spring already

 Local opinion says the weather is unnatural. Its very pleasant though :)

stop press

The post box outside our town hall is closed!! Story to follow - if there is one. 

Otherwise, all well. Slight sense of calm before the storm as we prepare for New Years Eve. 

The weather suddenly very mild with warm breezes, most odd.

Carcassonne in winter

Took the bus/train 1 Euro route to Carcassonne to potter about the shops which is how I discovered that after Jan. 2cnd there are NO TRAINS till March - but there are buses so all is not lost. And the line is closed because of works so at a guess they have stopped thinking of closing the line down.
Above is the skating rink in the town. All very calm...

Relaxing

 Richard and Eva were good enough to invite us to dinner last night. After the intense socialising of the last few days it was great to hurl  myself into someone else lap, as it were :) Overdid everything. Great.

Thanks both xxx

 Here's the square they live off... and below, the river between showers yesterday. We are getting occasional rain and a bit of wind as the rest of the region gets hammered with difficult conditions. Keep safe out there.

Mince pies on boxing day

Jims back, Maddie, Eddie, New Kellys head

Random snaps from yesterday afternoon's mince pie extravaganza 

....our French friends have never had them and were polite, mostly. 

I'm ambivalent about mince pies; they were invented by the medieval Christians to check on the converso, the forcibly-converted Jews, to make them eat pork. Naturally I make them without suet or at least with vegetable suet but there is a taint.                    

    

Charles

                                       

Vincent talking with Rico

New Kelly, Kate, Bob

Jean

Claudinne

Sabrina, Sara, Marie, Roland

Ceri, Mike, Atmo

Pierre and Tim

Terrible photo of Kelly but the bunny ears are great :)



Lovely to have a relaxing post-xmas chatter with folk (what interesting and charming friends we have) and this morning, lo! There were two bottles of champagne on the letter box and two large apples on the doorstep. Being a fan of symbolic language you'd think I could work out who left them there but I can't.

Many thanks to them and would whoeveryouare care to pop round and drink them with us?

Christmas lunch

Darling New Kelly -who likes to cook - volunteered to cook Christmas lunch for our friends at Bobs house. It was fantatstic. Ten of us, Pete and Nel, Roland and Kat, Gracie and Tim, me and Bob, Ian and herself.

Oysters, vaccherin mont d'or; roasted goose and ditto guinea fowl with chanterelle and nut stuffing, roast pots, carrots and parsnips, sprouts with lardons and chestnuts, wilted endive with xieminz sauce and Medoc to drink with Chablis for the sissy's; orange and cardamon sorbet; cheese with Madeira; Christmas pudding with brandy butter, cream and Muscat; chestnut pavlova and cigars and brandy.

We are all old (ish) now, and circumspect -  but this was not a meal to stint on.

Bravo to Kelly xxxxx

beautiful Gracie

starving Lily

Lovely Nel

young Ian

Roland, Kat behind the flower, Bob

Christmas morning

Lily took the time it took me to do the sprouts to unwrap her present. Now she is inseparable from it.

foretaste

in the patisserie this morning...Christmas definitely coming. Any minute. Have a good one, y'all :)

Tea Party

 Claudine and Jean gave me and Bob and Kat and Roland tea yesterday, reminding me what a fab meal it is. Glutinous and fattening and the BEST.

 In the course of the day the captain was sent a mysterious parcel which turned out to be a thank you from grateful folk - chouette -

 and this mornings' breakfast at l'oryginal was served by a reindeer, rennes in french - same sound as reine, queen - leading to questions about the origins of Rennes le Chateau, Rennes les Bains... we asked why the reindeer horns were worn and were told, its christmas innit. No wiser.

Ganapati Trio

Joyeeta Seanyal

 Raj and Leslie made over their living space to about 20 friends last night, to watch the Ganapati trio perform. Brilliant all round - brilliant idea, brilliant performance, brilliant evening.

We each brought a dish and a bottle and there was an hour or so of easy conviviality to catch up with old mates ahead of the performance -

Bernard Margarit is the prime mover of the trio - he has worked with our Stan - inhumanely amazing.

