Monday food in Esperaza

My brother Mat at Le Healthy last night... Mat is here for a week and we are open to all offers :) Off to Carcassonne on the bus today, doing the tourist thing. Matt lives in York so all this medieval stuff is normal for him.

We had pork, caramelized, with mashed sweet potatoes and a mustardy aioli at le Healthy. Lots of people there, young and not known to me -

unlike lunch. We went to the Tibetan takeaway and everyone who came through the door while we waited was a friend. Here's Claudine and Jean trying to avoid the camera. Both on form.

Max is getting better - he writes that he's had good test results and with luck can go by the 10th. 

Word on the street

 

Got back last night to find Esperaza still there, still adorably gorgeous. After two weeks in blighty its like balm for the eyes. I tottered out to clear my lungs of airport and immediately saw Tim and Yvonne walking their dog - they updated me on Peter G's progress. After two heart attacks on the beach, a rescue by a Dutch bystander who got the ambulance, then life-saving surgery, he continues to recover well. Such good news!

Max, alas, is in dire straits. He is in a hotel room in Georgia, waiting for a deep-seated thrombosis to dissolve. This is actually good news and is down to early medical intervention but he is stuck and those who know him understand how hard that is... he should get a clear bill of health in a week or so.

Madame Jean-Luc is also in trouble though nothing as life-threatening as the above. She is having surgery on her wrist which means Tout l'Apero will be closed for three weeks. THREE WEEKS. A catastrophe for certain elements of our community :)

--Then Sally hove up and they all pushed off to Matheus bar. 

Love it here.

Be good till Im back...

 All-too-brief apero with out Danish friends last night. By the time I get back from Blighty they'll have left Esperaza. <sniff>

Goodbye for a while

 Lunch at the Pont - as good as ever, though the company may have done the trick! It's my farewell to Margaret and John for a while - I'm off to Isle de Brexit and when I return they'll be back at l'isle emeraude. 

<Sigh.>

Travelling

 Max and Andrea lured us away from Esperaza yesterday, to the oyster sheds near Leucate...

Luckily Andi and Bob don't like oysters!!! They had large imported prawns while Max and I chortled through our good luck :)  Just the best oysters IMHO

Max is famous in my lexicon for discovering new places so when he pulled off  the road and headed into the wilds  it was with bated breath.... and there was a Spanish castle, huge, glorious, used to keep the French out of Spain in the 15c.  The Fort de Salses is where we were. Spectacular.

(Thanks to Andi for this photo)

Amazing that this is two hours from Esperaza (on the old border twixt Spain and France-) and non of us had even heard of it - well staffed and agreeably comfortable, nice little museum, a soupcon of contemporary art and above all astonishing architecture.  Big cheery thanks to Max and Andi...

then apero with Margret and John, back in Esperaza for awhile. 

Margaret didn't want a large party for her birthday so is getting several :) hahahaha

summer continues to delight

 -though the mornings and evening are cold. Set off to the market early as is my wont and had a woolly on - and Rushton had stopped off at a vide grenier to buy a delightful winter jacket. 

Here he is modelling breakfast at Le Healthy.

Our seasonable neighbours from the cote d' azure are here for a week to gather mushrooms. Since rain is a thing of the past, they are most disappointed. Seen a few in the market so there must be some somewhere - hope so, as we generally get a cut.

Things have started trying to move in for the winter. 

summer still here

Spent last night on Gert and Elsbeth's terrace eating herring. With schnapps. And Roland and Kat. 

Paradise.                                

Never eaten herrings like this, each marinated in a different way and with different accompaniments. Unforgettably delicious. 

Big big thanks to our hosts who are tireless and amazing xxxx

Esperaza continues to delight us

 Disreputable shower at the Chapaire last night - great evening to cheer Pete (whose family are all elsewhere) and Sally who has lost her partner-in-crime to the antipodes. Bob had just got off an aeroplane and was merely baffled.

Another beautiful day here though cold enough to have to find a pair of socks.

goodbye Di

 Diane Dunn has to leave us today to comply with the post-Brexit rules so she and Pete and me went to Le Healthy last night to say farewell -  and I totally forgot to snap her. Walking home afterwards I spotted this pretty alley and photographed that, not as a substitute but because it was there. Only looking at it later did I see the shoes and what looks like a person hiding: but I do have a strong imagination  :)

Glorious October

 

Safe to come home now as the town fete is over - by all accounts a big success. Saddening though that  drunk kids smash window boxes... Bev has lost her cherished flowers. Given the extent of our CCTV is it too much to ask for compensation? Easy enough to nail the perpetrators. 

Mike is the reason for a party

 
 Rose (Esperazas party queen) organised last nights birthday do for the venerable Mike Harrison. Hilary is getting some maintenance in hospital so couldn't be there - here's hoping she'll be back in time for their wedding anniversary. 

Above is a snap of Mike unwrapping his costly gifts in the company of Yvonne, Louise, O-B, Max, Andy, Tim and others too numerous to mention :) at Le Chapaire, who never disappoint. The place was turning away people, every cover covered, still managing a decent service with their customary quality nosh.

The others went off to the party in the square ... this is as near as I got.

It could be heard across town nonetheless and went on into the small hours.

The market today is superb: just enough people, tourists mostly gone, weather warm and bright - moon high -