begur for an overnight stay. Delivered one or to tracts en route but by the time we crossed the border, the village and politics were far behind us. Arrived in bright sunshine so the Costa Brava was at it's best. The hotel, an old stone farmhouse that I'd found on the internet was just super. (http://www.mascomangau.com/hotel-costa-brava.php?idm=4 )  It had lots of character and Miguel, its owner even more so.  Our room had a small terrace at the front with lovely views so while Christian took a wee nap, I took some sun. We then went into the town for a walk around and a cuppa. Begur is full of interesting nooks and cranies, narrow streets and imposing stone buildings many of which were built by returning colonialists who had made their fortunes in Cuba. ( http://www.comangau.es/gb/holiday-rentals/spain/costa-brava/girona/begur_location_171.aspx ) By this time, the sun was fast disappearing and the evening was becoming cool so it was back to the hotel for the bottle of bubbly that we'd brought with us. Dinner was very good and Miguel was on form passing through the dining room several times to chat with guests. We were the last to leave and he kindly offered Christian a second brandy to celebrate his birthday so needless to say we slept well in our nice, big, comfortable bed.
Weather:
Cloudy start with wind and rain. 18°, blue skies and sun later.

4.3.14:

Went off to Jean and Françoise's with Linde to have a last look at the slide show that they're putting together for Christian's birthday. Of course, he knows nothing about it. This evening after his regular council meeting, Christian opened a few bottles of champagne to celebrate his 70th so over I went to join in. Never could let a glass of bubbly pass me by. Jean-Jacques came back home with us for soup, bread and cheese. Being the first Tuesday of the month, there was a guitar session in the bar so we toddled over for a short time to find the opposition there in full force. Ah, but if they lose, will they continue to support village events? Don't think so as only one of them did before.
Weather:
13°, winds of 100km/h

3.3.14
Christian's last ever surgery in the mountains and as usual, there weren't any clients. I stayed home.
Weather:
14°, heavy clouds and wind

Team Building

2.3.14:
Went over to the bar for a coffee and were joined for a glass of wine by André. Decided to continue to the restaurant for lunch where we were joined by Jacques, another one who has just arrived after a long holiday. Settled down to a quiet afternoon only to have the news that someone we know in the village had died, aged 57. Quite a shock.
Things cheered up in the evening as we were invited to Jean-Jacques for an apéro and an inevitable discussion about village life and politics.
Weather:
12°, sun but chilly wind


1.3.14:
Took ourselves off to the market where we met up with Henri and Michèle at the café. Started with a coffee and finished with a rosé. It was lovely and warm sitting in the sunshine so let's hope our vitamin D levels have been boosted. Fortunately, the sun shone until the afternoon which meant that we could take the "official" photo of our team standing for the elections. Not all of the 23 could be present but it wasn't a bad turn out. André then offered us all an apéritif at the bar which opened today after being closed all month. We sat outside in the sun to drink the wine and eat the bread and charcuterie. Jean-Jacques, Laurent, Samia and ourselves then stayed on for lunch. Well, Jean-Louis has to make up for a month without any income.
Weather:
16°, sun