Alastair in Ceret

We have got quite behind on this blog, mainly because our (actually our neighbour’s) internet has now died totally. No action from the connection next door for a week. We are just using John’s phone as a data connection now and again. It's not the best of situations, and we are heartily sick of it.

The news of the week was the arrival of Alastair. We surprised him by collecting him with the NEW car when he got off the train in Perpignan on Monday evening. Soon home and a bit of a catch-up but we were all tired.

Earlier in the day we had had M. Freitas around to have another look at our terrace proposal. He said he had been mulling it over and considered he would have to put in some concrete floor panels. This was to cope with snow in winter – apparently the snow here can be very wet and heavy and he wasn't comfortable with his initial plan. We told him the initial price was too steep for us – no problem – the extra concrete beams are included in the quote! However, we are still considering the terrace option and will discuss it again with the apartment owner upstairs when he returns in November. There's too much other stuff going on to worry about the terrace.

Having Alastair here has meant we eased off work a lot, and thankfully John doesn't have too much totally urgent stuff on right now. Tuesday was a cruisy day, Wednesday we walked the 2 hour loop up above Céret and back, and Thursday we drove up the next valley to the north of us. We visited Vernet -les-Bains, which was the town where we once thought we might try to buy an apartment, but are now very pleased we didn't  It’s a pretty town, but even more isolated than we thought, not looking too well-maintained and definitely not as lively as Céret. We kept heading up the valley to St Martin de Canigou. A solid 30 minute uphill walk took us to the abbey astride the ridge at the top. Unfortunately we had to hang around 30 minutes for the guided tour (the only way you can see inside the abbey) which ended up being a very intense talk, all in French and we suspect rather boring even for the locals. However, there were some great photo opportunities. The best of all was when we climbed up above the abbey and looked down on it. That alone made the trip worthwhile. The whole area was ruggedly mountainous and extremely serene.

To compensate for a day out, a lazy start to the next day, followed by a coffee at Bar Pablo at noon. The leisurely pace of the day continued when we arrived at L’Atelier de Fred (Fred’s Restaurant) for our pre-booked lunch. It is so popular we couldn’t book for an evening during the week and were determined to take Alastair there so we went for lunch today. As anticipated it was stunning. We scored a table outside and had a very well-paced 2 hour lunch and superb food. It’s now 4pm and we are all, regrettably, tapping away on our 3 computers. John is working and Ali is doing prep for the commencement of his course in Sweden on Monday. He is straight into work, but is looking forward to it. He has to complete his Product Design papers but is also going to attend as many Interaction Design lectures as he can. He is doing Interaction type work at IDEO in San Francisco and his tie-over of skills in Product and Interaction has given him a very valuable niche in the industry.

Before he arrived on Monday, Alastair had spent the last two weeks at a residential Spanish language (mornings) and surfing (afternoons) course in Nicaragua. He survived unscathed and all went well. He is hoping to perhaps spend another few months touring around South America after he finishes in Sweden in May next year and before his visa is granted for re-entering the USA in October.

He’s also planning to spend a week with us here over Xmas, which will be great. The aim is to spend a few days snow-boarding in the Pyrenees, and catch as many rays of sun here as possible. The depths of winter in northern Sweden are not known for a surplus of Vitamin D!

Fully Mobile!

A good day yesterday, Friday. Having realised some weeks ago that we would be much better off with a car and not a scooter, it was with some trepidation we set off for Montpellier. We’ve been looking at options for weeks, and having written off French cars for reliability reasons, Toyotas for price reasons, ditto VWs, we had chosen from the limited options remaining to go for a Hyundai Getz. However after finally viewing one in the car park here, we realised it wasn’t really big enough. It would be OK with 4 people, but not 4 plus luggage, nor for 2 with bikes inside. So the next choice was a Hyundai Matrix, like a tall Getz but a little larger all round. Good reports on HonestJohn.co.uk, and no obvious and known reliability options, unlike so many other cars. For some reason monospaces (MPV shape) are also cheaper to insure than normal cars, which was a nice little bonus.

