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.