Friday 31st - Walking around Paris

Today was another major expedition, this time walking to the Champs-Elyseés, Arc de Triomphe, Tuilleries Gardens, Place de la Concorde and the Eiffel Tower. We are really enjoying walking through Paris, admiring the buildings and just seeing the difference in the neighbourhoods. We have probably heard more African and Indian being spoken than French. In fact, in many respects, you could think you were in any large city in the world, with only French writing on the buildings betraying you are in France. It’s quite astonishing how you can be in an Indian neighbourhood in one block, cross the road and find you are surrounded by very dark Africans, or more olive skinned Algerians.  We are also intrigued by the differences in body shapes and sizes among the different cultures.

We have enjoyed being in Paris again, it’s exactly 30 years since we were here last time! We again found the Eiffel Tower amazing, but were rather disappointed with the Champs-Elyseés. Last time we remembered it as being lined with highly exclusive stores, targeting the rich and famous in Paris. Now, there is just as likely to be a 10€ store (equivalent of our $2 shop I guess), McDonalds, cheaper clothes shops offering 70% discounts, or a pizza place interspersed with major showrooms of Peugeot and Mercedes, or designer stores like Versace. We were looking out for chic Parisians out on the prowl for designer clothes but failed to spy any.

Caught a metro home and back by the very reasonable hour of 5pm. Just perfect to have a glass or two of our rosé which is sitting in the fridge. We have to get through it within the next 2 days. John is trying manfully but I am already over my limit with just one glass – I guess a small homemade salad for lunch hasn’t given me much freeboard. We plan to be extravagant tonight and go to another Indian restaurant for dinner.

We have been having muesli for breakfast each morning, brought with us from Céret. It is really hard to find any cereals here that aren’t about 90% sugar and/or chocolate (slight exaggeration). However, we ran out of muesli today so had to find a replacement at the local superette. We ended up with “Cruesli” (i.e. crunchy muesli) that is crammed full of chocolate chunks. The good news is that the chocolate is 65% cocoa though, so obviously it’s ‘good’ chocolate. Clearly. We think the French just don’t do cereals – they have croissants or pain au chocolat (like a croissant with chocolate filling) with coffee for breakfast and that’s it. 

Thursday 30th - Paris museums

Today we chose to make a museum day. We were particularly keen to visit two in particular, but hadn’t reckoned on the fact that we would spend so long at them. We walked to the Museé des Arts Decoratif and spent a very interesting 3+ hours there. It is full of Art Nouveau and Art Deco exhibits, as well as the more ordinary fare. Also a very good display going from the 30s to the 90s, a floor to each with plenty of “designer” chairs of which we recognise a good number., and most of which live as tiny models in our glass-topped living room table in Nelson.

We didn’t leave until 4pm but still wanted to see the Museé d’Orsay, for its extensive exhibition of Impressionist art. We enjoyed the huge number of Cézanne, Reynoir, Monet, Picasso, Monat, and Sisley paintings in particular, but not as much as we remembered from 1982 when they were at Jeu des Paumes. We could have spent hours and hours there, but our feet were tiring and we targeted the artists we most wanted to see, plus the Art Deco and Art Nouveau exhibits. Finally left at 6.30pm, having carefully managed to avoid some rain showers while we were inside.

Opted to get the metro home, and found our way back to a metro stop near our apartment very easily. It is a superb public transport system. We cobbled together a meal of bread, salad and bits and pieces.

Wednesday 29th - Paris Day 1

First day in Paris and we started with a bit of a sleep-in. We know that seems a waste but we were absolutely knackered from the fast-paced multi-stop tour of the last four days. John had a bit of work to do, and after making a quick plan for the next four days we headed off in the direction of the Ile de la Cité. We chose our apartment partly because of its location (right near Gare de Nord and within close walking distance of most of the big sights of Paris).

We spent a very enjoyable six hours wandering to, around and back from Ile de la Cité, during which we checked out Notre Dame, Saint-Chapelle, and walked past a number of other major buildings including the Pompidou Centre.

Back on aching feet, to our apartment for a cold beer and then out to a Chinese meal down the road. Again, a very nice meal. We ate out very little while we were in Céret so are maybe making up for it a bit here. 

The temperatures have been much cooler here than in Céret. It’s only got up to about 23 degrees so we are feeling quite cool. I’ve been wearing a sweatshirt a lot of the time, first time for months.

Tuesday 28th - Chateau after Chateau

Off gently in the morning to Clemenceau chateau. This is one of the loveliest chateaux – it’s the one on its own little island. We thought it would be worth going through, and indeed it was. Back on the road via Amboise, Chaumont, Blois to Chambord, the largest of all the chateaux. Paid our 3€ for parking and wandered around the grounds of this monster building. It really is an absurd size, in massive grounds. Our chateau-hopping worked out pretty well, we enjoyed seeing a good range of chateau through an equally good range of countryside. Ideally we would have taken a week for the same trip, but there are only so many castles you can try and see, and if you went through every one you’d be broke.