So we’ve been trawling the French websites. There isn’t a Matrix available this side of Montpellier, and only two there which appealed with the right combination of age, mileage and price. We haven’t even seen one in the metal, as there simply hasn’t been one in Céret. So off we went in the €1 bus to Perpignan at 6.45am (ouch!) to pick up a rental for the purchase trip north. Thankfully it was available an hour earlier than the earliest we’d been able to book, which would give us that hour in Montpellier before the dangerous hours from 12-2pm when you are likely to be stranded with everything closed up.

The trip up was fine, then off to our first yard to look at a Getz that we wanted to see for comparison. What a wreck. Scratched, scraped, peeling paint, missing trim, bleached plastics, smoke smell, dirty upholstery, dusty and dull. You’d never see a car in that state in a New Zealand yard, even at Cheapies Car Sales. Our hearts plummeted. If that was what we’d see later on, we didn’t want to know. We had only two Matrixes (Matrices?) to look at, so the likelihood of one of them being good looked slim to start with. At the second yard there was our first Matrix. The orange ”vendu” on the screen didn’t look promising, and indeed it had been sold in the two days since I had rung and checked. Just as well – another scratched, scruffy car we wouldn’t have been happy with.

Onto our last bet. Not a great feeling heading to the last choice, and really knowing little about it, and that if it wasn’t there or wasn’t right, we had 200km to go back home with nothing to show for the day. Drove to the yard using our trusty GPS. No Matrix there so went round the block in case we had the yard address wrong. No other yards near. Back in and the very attractive salesperson knew nothing about a Matrix. Oh no, things not looking good. So I rang the guy I’d talked to before and yes, there was one, and yes, he’d bring it round now. Some 10 minutes of roasting in the hot sun, and into the yard drove a nice clean, tidy Matrix.

A good look at it, a test drive (it’s no sports car, but the 1.5 diesel is strong), and we were very happy with everything. Low miles, good condition, one lady owner, exactly what we wanted. Now came the fun part – the bargaining. Karen and I have a well-practiced good-guy/bad-guy technique. I am normally the keen one, Karen is all shaking head and disapproval as she walks away. This time, even I almost believed that Karen had no interest at all. It works every time! A few quiet phone calls from saleswoman to yard owner and we got it for €100 below my first offer, which itself was some €400 below asking. They’d sold another the week before with more kms and in a rather untidy state for just €100 less, so we’d done rather well.

Now came the hassle of trying to arrange instant insurance and payment, all in French, with branch people situated in Céret. We really didn’t want to have to drive home and do another 400km to pick it up. Thankfully it was all sorted thanks to having prepped them a few days earlier, with our bank friend doing a transfer and faxing through proof of it to the car people. By 3pm, we were able to drive away in our smart little mint-green Hyundai Matrix, just 83,000km on the clock, for the very reasonable sum of €3300.

The trip home in convoy went well. I’d had the idea of using our scooter/bike intercom to keep in touch, and it worked well. We were able to chat away despite being in different cars, quite helpful when only the GPS knew where we were going. 120km/h on the motorway and the trip was just under 2 hours.

A quick drop off at the Perpignan Gare for the rental, then onto Leroy Merlin to pick up a benchtop which had arrived there for us a few days earlier. We hoped to squeeze its 3 metres into the Matrix, knowing some would stick out the back, or else strap it on the roof. Fortuitously the Matrix came complete with a roof rack. Plan A was an abject failure as the seats didn’t fold out of the way in the right manner, so it was onto Plan B, the roof. No problem. With the aid of two bungees, some cord, two rolled beach towels (all brought with us for this purpose), and 4 packets of muesli (from Auchan next door), the benchtop, 3m x 65cm, was safely strapped between the roof-rack rails and we were on the road to Céret. We can thoroughly recommend 1kg bags of Auchan muesli as being the ideal method of packing the curve of a car roof to take a flat board. Rolled oats would be just as good I suspect! A slow trip home, with frequent pulling over to let traffic past, and we were in Place de l’Eglise safe and sound. Yet again we marvelled at the generosity of the drivers behind. Either that, or they were keeping well back to avoid a flying benchtop through their windscreen.

