The bedroom window is a skylight.    We open the blind each morning to see the colour of the sky.   It is mostly blue.

The  days rush by a like a speeded up movie.   Since the action packed adventure of our Christmas trip home, we’ve done more travelling around, more meals out, movies , reading, writing,  quiet times and busy times and many special times

At the end of December our friends Mandy and JC arrived for a 6 week stay in the area.   They became immersed in the French way of life, at least of the medical kind, with  visits to doctors, dentists and vets to seek cures for their various health problems    Oh the vet was for Kicker Dog.   Poor chums   Their landlord, Son of Rachman, was unhelpful and a disgrace to the rental property community.   The house had not been prepared for them in any way.    It took four of us nearly 30 minutes to get into the house, to be greeted by cobwebs to rival Miss Havisham’s bedroom, dirt and leaves everywhere,  mouse chewed bed linen  (where it existed at all), moulding food in the oven, inadequate bedding and exorbitantly costly heating.

Son of Rachman had not counted on the masterful and determined Mrs Collins however.     Her email tongue sent paper cuts over the ether and eventually, and at a cost, she and John managed to have a reasonably happy stay.   We had lots of lovely, cosy evenings , eating together and playing cards and they did lots of beautiful touristy stuff in the area.

On New Eve, the four of us and eight other friends shared a lovely meal together, at our rented property, played charades and Pass the Parcel, and other silliness, and welcomed  2019 into our lives with the help of a totally unintelligible french radio person.

The beginning of February saw the arrival into our home of our daughter Sara, her friend Georgia and the loving, funny,  live teddy bear that is Harley, the Cavapoodle.  Following various visits Sara had decided she would like to share some of our adventures in this beautiful country and had booked the same villa as Mandy {!}.  They stayed with us for a fortnight first and we started preparing for them to make the most of their stay: intensive  french lessons in Beziers, gym membership and  Aquaswim membership in Magalas, Yoga lessons, wine tastings in local domaines, testing out local restaurants and places of interest.   Gaz and I were worn out just listening to it all.   Finally it was time for them to take over Le Manoir du Vigneron, ex Mandy house.  Mandy and John, bless them, had ironed out most of the difficulties and after completely rearranging the furniture, lighting the log burner and with the local wine in the fridge, the girls pronounced themselves well and truly “Chez Nous”

One of our early planned trips was to Roquebrun.   I have written of Roquebrun previously,  a beautiful hillside town, renowned for water sports.   Heralding the Spring, this little town puts on a festival to celebrate the Mimosa which grows abundantly in the area.   The one mile walk from the parking area was well worth it.    Stalls selling wine, honey, cheese, lavender, olive oil, fruit and, to feed the hungry. barbecued boar and chips, paella, hamburgers and churros.   We needed the long walk back to recover.

And you know, and as I’ve said previously, it’s not all wine and roses.   One day we took a five minute drive just to hug an 800 year old plane tree!

One of the things we had long planned with the girls was to drive to Sitges in Spain for the Mardi Gras Carnival.   The four  of us, plus Bassie and Harley the Cavapoo,set off in high excitement, with our Carnival costumes packed safely away.    We had an amazing apartment close to the centre of town, which cost us each 20 euros a night.   A bargain.   A friend from our Conversation Class invited us to watch the Carnival from their hotel room.   We felt like royalty.

The last evening most of the entertainment was at ground level:

The gang:

Firstly, my facial expression for most of the evening:

Whilst watching these:

 

Sitges, when the madness has gone to bed and the street cleaners have  washed away the night’s excesses, awakes again as a beautiful seaside town .  The streets were wet and slick, clean white linen clothed last night’s tables, the sea glittered blue and silver and the naked faces of last night’s revellers were  innocent as lambs as we set off next morning for a four mile walk around the coast.   Exquisite.

 

Prices in Spain are markedly lower than France so we took advantage of this in local shops and at the border and journeyed home quietly, empty of fun, speech, money and the ability to move our limbs    Apart from Harley who was remarkably chipper after all the festivities

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Barely home and we prepared to greet Maz  and Johnny on their fourth visit to us.   As always, much fun, laughter, eating and drinking were enjoyed.  We all stayed at  Sara’s villa and dog sat while the girls were away.

We did our usual touring around and had a lovely day in Sète.   This is not a town I love but we discovered new places this time by going to the top of the hill on which it is founded.

Maz and Johnny visited the Paul Valèry museum, while Gaz and I read the famous names on the graves in the famous cemetery.

And more goodbyes and more “welcomes” and we share Sara and Georgia’s adventures and dreams and visitors.   And await our lovely friends Jenny and Mark who come at Easter.

We meet new and interesting people, visit new and familiar places in a winter that has been unseasonably warm … and yet we have days of longing for the grey skies of England.

And our hearts break for what is happening to our homeland.