Blogging through France Magazine - 27th August

The Montpellier Tram travelling along the roadway of grass


The interior of the Montpellier tram Route 2

I was delighted yesterday when I not only discovered the fabulous France Magazine, but was invited to place my Diary blog onto their site. For those of you who have been reading the blog via the usual method of me sticking it under your noses on a daily basis, have yourselves a real treat and access it through:

http://www.francemag.com/forum,-blogs-and-gallery-france-blogs-diary-of-a-french-housewife--79433



Apart from catching up on our news, you can feast your eyes on some of the wonders of France, and if you are like me, desperately trying to get my schoolgirl French back up to speed, there is also the excellent French Corner

http://www.thefrenchcorner.net/2008/08/how-french-see-it.html

Yesterday, instead of our evening walk, we decided that in view of the fact that the rotovator has to be returned, we had better get in one more row for excess spinach plants. Jean always looks a little disinterested when I mention spinach, but then I remind him of the delicious spinach, feta, mushroom and bacon mini quiche that I used to make on the farm which sold like hot cakes in the farm shop in town. I would never presume to present my baking skills to the general public in France however; it would be a bit like emailing Shakespeare and giving him a few hints and tips. However, with the birthday party for Mamy coming up, I think I shall have to dust off my culinary skills and get the deep freeze stocked with some delicacies.

But back to the potager. Nobody can say that I don't know my place, and sitting on a very low stool in the centre of the "magimix" circular bed, I crushed hard lumps of very old horse manure into a powder and mixed them with good soil and pushed them through a seive. Glamorous it may not be, but it makes for a really good starting soil for the seeds. In answer to those friends of mine who used to agonise about my lack of make-up and my habit of wearing flip flops all the time, Yes I did use rubber gloves!

Following the depradations of the ants the other day, I planted another row of seeds alongside the old spinach seeds, and was rather startled to find a series of little holes the next day. If I catch just one ant carrying one spinach seed it is total war! Forget "Shock and Awe", I shall be there with my ant powder, dishing it out in spoonfuls around every possible exit hole until I have defended the last seedling.

Having worked so hard last night, we gave ourselves the morning off and went into Montpellier to visit the bank. With the sky a peerless blue and the lightest of breezes blowing through the Place de la Comedie, there can be no nicer place to be on a late summers day. The crowds seem to have vanished and apart from the little market at one end of Comedie, and the other down the centre of Antigone, there was not much activity apart from the waiters delivering endless cups of coffee and crispy croissants to their patrons.

We stopped in at the book shop just near the entrance of Polygone, and found a reasonably large English section, but having seen the prices, I decided that the Emile Zola central library would probably have an equally good selection at a far reduced rate i.e. free! It was worth the walk down through Antigone, and we paused and watched a young labrador dog playing tag with the fountains which are there one minute and gone the next. Nobody seems to be in any hurry and there is always time to watch a child shriek in delight as he runs forward onto the seemingly flat surface and then rushes back to his mother as another jet of water threatens to soak him.

It was that time of day when the last of the morning coffee drinkers were folding up their newspapers and the waiters were starting to set out the tables with their snowy white cloths in anticipation of lunch. The boards were already out displaying the host of choices available, and anything as mundane as fish and chips or sausage and mash were outnumbered by lists of omelettes, salads, hot dishes and colds ones.

The English section at Emile Zola proved well worth a visit. Once inside the library, you take the elevator (lift for my English readers) to the first floor and work your way right to the left hand end. At first I thought it was all studious reference books, but then I turned a corner and found a veritable treasure trove of books that I was wanting to read. The only slight draw back is that anything taken out from this library has to be returned there and not to another branch, so that means another trip to Montpellier. Oh dear, what hardship.

We actually have to return tomorrow to see the bank. All Jean wants is a bank card for me, but this seems to involve a great deal of paperwork, appointments and sitting in a rather small office with a Frenchman who is currently suffering from a very runny nose. I do hope that he is feeling better before we meet again tomorrow! We are thinking of including a visit to the Jardin des Plantes and if the weather continues to hold (which the pundits assure us it will) I shall have some nice photos for you.

We stopped off en route to the tram station to have another look at that Peugeot. The only slight worry is that it is ten years old and only has 20,000 on the clock and there are no identification marks as to what model it is on the back of the boot. This makes us rather wary that it has either had the odometer moved around or else it has been in a nasty crash at some stage. The price is good but maybe this gift horse really does need to be looked in the mouth so we aren't going to rush it.

Meantime, we have found a very nice Citroen Xantia with a lot more on the clock, but in excellent condition and a thousand euros less. It belongs to a mechanic who lives just behind us so it isn't worth his while selling us trouble because we will blow the hooter early every morning and wake him up!

We did as promised and got off the tram at Corum this morning and then walked through the Esplanade Charles de Gaulle, passing the Musee Fabre and the building which used to house the Pathe Cinema. I'll put up some photos for you on the next blog page - Enjoy!