Travel

09. 09. 07. Marie-Pierre and Olivier came over from Bordeaux to spend the weekend with me. They arrived mid-afternoon bearing gifts of wine, fruit and home-made jam. After unloading we had a pastis to relax with and then dinner of Summer Pasta made with brie, basil and the local ripe tomatoes. After dinner we had a little promenade around town with a stop at the Negociants for a coffee. Saturday we had decided to go on a hike. After breakfast we drove to St Guilhelm le Desert, parked and wandered through the village. It is very much a tourist village in the medieval style. A bit too clean and neat for me but quite pleasant. At the end of the village we started our walk. It is quite a steep climb out of the village on what I think was a mule track which is also part of the Compostelle de St Jacques.
It passes through some old terraced olive groves and continues up to the Cap de la Croix. After that it climbs again through the garrigue to the Hermitage where we stopped for our picnic lunch. L’Hermitage was built in the 14th century for the monks who worked in the hospital at the abbey in St Guilhelm. It is a very shady, tranquil place to rest. After lunch we continued through some pines across a pass and then rejoined our original path back to St Guilhelm Here we replenished our water at the fountain and walked back to the car. We were all pretty hot so we decided to find a place to swim and found a stony beach just along the Herault. It was great – clear, cool water and a lot of fish. Finally we packed up, drove home and then had dinner at Le Venizia which is just nearby. Again had a walk and a coffee at the Negociants before turning in. Sunday had a kind of Franco/English Sunday breakfast with scrambled eggs, stuffed tomatoes, fruit salad with grapes, peaches, melon and figs, a baguette and again home-made jam. Delicious! After washing up had a quick tour of Lac du Salagou and the abandoned village of Celles before M-P and Olivier dropped me off and continued on their drive back to Bordeaux. It was a great weekend!

14. 08. 07. Each summer Daisy has a choice of a special place to go for the day. This year, like last year, she chose a day at Aqualand at Cap d’Agde. We arrived just before 10 along with the rest of the world and queued for our tickets. As a senior you are either a Mammy or Pappi and get in free if accompanied by a paying child or adult, so not a bad deal. It was the perfect day for it, hot and sunny and no wind. Daisy of course went on many rides but I kept to the more conservative ones this year. I went on the Crazy Race last year and I think cracked my ribs so I confined myself to the Rapides, the Congo River and the pool with waves. I did not go on the new ride The Wave but for thrills I did go on the Colorado with Daisy and Julia. This entails sitting in a three person rubber raft, hurtling down a tube in absolute darkness only to be flung out on to a very steep flume high in the air and then down into a shallow trough which amazingly actually stops you! Exhillerating! And frightening. After all this excitement Chris took us all out to a wonderful dinner at Le Tournesol.

10. 08. 07 Last night was the big firework display here at Lac du Salagou, which is about 10 minutes from the house. It has no sponsors nor does it celebrate any special event – it is just a celebration of summer. We left at about 8.30 and joined the steady stream of cars to the lake. Once parked we walked down to the beach and waited. The sky darkened, the stars came out, bats swirled around and then at 10.15 it started. Three barges had been moored out in the lake and these served as launching pads for 15 minutes of spectacular pyrotechnics. Fantastic.

Up early this morning with Daisy to pick up Julia and Chris from Montpellier airport on the red eye from Stansted. Heard from France Telecom that I will have a ligne fixe installed on Monday so may have internet at home sometime next week!

01.08. 07 I have been looking at motorcycles and scooters here all week and had finally found a second-hand Peugeot Satellis in Beziers for 2700€ which seemed to be in good nick and was the right price so decided to go back today to buy it. En route I remembered a dealership in Pezenas so dropped by to see what they had to offer. Super Bikes was the name of the store and the young men who were lining up all these big, blue (don’t know why but all the bikes seemed to be blue) macho bikes in front of the store didn’t raise my hopes of finding a wimpy scooter! Surprise, surprise, they had a Yamaha Majesty for 1000€ less than the dealer in Clermont and they had a Syn GS125 brand new with a 2 year warranty for 2999€ and they threw in a helmet and lock! Went home, had lunch and then went back, bought it and picked it up this afternoon.

