Month: July 2008

30. 07. 08 Wednesday. Tomasz has been here from Korea for 5 days. I met him at the train station in Montpellier on last Thursday and we seem to have been busy ever since. We have been to the beach at Marseillan and at lac du Salagou. Saturday we went to the Voix de la Mediterranée poetry festival in Lodeve in the afternoon and then the Art Salon vernisage in Clermont in the evening. We saw Bons Baisers de Bruges on Thursday and Wall-E this afternoon. Stefan and Pam came up from Barcelona on Monday for the day and yesterday I went on my first ever VTT trail ride around lac du Salagou. Plus we spent a fair bit of time just talking, frequently with our after-dinner coffee at Les Negociants. Exhausting but stimulating, now I need to do some work before the ladies arrive at the end of next week!

22. 07. 08 Tuesday. Stayed at Claire’s last night so that we could get an early start this morning. Arrived in Marseilles at about 9 and stopped and had a coffee and croissant in a café where Claire received the results of her degree in 1974! We tried to get the ferry for the Chateau d’If, an old prison offshore made famous by Dumas in the Count of Monte Christo, but the water was too rough so all trips were cancelled. Plan B – we rented bikes. This required a degree in IT to finally get the machine to release the bikes but after much consultation we were successful – this is definitely a two-person task! The bikes are extremely sturdy and heavy but work well. We left the old port and started around the corniche and stopped at l’Anse des Auffes which is stunning little harbour hidden within the larger port. There do not appear to be any designated bike lanes in Marseilles so it quite exciting riding along with cars and scooters whipping by at high speeds. After a couple of hours we dropped the bikes off and found a restaurant for lunch. Not the greatest resto but we were hungry and when Claire offered to pay by cheque or carte bleu she managed to negociate the price down from 24€ to 20€ cash so we were quite pleased. After lunch we drove out to les Calanques which are rocky shores strangely lunar in appearance with hardly any vegetation. We visited Sormiou and Cassis before taking the autoroute back to Montpellier. I had a cup of tea chez Claire before heading back into the wind on the scooter to Clermont. Marseilles is a huge, muscular town (second largest in France) with architecture reflecting its former glories as a jumping off point for French colonies. The population is quite exotic and varied witnessing its history. I shall definintely come again, next time not in high tourist season and preferably when it is not so windy. There is much to explore.

18. 07. 08. Friday. Today was the day that the Tour came to Clermont. The town was quite animated this morning as there was also a flea market  which started around 8 – I looked at some stalls en route to buying my Midi-Libre but managed to easily resist buying anything. I had an early lunch and walked over to the route at around 1. The caravane came by between about 1. 15 and 2 with all the usual hooplah of the circus. Hats, sweets, coffee, cheese and various other products being flung at the eager crowd. The leaders flashed by just after 3 and then the peloton flashed by 6 minutes later. That was it! As a guy next to me said “le seul problème est qu’on attends deux heures pour un minute!” But it was worth it, there was a great festive atmosphere with people from all over chatting to each other. A surprising number of Australian flags in evidence too.

15. 07. 08. Tuesday. Just got back from a wonderful weekend with my “French” family. I took the train to Bordeaux last Thursday afternoon to spend the holiday weekend with Marie-Pierre, Olivier and their two children Baptiste and Agathe. Arrived an hour late on Thursday (French trains are not as reliable as they once were) and we all went over to M-P’s friend Françoise’ apartment for aperos and then on to a Tapas bar for dinner. Friday lunch time Michele, Jean-Loup, Eliane and Julian arrived from Bayonne – more aperos and a superb lunch of fish caught and cooked by Olivier followed by a visit and tasting to the Forgotten Vegetables farm in the afternoon. Saturday market at St Medard then off to the Bassin d’Arcachon in the afternoon for a cruise on Olivier’s boat and some fishing – we didn’t catch a thing! Olivier’s sister Chrystal, her husband Bertrand and their two children came by for aperos after we had returned. Sunday was cool and grey so we went into Bordeaux after lunch to wander around and then we caught a Norwegian movie called M. Horton – interesting experience seeing a Norwegian movie with French sub-titles! In the evening went to the local Bastille day fireworks display which was very good. Monday was warm again and sunny. Had a superb roast lamb for lunch after which the Bayonne contingent left for home. Olivier, M-P, myself, Baptiste, Chrystal, her son Theo and Olivier’s mother Therese went to the Bassin again and once again tried our hand at fishing but with no better luck! In the evening M-P, Olivier and myself climbed up on the roof of their house and watched another firework display. Tuesday, Baptste gave me a lift to the station in Bordeaux and I caught the train back to Clermont where it all seems very quiet!