An Unseasonal Start to August

1st - 8th August 2021

Socially, off to a flying start but weatherwise you'd never know that it was August. Chilly (24°, cloudy with rain showers). Kicked off the month and surprised myself by putting on an apéritif dinatoire for 9 of us. Guests of honour were our Colombian friends and I didn't stint. Loads of food which took hours to prepare. As I've often observed, it's quicker to do a 3 course meal! In between all the chopping, mixing and garnishing I kept an eye on the sky and despite having cleaned the upstairs terrace, I played safe and relocated to the kitchen. Just as well, it rained. Shame I've had to cut off Lisa, who at 15 is underage, as I didn't ask for permission to post.

And, hold your breath, I hauled myself back onto the treadmill for a bit of pre-breakfast exercise the first two mornings. Then came, a merry - go - round kind of few days followed; with late nights and 4 unproductive days treadmill wise. Do I hear, "now there's a surprise" ? Nothing, that I didn't say myself, believe me.

A trip to Perpignan for my annual dermatology check up which took me 6 hours to get there and back on the bus. Oh, the joys of hanging around searching for shade in between times. Still, all was well, so can't complain.

Dinner followed by a mini harpsicord et cello recital give by our hosts.

 A soirée for 10 chez moi, this time due to impending rain, in the dining room yet again with far too much food. This time it was to reunite friends from our Norman twin town and ex Mairie people who participated in the exchange.

 

 

 A welcome day out with Laura, David, Martine, joined en route by Jacques and Monique, a friend of his from Roses. Started in St Laurent with a visit to the espadrilles workshop and Les Toiles du Soleil. From there we wound our way up to Falgos; a bit fresh but it made for clear, fabulous views. On to Tapis for a quick shop and rv with Jacques. Then came the main event ~ a good meal at La Quadra in the garden. Walked back through the village to the café/bar in the square for a coffee where 6 drinks were a fraction more than a third of what we paid at Falgos! Difference between a bourgeois golf course and one of the earliest (1834) workers' social centres in Catalunya that still functions in the same spirit. Rounded off the day with a visit to buy cava. All in all, my kind of day.

A vernissage in Christian's room. Mirrors and ornaments. Different but not wildly exciting and the artist is the partner of the woman on the Council responsible for Culture. JJ and I didn't stay long enough to partake of the apéro as there was one programmed at his to say "cheerio" to the Normans. 

The lay off from the treadmill had to came to an end. All the rich eating and no exercise was not a good combination. Helped the digestion this evening which was spent snacking on some tasty sandwiches (even if I do say myself), other nibbles (Yaneth) and a couple of bottles of cava (David), not that he was celebrating unlike Jacques when the Springboks won in the last minutes. 

Sunday lunch at the restaurant with Martine, JJ, and just two of his house guests; Jacques was flat out after his vaccination. Didn't affect our appetites though!

Weather: 22° - 30° bringing cloud, rain, sunshine

Family, Friends and Football

9.6.19 - 14.6.19:

Next phase of my trip came as I moved from Lower to Upper Normandy to spend some time with family and friends. Lots of time spent sitting and talking around some table or another. No complaints there, of course.
I also did some walking around Le Havre dodging the rain and went to a Women's World Cup match (England v Argentina) along with 20, 251 other spectators. No complaints there either.
You know the routine; follow the link to see the photos.
 https://photos.app.goo.gl/RwJPn78NNBbCA3g28

Thank Goodness for Chocolate

21.4.19:

A dismal start weather wise to Easter Sunday but that's often the case here.

The bar was very quiet with a number of regulars who'd gone off to support the village rugby team in the final of the Occitanie Cup. There's been a banner across the main road and red and white balloons (team colours) dotted around.

I was saved from a solitary lunch by an invitation to lunch at Henri and Michèle's.

This evening was spent quietly in front of the tv and sad to say, the rugby team lost 14-10. And so endeth the dream of contesting the French Cup in their category.

Weather:

17°, damp and cloudy

22.4.19:

No bank holiday lie in as I had a date with Nick to go to the supermarket. Oh what joy! Still it meant I could get some bulky stuff and ingredients for the dinner (yes, another) I'm doing on Friday night.

Had a drink and catch up with Nicole at Pepe's and spent the rest of the day on the computer, on the phone and clacking knitting needles together whilst watching tv.

Well, even in the South of France, not every day can be fun filled and action packed.

Weather:

18°, overcast, damp, chilly, heavy rain at night.

Vive la France

15.7.18: Vive les Bleus!

