Esperaza sunday

The weather is mercifully subdued; we're hot enough. 

The family enjoyed the market, hung about after lunch, visited Andree who was out and then went to Poulet Bicyclette.

All delighted. We have the usual range of dietary shibboleths and they accomodated us all with grace and patience.

Adventures with le shopping

 I took Hannah and Charlie shopping in Carcassonne and shop we did, exploring many fashionable premises...and bumped into Philippe, above, whom many Esperazanaise will remember from the explosion in Rue St Helene a while back.[see follies for August 11th 2015]  Philippe left the gas on and lit a cigarette with dreadful consequences.
He's had extensive plastic surgery and his TB is cured. He had a carer with him and a contraption to aid walking and is obviously a lot better than he was before the fire. He was happy to stop and chat and sends apologies to everyone who was discommoded by the damage; his fault, he said regretfully. He was curious to know if the insurance coughed up but I'd no info beyond that the Maire were handling it all. They've only recently demolished the place.

Thence to the Maison des Memoires in Rue Verdun, a favorite hangout.They had some work by Joan Jorda, Spainish artist who was a refugee here in the civil war. The painting below is called Bombardement from 1986. Terrible reproduction but a great expo., do visit, its free.

 Talking of refugees also bumped into Mohammed and Abrahim, ex-of Esperaza. They have got legal status now, they've been recognised as bona fides refugees. Was too excited for them to remember to ask what happens now -

Summer hols in earnest

 Here is Bob being put-upon at the Cafe du Fleuve in Quillan last night, love that place -  they persist in kindness and quality attention and good cooking - and here is Hannah testing her new chalks on the floor watched by a white rabbit.

So far, Bobs nephew Richard his wife Lynn and their three extremely agreeable children Charlie, Hannah and William are here.

Today we are expecting Bobs two brothers John and Phil and Phils partner Galavesh.

Jesse checking the toy box

Before the tribe arrived Lone and Philip came to tea, possibly the last adult conversation for a while :) Philip works in the big Copenhagen library, their version of our British Library, so as you may imagine the conversation was erudite and wide-ranging and engrossing. They are off soon to Denmark alas.

Adventures with Bob

Bob somewhat overdid it yesterday, culminating in a fall into the river, so our incursion to the night market was short and brief. Waved at mates; ate a burger-thang; drank a fizzy orange drink and ate liquoice ice cream.

Sunday in the sun

The market was rather oppresively crowded though my tincy hangover might have coloured that view; lunch was at home, sheltering from the sun. Here's Eddie, who dropped in, Mary-from-Montazel in blue and Lizzie out of sight - wonderful to hear three people who have never met before finding common experiences and pleasures.

Since Lizzie was staying with us she was kindly invited to Elizabet and Gerts for dinner where excess was rampant :) Gert has a master palette in wine so we had different wines with each course.

We ate from an electric barbeque on the terrace, a marvellous meal. Don't seem to have a picture of lovely Elizabet but here is lovely Lizzie and of course, master sommelier Gert -

in between comings and goings...

Captain Harris

Johns wife Margaret is in Ireland for a few days and Max's wife Andy will be joining him soon from Winnipeg and though they are quite capable of looking after themselves we chummed up to go to the Authentique last night. Which persists in getting better, though the noise (music, laughter, singing) made it pretty hard for us to talk - so back to Max's where the drinking continued.Great to be in the company of such erudite men :)

John not yet gone ferral

Max

Cleo, Jan and Jon

 Heres Cleo, a well behaved and charming dog - yes, Lily was farmed out for the night - and her humans, Jon and Jan, who are wizzing through on their european tour. And took us to the Creperie. And left us far too soon.
 

Fete du Vin

Bobs home, safe and sound despite lack of trains - Louise, talking with him here, is staying in Chez Francois and managed to get here by bus too.

Weather turning - some rain in the afternoon and subsequent fears for the fete du vin, but apart from a few spots all was well. It was calm and cool, in fact. Delicious.

Soooooooo good to see so many friends reunited - even international star Max made it, albiet briefly -so, whats next???

Hot Tuesday

 Breakfast at Luc's and the Scottish Daves arrived, hurrah! After which Margaret and I spent the morning painting by the river (you can just see her through the tree). Exhausting; so lunch at Walters place, the lilac building on the way to Quillan. Edible though not exciting - great orchid though.          

Tonight is the Fete du Vin at Luc's - see y'all there - which will no doubt be enjoyed in memory of Sian, whose funeral is today in Montpelier. She will certainly be there in spirit.

Monday is night market in Esperaza

Didn't manage to get to the market till late intending to get a brebis liquorice ice-cream and get back to work. 

But it was in full fabulous swing - the Scottish Daves are back :) and many of our friends were out under the full moon, enjoying the cool of the evening and the cool of Jaques Brel (being sung by this geezer, no idea who he is but will endeavor to find out )

Terrible pic but the eagle-eyed will make out Fran, Jo and Ann and most of the village. Saw the mayor who says that he plans to get the English Library that has been housed in Carrefour for the town, isn't he clever :)
The heat wave continues.

Hot market

The hottest for a yonk - and crowded, all the world packed in and sweltering together. Very good fun. And alors!!! Old chum Maria, artist from Slovakia with whom I've worked in London, has turned up having bought a house in Alet-les-Bains. Delightfully small world.