Note the muesli packing

A long and tiring day, but well worth it. We are now fully mobile, in wet and dry, hot and cold, by ourselves or with others. Also, we have our benchtop here ready to have holes cut for the new induction hob and the old sink. Being longer and a little deeper, it will more than double our free working space. It’s solid laminated oiled beech, which matches our Ikea beech furniture.

I am writing this on a wet and pleasantly cool Saturday afternoon. We got trapped in the church today! We’d gone in to check how the workmen had got on with reinstalling the altars in some of the side chapels, and on trying to head out, found a full bridal party in the entry having photos taken. We could hardly butt in and force our way past.

Looking for New Wheels

The last few days have featured work, swim at the pool, coffee, lunch and more long hours of work. We never worked this hard at home so it seems a bit crazy that we are doing all hours here. How did that happen?

We received a phone call from FREE yesterday, i.e. the supposed internet provider. Four weeks after we told them the service didn't work, they rang to tell us that they had just checked it and yes, the service doesn't work!! Right! Moving right along, they said they would send out a technician, at a cost of €49 if the problem is with Telecom and not with FREE. We have already had a bill of €69 for when the technician came the first time four weeks ago. Great. Moving right along, we'll take whatever the first appointment is because we are desperate. It's 2 weeks away on 4th Sept! And so it goes on...

We did have a win on Tuesday though. A man arrived on our doorstep at 4pm with our much anticipated new cooktop. It is still wrapped up and leaning against the wall because we have yet to get the new benchtop home from the store. But one thing at a time and we chalk this up as a great leap forward.

Our plans are all made for our trip to Montpellier tomorrow. Up at 6am to get the early bus to Perpignan. Jump in a hirecar and zoom to Montpellier to check out three cars we have lined up. We are really only interested in one of them but want to check all three. We've been to the bank and sorted payment and also sorted our insurance. All going according to plan, we will buy the car, be back in Perpignan in time to drop off the hirecar, strap the new 3m long benchtop onto the roof-rack of the new car and get back to Ceret before dark. Fingers and toes crossed.

We also caught up with our builder a few nights ago at Bar Pablo. In thanking him for supplying us with his quote a number of weeks ago he immediately said it was 'the maximum' and could possibly be shrunk. OK! Anyway, we will have to have him around again to deliberate over the (im)possibility of a stairway between the two levels, a new quote for the terrace alone, to organise having one of his men lay the tiles in the bathroom (we have had them stored since last year) and also organise visiting our Aussie friends' place for a quote they are after for getting their own terrace done! Phew.

In other breaking news, it seems as though the large extended family gathering in Lille for our nephew's wedding at Xmas is off. Nick and Emma had a civil union in Wellington over a year ago, which they have just found out means they can't get formally married in France. Apparently the French government don't consider Emma to be married, but consider that Nick is in some kind of legal relationship and therefore is not free to marry - even though it is to the same person. At least that's what we understand Is that crazy or what? The outcome is that the wedding has been relocated to Nelson in early January next year. Hence, we (and probably Alastair) and possibly also Emma's parents will still be in France and will miss it.

Some Thoughts on the French

We've spent some time over the last week thinking about what makes the French so French, and why.

One of the things we have decided is that the power in relationships here is on the other foot. In Australasia, the ethic is that "the customer is always right" - a business feels it is being done a favour by the customer, and goes out of its way to help, for example with 7 day 12-hour trading hours, or the ability to do all business by telephone or internet.

Here in France it is quite clearly the opposite. A business is doing you a favour by being open from time to time, or by providing a service to you. It shows in so many ways. The short trading hours, many shops closed on Saturdays (let alone Sundays), generous numbers of closed-for-business public holidays. The way that many shops simply put a sign in the window during the holidays saying "closed for holiday", when those who in NZ would be deliberately extending hours to make the most of the increased trade. And how about the 2-hour closures at lunchtime - even many of the monster Mitre-10-style stores close up. Nothing can get in the way of a Frenchman's lunch.

