Insulation

Here's Gracie!! Helping to knock my studio back into shape after the ceilings have been lowered by insulation. Should be back at work in 2020.

winter returns

Christmas over, winter returns... the market was freezing until the sun took charge. Saturday nights party goers met in Lucs for the pleasure of it - here are Susan and Nel,  plotting.

coming out of xmas

Something of a chair crisis at number 9, admirably resolved by Annette and Cen with Rae taking his chance on the ricketiest seat in the house. Where have they gone? We had lots. Guessing that the tranquille christmas caused them to be put elsewhere.

After tea comes apero and we headed to New Kelly...

 Here's the girl, out of focus but en forme.  There are many pointless pictures on my camera this morning which I attribute to Kellys fab cooking. Quite like this one, below, where a dove seems to have settled on someone; and the other, where Kieran is ducking me, ha!

Our friends who are not elsewhere were there and Kells did her amazing tricks with food - she grinds up her own icing sugar! I'm normally rather cautious about obsessive behaviour but in Kells case it should be encouraged, IMHO.

Woke

 Oswald has woken twice in the last couple of days. We keep returning her to her winter quarters but she has a mind of her own.
Apart from watching our pets, we've been hanging out in St Ferriol - don't ask. Cute place though and last nights' stars were glorious. Here's an early evening shot -

Looming Brexit restrictions

Max has published some thoughts....  as the new year looms, thought you'd like to see -

max@ttjtourism.com

Some thoughts on the 90/180-day restriction for second home owners.

The access restrictions likely to be introduced as a result of the UK leaving the European Union will make it difficult for many second-home owners to maximise their use of the property. With a restriction of 90 days within any rolling 180-day period, including, of course, any other travel into the Schengen area for pleasure or business, this rule will be difficult to manage.

The restriction is unusual. In almost every other country in the world, access is granted by proving to an immigration official that the traveller can support themselves while in the country. There is a maximum stay of (usually) three or six months, after which the traveller must depart. However, there are not exclusionary periods; a visitor to the UK, Canada or the US, for example, is entitled to return the following day and if able to persuade the immigration officer of their self-sufficiency, will be granted another three or six months.

There is no exclusionary period.

The 90/180-day issue is, presumably linked to the EU regulations of freedom of movement. The entitlement for EU citizens is to go to another member state for whatever reason they wish. However, after 90 days, if they are not employed, studying or otherwise self-supporting, there is a requirement to leave. While this has been ignored by many states, including the UK, the requirement to leave a host country is only logical if there is some sort of exclusionary period before returning. This regulation has, I am assuming, transferred into the restrictions of entry to the Schengen region.

It is worth noting here that Schengen is an agreement between a number of countries, some are members of the EU and some are not. Not all EU members are signatories to the agreement, and it is not an EU directive.

It is a lowest-common-denominator entry protocol; each country, however, already offers their own portfolio of specific visas covering educational, commercial, long-stay and other explicit purposes.

I believe that the development of a new visa type is an administrative exercise, and not a legislative one. It is simply the determination by a host country that a specific category of visitor, whose purpose is not covered by the general admission convention, should be encouraged to travel to their territory.

The development of a specific visa for second-home owners is a logical move.

Such a visa could be offered for a period of time, one to three years, for multiple entries of stays that are wholly covered by external medical insurance. It would be available to property owners and their immediate families, and allow access to the property. It would carry no entitlement to work, no state support and would simply be designed to allow the significant economic activity that this category of visitor engenders.

I believe that it is in the interest of France, Spain, Portugal and other countries with a substantial investment by second-home owners to give this proposal significant thought. The prospect of these people selling their properties and moving to another more welcoming jurisdiction, even the US, Mexico, Costa Rica and Bulgaria offer simpler access, and the loss of many billions of economic activity and the resulting jobs should be a disturbing prospect.

What next?

The process of having a new visa designed is opaque. However, if there is sufficient lobbying to our local Maries, who have a vested interest in keeping the second-home owners’ in their communities, there may be a path to the correct department. Similarly, I will send this piece to various French diplomatic posts, and to the English language French media. We can but make a noise and suggest options.

There may well be other solutions to the 90/180-day issue, but as yet I have seen none. A specific visa would work for everyone involved, and as it is an individual country issue, and not an EU one, it could happen quickly. We will see.

exciting christmas

We always seem to have exciting crimbo mornings... last year the car got stuck on top of a wall in Montazels, that was unforgettable. This year the little kitchen ceiling (in the room also known as The Abbatoir) fell in.

No bones broken, thank goodness - the captain had moved the turkey and thangs elsewhere in the night or we'd be having dust for lunch.

The memory I prefer to carry for this year is rather cheerier. Bob bought me a DVD of Verdis Requiem, a 1968 recording featuring among others a young Pavarotti with a veritably juvenile von Karajan conducting. I had it on at full blast, naturally. And the parrot Rico tried to join in by shouting C'est pas grave at the top of his voice - perfect :)

Here's the street in a decoration. Beautiful day. Enjoy, wherever you are - best wishes from here xxx

Lazy is a skill

Christmas Eve was spent eating oysters and drinking blanquette, as God intended. Some mates dropped in the the course of the day - lovely - and we plan more of the same tomorrow. Ah me, but life is good :)

T Time

 To Ray and Sheilas for tea - though I confess I stuck to port. Good for asthma. Above is Ray in front of a window he's painted, lovely bit of work - wish I'd snapped the forked-and-marbled staircase it is the centre of, it really is spectacular. Creative family. I was most taken with the garden mosaics too. And below is Shelia presiding over the tea table... the slight out of focus you can attribute with reason to the port.

