En fete, encore

The white thing you may see in the above pic on the right hand side is a screen, where the match was shown. The loyalty of the town was not in dispute - see Francis, below, wearing the tricolour.

Here is the singer Erwens, doing Brassens and making a good fist of it - knowing that everyone was just waiting for the match to start. 

The night market was slightly under fooded - some favourite vans absent - presumably because of the match and the threat of rain. 

The other news is that the woefully under-attended voting for regional politicians is over; results a relief as the area is to the left, tied in with the ecologists.
 

Perfect days

 Carcassonne, Esperaza's biggest nearby town,  yesterday.... pretty, with CDs hanging from the skies... a one euro bus ride away.

Made me realise how remiss I've been about photos lately, so just to say that all is well with our friends (I think) and the sun continues to shine and there are gentle breezes. Perfect time of year. 

Bob and I went to the creperie yesterday and the Big News is that Nightingale has lost half her body weight! Looks most glam.

Happy weekend, y'all!

Busy Days

Since our dear Kelly is off for an extended visit to Blighty, we took her to lunch at the Pont; and very nice too. Stuffed turkey with a hint of ginger was the main course, with pommes dauphine - which came after an anchovy salad and before the fresh fruit salad, ice cream and creme squirtie.  A little bit sad during lunch, thinking that our friend is leaving us but since she will be living near to where we go when in S.E. London, we will probably see her quite soon. She can't get away from us that easily. 

The evening found us and Kat at the tapas bar in Rue Gambetta - discovered my tolerance for alcohol has plummeted. I has three tiny glasses of wine and  I was legless. Perhaps Jean-Luc is serving super strong stuff?

Here's Kat, coping better than me.
 

Bus it!!

 Dear wonderful Alison has her own bus - what a dream - and is offering these trips. Ring her for times and pick up points and have a day out :)

Night market starts again

Here's lovely Jutta... inexplicably there are few photos of our friends, and those few show signs of alcohol abuse. Wonderful to have Mondays back, there were security measures - masks, distancing- nothing oppressive. Great food out and of course good music. Though we did take the precaution of sitting well back and beyond the stage. See you next Monday :)

 

Onwards...

Tonight is a return to the night markets, hurrah - I predict a better turnout than the election of yesterday. Shamefully low. But good result locally, IMHO - the department was won by 37.55%, the region by 38.96% - to the union of the left and the ecologists.

Also today the life-drawers are back at the MJC. If you are an artist and don't need tuition, trot along. 10 a.m - 12.a.m.  5 euros for your share of the models fee.

Here's the bridge this morning. River still low, despite major storm of a couple of days ago. 

 

Election drizzle

The queue for voting this morning was, erm, slight - the day (though fresh) is overcast and occasionally wet, with distant lightening. The market not overwhelming -

But it takes more than mere weather to oppress the Brits! Voila, Steve and Leslie are safely back in town after a lengthy covid-exclusion and Tim and Yvonne. below, are back with us AGAIN with more house-moving. Looking forward to their moving-in party at the new gaff.

The Rue Gambetta is being re-branded as an arts street and here are the artists who braved the weather. Best of luck to them and hope the next time will be more successful. Takes time to build these things up.

  

 

welcome rain

 Yesterday the storm broke, the heat wave banged to a halt -phew - 

but before that we had a visit from Jean-Pierre who held me enthralled with tales of his life... he is French by birth but has lived all over the place, architect by profession and skilled in many fields. He and his wife Christiane, a poet, have settled in the heart of Esperaza. Now they feel called by solitude and are hoping to find somewhere to live in the mountains.

Any ideas, anyone?

keeping cool

 The coolest lunch yesterday, with Dougie and Regina - here seen before we moved into the shade in the garden. 

I'm running out of superlatives, but would still like to praise Dougies legs :)

Sundays fetes

A handful of photos from last nights photogenic party, thrown by Susan - to whom hats off for hostessing to perfection. Here she is (above) being toasted by Brian; Bob, Norbert and Robin enacting a ritual perhaps; Susan and her swains; Rose, Louise and Bob. 

Only Olivier didn't get snapped.

Got back home before the curfew and lo!! Toby and Leo were unpacking. They're back...

Earlier in the day, at the cafe du Pont, stumbled into Pascal giving Erika a hand. Super surprise - he ran the place some 20 years ago and has had many adventures since including a spell in Bristol and a restro in Rennes le chateau. Not sure what his current plans are, Sunday morning not a good time for a long chat when everyone is busy.