Drove it home without mishap and have even been out with Daisy on the back this evening. She loves it. It is only 125cc but what a difference to the 125cc Vespa I drove in the late 50s! It is a four stroke, liquid cooled with fuel injection. No gears or clutch – nippy and dead easy to drive. All finished in sexy, glossy black. You ride it like a Harley – rather than laying on top of it like a café racer – very comfortable.

24. 07 .07 Took a taxi to Stansted from Windsor at 2.45 am in order to catch the 6 am flight to Montpellier. The flight was 1p but the cab was £75! However not a lot of alternatives at that time in the morning. Usual chaos with Ryanair but eventually arrived in Montpellier at 9 on a warm sunny morning. Picked up the new Clio and drove west to Clermont-L’Hérault. Arrived around 10 to find the street blocked by a front end loader with the Pierre and his mate installing the shutters to the house. I knew that that was all he had to do but didn’t expect him to be doing it on the day of our arrival! However, the new roof was on, the new guttering installed, the new façade was complete so it was just the shutters. Of course there was dust everywhere but the work was finished that day. The best thing though was that the bill was exactly as the estimate. What with reputation of French and other builders this came as a great relief. Carole immediately took charge and after a visit to the Hyper U for solvents etc and a vacuum cleaner the house was slowly reclaimed. Wednesday, I went to my bank’s ATM only to discover that the “code secret” no longer worked and after an animated conversation with the lady in the bank who with much shrugging and useful comments like “mais ce n’est pas Paris” etc informed me that the new secret code would have been sent to my address in Canada and there was nothing she could do about it. She did allow me to withdraw some cash though! This problem has since been resolved by changing my address on my account to here rather than Toronto thus allowing the bank here to send me my new “code secret” which should arrive early next week.

Thursday, we decided that we deserved a break so went to our favourite beach between Marseillan Plage and Sête. Perfect day, hot, sunny, clear blue sky, warm water – now I know why I am here!

Friday, to Ikea in Montpellier to pick up some furniture, lights etc. Same experience as TO even down to subsidized food in their restaurant – they do some terrific beignets – 3 for 1€! And the cheapest bottled water anywhere! Spent Saturday assembling various pieces of furniture – discovered that Daisy has a real aptitude for this and is much more logical and patient about it than her grandfather!

Sunday, another glorious day at the beach!

17. 07. 07 This is the walk Daisy and I do most evenings after dinner. It takes about an hour and skirts the Long Walk but is still within Windsor Great Park. We do not encounter many people except the occasional dog walker or cyclist. Currently we have seen rabbits and the other night we saw a barn owl. There is a clearing where a group of guys gather to launch their radio controlled planes. I have only ever seen helicopters but Daisy assures me that they also fly planes. We have also seen riders practicing polo in a field. Another feature of this walk is planes taking off from Heathrow – one every minute in the evenings!

I have been looking at several scooters as possible means of transport in France. I went to a Honda dealership in Slough where I looked at various models. I soon became aware of how much things have changed since my 1959 Vespa. Everything I looked at was 4 stroke and fuel injected and all were twist and drive. Lots of plastic and other lightweight materials, all very sexy! I also soon realised that I didn’t need a big bike – 125cc would do me fine – they will do 100 kph all day. A change from the 650 Suzuki that I owned 18 years ago! So finally I asked if I could test drive one and the guy said come back in 45 minutes and we will lend you a crash helmet and get a PS125i ready to go. I went back and put this unbelievably tight helmet on, left my wallet and off I went. A bit odd at first but I soon got the hang of it. Surprised that I kept squeezing the left lever every time I stopped. thinking it was a clutch. Amazed at this reaction as I haven’t driven for so long! Went up and down the Uxbridge Road, around roundabouts out into the burbs of Slough. I had a great time and the bike was really instantly responsive and dead easy to drive. The only problem was that I got lost so took a while to negotiate the back streets of Slough back to the dealership. Reluctantly handed the keys back to guy completely enamoured with the machine. Spent the evening reading all the bumph on the bike and then went out the next day to check out Gileras, Aprilias and Peugeots – loved them all but still think I will probably go for a Honda because of their reputation. E mailed a dealership in Beziers where they had a demo on for a good price but obvioulsy they can’t hold it unless I make a firm offer. I now have to wait impatiently until I get to France.