An unexpected bonus this evening. The couple who'd rented our apartment had some difficulty with the TV towards the end of their stay, some of which would have been caused by the trees in Place des Neufs jets getting their new leaves and blocking the satellite dish, but also some issues with receiving French television. They'd even got somebody to check the aerial, so we assumed the missing TV channels were permanently missing. This we've been missing out on Wimbledon (since last week) and the Tour de France, since the weekend.
However.....I thought I'd have another check of the TV tuning, and lo and behold, by picking the right settings we now have all the normal FTA French channels coming in clear and strong, including both the tennis and the T de F. I'll still move the satellite dish when I find the time so we can pick up a few English-language stations (so we don't forget how to speak "proper").
We've been into Perpignan today to pick up a few things not in the local stores, and to check out what we thought were the national sales which start on 1 July. I had seen a mention in one paper that in the Pyrenees-Orientales the sales wouldn't start until Wednesday, but all the websites stuck with 1 July. The paper was right! We'll probably go back in on Wednesday, as we want to change the cooktop from a horrible slow heavy-element one to induction so we can cook Asian food, to replace a portable hard drive that has stopped working, and to look for some walking boots. The scoot behaved well, though as previously it won't idle properly.
Temperatures have lifted. It is forecast to sit in the 30s for 3 or 4 days this week, which is a tad too hot. On the plus side, the pool opened today for 2 months. Last evening we walked up to Hermitage San Ferreol - an hour in the heat - to listen to a free flute and guitar concert. Thoroughly enjoyed the walk up, but the concert wasn't free despite more websites saying it was. We happily sat down on the church steps just outside the doors, ate our bread, cheese and salad, drank a beer we had lugged up, and listened to the concert anyway. Couldn't have been better.
On our return into Céret, we were treated to some beautifully dressed Spanish dancers performing, essentially for themselves. Really lovely. There are always little things like this going on here.