Back onto the motorway as time was getting on and we had a delivery time on the rental car. At 40km out of Paris we were sure there’d be another gas station, but there wasn’t. The nasty little orange petrol light came on and eventually discretion took the better part of valour and we set the GPS for a petrol station, noting that our time was running dangerously close to drop-off time. We ended up going on and off motorways, failing to find a petrol station and getting increasingly frustrated and late. Finally we gave up on the GPS, got onto smaller roads and found one ourselves within 200m. Huge relief, though time was past our drop-off now. Back onto the motorways then off again for Gare du Nord for Hertz. Found Gare du Nord easily enough, but the Hertz depot was cunningly hidden somewhere we couldn’t find on two loops past it. Onto the phone to them and with their instructions zipped down the 7 levels below street level to Hertz, where our late arrival was no issue at all. Not the easiest start to our Paris sojourn.

Finding our apartment was simple compared. The Android phone has proved superb for street navigation. Fascinating couple of blocks from Hertz to here. It started at the train station where the majority of people were jet-black northern Africans. One block from our street everything and everyone turned Indian. Every shop (yes, every shop) is Indian. Fabrics, phones, food, superettes whatever, we could be in the middle of Calcutta. All the talk even is in Indian dialects. Amazing.

Rang our owner’s brother as instructed, and JB turned up on one of the Paris Velib city-owned hire bikes inside 15 minutes. He was really helpful, great English, and had us settled in shortly. We dumped our bags, did a quick recce of the block or so around us, bought some groceries at one of the three cash-and-carry superettes on our street, and dropped them back at the apartment. Next stop was to find a place to eat for the night. Not surprisingly, we chose Indian! The difficult decision was which one. JB suggested one of the ones at the end of our street and we ended up getting takeaways there for a very simple meal.

Monday 27th - Parthenay to Azay-le-Rideau

We stopped at the old bridge on the way out, and it turns out that Parthenay has a lovely old medieval quarter below the current town centre. It was amazing looking up the narrow street realising that thousands of pilgrim feet had tramped that very way for hundreds of years on the route to Santiago de Compostela.

Off north via St Loup-sur-Thoret, Airvault, a little abbey at St Jouin des Marnes, Thouars, Montreuil-Bellay and to Saumur for a lunch stop. All these were chateau towns, where we mainly stopped for a quick picture. Close to Saumur we realised we had neglected to keep the camera batteries charged, so chose a place for lunch on the basis of a plugboard outside next to the shop’s glacé machine where we could recharge a battery! The landscape was flatter, dryer, with fewer trees and grapes now. Not a patch on the Dordogne.

We did a tour of Fontevraud Abbey, the largest in Europe supposedly, though we are not convinced of that. Poblet in Spain was as extensive and a lot more interesting. Off again to Chinon and the night’s stop at Azay-le-Rideau. This was a gorgeous little town with a major chateau. We got a room in a perfect B&B with, for the first time, plenty of time for a beer at a café, a wander around, dinner and some time to read a book. Just what the doctor ordered. We know we have done too little of this during this whole trip, and that is one of the big draws for next year – to have more time to actually travel.

 

Sunday 26th - Rochefort to Parthenay

The morning was dry again, and a lot of racket with a big display of WWII vehicles being set up below us. We avoided them and parked down by the river to have a wander around the old quarter of Bergerac. Next major stop was the very attractive limestone town of St Emilion. All the towns here are of gorgeous warm limestone, and there are wine baron chateaus everywhere you look. The Dordogne was behind us, and the landscape had smoothed out a lot as we neared the coast. St Emillion was well worth the visit. More attractive we felt than Sarlat, and somehow felt less touristy though there were hundreds about. We came across a sale at a white-only clothes outlet and did a little damage, then onwards to Rochefort by 3pm through the grapes, sunflowers and corn fields.

St Emillion

Rochefort Corderie

Rochefort is where the ship Compte de Paris left from for Akaroa, so Karen wanted to look at the city and check out the museums. The National Maritime Museum was a bit of a fizzer, in fact the whole place wasn’t much chop. Rather disappointing.  We left at 5:30 heading up through the Loire to Paris.

Finally we managed to arrive somewhere at a sensible hour so we could settle in and have a beer in the sun. Parthenay was the chosen spot, mainly because it was where we were at 8pm! It turned out to be very nice. We had a French menu du jour at a restaurant just below us. The waitress was an absolute pleasure – bright and cheery – and made the meal very enjoyable.

Saturday 25th - Cahors, Rocamadour, Bergerac

Cahors’ bridge was indeed worth a look. Had a quick chat to a nice French man doing his morning constitutional. 

Cahors Bridge

From Cahors we had a full list of attractive little towns to pass through. Rocamadour was special, followed by Gourdon, Domme, Beynac, and Sarlat-la-Caneda. The weather was a little showery – it took us a few minutes to recognise the water falling from the sky. Quite a novelty for us. It is lovely country, and many of the towns were extremely attractive. Sarlat was also very pretty, but a bit much of a tourist trap. We keep comparing places to Céret and feel very happy with our choice of where we bought. The little towns are too small, and the ones the size of Céret mostly don’t have its tight medieval core.

