How can an indifferently blank wall be so upsetting? Because this was where the mural of the horserace was, the one that has brightened our lives since the dawn of time. The new owners of the Relais Occitan say they will replace it in the back room when they've finished cleaning - in the meantime, you could be in any airport in any city anywhere. Sigh.
Claudinne came for coffee and escaped before I could snap her. She is well and happy in her new home here with Jean.
I took tea with Scottish Dave and El and felt my wretched London cold shrivel and sniffle off...
And tonight, oh joy!! I know I'm home.
Here are Del (Gracies brother) Max, back here for a week or so, Gracie, Tim, Allenna and Bea, (Dels' wife). Wonderful evening, the best sort of Esperaza night - informed and interesting conversation, lovely food and just enough wine.
I had to go look at the wall with the painting...(one takes such things for granted). What a shock it must have been! Have the new owners ever lived in a small town to know that one does not CHANGE such things so matter what their own taste is. The Relais is a cultural icon of the town--even the ENGLISH know that! (good luck, hope they have taken proper care of the painting)
ReplyDeleteHoping that enough people have made it clear to the new folks that they expect it back, at least in the back room - it wasn't The Last Supper but it was our own:)
ReplyDeleteIt also made the room (now revealed in the painting's absence) as a dull box. The painting's length and the movement in it made the room livelier. Anything smaller (even if nice work) would have to balance with whatever else was put in there.
ReplyDeletePerhaps (since most French businesses do not like to have to pay to advertise) you could find someone from Carcassonne who has a blog to come to review the resto (but not as someone who knows ANYONE in Esperaza, certainly not any English or Scots) so they can write an article, possibly to be published in an English paper about
restos in the area for the summer visitors....the writer would come in an expect to find l'ancien et l'ancienne, good food and THE PAINTING. New owners is one thing but when one is told stories told about the painting so that the resto is known as The Relais with the Race...surely you must know someone who still enjoys dress up/pantomime?
And in the meantime you can all put your heads together and write stories about things that happened and things that didn't happen because of the painting. ....an engaged couple, coming to look for a house to rent for the honeymoon getting into an argument over horse racing. Seems she loves horses while for him racing is all about betting and odds and a day with his friends...such a very good thing, that disagreement because when she heard something about him she would not have believed before she could well believe it then. Saved her father a pricey wedding and her a most unfortunate relationship. Les Histoires de Chez les Chevals....
sort of Local Hero comes to Esperaza