As we have said, we are hoping to buy a car soon. You can't buy anything over €3000 with cash, so there is a record and to prevent money laundering perhaps. No problem, that makes sense. But ... the remaining way to pay is to get a bank cheque. Can I walk into CA Bank in Montpellier and get them to do a cheque once I have chosen a car and therefore now know who to have it made out to? No. Only my home bank in Céret can issue it. What about ignoring the cash limit rule and getting a good lump of cash. No, you can't get cash in large amounts at once, unless you are back at your home branch. It sounds like you can't arrange for them to get money sent to another branch to pick it up there. Huh? Isn't your account all online?

The local websites are tricky. Many are remarkably clumsy, and make doing business on the internet a chore (even ignoring our pathetic connection, which incidentally appears no closer to being fixed than it was 3 weeks ago). They generally have the information you want, but finding it is often very cumbersome. One thing that really bugs me, as we have suffered the consequences of it with our missing-in-action internet connection, is that apart from buying things, it is rare to be able to transact business via the internet. With our internet provider here, you can't even email them, or fill in something on their website. You have to ring them on an automated line, and it costs you money to do so. What? Really? Yes!

Deliveries are a particular frustration. As many people don't have cars, deliveries are really common. Yet the recipient is given only a vague window, often 48 hours long, when the goods might turn up at their door. It can't be hard to say, for example, "it will be there Tuesday between 10 and 12". Today our cooktop finally turned up, two weeks after ordering. I can understand the first time it got delivered and was taken away, as the phone number I gave them was jumbled. However they had also had the address, apartment number and level, and it wouldn't have been too tricky to ring the buzzer if the phonecall didn't connect. We didn't know this had happened (no email to say so), and the tracking website eventually had a strange abbreviation (no key to explain it) that didn't indicate what had gone wrong, so we spent 3 days waiting at home in case they turned up. I sent them 2 emails via their website - no response. I rang them - nobody ever answered. Several days later I got through on the phone, and yes, it did get rescheduled and arrived the following day.

I have to say though that our workmen last year were very good. If they said they'd be there at 8am, prompt on 8 we'd get a buzz from below.

The question that comes to mind is "why are the French like this?" I've just finished "Paris" by Edward Rutherfurd, and another book on English history, which of course has a huge crossover with France. My theory is that it is a hangover from the French Revolution, where the populace roundly rejected being told what to do by the aristocracy. I suspect they still are not all that keen on being told what to do. You only have to look at the parking to see that!

I hope this doesn't read like a complaint. It's not. We accept that it's just the way it is, but to a New Zealand mindset it can be very frustrating if you allow it to be. There are other aspects to the French we could really do with back down under. The politeness everywhere is so pleasant. Greetings and goodbyes are always expected and appreciated. Most of the waiters at Pablo, not just our waiter of the day, will greet us when we are there and shake our hands. Perhaps there is a bit of an ulterior motive, but I don't think so. An ex-waiter we saw in Perpignan was just the same when we met him in the street there. Being able to rest up at a café table for as long as you like, no pressure to move on, is an absolute pleasure. Most days we will nurse a coffee or a carafe of rosé at Bar le Pablo for up to an hour and watch the goings-on, often reading a book.

The generosity and tolerance of drivers never ceases to amaze us. So often we will see a delivery vehicle pull up, completely blocking a road, the driver rushing off somewhere. The drivers banking up behind will quietly wait, no sign of annoyance, with very very rarely a toot, until they can get on their way again.

And of course the emphasis on good-quality food and drink is one of the reasons we love it here. How can you not love a country where this is nothing special? ...

Our Second French Family Rendezvous

Work, work, work makes us a little toey so we have taken a little time off over the last two days. Friday morning here is Friday evening in Nelson so we knew we could relax a bit. No 10pm phone call tonight and no crazily urgent work for the next day or so. 