Preparing lunch meant that my Sunday morning cuppa came later than usual and unusually, I didn' linger for long.
Had a lazy, lethargic afternoon; it was too hot to do otherwise.
Timed my trip to the bar, where we were booked in for the communal paella, to coincide with the end of the match. Needless to say the terrace of the bar was packed and everyone was in high spirits. You'll know of course that France won. Of course, there's all too much hype but the pleasing thing about this team is that they're not the "brats" (too polite to use the term that more adequately describes them) that the last team that included the like of Benzema was.
About 80 of us tucked into the paella which sadly was pretty mediocre. Mass catering at the bar is always a bad deal and if I hadn't been invited, I would have eaten at home. Sorry for being negative.
I did have a mini bottle of cava though to bring back a bit of sparkle and all the positive vibes around meant that no one, not even me, could small niggles spoil the evening.
Weather:
32°, very hot and sunny

14.7.18: Vive la Republique!

Glory, it was hot this morning for the "Bastille Day" ceremony. A procession to the war memorial, the Maire's speech in which he emphasised that there are still personal, national and international Bastilles to be felled, presentation of medals, sardane dancing and an "apéritif républican". It was too hot to linger without shade so Nicole, Nono, Evelyn and Iwandered to the bar for a coffee in the shade next to the cool of  the fountain.
Didn't have to prepare food as I was invite d to the cousin's for lunch and in the evening we ate the leftovers in the fridge after Nono had sorted out the light that I've been waiting for Sauveur to fix. My kind of day!
Weather:
32° very hot and sunny

Football, Food and Photos

13.7.18: Last association obligation for a while

Coffee in the morning with Nono, Evelyn and Nicole. My visitors come with their own accommodation, so they went back to theirs after lunch and I had a free afternoon until it was time to prepare a bite to eat for this evening.
Association duties called all too soon; there was the apéritif to set up before ardent exhibition goers turned up for the vernissage. It was quite well attended but as the photographer is a local person, that wasn't really surprising. There was little food left over which is always a relief though the President did skip off before it was time to clear up. Nothing surprising there either!
Weather:
32°, hot and sunny

12.7.18: Feeling smug
Early morning rendez-vous with Marguerite to buy provisions for tomorrow evening's vernissage, then the language exchange and a cuppa at the bar afterwards.
Moved furniture up and downstairs; not the wisest course of action but there you are, who else is going to do it?
Nono and Evelyn arrived for dinner after which we went to the bar to listen to the music and have a herbal tea. By the way, have you noticed how often non-alcoholic drinks crop up these days rather than "a glass of rosé"? Can only be good, eh?
Weather:
30°, cooler when the rain and thunder came in the afternoon

11.7.18: More good music, lovely setting, disappointing food
Coffee at Joëlle's on the main road, pottered and prepared food for Nono and Evelyn's (cousins of Christian) arrival tomorrow. The evening was spent with Martine, Laura and David overlooking the lake, listening to "swing" and eating a meal that wasn't worth the 30€ it cost. Sitting there brought back many memories of the time that Christian and I walked there every day.  Not that it was a pass time that he enjoyed!
Weather:
32°, overcast, rain showers overnight

10.7.18: Allez les Bleus!
Went to the bar late this morning for my cuppa and was sitting quietly enjoying the peace until the U3A group arrived; they well and truly outdid the the terrible two. They came with a photo of one of their group who had died the day before to put on the table with them. Beat a hasty retreat, preferring to go home to my trusty tablette, the volume of which is easily controlled.
And there I stayed until I wandered over to the bar to experience the atmosphere at the end of the French semi final against Belgum. They won and as Martine was there we lingered a bit longer for a cuppa.
Weather:
34° sunny

9.7.18: Good music, friends and tapas

Had a coffee at the other bar with Martine and Nicole this morning and went to the folk evening in my regular this evening. A pleasant way to spend a warm summer's evening.
Weather:
33°, sunny

Very quiet weekend

8.7.18: Another point of view

There were seven women for coffee at the bar, the terrible two included. Jacques came by later on and after an apéro, he invited Nicole and myself to help finish up the leftovers from Friday's meal. as ever he was very hospitable and we had a good discussion about the unrest in Nantes after the shooting of a young man by the Police.
Too well fed and too hot to do anything other than sit on the settee and watch my latest Netflix boxset, "Serangoon Road". It's an Australian production set in Singapore in 1964 and for once the Brits weren't portrayed as the "good guys".  That does make a change, doesn't it?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serangoon_Road_(TV_series)
Just in case you're tut, tutting that I'm not exercising off all those calories, I'll have you know that I've done 1 hour+ on the treadmill for six of the last seven days. Not bad, eh?
Weather:
35°, hot and sunny

7.7.18: More Swedish than the Swedes!

