I know I said No More Curtains but this really is the last one!
I have the sneaking suspicion that I am starting to suffer from senior moments. “Starting” says Jean; “How about it becoming a permanent state”.
On Wednesday (despite me losing Tuesday) he kindly phoned the dentist and made an appointment for 11am on Friday morning. The moment he told me, I went and wrote it on a piece of paper and stuck it up in full view. I then proceeded to get up on Friday morning having spent half the night raiding the medicine chest for pain killers, and convinced myself that the appointment was at 3pm. I have no idea why I didn’t consult my bit of paper, and we duly presented ourselves and were met by a slightly annoyed dentist who pointed to her computer screen which clearly stated that I should have been there in the morning. Meantime I would have sold my granny to have had the job done and the pain stopped, but now I have to wait until Monday morning.
This partly explains why there was no blog yesterday. I couldn’t think of anything particularly jovial to tell you about and I seemed to spend a lot of time sleeping off the effects of the pain killers that the dentist issued, and finishing off the final curtain.
Last night was much better and we awoke to another gorgeous sunny day and drove up to Sommieres market in order to buy some bits for friends and family back in UK, and also to meet up with some of the folks that we had met last week. This time we braved the long queue outside the terrific little boulangerie and I was rewarded with a very good sacristan. Mind you, now that I am becoming something of an expert, I must confess that the one at Lunel Market was definitely the best so far. I suppose it’s a bit like your first love – you never quite get over it!
There can be few nicer ways to spend an idle hour than nibbling your way through a whole sacristan while wandering past the sun-warmed stalls selling herbs and spices, lavender and lace, roast chickens and cheeses and home brewed beer.
We arrived at Delices du Liban just before midday and didn’t spot anyone we knew, but within five minutes, the gang began to show up. Some of the folks from last week were there and in addition, there were a few new faces, a couple of house-hunters and the general easy coming and goings. In a way, it’s a bit like being at a rather nice open-air English country pub and the babble of French and English mingles very happily.
Thanks to Douglas who is the senior member of the group, I discovered how the eating and drinking system works. At first I was a bit surprised to see someone sit down at the table and haul out half a baguette, two slices of ham and half a melon. I imagined that the owner might have something to say, but instead, our host came and plonked down a litre carafe of rosé wine and a handful of glasses. The next bunch to arrive were bearing a tray of fresh oysters. Douglas peered at the shells and said, “Hmm looks like they got the expensive ones”.
I asked what the going rate was and he looked very serious as he informed me that the usual ones are 2 euro 40 a dozen but the big ones are around 2 euro 80”. Bearing in mind the fact that you would probably have to take out a bank loan to purchase a dozen oysters in London, it sounded like a reasonable price for lunch, especially when we were washing it down with a very nice wine which was setting us back about 8 euros a litre.
Douglas then went into Hunter/Gatherer mode and disappeared for five minutes before returning with a sheet of aluminium foil in which nestled a sort of crepe filled with spicy mincemeat.
“Where is everyone finding all this food?” I queried. Douglas waved his hand indicating the busy market square in front of us.
“The Mum of the guy who runs this place does the crepes, and the cousin does the oysters and then you can get fresh bread from over there next to the chap with the sausage stall”.
He went on to explain that the couple that ran our hostelry had toyed with the idea of doing food, but realised that they were far too busy keeping up with the demands of their thirsty clientele to be fiddling around in a kitchen. Hence the fact that you bring you own lunch and they supply the drinks. How organised is that!
Rather than risk a flare up in the tooth department, I turned down offers of oysters and crepes and carefully sipped on the rosé wine, all of which resulted in me getting home with toothache and a headache.
Never mind; a snooze, the last chapter of my book and a nice gentle walk in the vineyards this evening rounded out a very pleasant day all in all. Tomorrow we are going to nip over to Teyran and see what goes on at their village artisans market before driving up to Ledignan to take Mamy out for a spin in the new car. Hopefully the weather will hold, and the golds and red and yellows are steadily overtaking the green.
