We had promised ourselves a sleep-in this morning but our
builder decided to turn up this morning soon after 8am and we quickly bundled
out of bed and made ourselves more or less respectable. He had the door sorted
within 10min but we were well awake by then so had a lazy breakfast, followed
by a lazy coffee in town and a wander around the shops. It’s pretty ridiculous
that John and I haven’t had much look at the shops since we have been here, but
now we have the time, we are enjoying doing a bit of poking around.
We went
into the local public library (only 2min from our front door) and discovered a
delightful building (with outdoor terrace and reading area), with plenty of
French books and videos. The videos will have an English language option on
them so we could have a great time working through them. I spied one or two
videos about the Templars (Crusades) and am keen to watch them and find out
more about the Cathars. We then found some great local books in the bookshop
and ended up buying a detailed map of the Pyrenees/Oriental area (to put on our
wall), a book on walks to the Cathar castles and another on general walks in
our area. They are all written in French so this will make us improve our
French.
We bought some obscene crème pastries for lunch and then
spent our usual few hours watching some of the Tour de France on TV. Scott is
grieving leaving behind all the delectable pastries we have here, so is doing a
last-day tasting session.
 |
| Preparation for the feria |
Town is really gearing up for the Feria. Just below us they
have put up 4 metres of urinal in an alley, and there are at least two others
elsewhere. There are huge outdoor bars being assembled. The scariest thing is
that the fountain in Place des Neuf Jets has been completely walled in and the
centre piece has been totally encased in plywood. It must get pretty riotous. A
number of little alleys have had temporary strong gates set up at their
entries, and there are plywood and plastic sheets being prepared to protect
other entrances. It’s going be huge fun. We might not get to sleep too much,
and our escape to see the Tour de France on Sunday may be a welcome relief.
Fireworks tonight at the rugby stadium.
