Oh, so Sedate!

Thursday again and as usual there was the language exchange in the morning followed by tapas at the bar. In the afiernoon it was on with the best bib and tucker for the over 65s tea party in the village hall except there wasn't much evidence of a cup of tea. Instead there was cider, fruit juice and sparkling wine to help down the abundance of delicious petit fours. it was oh too easy to have just one more ... Despite a one - man band doing his best to get things going, there weren't a lot of folk up dancing and the atmosphere was somewhat restrained. Maybe the over 70's lunch next week will be a more lively affair. It certainly was last year. Despite party frock and heels once everyone was gone we set to and helped clear up. I do more cleaning in that b----y hall than ever I do at home! You might think that a couple of pensioners like us had already spent a hectic enough day but all was not finished as we'd been invited up to dinner with Madeline. She had Bill (a Paisley buddy) staying and he kept us well entertained though I'm not sure quite what Annie, who we'd picked up on the way, thought about it all. As usual, Madeline did us proud and next time she'll definitely come down to us as we've a date in the diary for February.

Is Winter here?

The temperature is rising from 16° to 18° tomorrow afternoon and this photo was sent to us by Geneviève last week. The other photo of the Xmas decoration infront of the Mairie tells us that yes, indeed we are in December. Let's hope that Copenhagen manages to achieve something.

At last!

My back and neck ache and my eyes are square but the blog is at long last up to date! Feeling really pleased with myself.

Two's Company

While Christian moved my computer from the landing into the more easily heated small bedroom, I started to tackle the ironing. 16 shirts and several tee- shirts later, I've hardly made a dent in the basket. Still there's always next week or the week after. This evening was the usual "surgery" for Christian while I went and saw Annette over a glass of wine. There were only the two of us and this little fella in the restaurant. They'll be closing at the beginning of January for a couple of months ... where will I get my fix of duck breast from?

All over bar the Cleaning

There's no such thing as a free apéritif so we rose early and went up to the hall to help clear up. What a relief that it's over for another year. No, Christian has never tried this with me! Now it's on with the Christmas market organised by the village forum (ie, Flo and myself) so Christian and I went out in the afternoon putting up posters. Yes, they did arrive as promised!

More Téléthon

People are ready to take your money for the Téléthon at all hours so up we went to the village hall for a Catalan hunter's breakfast of bread, cold meats, cheese, red wine and coffee. In the afternoon I put on my village forum hat and with a lot of help from Christian did a bottle stall on which we made 186€ His good heartedness was rewarded as he won a microwave in the raffle! The British tearoom made 1,100€ which was a great effort given the economic climate. Straight after all that there was a choral concert for three male voices in the church . One of those voices was Jean-Michel ... you see I told you you'd be hearing more about him. It was just superb. They sang in French, Catalan, Corsican, Occitane and Latin and quite made your spine tingle. Rounded off the evening with an apéritif back up at the hall.

Feet First

Bought a super pair of warm winter boots which I can see won't come off my feet until March and then went to have a cuppa with Josette. Ashamed to say that it's been weeks since we've seen her but thank goodness she doesn't take offence. After that we went in search of the posters for the Christmas market at the printers. Jean-Michel, Catalan separatist and a hell of a character has promised that they'll be ready for tomorrow but the disorder he works in leaves a question mark hanging. Apparently he and the rest of his group leave France on the 14th July and they're interested in going to Scotland this year and I'm sure you'll be reading more about him in the weeks to come.

The Téléthon kicked off in earnest this evening with a bar, snacks and a variety show. We stayed a while and then decided to give the local bar some of our money as well.

Give us your Money

Went straight from the association committee meeting to sell more plant cuttings at the market where we later joined by the regulars from the language exchange for tapas. In the evening we were invited for an apéritif to Ginette and Jean-Pierre's, the aunt and uncle of our twinning guest Agnes. We were a bit apprehensive as we didn't know them and weren't sure that we'd have anything in common. You can imagine how our hearts sank when we arrived to find an empty table with only 4 small glasses and a few peanuts on it! Fortunately more things appeared and the evening passed well if somewhat sedately.

Smart or what?

This lunch time we were invited along with Terry and Anne to Nick and Lizzie's for a curry. Lots of interesting flavours to conjour with but the most impressive bit was my cup of tea. Just look at the used tea bag holder. The height of sophistication, I say!

Let the Dog see the Rabbit!

There's a fresh sprinkling of snow on Canigou and the wind is blowing strong. Decided to have a break from the village so we took ourselves off to Figueres and then tried out the restaurant in Fortia. It was an old stone place with character and the menu was incredibly cheap .. 10€ for 3 courses with wine. The starters were fine but the main course of rice and rabbit had only miniscule bits of rabbit in it and then they were mostly bone. Pity they don't charge more and up the quality. Also dining there were an elderly German couple and Christian's eyes nearly popped out of his head when he saw them putting their pieces of bread into a plastic bag .... maybe their dog is vegetarian or maybe like us, they had the rabbit!