We intended to go swimming but of course had to hang around in case the cooktop was delivered, only to find mid-morning via the website that the courier had actually turned up on our doorstep on Tuesday morning, but without the number of our apartment written on his docket, he went away again!!!! If only he has pressed the few buzzers at the doorway he would have easily found us. We were keeping an eye out of the window for delivery vans but maybe he parked outside the church square. Needless to say, our cooktop has now gone full circle and is back in Perpignan. We have replied to the email they sent (they did already have our apartment number but hadn't forwarded it on the the courier) so I guess we have to hope and PRAY it will be delivered again next week.

With some free time on our hands on Friday, we had a wonderful day. Our French neighbour upstairs was returning back to Stuttgart on Sat morning, but had  invited us to a family lunch on Friday lunchtime. We felt pretty honoured really, as it was a farewell lunch for his family and they are only in Céret for a few weeks a few times each year. His parents live in Oms, a small village about 20 minutes away uphill, and his sister in another town about 20 minutes towards the coast. We have got to know Francis, his father, pretty well because he has spent so much time doing up his son's apartment. They are a delightful family but we imagine that Francis and his wife Francette desperately miss not seeing more of their grandchildren. At least they are now living in Stuttgart, having recently moved from Korea.

We duly arrived upstairs the expected 15 minutes late and had an extremely enjoyable time chatting away over a light plate-on-knees lunch. Francis and Francette don't speak any English but David, his Korean wife Marie and his sister all do. We conversed mainly in French. I can understand more now and Francis is particularly good at speaking slowly and clearly. 

We didn't get back to our place until 4pm and immediately thought we might try to see Severine again. We have tried a few times over recent weeks but when her door is closed it means she is trying to sleep. We struck it lucky today and spent an hour chatting with her. She is still pretty down about the death of her brother Manu but is soldiering on. We have promised to take her out for coffee when she feels she better and hopefully it will be soon.

We had heard from both Severine and Francis that there was going to be a huge fireworks display at Collioure that night. Judging by the two Bastille Day fireworks we have seen here in Céret, both absolutely stunning, we thought we had better go. We cooked a quick meal and then off on the scooter at 7pm, but only after we had re-taped the broken side-mirror which doesn't want to be mended.

The traffic was going to be atrocious apparently but we had a great 30 minute trip and all scooters were still allowed access into the town centre. Everyone in cars had to park outside Collioure and some would have had to walk for a number of miles. It was crowded. Amazing atmosphere in town, people swimming, the beach full of picnicking families waiting for it to get dark, and everyone having a festive time. 

We had to wait until 10pm for kick-off but the antics of the crowd kept everyone amused. The fireworks were let off from four different locations - the castle, two rafts in the water and the small turreted building at the end of the harbour jetty. It was fantastic. Stunning coordinated display of all sorts of fireworks and it lasted an incredible 20 minutes. Well worth coming to see and great fun. Jumped on the scooter, and after some pretty slow early manoeuvring managed to get back home after a very pleasant ride by 11:30pm. 

We awoke to light rain this morning, the first for weeks and weeks. However, it soon cleared and the Saturday morning market was in full swing by 10am with the sun coming through. We had our usual coffee while listening to our favourite jazz band and felt pretty happy. The temperatures are definitely on a gradual downward trend, with a very pleasant 28 degree maximum today, but not feeling hot at all. Seven hours work this afternoon/evening so time to put something together for a late meal. Tomorrow is Sunday and we hope to get out and do some much needed exercise - either cycling or walking.

Work and Play, Ceret Characters

Basically, there is far too much work going on and far too little play. John has not been so busy for years! Because he's working all hours we can't even head out of town for a day, let alone for an over-nighter. He is getting a phone call most nights at 10pm at the moment (8am NZ time) from his major client and has so much on the books that travelling away just shimmers in the distance. I work away merrily alongside him on my book, but we realise that his work is really stymieing us getting out and about at the moment. The major plus of course is that it is a good little earner. We shouldn't complain!

