Old boat, aging bird

In two weeks we expect to be back in Paris. We will give the car back to Renault and then we are planning to visit the larger cities of Nancy, Lyon and Strasbourg before making our way back to Australia. On leaving here, this trial project will be over and this blog will be shut down. Then we expect to reflect a little on what our experience has been and decide if we are up for more over the next few years. We continue to go over options, to have our good and not so good days in this French culture, and wondering what sort of a difference the experience has really made?

World Cup Rugby Minnows

With no allegiances to either Tonga or Samoa in the rugby we enjoyed their rugby match up last weekend. As the Tonga team is staying in a suburb of Montpellier, they have picked up a large force of supporters for their matches here and it was good to see them hang on to beat their more fancied opponents. Not that we fancy their chances against England to secure a spot in the second round of games!! On Sunday we will make the short drive up to Montpellier to see the wallabies in action against Fiji; a match we expect them to easily win. There is a noticeable Aussie component around Montpellier at the moment and the team has a lot of local support with the bars and cafes draped in flags and signage.

Filling in time-again

Of course, the other tourist option is to enjoy another meal in yet another quaint restaurant. So we have had two such seafood meals this week in Meze and have promised ourselves another half day in Pezenas next week. We have yet to see much of Beziers with just a few hours earlier in the week to get some information and a feel for the place. Our current feeling is that we prefer the university city of Montpellier. Yesterday we spent several hours on the local Beziers beach of Valras. Whilst it was nice and sunny, the weather is definitely turning cooler as each day passes and we expect that our beach activities will ease up from next week.

Will we buy more stuff

Although our strictly tourist activities are less and less as we go along, we have made short visits to the fishing and pleasure port of Meze and Marseillan as well as the artist heaven of Pezanas. But what do you do in these places once you are there? In our current mood not much. Budget conscious Randall has a heart attack each timeYvonne picks up that fantastic leather bag or yet another eye catching necklace. He often takes to loitering outside these arty shops trying to look as bored as possible until Yvonne gives in and we move a bit further along the medieval streets. His latest ploy is to raise the issue of excess baggage if Yvonne looks like opening the wallet. Yvonne counters by negotiating her way through the not too hard working post office staff and the sometimes long queues to get things posted home.

What Bloggers do in spare time

This whole area is devoted to grape growing and wine production. Most villages have one or more distilleries. At the moment the grapes are being picked and the roads have tractors and carts going back and forth with the harvested grapes. We have enjoyed a bottle or two of our host’s produce. Even with our moderately good language skills we are not too sure where his plot is, how big it is or where he sells it! We do know that he is not part of a cooperative nor does he market his wine through local markets as some independents do. Maybe he just has a small production going to keep his hand in the business and make a euro or two on the side. He does make a surprisingly good chardonnay though. In this area we have the choice of white, rose and reds.

Gite Interior

The gite has been renovated and is quite modern in furniture and fittings. Although small by Australian standards, we are very comfortable here. The second bedroom upstairs makes a useful study where we can catch up with internet news and blogs. And voila, one of the local cafes has wifi and so we can relax a bit more, (if that were possible!!) and do our online work whilst having a coffee or two.

Gite Number 10-Magalas

Last weekend we moved again, this time a short way further south in the Herault Department to Magalas, a small hilltop village a few kilometers outside of the city of Beziers. We are well located within the village and just a short uphill walk to the village centre where there are a couple of café/eateries, boulangeries and a highly recommended restaurant. The gite itself is in the “backyard” of a fairly large property. It belongs to a couple who are retired grape growers and who live in another village closer to Beziers. M Fulcrand’s mother was living alone in the main house but in July she moved into a retirement residence. The main house is currently being renovated to be a second gite on the property. So another variation in location and the first time we have been in a working town of any size.

The Little Guys win sometimes

In our time here we have also caught up with our reading and relaxing. Yvonne thinks our gite is a more like a cave than a house but hermit Randall is very relaxed here and after downloading a heap more from the ABC this week, he has been happy enough to listen to the radio programs he likes. The internet gets better and better each day from that perspective.

As expected, things back in Australia gradually continue to evolve, politicians carry on being politicians, farmers and primary producers continue to winge about their lot, shares go up and down and we continue to follow along behind George W and his ilk. We are very grateful to be spending at least part of our lives away from the negative aspects of life down under. This week, and in common with many of the spectators, we enjoyed seeing little Tonga give the US Eagle a kick up the Rugby butt. Despite Yvonne falling foul of the body and bag search on entry during which she lost her bottle of hand gel. Much cursing as we made our way to our seats. You have your good moments and then your not so good moments. We wonder if security will be same for the next game we go to between Tonga and Samoa?

Aix en Provence

Aix en Provence is a larger town in the Provence region. Very close to the somewhat horrendously busy and industrial area of Marseilles which we have avoided like the plague, even if the All Blacks are playing good rugby there. Aix en Provence is more our scene. Large boulevards shaded by old and huge plane trees. There is much grand sidewalk strolling past numerous cafes, brasseries and restaurants. The tight ever changing lanes in the old medieval centre are populated by boutique shops of all types. Streets full of many well heeled chic women, some with the inevitable dog, keeping their collection of dresses up to date. And of course, there are the shops flogging the wares of Provence, lavender, pretty linen, garden nick nacks and all. We have to travel an hour or so each way to get to Aix but we have decided to come back to this part of France again one day and to spend more time here.

Nimes Arena

We have re-visited Aigues Mortes where we did the tourist bit and enjoyed an afternoon strolling around the old town and a great dinner. We also had a few hours one day in Nimes where they have a truly classic arena. As it happens, this week is bullfighting week in Nimes and there are lots of Spanish and other tourists around. This is not for us and so we take a few snaps, enjoy a drink and lunch there before moving on to other places.