Market with Michel  and Patrick. Didn't even have a coffee with anyone. Spent the afternoon at home waiting for the electrician to come; he didn't. Filled the time with doing some cooking to see me through the week and then at the end of the afternoon, I went to the bar only for as long as it took to take a photo of Nicole in the Swedish colours. Here she is with a couple of Swedes who have a holiday home here and not one to do things by half, she's even carrying an IKEA bag! How much longer must we suffer the football? If you're wondering why, if I'm not interested in the "beautiful game", I'm taking these photos, it's to put them in the Association's photo gallery on the web site in order to show that our members participate in the life of the village. Heck, I'm getting so boring but that's life at the moment.
Weather:
33°, sun, cloud later

Keeping up with friends

6.7.18: Food, friends, footie and all that jazz

Delivered the posters for a forthcoming  exhibition of photographs by one of the Association's members, stopping on my way around at the new wee salon du thé. Then it was lunch followed by supermarket shopping with Maggie. Lunch was a good deal in one of those purpose built restaurants on an estate accommodating small businesses and workshops. Thus it's only open Monday to Friday and its clientelle  predominately pensioners (good value for money) and male workers.
Turned down an invitation to join Jacques, his partner and 4 other friends for a BBQ but I did make dessert for them and to be sociable, stayed for an apéritif when I delivered it.
Later I met a few friends at the bar to listen to some jazz on the terrace. The yellow mug with tea in it, is mine!
Inside, the football was on and here's Nicole in the Belgian colours. She's becoming quite a legend with her footie get-ups in the colours of one of the teams in action.
Weather:
29°, sunny

5.7.18: Forward Planning

Language exchange, a cuppa afterwards at the bar, time on the computer and a meeting to try and advance "project cornemuses (bagpipes)". Despite the two members from the Mairie not turning up (one was stung by a wasp and dealing with the aftermath, it went completely out of her head, the other chose to go to a vernissage in Perpignan instead), it felt as if there was a bit more support and willingness to be involved. However, having been let down the last time, I decided to take the minutes myself. Not anyone's favourite pass time. Still, a glass of rosé rather than a cuppa at the bar was a good pick-me-up.
Weather:
29° sun and light rain shower

4.7.18: Rosé for two

Met Nicole at the other bar for a tea which was followed by a glass of  rosé and once we were able to have a conversation without interruption or banalities.
Nothing else of interest.
Weather:
34°, sunny and windy

3.7.18: An evening in

Arrived at the bar at 11.30am, an hour later than usual. The terrible two were just about to leave .... result! Nicole, bless her, stayed on.
For once, I spent a good part of the afternoon in the kitchen preparing tapas for Michel, who's back from Thailand, his two visitors and Jean-Jacques. It was good to have some new faces and conversation along side old friends and a reason to open some cava. Patrick and Christian were appreciative of the evening which leaves me wondering why I don't do it more often.
Weather:
32°, hot and sunny

2.7.18: An afternoon out

Gave coffee a miss in favour of doing stuff around the house. Went with Florence in the afternoon to see the Dufy exhibition. As you can see below, the title is Dufy's Perpignan studios. I naively thought that there would be lots of paintings that were painted there. Yes, there were but they were of the studios themselves! Not you'd know it from the museum's website. This photo is of the card I sent to my Mum.
Upside was that there weren't many people there so we could take our time to navigate around the exhibition rooms and studiously read the notes alongside each exhibit.
http://www.musee-rigaud.fr/fr/actualites/expositions/raoul-dufy-ateliers-perpignan-1940-1950
Being Monday, many of the independant shops were closed; is it any wonder that the centre is dying, we asked ourselves. The two "salon du thé" that we'd thought of going to were also closed so we ended up in a brasserie on the way back to the carpark.
Spent the night in with my wee pal Netflix.
Weather:
30°, hot and sunny

Deft Dancers and Great Danes

12.6.17: Scandi Games

An out of sequence committee meeting this morning in order for us to get organised for our annual "Danish Games" and Friday night's tapas evening. It all seemed to involve me in a lot of toing and froing in the heat of the day. Called into the bar for a coffee on the way home and met up with Lynn and Ann. Marie-Louise joined us and as my Mum would say, she's someone who can "talk the hind leg off a donkey" and golly did she live up to her reputation. It was exhausting and my compatriots, who don't speak French, left me to it! Not that I needed to say anything; a nod, a smile and a few huh, huhs were all that was necessary.
The games in the evening were explained and refereed by Lone and Jesper who also supplied several varieties of Danish beer at full time. There were about 30 of us to play "Kubbs" which is kind of like skittles. Well, 29 played and I took photos. https://www.mastersofgames.com/rules/kubb-rules.htm
Went for a cup of tea at the bar to wind down with Nicole P after clearing up. Finally went to bed about 12h30 and it was still 26°/78.8°F!
Weather:
In the 30's, hot and sunny

11.6.17: Didn't She Do Well?

