under another sun

Last full day in Les Mages. Off to the village again this morning, and after buying some bread and more sausages, we had a coffee in the Tabac.  A day of squeezing as much out of our last poolside day as possible. Have really enjoyed swimming. Just enough to do about five or six strokes before you are at the other end, but repeat lots and you feel as if you have swum a little. Sitting about reading more Senghor poems in my bilingual edition. I really like his poetry now even more than the first time I read it. Plus games of scrabble, and ate a handsome sausagey repast in the evening. Then rushing about packing. Another nice chat with Lucy, a lovely person. Turns out her son is going to Stirling too, where Sam will be doing his PhD. More Jeux Olympiques on TV too. Also we put in a good effort at wine drinking, with a fair amount needing to be polished off before leaving, both pink and red. And a can of Heineken. Below a glimpse of the Tabac, a nice butterfly, which looked blac...

Into the local village of Les Mages this morning, walking under the tiny underpass, past the plopping frogs. A friendly little market there, where we bought vegetables and fruit, some sliced cured ham (which proved to be delicious). The lady we bought ham from was correcting my French in a friendly way, and when I paid her she told me words to the effect that she was charging me a few euros, but the heart of France is free.  Meanwhile, the butcher’s stand was fun, and he was a real performer. One of the locals was buying lots, and he routinely dropped in the odd extra sausage. We bought some sausages, and were given a really good extra slab of pate for nothing. Then we went into the Tabac, where Lorraine got us coffee, and the lady there remembered us. I really like being in this Tabac as it feels like you are glimpsing a completely everyday bit of French life. Men ordering their demis, and Pastis which changes colour with water, and coffees. There is a lot of gambling there a...

A bank holiday in France. A slow start to the day, and another saunter to Les Mages, with the idea of buying some mosquito spray, but the pharmacy was closed. Luckily we have are plug ins for the bedroom, so the atrocious insects are mainly confining their activities to poolside. In the village we popped into the Tabac, where we ordered coffee, and got two thimbles of the mind altering strength brew. Then deux demis of beer as it was past midday. We sat in a little booth, with an extremely large stuffed boar’s head above Lorraine’s. It was slaughtered on 31 st December 1959, coincidentally the year of the boar. Came back home, had a spot of lunch and went down to the pool. Me wearing my complete anti mosquito gear apart from when swimming. I went for an explore down by the side of the river and fell down the bank. The water only an inch deep there, and very shallow with lots of what I think are trout in it. Then I returned to the pool, read a little, and so on. We saunte...

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 ...

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...