Nice to see some neighbours there and to meet their families. One visitor in from Paris had just spent 5 months in Chandigarh where Bob and I had been this year; most enjoyable to trade memories. He had studied politics and got us up to speed on the French situation but rather fazed me by liking the current Brit PM, whom he claimed was no worse then Macron. Which is quite a complicated statement.

Its a turkey

Man the hunter- voila, Le Capt discovering a turkey in Lidls. We'd been going to have duck. Now begins the quest for brussels, parsnips and the other stuff that is required. I belong to the Bah Humbug camp but Bob loves it all, obviously.

Regular readers will recognise the colours of the creperie. Last night was the last night in those familiar surroundings.

Here are Norbert and Rick and Susan's nose.

Norbert and Louise met in Ireland 40  years ago and knew Rick from those days.
Now they all live in Esperaza.

Co-incidence is the inability to know what really matters, as my old Dad used to say.

The creperie reopens in new venue in mid-Feb.

Festive ho ho

 Here's Bev! She and Jill held an apero last night at La Vie Vintage which was mucho enjoyed - I'd forgotten mulled wine - and here's Vincent below, trying hard to work out what the Brits are on about. He's worrying about Bexit and what we are all going to do, dear man. He's worried, ha!

 Spent the day shopping with Kells in Carcassonne, Xmas eh... let joy be unconfined. So, knackered, the Captain and I ate at the sushi bar which I cannot praise enough. Not been before as Le Capt not a fan of sushi but they have little brioches de poulet so we gave it a go. Might be moving in.
 Especially as tonight is THE LAST NIGHT OF THE CREPERIE.
Kevin is re-opening in February at a new restro (next to the musee dinosaurs)















At this time of year the town hall sees fit to broadcast music over the towns speakers. I was about to type 'muzac' - then remembered that a couple of days ago they played Their Satanic Majesties. Somewhat ruined this glory by playing Herman and the Hermits the next day.

Perhaps we can send a list of preferred xmas music. What would you have on it?

Clares birthday

 This dinky car - a Citroen, it  seems - pulled up by Le Pont Cafe as Kat and New Kelly and I were leaving. It looks like a real (toy) car; we were very taken with it.
New Kelly here for 3 weeks just as Kat pushes off to the Ariege for the foreseeable BTW.
It was my second cafe visit, right flaneuer (flaneuse?) me. At Luc's with Jim we ran into Rose and a host of other mates. Sociable little town!

And it was Clares birthday, hurrah, so off to the hills to celebrate. Pete had made lasagne in many ways; one veggie, one gluten free, one dairy free and a normal. Regina and Duggie were there, Ken and Freya, Clares daughter, was visiting. They are mostly pushing off to Blighty today and tomorrow so you've missed them.

There were moules. Cake from Madame Serrano. There was singing and hilarity.

gracious home

 Here's Eva, entertaining us last night - AND we were given a splendidly indulgent meal :) Big thanks to her and Richard...
below is,erm. a man fixing a roof. Well, it looks exciting from the road. And below that, the emerging arts centre. Really looks as if this myth might have form soon.

Empty yet strangely full

All quiet - the gallery this morning, the bakers this afternoon, at home with Tango - but of course lots of stuff happening and all of it lovely.

Its a lot less cold than it was too.

Home yah!!

Rico fascinated by red

 Made it home. A word to the wise; do not, never, think you can outrun a french transport strike.

 A pleasant holiday, despite that it never stopped raining and the winds were high. We have streaming colds. The hotel in Bordeaux was comfy and dry as where the waiting rooms of the station, where many travelers had taken root.

Below is a spider crab I tried to eat but it frightened me too much.

Very very happy that Peter Dunn, (above with the parrot) and Cen dropped in, bringing Ian in off the street with them. We apero'd and felt really back at home.
Esperaza is fantastically lovely.

Bright lights

 It's wet, it's windy - but its very pretty 

 Bob is back from Blighty - miraculously, it seems. Other friends had cancellations due to the strike against Msr Macrons pension reform plans.

We are taking a bus in Bordeaux shortly so will not be here for this event... enjoy!!

Gallery incontrovertibly open

 Just back from vernissage - vernisaging?- and very wonderful it was too. Some folk escaped my camera phone, quite wisely - others have been subjected to random snaps taken as I ran around, which is why they are hazy, out of focus. Or just plain demented.




Really like some of them though - Kat and Gracie above, ha!! And Christian and Angus, Mary and Tim, so rarely spotted in Esperaza... below, our Mayor chats with Roland who was taking some seriously marvelous pix which maybe will find their way here...

Et voila, Elvira and Andy and Richards eloquent back

 Above is dearest Ann with one of Richards reliefs and below, Beike enigmatic with Hubert's head and Eva's hair-

 Tim and his mate, above, Richard below

 Jean -Lin and Eric and Richard and below Kate, sweetly modelling one of my finger-food sausages

Here's Hubert desperately out of focus but just SO handsome!

 And Nel and Louise in front of one of Micheal Bosworths paintings. Micheal and Barbara staffed the bar so avoided the camera -

And I just love this picture of Sabrine and Gunter from the Auberge du Faby (closed until March BTW) in front of one of my riders of the apocalypse, War to be precise.

So many artists in one place most of them skillfully avoiding talking about their work. It was ever thus.
Show open for ten more days, 10am -1pm, 3pm - 6pm. Pop in tomorrow when I am staffing it.