It’s a quiet Sunday afternoon after the excitement and
bustle of the Easter celebrations here. The procession started at 6am,
somewhere out of town we presume as we didn’t wake until 7am. Again a sunny
day, though temperatures have not got above about 18 or 19 so far, with a low
so far of 10 overnight. We have put the mattress from our sofabed (we have the
mattress and the cover, but not the body of the sofabed) on top of a
double-height blow-up mattress, and it feels like a real bed and is very
comfortable.
At 10am we went down into town for a morning espresso, this
time meeting M. Café de France’s wife with whom we had a really good chat. She
was most interested that we bought here when we had all Europe to choose from.
I guess it was a bit random, but we feel it is a perfect spot for us. She says
many of the foreigners in Céret are very much part of the community, unlike some
other places where they keep to themselves. That suits us fine.
The Easter procession duly arrived – three frames being carried
with various statues or emblems – followed by a small service in the main
square, then a quick trip to the cathedral below us for the main service.
Crowds of locals out to watch, mostly very well dressed, unlike us. We do need to buy a change of clothes or two.
What we did buy was some bread and a couple of little fruit tarts for lunch,
then back upstairs for some tidying.
As I write this at 4:30pm, we are very well established with
everything pretty much in place. It now feels like a home, and looks so much
nicer than when it was grubby and unloved. It’s been scrubbed from one end to
the other, a shower curtain installed, the black-stained toilet miraculously cleaned
with a bit of hydrochloric acid (standard procedure round here judging from the
bottle), and the bed repositioned so we look out the windows across the square
to the trees swaying above the roofs opposite. We are delighted with how
quickly we have settled in, and can now function more or less normally, though
a fridge and cooktop would be nice.
