Wise men

Up late and ate a leisurely breakfast. We walked to Les Mage the village nearby. We walked under the main road by a little stream that plopped with frogs as we approached it. The smell of mint nearby.

The village quietly lovely.  Some surprises: a fabulous mural on the side of a church by Jean Marc Fraisse which featured the three wise men, which we took as a bit of an omen, as the next play formulating in my head is about them. One of them looked quite feminine with a little pencil moustache, which I thought would be a great look for Kitty.

Also found in town a gorgeous mosaic done by Fernand Léger,. I was once a big fan, but when I sat my A level and did some of the work in his style this wasn’t helpful as Léger eschews perspective, which went over the head of the markers.  Lorraine and I nipped into the boulangerie, which also does very good icecream. We had two icecreams and came away with two chocolate brioche too, which we took home and ate with coffee.

A relaxing afternoon spent by the pool. Sitting under the fig tree near the pool, and fruiting vines hanging down over a stone wall.  It is a green oasis, and looks out onto other trees, including a walnut and the river flowing beyond it. We spent hours there reading, swimming and snacking a bit. I ran up for a couple of cold cans of Heineken too which was rather nice.

Working on my Chad poems, one in particular is quite thorny and I can’t get it right. I read it aloud to Lorraine, and on the other side of the thick hedge, was a brief outburst of indignant coughing, sighing, and passive aggressive snapping of newspapers, because I’d broken the quiet of the afternoon.

There is a mosquito in the ointment unfortunately. Poolside is a congregation point of the winged vermin.  This morning I woke up with a collection of bites, which throbbed and itched atrociously as the day wore on. Luckily I have packed my mosquito proof shirt and trousers from Chad.  So sit by the pool after I’ve swum fully dressed and looking a bit of a chump. Luckily only Lorraine and I are there. Also she is using me as a mosquito decoy. Although she did pick up quite a few bites but, unlike me, she endures them stoically.

After we ate smoked cold chicken and salad supper, sipped sparkling Blanquette de Limoux, thinking of Ken and Janet, and also Sam. We cooked with potatoes, and had a game of scrabble, we turned on the TV. To watch Harry Potter et le coup de feu, which I’d not seen all of before. Lorraine looking forward greatly to telling Beth the important fact that wand in French is baguette. Otherwise we flipped a bit onto the Jeux Olympiques, coverage in France all about things like cycling and handball, that the French are good at.  Drank wine. Made off to our bed.

Our door in the courtyard, and work by Jean Marc Fraisse and Fernand Léger.