Rocamadour

La Roque Gageac

Sarlat-la-Caneda

We had found a place where Neanderthals and later dwellers lived in a giant cliff ledge – La Roque Saint-Christophe – and paid it a visit. Fascinating place, with a number of mockups of what might have been there. We were now in the Dordogne. Lovely rolling landscapes, with lots of forests, attractive buildings and it’s clear why the English love it so much. Very different to our area.

La Roque Saint-Christophe

The view of the Loire at Tremolat was a waste of time, so into Bergerac for the night. Quite a big town. We have not yet passed the end of the tourist season, as accommodation is hard to find. All the nice B&Bs we had noted were full up so we stayed again in a hotel, with dinner at an Asian place around the corner.

Friday 24th - Heading north via the Loire

The day started with throwing the sheets and towels in the machine and getting them hung up super quickly so they’d have time to dry. Next down to the pool for a final swim. Down there we said our goodbyes to Wally & Ellen, who couldn’t quite believe we were having a swim on the morning of our departure and looking very relaxed about everything. It’s quite simple – we don’t want to pick up the hire car until 5pm, so we can drop it off in Paris at 5pm, as we can’t collect our AirBnB apartment key until after 6pm.

Bar le Pablo

A nice salad for lunch, cleaning out the fridge, then a big goodbye to all the waiters at Bar Pablo, where Bruno gave us a final free bon voyage pair of coffees.

We closed up the shutters after taking the plants in (we hope they will survive between the windows and shutters, too bad if they don’t), shut the windows, turned off the power and left. Down to the bus, into Perpignan and were off in a little Chevrolet Spark not long after 4:30pm. Ugly little car, but works OK as long as it is revved hard.

Montech

Off we went up past Carcassonne, then turned northwest before Toulouse using the toll roads to get us on our way a bit more quickly. Unbelievable amount of sunflowers being grown, unfortunately all very brown and sad. Drove through Montauban to Cahors where we had tagged the fortified bridge as worth a look. We’d booked the first night, and at ¼ to 9 got a call saying we are closing at 9, where are you. Our booking had said 9:30pm, but we arrived with a few minutes to spare anyway. Sad to have left Céret, but plenty to look at to keep us occupied.

Thursday 23rd - Parking up the scooter

Gave away a swim this morning as we figured it was more important to catch M. Vargas to sort the scooter. We weren’t sure what time he haunted Bar Pablo, so cruised the streets a little (we know he also uses other bars!) but he didn’t turn up at his normal hour at Pablo.

We thought we needed to sort the scoot, so went down to his house, where by chance his sister was just arriving too. She was lovely, knew all about his offering his cave, and opened it up for us. We went back for the scoot and with the help of one of Amelia’s friends (our neighbour below who was moving out of Place de l’Eglise and into M. Vargas’ house as her flat had been sold to a Paris lawyer) rolled the scooter down into the cave. Unfortunately I couldn’t easily get at the battery to disconnect it, so removed  a bunch of fuses. They were under the seat, but on closing it, I found the remote cable release didn’t work so it may be a problem when we return. Too bad, that’s so far away we can’t even imagine it.

Back for a salad lunch followed by packing. The heat continues. Everyone in Céret is complaining. It does get this hot sometimes, but not normally for days in a row, and not combined with the highish humidity we have been having. At 3pm we adjourned to the pool for another swim. They don’t have lane ropes up in the afternoons by the look of it, so after trying to swim in a busy pool for a while we gave it away and just hung about in the water keeping cool.

Finishing off packing and cleaning took us into the evening, after which we went on a slow loop around the main streets to try to fix Céret in our minds. We have had a wonderful time here. We’ve made some lovely new friends, expats and locals. We have so much left to see – it’s been absurd that we did the last little bit of painting today, when we are leaving tomorrow.

Wednesday 22nd - Househunting

Up a little blearily this morning. John finished off the painting in the bathroom and it looks pretty good. We will put in new bathroom floor tiles when we come back next year – we already have them stashed away in our storeroom but what we have done is fine as a temporary measure.

We had our appointment with a second real estate agent at 11am – he had also appraised our place last week. Even better good news. He put the current price of our apartment quite a lot higher than the Century21 agent yesterday. However, we think he possibly gave it a good nudge because he then took us to view a 3 bedroom apartment (with pool and terrace) a few streets away in Rue de la Republique. It was very generously priced but had been on the market for a year. We wanted to view it to get an idea of what a larger apartment in the centre of old quarter may cost, and clearly very few come with a pool. It was interesting to have a look over it, and we could make a massive difference to it through renovation work, but it’s too big and too expensive to be a realistic option. We quizzed the agent today on the potential of adding another bedroom and terrace to our own apartment, and he confirmed what the Century 21 agent said. It would not add enough value to the place in comparison to the likely cost of doing the work.