We have been stuck at home for other reasons as well though, not even being able to to out for a coffee together. We are waiting for the delivery of a new cooktop that we have ordered. It only has to come from Perpignan, and the website said it was out for delivery on Tuesday. Since someone has to be at home to receive it, we have stayed at home all of Tuesday and Wednesday. It is now Thursday and still no joy. However, John and I did realise rather belatedly today (with the church bells going nuts below us at 11am) that today was no ordinary day. A check of the French calendar reveals that it is the Day of the Assumption of Mary, and hence one of France's 18 days of national holidays a year. Darn! We could have gone on a run together this morning instead of just me. We also missed a swim on Tues and Wed. To make amends we had a coffee at our local café before lunch (it's been two days - they must have thought we had been away). Fingers crossed the cooktop will arrive tomorrow, but who knows?

I daren't say anything about the internet. You are probably all as sick of hearing about it as we are of complaining. Suffice to say, no progress. It's getting on for two months since we requested the system. How businesses are supposed to operate here when they can't get decent internet access up and running quickly we have no idea.

Positive news - we have spotted a car that we think suits what we are after, i.e. cheapish, reliable, not too old, roomy enough for 4 people plus luggage (or two plus gear and bikes), not too many kilometres, and even comes with a warranty. The only problem is that it's in Montpellier, over 2½ hours away by car. We hope to hire a car so we can do a reconnoitre of it, and a few other cars, in Montpellier next week, supposing that John can get away from work for a day. We have trawled all the relevant websites for second-hand cars, non-French-made, in the greater Perpignan area and there are few available. Obviously the French obsessively buy French cars, leaving probably less than 10% of the market to other breeds. This is certainly the case in the very south of France anyway.

Because we haven't stretched our legs outside much in the last few days, I thought I'd note a few of the interesting faces we have come across when we have been people-watching.

1. Mr Dapper: Always extremely well turned out in a splendidly pressed shirt and trousers, (often with a suit jacket), perfectly matched shirt, tie and pocket handkerchief polished shoes and natty hat. He very occasionally turns up with his meek little wife in tow, though she always walks several paces behind him as he struts along. Disappointingly old and battered car, it doesn't fit the image.

2. Mr Moustache. Waxed near-white handlebar moustache, finely proportioned and tuned.

3. Mrs Droopy Boobs: Older braless somewhat-odd woman who walks strangely, arms stiff and still at her sides, and has serious gravity issues, in fact all kinds of issues.

4. Shouty-Man: A bit of a nutter. Walks along (arms by sides again) and shouts at people (political stuff?) as walks past them at cafés or outside restaurants. Seems harmless enough though. Distinguished by his wearing of sweatpants pulled up way above his belly button, and knit shirt always tucked in.

5. Mr Try-hard: English, in his late 60s perhaps, tall, thin, over-longish wavy white hair, wears his shirt two buttons too many undone to expose his chest hair, always in a long sleeved shirt with the shirt cuffs turned up just the one turn, often has an incredibly skinny, plasticised Spanish bimbo on his arm.

6. The Snootys: A very French couple in their 60s-70s who always sit by themselves at our local café, never say hello to anyone (or each other we suspect), or even deign to look at anything other than the newspaper they read, always incredibly elegantly coiffed (him and her), quality clothes, starchy appearance as well as temperament.

Aren't we awful!! Other people probably say horrible things about us too - "look at that strange couple over there, funny little grins on their faces, always here, haven't they anywhere better to be?". We do thoroughly enjoy watching people go by and feel terribly snug in the little niche we have here. Of course, for the couple of weeks, we have instead been checking out all the cars (size, shape, colour, bodily dimensions) that drive by, not the people!!

We had a chance to talk with our neighbour upstairs briefly a few days ago. He introduced the subject of us perhaps building a terrace upstairs (his father had told him about it) so we naturally appraised him of our problem with limited headroom for our planned stairs and the unexpectedly high price. He seems slightly interested in going into the project with us, but perhaps not until next year. He will let us know but that's fine. We aren't in any great rush really, we seem to have plenty to occupy ourselves at the moment and if we get a car we'd love the chance to get out and explore the country a whole heap more, work permitting. Getting our heads around a new project is not a priority, and in fact, it is likely we would leave virtually the entire terrace project to our builder because there is very little realistically that we could do ourselves.