PonT Diable

And so we are now coasting towards the end of our time in France and starting to look towards returning to Australia. We did leave some free time in mid October for follow up on actions but we have parked these and will be flying out a little earlier than planned. World Cup Rugby will finish on 20 October and we leave France on 21 October.

In the meantime, we are here in the south to allow Randall to enjoy a bit of Rugby. Yvonne has been patiently window shopping, keeping in touch with family and friends, enjoying new sights, eternally judging people for their origins, motives and reasons for being here.

Our location here could be described as idyllic in many ways, despite the very dry and rocky conditions. We are deep into wine growing country and grapes are being harvested; mainly by machines. The wine is fine without being the highest quality. We come across tractors towing harvested grapes to the cooperatives daily. Nevertheless there is not much change in the slower pace of life in these parts. The villages and smaller towns shut up for lunch and Mondays. The old men have their chats in the centre of town late mornings and then play boules later in the day. Occasionally the boules also include a few women, especially when the game involves a younger crowd. Pic Saint Loup is a very prominent natural feature here and we are in a hamlet just a few kilometers away in St Croix Quintillargues. Life here is much the same as it ever was.

Pic Saint Loup

After almost five months on the move we are now very much into routine. We have lived day to day in the quite different culture of France. We have taken opportunities to be tourists and checked out the local tourist happenings, museums, galleries and gastronomy. We have tried to see ourselves spending at least a part of our remaining lives here and we have discussed a range of activities that we might take on next. We have been very conservative in our approach to things and we have not made any decisions for future ventures here.

The weather is now turning towards Autumn. The evenings are now starting before 9pm and we are very much missing our late afternoon 10pm+ strolls around town. Randall has pushed back his 7 am jogs around the countryside to 7.30. He is also a bit wary down here of becoming a hunting trophy as the locals are into early morning hunts in the local forests where he jogs, even if there is no chance he could be mistaken as a startled gazelle.

Place de la Comedie Montpellier

The whole place is made of stone with the walls over a metre thick in places. The ceilings are also stone with rounded arches as you get in wine caves. We are on the ground floor and share the building with at least two other gites/apartments. Outside there is also a nice big tree for shade. So we call this city living. We can sometimes hear people upstairs if we are outside but in the main all is very quiet indeed.

On Sunday we went into Montpellier to check out centre ville and to get a feel for the place. The centre is highly pedestrianised and looks very people friendly and relaxed. We will check this out further during the week. It sure looks like life is a lot more congested here compared to the Tarn and before that the Vienne. There is also a bigger mix of races here.

Southern Country

Consistent with the trip thus far, this is yet another quite different gite. Firstly, it is owned by the commune and not a private individual. The Marie runs the operation. And so we are dealing with some poor young kid who has been detailed off to do the formalities. We are right in the middle of the commune, opposite the church and right on the main road running through the place. But this time, surprise, surprise, we are right next door to a brand new general store. By all accounts this is a seven days a week operation, we can get a coffee right outside the front door and on Sunday they have put up an ad inviting all and sundry to watch the opening match of the Rugby next Friday evening on the giant screen. At least that is the theory. Who knows we might even go?

Our new kitchen

The gite itself has a long entry hall from the front door and you pass the toilet, bathroom, and laundry, facilities room before stepping down into quite a spacious living area. From the living area there are double doors leading outside onto a patio area which has a large outdoor table and chairs and also doors leading off to the kitchen, main bedroom and a second bedroom. The bedrooms are quite large and the kitchen we describe as cute. Randall can almost but not quite walk into the kitchen without ducking his head so best leave this room for Yvonne.

Gite at Ste Croix

We arrived at our gite in Ste Croix de Quintillargues as scheduled and in a few minutes we are through the formalities and on our way to the hypermarche for our regular change gite shopping expedition. Domestic duties over, we eventually settle ourselves in ready for the next couple of weeks.

A Stop after lunch from Albi-Olarques

Now Montpellier adds yet another dimension. Even though we are only a little further south and a couple of hundred kilometers east, this is quite a different world. We progressively left farming land and went through hilly regions with only a few towns on the way. The countryside has a distinctly Mediterranean look with lots of dry areas and smaller tougher bushes. Not too much grass on the ground in these parts. Closer to Montpellier, the traffic was a lot heavier (even given the end of holiday traffic). We drove through Montpellier (could have a navigation error or two - but at least it was weekend traffic only) and quickly sensed the big city feel compared to laid back Albi.

Flowery Thoughts

Before we give you some idea of where we are now living some 20+ kilometers North of Montpellier, we ought to summarise our last few days in the Tarn. We were leaving Albi just as France was finishing up the grand summer vacance that never was, and gearing up for the Rugby World Cup. We liked Albi and the surrounding area a lot and, as we may have said in an earlier blog, we plan to stop over in the area on our way north in a month or so.

The other day we met up with two interesting couples; one Australian and the other Scottish. Both have country houses in the very north of the Tarn, the Australians are just a year or so into their project to renovate an old watermill whilst the Scots are trying to sell up after 9 years. Both had interesting stories to tell on their French projects which we readily soaked up. There was much discussion in the car on the way home from our get together, including a bit of a rethink on the pros and cons of country living. Our feelings on a project here have continued to evolve over here without us ever getting ahead of ourselves. Sometimes we think that we are just too calculating in what at the end of the day will be an emotional decision. Nevertheless, we have finally found an area which meets all current criteria.