I did some cleaning today but we don’t really have that much to do before we go. I had a nana nap this afternoon to make up for last night’s late night. We have just opened up the shutters – the temperature inside and out is more or less equal at 32 degrees. It’s quite pleasant sitting in the shade at Bar Pablo where the light breeze makes the temperature a lot more palatable. Our Aussie mates have just emailed to say there son is going to be paying a flying visit to Céret this afternoon and will be at Bar Pablo at about 6pm and asked if we would like to go and meet him.

We had an extremely pleasant hour chatting away with Grant (Ross and Liz’s son) and his girlfriend, along with Sally and Eamonn, an English couple who have been living here full-time for four years and will be looking after renting out Ross’ place. It was the first time we had met Sally and Eamonn as well. Liz had already suggested to them that they could perhaps also look after our place when it is being rented, e.g. clean it between changes and even collect people from or drop them at Perpignan. They are a very nice English couple, who have three children now firmly installed in the local French schools. Grant and Amelia were a lovely couple, just on a day trip here from Barcelona.

We stayed on at Bar Pablo in the hope of catching Monsieur  Vargas. We will be storing our scooter in his garage but he is pretty hard to track down. He is usually at Bar Pablo at some time of the day. Our builder M. Freitas turned up, and we found out from him that we will always catch M. Vargas at Bar Pablo between 11am and 12am, and that the evening is not a good time to track him down – he is well and truly gone by then.  M. Freitas gave us a big kiss, bought us a drink and said he looked forward to seeing us again next year. It gave us a nice warm fuzzy feeling J.

John got a real buzz out of being able to understand just about everything the real estate agent was saying today. His fluency has taken a big leap forward in the last 2-3 weeks and we have put it down to the fact that we have been out of the apartment a lot more since our work has been winding down, having apero with French people, and chatting more with the waiters at the bar, people in the street, in the shops and so on. It has made a huge difference. I can also understand a lot more of what people are saying than when we arrived in Céret. I was even making conversation at the hairdresser’s today.

Tuesday 21st - Getting an idea of value

We decided to go to the pool again today – the first time we been two days in a row. We will definitely miss the lovely outdoor setting.

After lunch we walked around to the Century21 real estate office. Their agent, M. Molas, came out last week and reappraised our apartment. We also showed M. Molas the upstairs rooms which we are considering converting into another bedroom plus roof terrace (or alternatively two bedrooms). Good news and not so good news. We have clearly done very well in increasing the value of the apartment from the work we have done, and provided a reasonable return for our efforts if we decide to sell. However, the cost of doing the additional building work upstairs, plus the associated costs of buying the space, getting appropriate documentation from the notaire and applying for planning consent suggests that it would definitely struggle to be worthwhile. This probably knocks the whole idea on the head and in some sense is a relief, as we don’t have to do Round Two on the place and can just sit back and enjoy what we have. We will do a little more research, e.g. try to have a chat with our builder, but we suspect the idea is now likely to be a dead duck. However nobody else can use the space like we can, so it will remain an option.

Back to the apartment, dripping madly in the sweltering heat. A bit more packing, and John has been putting the finishing touches to the newly plastered wall, including cunningly putting in ‘joint’ lines vertically and horizontally. When we paint it up tomorrow it will look pretty smart. Amazing – we finish work on the place tomorrow and then leave two days later! Roll on next year when we will have much more free time. I hope to write a good chunk of my book while we are here next year.

We bumped into our English friends Wally and Ellen at the pool today and agreed to meet up tonight for a farewell drink at Bar Pablo. 9:30pm was the designated hour, when it would have cooled down a little. We ended up having a grand old natter, and stayed until the bar closed and the resident jazz band wrapped up at midnight.

Monday 20th - Prep for leaving

Such a hot day again today. It was already 24 degrees by 7.30am so not keen to go on a run. We are going to the pool more and more, as are lots of other people. Thankfully, they now have two lanes roped off so people can swim lengths if they want to, one reserved for children’s programmes. There are usually only 2 or 3 others in our lane so it’s not a problem. We think the temperature in the pool is now about 28 – 29 degrees, and the weather report on TV tonight said the sea temperature on our coast is 24 degrees. The temperature predicted for Céret for the rest of the week is more of the same: 35 degrees. We haven’t seen rain for a few months now. The last wet day we can remember was when Alastair was with us at the end of June, though it did rain hard one night since.

This afternoon saw us begin our preparations for packing up here and leaving. We have photographed the clothes we are leaving so we will be able to recall what we have here. They have all been put into the shelves in the storeroom. We’ve also begun sorting through books etc.

John put the last coat of plaster on the wall in the bathroom beside the shower (where the bath used to be). We haven’t been able to find tiles to match those already on the rest of the walls, so we are plastering it up and will paint it the same colour. It is hidden behind towels when they are on the towel-rail so it’s no big deal.

Went for a short walk around town at about 9pm to try and cool down a bit.