The usual Sunday routine: coffee, then an omelette lunch with Nicole S and Patricia. A short rest followed which was followed by a dance gala featuring participants from the age of 2 to 67 years of age. The hall was filled to bursting and the audience very appreciative; not only because they were family and friends but also because it was genuinely good. Imaginative routines and incredibly supple and fluid movement. Nicole P and I had been invited to the show by Gérard and Evelyn. Evelyn was the 67 year old and it was her first ever year of dance. Have to say that it was extraordinary that someone who always seems so reserved and serious should take to corporal expression so easily.
By way of  recompense, we went to a local auberge for dinner. It's ages since I'd been there and I have to say that it hadn't changed enough to make me want to hurry back.
Weather:
30°, sun

French National Sport and North African Food

9.6.17: An Exotic Doggy Bag

Once a month recently, the Association has organised a boules "tournament" so true to form, Gilles organised a morning down at the recreation ground. true to form I didn't play contenting myself to take some photos that look much the same as all the other months' photos and to help set up the apéritifs. Mimi and Eric served up a home cooked couscous to 25 of us which true to form was delicious. Mimi, kind person that she is, made quinoa especially for me to keep the meal gluten free. I even got the remainder with some left over sauce and veg to take home for another day. Of course, I had to give the Moroccan pastries a miss but as they're full of honey, that was absolutely no hardship. I didn't say "no" to the mint tea that was on offer though.
Blog again in the afternoon.
Weather:
23°, low cloud, drizzle, sun later

Lackluster Week

16.6.16: Rain stopped Play
For once I gave the after language exchange apéritif a miss in order to go with Yasmin to La Jonquera. Started with a relaxed coffee out on a terrace and then did the shopping that we needed to do.
A thunder storm at 4.30pm put paid to our proposed neighbourhood get-together whih I wasn't that orry about as I'm still lacking in energy.
Called in to see Nancy early evening. JJ came by to help her with her computer and we all had a drink together. I then stayed on for a bowl of soup with her and long chats about the state of the world, the state of our personal lives and all stations inbetween.
Weather:
23° Sun, thunderstorm later

15.6.16: Pastures New
Not 100% but feeling more like my usual self today which is reassuring. Had coffee with Yasmin in town and then we picked up her husband Reza, to go to the Laetitia for lunch. Managed a good salad sitting on the leafy terrace not bothered by the road just the otherside. Funnily enough, after all the years I've been here, it's the first time I've eaten there. Was better than I'd imagined. http://www.restaurant-lelaetitia.com/
The rest of the day went well too. I managed to get the Spanish podcasts downloaded and Jackie came for tea.
Weather:
22°, Sun, rain in the evening

14.6.16: Food with Football Fans

Joined Nick first thing on his supermarket run and was home in time to have a coffee with Nicole P and Nancy who was meeting JJ for lunch. Refused their offer to join them.
Stomach feeling better in the afternoon which was just as well, as I was invited to Ann and Terry's for dinner along with Trevor and Judith, an Irish couple. The four of them plus several others are in a "fantasy football" league (look it up if you're remotely interested) and as Judith and Trevor had missed the awards ceremony, Terry did a very humouristic one specially for them. Even though, I'm known not to be the least bit into the beautiful game, there was something for me too.
Weather:
23°, Sun and a little cloud but too cool to have the apéritif outside

13.6.16: Taking it Easy
Woke at 3am with red, itchy hands. Think I must have been bitten but couldn't see any puncture marks. Still, a cream that I had soon calmed the irritation and let me get back to sleep.
Coffee with Nicole P, Valerie and Nancy. 
Gérard called by with a few girolle mushrooms and more cherries from Jacques so omlette was my inevitable supper. Still not very hungry but slightly less tired
Weather:
25°, rain shower in the afternoon

12.6.16: Intolerant Stomach
Feeling very tired but took myself to the café to meet the usual crowd.Christian stopped by with his son and I learnt that he'd thought that the meal at Angela's was dinner and not lunch, so by the time she winkled him out, he'd already eaten! You wouldn't have known!
Didn't stay for lunch; in fact gave lunch a miss altogether as stomach gently complaining. Just rested on the bed all afternoon.
Weather:
25°

11.6.16: Tolerant Hosts

Went into the market on the bus and bumped into Maggie with whom I had coffee and a long overdue catchup. tok the bus up amélie to have lunch with Angela and Paul (who have a holiday home there), a Canadian couple and Christian (who used to live in this village). We'd expected the latter to appear for the apéritif. After an hour Angela went to find him so that we could get on and eat. Have to say, that I didn't really do justice to the meal as I was feeling out of sorts. Too much to eat last night, too tired? Suffice to say, I'm not my jolly wee self. Could have happened at a worse time as tonight I was invied with Ann and Terry to have a bite to eat at Michel's. No appétit and not even interested in something to drink so I held it together until about 9.30pm when I bailed out.
Weather:
Cooler and cloudier with evening rain