She's moved next door to Dawn and Derek, seen here (with Sammi behind Dawn) Dawn has fractured her arm and it hurts.

Waiting for the heat to die down so I can water the garden; forecast is more of the same for the next couple of days. Great heat compells laziness, I find :)

Sians funeral

This from Lionel;

Dear friends, Sian's funeral will happen next Wednesday in Montpellier: Complexe funéraire de Grammont, Avenue Albert Einstein 34000 Montpellier. 
The ceremony will begin at 11h with a "benediction" and after at 11h30 with a civil service.
Thank you for all your support for these days.
Co-voiturage, anyone? 

He adds elsewhere -

Ni de fleurs ni de couronnes dans la mesure du possible, Sian et moi-même avons toujours préféré des démarches pro-actives et utiles contre la lutte contre le cancer. Merci encore à tous, très sincèrement votre soutien est précieux pour moi.

Speed update

Yesterday Shuff took me to Quillan to visit the municipal pool. Never been there before but will now be a frequent visitor. Won't go on about it too much or it won't stay empty. Spoiler; the water is cold!

 Heres some of the garden from under the walnut tree, just after dawn. Watering in this heat requires  diligence.

 Claudinne took me to coffee this morning - we hadn't met in an age - she's well and so is Jean, Im delighted to report

 Jim brought his mate Lesley over and took us to lunch at the Creperie about which one can say nothing except it was brilliant. They now have candy-floss ice-cream which  Nightingale recommended; shot me back to the sea-side pink ice-creams of long (long) ago. Lesley teaches classics at Austin, Texas and Jim of course teaches philosophy there. Are there any Americans on staff???

Sian Cooper RIP

We all know how long Sian has been fighting cancer. 

Actually its so long I can't remember when it started though I vividly remember the first diagnosis.  Horrible treatment; Sian bounced back, never complaining, always positive - she kept an on-line diary at that time which was very absorbing, revealing, funny and stoical. She was a rare one.

She came and stayed here exactly a year ago for a rest and slept most of the time; barely saw her. Cancer had galloped all over her poor body and finally entered her spine. It never occurred to her to give up. She was making plans to supervise moving to a new place with Lionel this week... her death is a surprise, despite her condition.

The photo above is her selfie from facebook - below is a picture Lional took of Sian in the Esperaza family home with Tony her father, sister-in-law Pat, brother Russell and of course her Mama Jill, who too underwent an heroic struggle with the beastly disease.

Love to the family. Love to Lionel. Love to all her friends. We won't forget her.

Bastille day in Esperaza

 Bit lack-lustre, frankly...took this photo of the info panel saying that because of strong winds the fireworks are cancelled. It caused a fair amount of ribaldry as by the time the notice went up the winds had dropped. Earlier the fair was, erm, under attended - and the morning procession to the tape recording of the Marseillaise was (at best) charming.

Frederick Keseberg RIP

As might be expected, the funeral of a 30 year old friend is no pleasure. Most of the funerals I've been to have been celebrations of a life; Fredericks life was abruptly cut short and no-one felt much like being cheery about it. Many tears were shed.

The old church in Rouvenac was packed with mourners.

After the coffin went to the crematorium in Trebes, people just hung about being sad so John and Margaret, Hilary, Mike and I held our own wake - started at Luc's, then off to the Cafe du Pont.

 Wakes are a Good Thing.

More fete

 -A reference to Esperaza's Spanish background (no cows have been spotted here outside the butchers since before the euro became current). It was the theme; bulls, horses. Dead pigs.

 Took these pix in the morning before the heat became unbearable - 38 degrees or more - the market was packed and entertaining. After that I retreated to the cool of the house. Missed the band.

 France didn't win the football championship of Europe. Thats the trouble with competition, there are loosers - can't we invent collaborative football? Like Yoko's white chess set - give 'em all the same shirt and let them play:)

Am grateful for this mornings' breezes

Political Train

 Bob left for a week in Blighty on our local train which has taken up the cudgel against the oppressor - but is mercifully not on strike.

 He's missing all the fun. Gert and Elizabeth invited me (and Ian) to their terrace where you can see and hear the fete without the effort of actually going there. Much later when it was cooler Ian and I took a glimpse of the action over the bridge. Below are some random snaps.
Today the action allegedly starts at 12.00 with horse riding and all that, stuff happening all day till the dance at 10.30 with a band called Euphoria. They've not played Esperaza before. Dig out those dancing shoes...

Esperaza en fete

 The towns fete started yesterday, opening at 6.00 with 'visite des officiels'. That was followed by a meal for the sponsors and a performance by the band Inegal.
Bob and I went to the Authentique and had a quiet and pleasent dinner.

Theres lots of stuff happening today. I know this because I stole Gert and Elizabets programme (Thanks!) At 6.30 the horsemen from the carmargue run bulls up and down the river bank and afterwards there is street food, like the Monday night markets -at 10pm there is dance music over the river -more cryptically, at 3.00 this afternoon there is the Bull swimming pool and before that at 2.00 DJ Poulet opens the Spanish village. Go figure.

Here is a lapin  chaud.