Sunday 19th - Mme Delard for apero

Managed to get up quite early today (we work on French time you see, which means things happen gently in the mornings, and meals are all delayed by 2-3 hours on NZ times) in order to do the Balcons de Céret loop track again before the temperatures got too high. We reversed our direction this time, yet again being flummoxed by French signposting being ambiguous at critical points.  It’s an interesting walk passing through varied terrain.

Had quite a chat with an 84-year old local towards the end of the loop. He walks 8km every day and was a little disparaging about the suburb we were passing through at the time, full of old people he said.

Michel at a quiet Bar Pablo

Mme Delard came around for apero tonight at 6pm. She was unwell earlier in the week and couldn't come to our house warming evening on Thursday. We spent a very sociable 2½ hrs chatting away in French. She is a lovely person, 80 years old and extremely bright and cheery. She bought a bottle of dry (sec) muscat for us and we had bought a bottle of doux (sweet) muscat for her to drink. We got to know each other's tastes when we went to her place for apero a week or so ago. She is delightful and we hope to more of her when we come back next year. It is so interesting talking to her - she could tell us about the cemetery which is now the church square in front of us, the 1830 cholera epidemic which caused so many deaths, the occupation of Céret by the Germans for three years during the war, her mother used to visit the general who had our apartment building built and lived in it for many years etc etc.

It's still 28 degrees at 9pm and we've just done a short spin around town to try and cool off. John is now having his 3rd cold shower of the day. It will be really weird to have a hot shower when we are back in Nelson.

We finally got around to booking our hire car to get up to Paris this afternoon. After thinking about it a little more, we have decided to take an extra day to get from Céret, via Rochefort (research work) to Paris. We are now leaving on Friday, only five days away. From seemingly having an extra week on our hands here in Céret, with no longer linking up with Alastair in Barcelona we suddenly find we have only four more sleeps until we head north. We doubt we will now fit in another trip to the beach, or a planned one day trip to the Tet Valley. Tomorrow we will have to start working out how to rig up our bikes in the storeroom and other mundane stuff in preparation for leaving. Yuk.

Saturday 18th - Last market

Our last market unfortunately. We did our shop, then sat at Bar Pablo trying to etch the scene into our memories to see us through the 10 months before we experience it again. There’s really nothing in Nelson at all like it. There are probably some 80-100 tables out, and on a Saturday morning they are all in use, with a mix of tourists, local and expats. We know all our waiters pretty well. Hervé has just finished after many years, Bruno and Anthony who shake our hands in greeting each time, Christophe and Michel, and Hervé’s replacement, Maxime.

Summer fruit is in peak season

We headed off to the beach at 3pm for the afternoon, taking our new Decathlon umbrella. Had a very pleasant time. The water was warm, and we were surprised to find quite a lot of attractive fish just off the shore. There are always plenty of French people out snorkelling. Our umbrella was a bit tricky as there was a decent sea breeze, just as well as it was a sweltering day - the scooter's display said 35-36 degrees on the way home.

Looking down towards Bar Pablo

Friday 17th - Roof terrace?

What I didn’t mention yesterday was that at our apero we all discussed the possibility of us converting the upstairs rooms. There seems to be good agreement among the other three neighbours that they think it is a good idea, and they have no objections at all. M. Freitas said the council shouldn’t be an issue at all, despite what we had heard. He knows of four roof terraces converted recently. It’s very good to have an insider on our side, especially one who is likely to make substantial money out of it himself, as he would be our builder! Olivier Thote has a mate who is a lawyer or something who is up with the play, and M. Antonetti is a long-term local too, so we have some useful contacts. We also found out that our seller, the alcoholic M. Vargas, no longer has any financial interest in the building as the flat below us has gone to a Céret-born Parisian lawyer, and M. Vargas’ gallery to a Brazilian.

Had an easy morning, then our 2^nd real estate agent around at 2pm. Again good feedback that making a separate bedroom was a very good move (rather than having it as a studio as before). Finished off the evening watching an average movie from our USB drive.

Recent Bing Maps view of Céret's centre.
The main street and market is under the trees,
The church has the octagonal roof. We are the building
below the sunlit part of the church square.

Thursday 16th - Apero for the neighbours

We are enjoying finally having the place finished, or as near as can be. Today was the day for our apero for our French neighbours. Unfortunately we received a note from Mme Delard (across the square) saying she was ill and couldn’t make it, and later in the day she came across personally to make sure we knew and to say sorry.  She really is very nice.

Swim in the morning and collected a few things for the evening, and after lunch M. Molas (the agent from whom we bought the apartment) came round to give us an appraisal of the current value of the apartment. We had thought it would be helpful for us to have an idea of value in order to make better decisions over the next year. He was most impressed with the changes. We also took him up to the attic rooms above, and he is going to do estimates for using them as either 2 bedrooms, or 1 bedroom and a roof terrace. He’s also going to find out about ownership of the attic, as it is not at all clear whether it is with M. Vargas, the original building owner, or shared by the copropriety. We imagine we may end up paying somebody for the questions at some point, but it will be worth it.