I’ve just seen the forecast for my trip to UK. Rain on Tuesday and Wednesday!
On Wednesday (despite me losing Tuesday) he kindly phoned the dentist and made an appointment for 11am on Friday morning. The moment he told me, I went and wrote it on a piece of paper and stuck it up in full view. I then proceeded to get up on Friday morning having spent half the night raiding the medicine chest for pain killers, and convinced myself that the appointment was at 3pm. I have no idea why I didn’t consult my bit of paper, and we duly presented ourselves and were met by a slightly annoyed dentist who pointed to her computer screen which clearly stated that I should have been there in the morning. Meantime I would have sold my granny to have had the job done and the pain stopped, but now I have to wait until Monday morning.
This partly explains why there was no blog yesterday. I couldn’t think of anything particularly jovial to tell you about and I seemed to spend a lot of time sleeping off the effects of the pain killers that the dentist issued, and finishing off the final curtain.
Last night was much better and we awoke to another gorgeous sunny day and drove up to Sommieres market in order to buy some bits for friends and family back in UK, and also to meet up with some of the folks that we had met last week. This time we braved the long queue outside the terrific little boulangerie and I was rewarded with a very good sacristan. Mind you, now that I am becoming something of an expert, I must confess that the one at Lunel Market was definitely the best so far. I suppose it’s a bit like your first love – you never quite get over it!
There can be few nicer ways to spend an idle hour than nibbling your way through a whole sacristan while wandering past the sun-warmed stalls selling herbs and spices, lavender and lace, roast chickens and cheeses and home brewed beer.
We arrived at Delices du Liban just before midday and didn’t spot anyone we knew, but within five minutes, the gang began to show up. Some of the folks from last week were there and in addition, there were a few new faces, a couple of house-hunters and the general easy coming and goings. In a way, it’s a bit like being at a rather nice open-air English country pub and the babble of French and English mingles very happily.
Thanks to Douglas who is the senior member of the group, I discovered how the eating and drinking system works. At first I was a bit surprised to see someone sit down at the table and haul out half a baguette, two slices of ham and half a melon. I imagined that the owner might have something to say, but instead, our host came and plonked down a litre carafe of rosé wine and a handful of glasses. The next bunch to arrive were bearing a tray of fresh oysters. Douglas peered at the shells and said, “Hmm looks like they got the expensive ones”.
I asked what the going rate was and he looked very serious as he informed me that the usual ones are 2 euro 40 a dozen but the big ones are around 2 euro 80”. Bearing in mind the fact that you would probably have to take out a bank loan to purchase a dozen oysters in London, it sounded like a reasonable price for lunch, especially when we were washing it down with a very nice wine which was setting us back about 8 euros a litre.
Douglas then went into Hunter/Gatherer mode and disappeared for five minutes before returning with a sheet of aluminium foil in which nestled a sort of crepe filled with spicy mincemeat.
“Where is everyone finding all this food?” I queried. Douglas waved his hand indicating the busy market square in front of us.
“The Mum of the guy who runs this place does the crepes, and the cousin does the oysters and then you can get fresh bread from over there next to the chap with the sausage stall”.
He went on to explain that the couple that ran our hostelry had toyed with the idea of doing food, but realised that they were far too busy keeping up with the demands of their thirsty clientele to be fiddling around in a kitchen. Hence the fact that you bring you own lunch and they supply the drinks. How organised is that!
Rather than risk a flare up in the tooth department, I turned down offers of oysters and crepes and carefully sipped on the rosé wine, all of which resulted in me getting home with toothache and a headache.
Never mind; a snooze, the last chapter of my book and a nice gentle walk in the vineyards this evening rounded out a very pleasant day all in all. Tomorrow we are going to nip over to Teyran and see what goes on at their village artisans market before driving up to Ledignan to take Mamy out for a spin in the new car. Hopefully the weather will hold, and the golds and red and yellows are steadily overtaking the green.
I’ve just seen the forecast for my trip to UK. Rain on Tuesday and Wednesday!
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