From henceforth, I suggest,  it behooves us all to track down musicians and invite folk in to hear them play. Seriously; not enough live music in this area. Still slightly stunned this morning.

At home with Laura

Bob, Roland and Pete

Great evening at Laura's last night. Since shes moved out to Arques shes been missed in Esperaza but this dinner atoned for a deal.... had forgotten what a great cook she is.

Mozzarella and salad starter, Lasagna, cheese, profiteroles.

New house is coming on nicely and was warm and cozy and convivial.

The Kat

spooky witches, Jutta, Nel and moi

Customary wide ranging conversations, held in English, French, German and Dutch. The booze helped us get quite fluent :)

Jutta

Laura

xmas ball

Took this from the MJC yesterday (Maison des Jeunes et de la Culture, aka Centre Culturel) where the central heating is now working and normal drawing has therefore been resumed.

All working artists welcome to join us on a Monday, 10-12 - no tuition, no judgement, no comparisons - just the shared cost of a model, usually 5 euros.

Next Monday it seems is Christmas day and the place will be closed. Many artists disgruntled about lack of commitment.

cold days

Yesterdays' market... says it all:)

charmed lunch

 This is totally charming Luke, grandson to Jim Hankinson. Jims daughter Maddie and her husband have moved from Washington DC to live with Jim in rural France - something of a change of life:)
They surprised us by turning up at lunch time so we shot over to the marvelous Creperie who as always did us proud.

Au revoir Andree

 Kelly helping me coax Andree into being photographed....

Andree is off this weekend. We said our goodbyes yesterday, tearfully in my case. Andree is happy to be starting the next chapter of her life, in comfort and without cares.  We have rendezvous'd every week for 20 years and I will miss her.

But life goes on. We gave dinner to Pete and Clare, Kate and Dermot and Kat last night. Modesty forbids comments on the cooking - there was a lot to be modest about. The highlight was the fruit salad, which Kat brought. The other highlight, which is still making me laugh, was Kates' imitation of a French punk band.

After Edmondes death and Iains death it seems slighting to mention the death of a dog. But anyone who has lost a wonderful dog with empathise with Tim, whose amazing little dog Hetty was killed yesterday by a sheep dog thinking it was defending the lambs. Accidents will happen in the countryside. Much love goes to Tim and Gracie.

RIP Iain Macdonald

Iain left Esperaza in 2012 ish, when he and Steve sold their house off the square and moved back to Edinburgh to work.
Steve posted this morning;

With great sadness I have to tell you that Iain passed away last night in his sleep. He was much adored and all his many friends will miss him. We all have so many fabulous memories of this charming, gregarious man and I was privileged to know him and call him my dearest friend. Xx

Its improbable that any of us who caroused with Iain will ever forget him :) Much love and bonne courage to Steve, truly the loyalest of the loyal friends.

more prexmas celebrating

 Clare and Fran invited us to theirs last night - and lo! Charles, Frans brother, and his wife Louise were there since they are waiting to complete on their new home in Chalabre. So they'll be near neighbours and very welcome too, fine additions to the tribe.

They are as erudite and drole as Fran and Clare so the evening passed very quickly in laughter and joyful greed (in my case anyway, must stop eating so much) Onion soup, cuisse de canard, pear tart. Yum.

A tinge of sadness at the news of the funeral of Edmonde Bonnet, a lady of impeccable character and a force in the town. Last time I saw her, before the illness that saw her off, she was saying that she had lived too long and wanted out. Others who saw her in hospital said she felt she was in prison. She was 94 and won't be forgotten - she was the widow of Dr Bonnet and had worked in the health service here all her life, touching many lives. She also worked as a volunteer in the local food bank  (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restaurants_du_C%C5%93ur) in her great old age! A  model for us all.

pre-christmas party

 John and Sue, Eric and Alison and Richard are all off to spend Christmas elsewhere. John and Sue  gave a jolly dinner last night since we'll not meet over the festives...

Eric

Alison 

Bob,Alison, Richard

Some interesting topics were mooted. For instance, is it legal or ethical to send a drone over your neighbours land and swimming pool? And if not, is it legal to shoot it down? We reached no conclusion on that one :)