Six o’clock came round, our designated apero hour, and our immediate neighbours arrived each with a bottle of wine. Not long after M. Antonetti (the father of the owners, and the main worker) of the apartment above who had come in from Oms, and finally a little later, M. Freitas, our builder and also owner of a boutique in our building. The evening went superbly well. None of the guests could speak English, so the entire proceedings were in French, but we chatted away about many things. We had imagined it might be a bit awkward and only last an hour or so, but they all stayed until ¼ to 9! Amazing.

We are very pleased. It was thoroughly enjoyable and has given us the confidence that we will be able to make French friends as well as with ex-pats. Not only that, but we can make decent conversation already, no doubt to improve again with another 9 months of learning and practice.

Havaneres

We finished off the evening with half an hour of listening to Havaneres, the Catalan/Cuban/UK sea shanty singing, outside Bar Pablo.

Wednesday 15th

It’s been the Assumption holiday today, but apart from a few more people turning up for church, it’s been very quiet. We had a nice lazy coffee at Bar Pablo this morning but spent this afternoon doing the overlooked contrast painting on the bathroom door and finishing off mortaring the floor in the bathroom. We’ve run off a bunch of photos, partly for our own record and partly so we can use them when we put the apartment on our home exchange site.

We have now come across another accommodation site, AirBNB. We used it to book very reasonably priced accommodation in Paris. We put a very brief page up on the site of our own place in Walters Bluff and bingo, we have a small group wanting to use our place when they visit Nelson for a wedding. 

Tuesday 14th - Swim

Swim day again today at the local pool. A local woman thought Karen was a bit rude, but it was only the swim cap preventing her hearing a bonjour. All sorted – ce n’est pas grave. The woman also asked me how old Karen was – because she was motoring up and down the pool without a stop, like an energiser battery. A Kiwi wouldn’t ask that, but no problem if you are French I guess. After lunch I needed a grandpa nap for a few minutes to recharge while Karen attended to a mass of emails.

In the “cool” of the evening we went out to M. Bricolage to collect the final bag of mortar for the bathroom. The scooter gauge said it was 35 degrees – and this was at 6pm. Possibly our hottest day yet. Into Intermarché for some essentials for the apero we are having for our neighbours on Thursday and back home, dripping with sweat.

Monday 13th - Besalu to Roses to Ceret by scooter

Off on the scoot at a reasonable hour towards the coast. We had decided not to try to stay a second night in Spain. There are just too many people about, and we can’t be bothered with mucking about trying to find a room. And it’s not as though it is very far for us to come back next year. Besalu was only 130km from Céret including the 30km side trip down to Beget. We thought we might have a quick look at the shops in Besalu before we left but extremely few were open before 11am so we left, without breakfast even.

Roses, Spain

We headed straight out to the coast to Roses, a large seaside resort on a huge beach that stretches some 17km in a big arc to the south. We parked right on the beachfront (scooters can park anywhere!) and wandered through the city to find something to eat. We were looking for a patisserie or baker but it took us ages to find one – plenty of restaurants but not much else. The town and beach were fiercely busy with tourists. 

A good coffee and a croissant later we were back on the scoot cutting across the peninsula back to the coast heading north. Plenty of nice towns and beaches to see, but we were not yet tempted for a swim. Finally at Portbou (the last Spanish town) we stopped and sat down for something to eat. Again a nice meal taken under trees, surrounded by Spanish families lunching too.

Paulilles Beach, France

Back to France. We thought we better spend some time in the Med again so we called into Paulilles, where Nobel had a gunpowder factory which has recently been made into a heritage site.  A nice lie in the sun, followed by a swim. The water was a bit cool to get into, but lovely once in. Home again. We feel like we’ve had half a week away rather than a single night. It’s shown us a number of things. 

• Overnighters on the scooter work out really well, with a minimum of baggage needed, and could easily be stretched to 3 nights. 
• Don’t travel peak season, things are too crowded. 
• Short trips feel like longer trips.

Our entire luggage

Sunday 12th - To Besalu via the Tech Valley

Up to yet another fine day. It has been sitting a little above the 30 mark for the last month, sometimes getting up closer to 35. We would like just a little break, maybe a 26 or 27 degree day for a change. Every single day for the last month has been above the normal average by 2 to 6 degrees. From emails and Skype, NZ weather sounds awful, so we are of course very lucky with what we have here.

We packed two little bags for a 3-day 2-night trip on our scooter, and headed off. Unfortunately we only got 100m before we stumbled across a potters’ market in one of Céret’s main squares. There is so much on here we have stopped trying to keep up with it all and just enjoy what we find. The pottery was very good and pretty serious. I loved some gorgeous steampunk-style teapots and vessels, and we ended up buying a bowl to take home. Back to drop it off then finally onto the scooter and away up the valley at 11am.

