Hey Joe!

Old rockers never die, they just keep playing Jimi Hendrix! We celebrated Michel's 64th birthday chez nous last night with fizz, music, heated discussion, dance and a lotta laughs. I think that Kathy, Joséphine and I even thought about forming a backing group to accompany Michel on the 21st June otherwise known as "la Fête de la Musique.

Carnaval Mark 2

The weather forecast had threatened rain but in the end, it held off until the carnaval had finished. In his guise as local councillor, Christian was up and out early and I wasn't too far behind. In the morning there was a reenactment of an attack by the Trabucayres, " famous mountain outlaws, bands of individuals who, on behalf of social banditry, political or foul, robbed, kidnapped, and ransomed diligences, owners and farmers from 1837 to 1846. The name comes from the Catalan word "Trabuc" a short-barreled shotgun used at that time. Despite their cruelty, the Trabucayres were treated as avengers to social injustice. This feeling was strengthened because their crimes were addressed to the "bourgeois." In addition, Trabucayres preceded their acts with religious rituels to absolve them from all sin, thus reinforcing their popularity among common people. The legend is still alive and a source of pride among border populations." (description taken from Wikipedia)
a couple of glasses of wine and then it was time for lunch in the village bar. No sooner was that over than it was time to put on our Jimmy wigs and join the carnaval cavalcade. Went home feeling pretty tired after the prize giving to find that the giant penguin from one of the floats (the rugby team) was siting on top of the fountain.

Our Hotel

Being a modern golf hotel, our hotel was at the other end of the time scale. It was every bit, if not more comfortable with wonderful views over the countryside to the mountains. After our respective copious breakfasts we set off to wind our way up to the sanctuary, "la Mare de Deu del Mont". At 1,080m there are views of 360°. The binoculars came out which led to a mine-are-better-than-yours bit of banter between Christian and Joséhine. Coffee on the terrace in warm sunshine above the clouds was relaxing and revitalising and I even managed to order the drinks in Spanish!
Having gone up we then retraced our steps for part of the way hoping that we wouldn't meet much traffic coming the other direction. Turned off to Beuda and had lunch in a typical restaurant where the waiting staff were run off their feet.
Finished our trip with a visit to Besalú, a medieval town that once had a sizeable Jewish population until it was walled in and then driven out.
The trip was over but not the day. In the evening the four of us were invited with Kathy around to Linde's for supper and to watch "J'ai oublié à te dire ...", a film starring Omar Sharif that was filmed locally. The theme was moving and of course, it was fun trying to spot where the various scenes were shot.

Their Hotel

Spanish this morning put Joséphine and myself in the mood for our trip away over the border. Stopped off in Figueres for a look around before going in search of our respective hotels. At least we were only 3km away and we were able to eat together in their hotel, the reknown 16th century Mas Pau. The chef worked with Ferran Adrià of El Bulli. The "gastronomic" menu lived up to its name, so we enjoyed the experience of fine dining in a restaurant that we've wanted to try since we first came here.

A Kiwi Abroad

Thursday again and no walk for me as I had a committee meeting at 9am. Didn't stay for the language exchange but joined the die-hards for a drink in the bar afterwards and met James; he's a painter from New Zealand with an American wife. This is some village, isn't it? The guy was quite bowled over as in the space of about half an hour we were able to open several doors for him without moving from our seats! He was obviously pleased with our help as later on he emailed and told us to choose a print off his web site! That was the good news; the bad news is that we're not booked into the same hotel as Juste and Joséphine tomorrow as we'd thought. It seems our reservation is floating around somewhere in cyberspace. either that, or we simply screwed up!

Another Busy Day

Managed to get out of bed for our early morning walk and just look what I found lurking in the mist as it rose off the lake. The rest of the day was spent tryng to put something together for the English group that Maggie and I were taking this evening. Before that, however, there was another meeting about the visit of the Guadeloupian carnaval troupe who are coming. Much to everyone's frustration the guy running it doesn't seam to be very much more organised than the last time and Christian is getting crosser and crosser about it all.

A Long Day

Up at the crack of dawn for our walk and after catching up with our respective work, it was time to head for the restaurant. Jean had organised another lecture given by a philosopher for the local secondary schools and we were invited to join those and such as those for lunch. The public lecture will be in a couple of weeks time. In the evening as Christian is responsible at the Mairie for the THT stuff we went alog with the Maire and his wife to a very heated public meeting in a nearby village. We were starving by the time we got out at 11.15pm and only managed to find a pretty basic place open in La Jonquera. Not sure that it was worth such a late night. Well, I don't know about you all but 1.30am is really late for us.

Spring in our Step

The first day of spring seemed like a good day to start walking again. Well, we did need something positive to tell the Cardiologist when we saw him in this evening. Christian needs to see a lung specialist about something that his last scan picked up so the Cardio will see him again in 3 months once that is cleared up. nOnce you start poking around, it never seems to stop.

Ups and Downs

18th - 20th March:
Much to my surprise I'm still going to my Spanish group; the problem is that I'm not very good on the follow up bit. Apart from that, Friday was a pretty non-descript day.
Yesterday the market called . The weather was sunny and we had "un verre" in one bar with Gaby and Chantal, newly home from 3 months in Thailand and another in another bar with Jean and Françoise. Lacking any motivation to cook we decided upon lunch out. Returning to the car we stumbled upon a group from the village who were getting ready for the carnival parade. Thankfully here, it was just coffee that was on offer. As it was the last afternoon of the six nations we went over to the bar to watch Ireland wallop England. There weren't many people in but the Irish woman there more than made up for it with her gleeful encouragement of her country's team. Scotland won too which salvaged a bit of their pride. There was also the annual parade to mark the end of the Algerian war and it was my Little Sis's birthday.
Today we've tried to be a bit more healthy. After a coffee in the bar we went to an "alternative" health fair that was taking place in the village for the first time. Then, I did my Postwoman Patricia bit around the village with Association letters and called in to Patrick and Nicole's for a catch up. Being Sunday, I came home hoping to find that Christian had cooked the duck breast but ...... no he hadn't ...... can't tell you what a bad mood that catipulted me into.
Managed to shake off my hard-done-to feelings by mid afternoon when we went for a walk; sun shining, birds singing, trees in blossom and several village people out collecting wild asparagus all helped to balance the old ying and yang.

Wearing of the Green

Being St Patrick's Day we focussed on all things Irish in our language exchange and then went to the bar for a glass of vino; Met up with Pepe and Viv who are over for a few days only to find their garden flooded after so much rain.
In the evening we were back there again, this time with Linde and Kathy for a glass of whisky ( sadly not whiskey). Finished the evening at our place over a bowl of soup and a pizza.