Climate Quoi?

You can probably tell by the clothes worn by the Harris brothers that autumn is early here... we ate lunch at the Auberge du Faby yesterday and had the place largely to ourselves, the weather is so bad. This was followed by a stonking thunder and lightening and rain storm. Some friends had power cuts.

Not met anyone who is in doubt about the theories of climate change. Yet this weekend it is the tradition of all of France to get in a car and sit in a traffic jam, chuntering more Co2 into the air.

Moaning aside, it is still lovely here:) Off to market now the sun is out.

 

Day out in the world.

 Here is Max! With Fabre d'Eglantine, famous son of Carcassonne. He moved to Limoux as a child, then moved about sufficiently to get guillotined in Paris in 1794. I looked him up - he was an actor/poet famous for a dodgy number called Its Raining Shepherdess.

Msr d'Eglantine is in the Beaux Arts Museum where we passed a most agreeable morning yesterday. A fine mixed collection.

After a very decent lunch we took the long way home - great loops of countryside hither and yon - beautiful!! Max has the travellers gift of spotting small roads and taking them to the limit; no other traffic, just rolling mountains and forest and occasional vineyards. We ambled through charming villages and old churches... just a delight. And today its raining, what timing -

Now Max is off again. Spain today and from there back to Canada. Have to wait till September to go some more a-rovin.

The pass sanitaire is in action - you can't get into the night market without it. I spent a deal of time getting mine sorted (downloading app, all that sort of magic stuff I don't understand and which don't come easy) - so was anxious to try it out. Everyone laughed at me. The beaux arts, the resturant. In Esperaza, the bank, the 8a8, the newsagents... bah.

child labour shock in Esperaza

Young James was forced to run the barbeque last night and to check on his parents attempts, which meant we had a really good meal. Thanks James!

 Thanks also to Andy and Lou, here briefly after a too-long covid-driven absence. They did the nuts-and-bolts stuff around James to great effect :)

 

Waiting for rain

Sundays usual market was hot and crowded - jolly glad we'd arranged to go to Carcassonne to lunch with Margo and Theophile, Anne and Phil at Wok wok - (://www.wokland.fr/ ) where of course we feasted enormously in comfortable surroundings and were able to catch up with all the news of the past year. Margo is going to stay in France about 4 hours drive away from us so here's hoping we'll meet more often. Theophile is now nearly 13 years old and charming with it :)

Peter Gregory sent over some photos of the Picasso fountain in Ceret - you can just see Nel in one of them- cheers Pete, loved them.

This evening is cooler, phew, though worried about the little wind. Fires are raging between Narbonne and Carcassonne and a few buckets of rain wouldn't go amiss.

Glamour

Glamour and chic are back in town, in the form of New Kelly - in Esperaza briefly but promising to return full-time and about time too.

In the meantime Gert and Elsbeth will be returning to Copenhagen until September. They threw a farewell dinner last night. I have other and possibly better photographs but I enjoyed this one, which looks like a boat sailing into the infinite azure... 

 Phil, Roland and Kat were there and we were handsomely fed (home made gazpacho, filet mignon, salads, cheese board of distinction, apple tart, oh la) We chattered long and noisily. The  evening was cool- a relief after the high and rather horrible temperatures of the last few days.

We will feast you on your return, my friends :)

Micheal and Nick

 

Micheal and Nick joined us for apero yesterday and a catch up after years away. They are restoring Micheals place in Fa. Radical work which may keep them busy for some time (sniggering here, having inadvertently devoted most of my adult life to renovation and knowing the realities of it all) -----But they live in Berlin and can close the door at anytime.

Mooning about after a too-hot day. Todays temperatures are predicted to be big.

Note to self: remember to rehydrate.

Journeys to make you dizzy

Phil is with us, finally! Here is the travel-stained version, having had what sounds like the journey of a lifetime, but not in a good way. If you were on Eurostar on Tuesday morning you may have experienced a 45 min delay - think petrol leak and ask Phil all about it. He tells a v good story :)

While he was having a kip, John and Clare and us ate at Le Pont - where Gert and Elsbeth were also lunching - delicious as ever. (Today is a fast day, in principle.)

Clare was en route to the station to take the train to London, family stuff. Should be a straightforward journey... apropos, Regina and Dougie have arrived safely in the UK and our friends Micheal and Nick have arrived from Germany. More on that anon.