Steampunk pots

After about half an hour we pulled into the village of Le Tech, a bit before Prats-de-Mollo, to have a coffee. A scooter feels a lot more free than a car – you can stop anywhere more easily, and you are right out in the breeze. We do need to get an intercom system though as talking is tricky in the wind.

The church at Beget

Up through Prats and the road starting heading quickly uphill into the Pyrenees. It’s a little narrow twisty road, initially in deciduous but increasingly into alpine-style trees. We went through a couple of minor passes before we hit the top (and Spain) at 1550m. 

Lovely polychrome interior

The temperature had dropped quickly from 25 to eventually 19 at the top pass. What luxury. Like a lot of the Pyrenees it wasn’t just a ridge with slopes up to it from each side, but a bit of a plateau on the top. There are walking trails everywhere.

Walking in the Pyrenees is serious business

From the pass, a quick downhill to turn off at Mollo for the tiny village of Beget deep in a valley off to the east. Fifteen kilometres of narrow winding road past Rocabruna and we arrived at a quaint wee village. Quite an Italian hill town feel, mixed with a bit of Alpine style. Very tidy and gentrified, a bit too much so in some ways. We had a good wander down through the village, then had an excellent menu du jour (½ a rabbit, veal) at one of its three restaurants.

Back out to the main road, then down to St Joan des Abadesses for the medieval bridge, but it turned out to be younger and less interesting than our own Pont du Diable and we simply did a U-turn and started the eastwards leg of the trip.

Our next destination was Besalu, an attractive town on the banks of a river. Found our way into the main square where we parked and asked about accommodation at the info centre. We knew that travelling before 16 August was likely to be tricky, and so it turned out. Unfortunately the two B&Bs were full up so we had to go for a more expensive but very ordinary hotel room. Out into the square for a long, slow and well-deserved beer. At least it is San Miguel beer here – the French beers are really not good, and it seems daft to come all this way and drink the Heineken or Stella that we can have at home.

We had a long walk along the river – it is an old town with big walls, a lovely defensible bridge and some Jewish persecution in its history. The local tourist office does guided tours which would have been good, but were a bit late in the morning, so we will have to save them for another time (and with fewer tourists about).

Yes, camels in the eye of a needle

Prices here are definitely below France. We had a look at a miniatures museum with some remarkably tiny and detailed work, then a huge grill for dinner for 7€, watching the myriad happy yelling children biking and scooting and running around the big square. Again it brought home the differences between Spain and France – so much noisier and more free for the children.

Saturday 11th - Lost torch!

Market day again – they are coming round so fast. Only one left now before we go L. We met Madam Delard from opposite, and found that Wednesday is the Festival of the Assumption – the 2rd biggest religious holiday of the year after Easter and Xmas. That threw a cat among the pigeons, as it would be sensible for us to be here to see what goes on, so we will now start our Spanish trip tomorrow instead of Monday.

Morning tea

The shower foaming went better today. We had a hose to extend the foam reach, and after stuffing in pieces of brick and ceramic, the foam was able to do a half-decent job of filling in under part of the shower tray. Not perfect, but better than before. Having done under the tray, I could now start to fill in the hole in the floor next to it to be level. This went well, but the bag of mortar proved insufficient for the whole job. Just as well...

Ooops!

Having finished the bag of mortar I cleaned up and noticed a little bright patch in the shower tray. Odd, there didn’t seem to be any light reflecting on it, and I then realised I had sealed in the good head torch I’d been using – still switched on! Thankfully with the aid of a wire coat hanger and a small amount of destruction of my new work, I was able to retrieve it.

Sitting at Bar Pablo in the afternoon we realised that the travellers at this time of year are quite different. There are many families about with young children. Karen has been reading that French children are to be seen and not heard, and that really is the case. They are quite unlike Kiwi kids, sitting quietly at the tables with a fizzy orange or lemonade while their parents talk. The only major noise is the odd baby.

Wally and Ellen came round for apero at 6pm…. and stayed until 9:45! Had a most enjoyable time discussing all sorts of things – travel, the French, expats, books and more. We are going to miss our various new friends when we come back to NZ. Being other than New Zealanders gives them a different and refreshing viewpoint on life which we have found interesting.

Friday 10th - Thinking about moving

John wasn’t keen on running in 23 degree heat at 7:30am today so I headed off alone on our usual route. I struggled a bit, especially after a good workout in the pool yesterday but it was nice to have done it. Any endorphin fix is a good one for me. After a quickish breakfast we jumped on the scooter to head off to the local builders' supply shop before it got too hot. Boiled away in our trousers, jackets and shoes but safety comes first. 

Thankfully we found the last few things we need in stock, especially the 10kg of mortar we need to fill the space in the bathroom floor left by the removal of the bath. Back to the bike, scooted home, quick Skype with NZ friend Gil and then off to see a local real estate agent who we got to know quite well when we were scouting to buy here last year. He is on vacance but we have his partner coming to our apartment next Thursday. We want to get it valued to know where we stand after its transformation. We will still have the new floor tiles to put on the bathroom floor next year, and the wooden extension to put on the kitchen bench, but apart from that it is finished!! While looking in the real estate agent’s window last night we spied a villa that took our fancy – city centre, pool, terraces, 3 bedroom, garage etc. We thought we might just have a look through it out of interest. We will do this with the agent next Thursday.

