under another sun

Departure from Collioure. A glorious morning, as we trundled our suitcases along the waterfront one last time, and popped romantically to the recycling before sitting on a bench for a while looking at the picturesque little port one last time. We’d had a good time there, but we were both ready to try the next phase of our holiday.   We’d given ourselves plenty of time so there was no frenzy as we rolled ourselves up to the station. There was a train at 9:53 which took us to Nîmes. It was a slow stopping train so the journey took us a couple of hours, but this was pleasant enough.   The train quite busy, but as we’d got on early in the route we had a seat. At Nîmes we eventually found the Car Hire place in the station that Lorraine had organised for us. We found our car, then bought snacks at the station. As we were getting ourselves sorted in the underground carpark, Sam called with the excellent news that he had been accepted, vitally with funding, to do his PhD at Sti...

Last day in Collioure. Romantically walked to Carrefour which we had managed to miss, where we bought plenty of food,   we also stopped at the boulangerie to buy some brioche to have with coffee at home as a hobbit’s second breakfast. Got ourselves packed and organised today, as it is an early start tomorrow. In the afternoon, we sauntered about, and went into the Church (mere paces from where we were staying) a place full of gold and signs urging silence and respect, which seemed not to apply to the two French ladies gossiping as they cleaned the altar area.   In the evening we ate our supper, on the terrace, played a game of scrabble and had several glasses of wine. Then we went for an evening walk, watching a the Thibaud Dufoy Trio, hosted by Collioure Jazzy, out by the waterside with a twinkling and busy electric piano and a rather excellent drummer. Jazz with extended improvisations is not Lorraine’s usual fare, but she put up with it g...

A bit of an odd day. Up fairly early (for us) and into town to have a croissant and coffee in the slightly surly wifi café called Café-Sola (written in the coca cola font). Sent off a couple of emails, and uploaded a bit on this blog too. Lorraine and I then sauntered back to the flat, buying an artisan baguette en route, before tucking into lunch. The weather then took a surprising turn, windy (I ran around closing the shutters) and the rumble of thunder over the mountains and big spots of rain that never fully developed into a rain storm, and then a light rain for a short while. Lorraine and I enjoyed from our balcony, reading (The Buried Giant by Kasuo Ishiguro, Lorraine something about people killing each other in Scotland) sewing and so on. Later, we took a walk around Collioure, springing up the hilly bits in the coolness. We ended up in a restaurant (not on our list) where we had a quick pizza.   Not a particularly good pizza, I ordered something called a Mexicaine ...

Did not sleep well.   However after a breakfast of yoghurt and fresh peaches. Lorraine and I rallied strongly, and went for a walk to the other side of the harbour, and explored more of the town. In the afternoon after I’d had a bit of a sleep, and felt far perkier. We went to the art gallery, where there was a contemporary exhibition, Voramar,   by a French artist called Des Bouges who used to holiday in Collioure when he was a lad. The Collioure work not particularly interesting to me, but some of his other stuff was far weirder and more disturbing, using taxidermy, the dead bodies of crows, shed antlers and so on. At its best it had a feeling of being like a magic rite. From there, Lorraine and I went to another beach, small and pebbly a bit more like the Greek ones. As before, we attempted to surge in with insouciance. The water quite cold, and Lorraine said she never quite warmed up. Interesting to encounter other people snorkelling, one with a fishing net un...

Waking up without Calliope prickling me is a lovely thing. I didn’t sleep particularly well. But even though we have no air conditioning, we have a fan and the night is cooler here than in Greece so sleeping comfortable enough. The little house on four floors we are renting is built around a spiral staircase. The ground floor opens onto the street, and is a kitchen. The first floor has a bathroom and the bedroom. The second floor is has sofas and is more of an off season feel about it. The top floor, where we are spending lots of time, has a large outside balcony with a view of rooftops, the harbour and the mountains beyond. Lorraine and I purposeful when we did got up. We went to a small Sunday market, so bustling it made me feel a bit claustrophobic. It was, however, selling lovely things so we persisted, buying a good cut of cured ham, two types of delicious cheeses, peaches, nectarines and tomatoes as well as an artisanal sourdough baguette with a rich nutty taste. Brought...