 It's very very hot here. Stay cool, y'all.

The new normal

Quite like the old normal but more appreciative :) Here's Clare and Pete with us at the Poulet en Velo near St Ferriol. What could be better on these hot days...

 

Sunny days

 After a jolly day in (jolly) Carcassonne, (where people are masked but everything is open,) met Claudine at the new tapas bar for our girls night out - 

Here is Jean-Luc, our genial host and below, Mike showing the rash up his arms from cutting back an aloe vera plant. He passed by and we lured him over for a drink . The rash isn't showing up well in the photo but it is spectacular, honest. 

AND Tim and Yvonne are in town, with their new adorable dog - originally called Max but now known as Naughty Boy. My photos inexplicably dreadful. 

Post Covid Quillan / Esperaza

Quillan was in her best frock yesterday - beautiful weather and the town is shiny new, awaiting the Tour de France on the 10th July. Hats off to the mayor who is doing sterling work. 

Above is the Pink Palace from the inside. We are allowed into restaurants now - which for those of us with an abhorrence of cigarette smoke is a huge relief.

The captain and I celebrated - with some surprise - our 20th wedding anniversary. Rushton (who took amazing photos of the event all those years back) and Mrs Rushton had coincidentally offered us lunch. Graham joined in for pudding; here he is with Clare, under the trees, by the mountains - stunning.

 Very hot here and today predicted to be hotter. Time to look out last years summer clothes (did I bin them all??)

Our curfew now is ended. Well, until 11.00 pm. Took a 10.30 stroll round Esperaza and found lights blazing from the creperie and the bar, the Cafe du Pont clearing up, the PMU dark as normal. The new tapas bar was throbbing. Lots of young underdressed people in town and some well iffy driving, clearly by people who have forgotten about drink and cars. Hope they got home safely. 

Those that walked sang in the streets. We are getting back to normal, for sure.

Best Vide Grenier

 

Hugely acquisitive vide grenier which was not the plan. 

And these photos show the tip of the pile.... there was also a new  handbag and a canteen of cutlery. 

Lovely, hot, exhausting day. Peter and Clare shared the lunch that Bob made - he's getting better and better at cooking :)

Groovy Gambetta

The new tapas bar was open last night in Rue Gambetta and it was just great, as might be imagined - a quiet road on a summers evening, with several tables and really nice staff bringing wine and beer and tapas, what could possibly go wrong??? 

Above are Barbara and Nick, who moved to Esperaza in December ahead of the Brexit cut-off - congratulations to them on a very sound decision - caught them shooting off to the creperie with Billy and Jo (Billy slowly recovering from the slipped disc in his neck ouch) and Atmo and Ceri, without whose absence we would never have got a table. 

To which in the fullness of time came Kat, Edith, Tita and Daniel.

Was expecting a huge bill but it turned out not to be expensive. We had a trio of artichoke and truffle, tapenade and sardine to soak up the wine and both that and the booze were delicious. The owner seems very passionate about the quality and provenance of his stock. Will be back.

But today ---- its another vide grenier, hurrah ! I'm off to the river bank to check it out.
 

Espe gossip

Greetings from Edinburgh - Here's Andy with Barbara and Mike and the sprog James and Louise who clearly took the pic and says hello too. All well in their corner. They are not missing us at all.

Here's Rue Gambetta's new wine and tapas bar, can't wait to try it - over the weekend perhaps- love the giant lego pieces that surround the road seating - 

 

Party Town

Mike and Norbert

Ole-Bendik and Cleopatra 

Trotting past the bar tonight - to see if Kevin was doing terrace lunches- when these bad boys lured me in.  After a hard days work, the pleasure of  their company was most welcome. And I showed Ole-Bendik what I was working on and he made some helpful suggestions.

Bob not too well with a reaction to the second shot. We had them yesterday and apart from a sore arm I've escaped lightly though poor Captain H is hammered as I was first time. 
 Our injector at the Centre Sante, a well genial bloke, said a. it was a bad idea to be immortal because there wouldn't be enough for everyone to eat (even if we did eat the young) and b. even fully inoculated we still have a decent chance of catching covid related virus's, just not so strongly. Stay masked, he said.

BTW the creperie isn't doing lunches. Kevin only serving Friday and Sat nights. Had previously tried to get us into the Pont on Friday but they are fully booked. Ate from the new Pizza in Rue Gambetta yesterday and most agreeable people, perfectly serviceable nosh. Will be back but its def takeaway, none of the glamour of eating in the street, ahem.