This afternoon has been spent with knick-knacky things: putting up cup hooks, putting a new shelf under the kitchen bench for pots, brackets on the back of the bookcase, extra shelf in the wardrobe and so on.

We now have just ONE job left but it’s quite tricky. We are planning to push a load of broken ceramic underneath the shower base and pump in blow-up foam so it provides a firmer base. We tried some foam yesterday but it just didn’t work out. We also have to fill the big hole in the bathroom floor (left by removal of the bath) with a load of mortar, and also fill a large gap on the wall. We will smooth the latter so it looks like tiles and paint it. The tiles on the wall are an odd size and tricky to replace. 

Thursday 9th - Changed plans for Alastair

And so the work continues. We put in some time at the pool this morning and then got stuck into the remaining work at 2pm. It took four hours to pull the shower apart and remount it with better and more sealant. John then completely pulled the vacuum cleaner apart and managed to clean its insides so that it no longer puffs out great clouds of plaster dust every time it is switched on. I was back on my hands and knees polishing the wooden floor, getting off the last of the dust veneer it had taken on.

At 8pm when we finished it was 32 degrees outside. Spent most of the evening watching the Olympics, as we have most evenings. It’s also been great having it on during the day – we can keep an ear/eye on what is happening while working away merrily. Absolutely wrecked at the end of yesterday’s work and we couldn’t have a shower!! A sponge wash helped considerably.

We received some disappointing news from Alastair yesterday. He has just found out that he has to have an interview to get his Visa for San Francisco. He was led to believe he could just go in to the embassy in Munich and get a stamp. However, an interview now involves having to trip to Frankfurt (the city he can get the earliest appointment at a USA embassy), surrender his passport and wait 7-10 working days to receive it back again. Hence, he can no longer travel to Barcelona to meet up with us, and obviously our plan to travel together before he flies out from Paris is now in shreds. He has to change his outwards flight so it leaves from Munich instead, hopefully departing after he gets his passport in the post. 

It’s a blow because we were very much looking forward to travelling with him, as we did for three weeks last year. However, not all is lost. John and I are now considering giving away the idea of travelling up the west coast of France, to do research for my book, and instead driving to Munich to spend some time with Alastair, before continuing on to Paris and catching our flight home. We haven’t investigated this is too much detail yet but it seems a shame to miss the last chance to spend some time with him for 10 months. From what he says, he probably has the option of internship in Portland, Oregon for March – Aug next year if he wants one, instead of perhaps going to Barcelona. Time will tell what he opts for I guess. 

Wednesday 8th - Scooter service in Perpignan

What a hot night. It was still 28 degrees outside when we went to bed at 11pm and it was pretty hard to sleep. We had to be up earlyish anyway as we had an appointment in Perpignan to get our scooter serviced (to make use of its warranty period while we could). Got into Perpignan by 9am and had a few hours to fill in until we could collect the scooter.

Walked the now familiar route between Decathlon (the huge sports store nearby) and the other huge stores further afield. Managed to find a replacement for our smoke alarm. The one we had kept going off all the time, possibly because it was full of plaster dust. Bought a few other necessities, e.g. vacuum cleaner bags, and then back to collect the scoot. We were cutting it a little fine to make it before it closed at 12pm for the two hour lunch break and ended up half walking/jogging in about 35 degree heat, and weighed down by a heavy petanque set we had bought.

We had brought our togs with us with the idea of possibly heading to the beach after we had finished in Perpignan but felt more like just heading home for a cold beer. We stopped at Le Boulou to check a few things at one of the big stores there but of course it had just closed for a 1½hr lunch break. We headed to the nearest bar and sat with a cold beer for an hour, getting hotter and hotter. We had our books with us but John opted to go for a short walk around the town. It’s a nice little place, but without the trees and pedestrian precinct of Céret. The shop finally opened and had sold out of what we had been after, so straight home to collapse.  

Tuesday 7th - Finishing touches

A start to the day in the pool again. We have been enjoying it immensely. I wonder how Riverside will feel after swimming outdoors here. Back to heat again today – yesterday’s cooler weather was a brief respite but very welcome. We said goodbye to the painter Denis today. He’s back to Shanghai yet again. He says the Chinese buy everything he can take there. He started a painting of Place des Neuf Jets this morning, and had sold it before he even finished it!

Our romantic French bedroom

We have noticed a drop-off in tourists over the last few days. It is no longer as busy, and also the type of visitor has changed. There are now many young families about, and town has a slightly different feel, including the wailing of babies. We also noticed leaves starting to fall from the plane trees, which seems quite early.

Back to the finishing touches today – and we managed to get the curtains up around the bed, four-poster style, but using a ceiling-mounted rail. It has given the bedroom quite a romantic feel.