Our French friends who invited us to dinner at their place for a 7 course meal and who we had back to our place one evening last week. A lovely couple who we are regularly keeping in touch with. They live in a village half an hour away from Céret.

Dinner last night at a Spanish tapas place. Very simple and pleasant.

Two or Four Wheels, French or Reliable?

That is the question. We are in the market for a car. The scoot is fun and we love it but it does have a few limitations, especially when we have one or more visitors and would like to go exploring with them. There's not much space to sit on top of the helmet-box. Also, 2 hour stints are about enough at a time.

We checked out some car yards while we were in Perpignan yesterday and John has been trawling the car websites this afternoon. The big question is do we go for a French car, e.g. Renault Scenic, of which there are lots to choose, or do we go for a car that's reliable but more pricey and there are far fewer to choose from. We are just after something small and pretty cheap. If we could chuck a bike-rack on the back or on the roof it will give us scope for cycling expeditions as well.

We were lucky to be given a short impromptu flamenco session below us yesterday evening. That's one of the beauties of Céret - there's always something going on.

Today was a day for exploring. We headed off on our bikes (for only our second time this year - pretty slack, but 32° days are a little off-putting) . Straight up the hill behind Céret towards San Ferréol and beyond. It was only about 45 minutes to the crest. Downhill through the gorgeous little village of Llauro where we stopped off for the requisite coffee, downhill again through another stunning village and popped out at St Jean Plats de Cort on the valley floor, about 30 minutes from Céret. A bit of a lumpy cycle track cross-country through the cherry orchards and we finally arrived home at midday. It was a good fun ride, especially cycling downhill on a lovely shady rural road with little traffic. All in all about a two hour ride and I'm sure we will do it again.

Lots to Ponder

Where has the week gone? You might well ask. You haven't seen it from your end because we've virtually not had any internet so haven't been able to post anything. We have access to our neighbour's internet (with his full permission) but he was away on holiday last week and the system needed rebooting. Instead John has made use of his data connection via his phone to send off work stuff, but all other communication has been pretty much stymied. 

However, our neighbour is now back in residence, his system is up and running, and consequently so are we. Lots of emails and blog to catch up on. 

Our week has been pretty low-key really. John has been working pretty full-on, and I've been doing the same working on my own laptop writing my book. We have a bit of a routine going now. We run/weights one morning and alternate the next by going to the pool for lengths (and aqua-jogging but just for me). An espresso at Bar Pablo, pick up a baguette, wonderful bread and cheese lunch and then get stuck into work. It's been hot all week so we have to have the windows closed up and the fan on full blast. We typically don't have dinner until about 8 pm now, so are definitely working more to a French daily pattern. After dinner we often stroll out to the main street to check out the music we can usually hear from our apartment. More often than not there is some sort of band playing.

I guess the major news of the week relates to real estate. We've done a fair reconnoitre of what is on offer in Céret with a view to upsizing to a place that has at least two bedrooms and a decent outdoor terrace. We think if we had this it would tick virtually all our boxes and keep us happy for a number of years. However, there is extremely little on the market for renovation, i.e. so we could buy it relatively cheaply and add value to it by putting in the hard yards ourselves. We really would relish another project to get stuck into.

On Monday we viewed a potential goer. It was four storey plus terrace apartment in a quiet street very near the centre of town. A great location, in good condition with no structural work required, most of the work could be done ourselves, and awesome views from the topside terrace. It is currently split into two apartments, and we could do up the one on the second level and sell it off, leaving the remainder, including a garage and little outdoor garden for ourselves. The downsides were the high purchase price, lack of windows and restricted views from all levels except the terrace, definite lack of street appeal, cost of renovation, need to sell  the second apartment to finance the work etc etc. If we were looking to buy a much bigger place and spend more time here each year then we would have looked at it more seriously. However, we figure the place is too big for what we are after at the moment and it would mean we would have to stop all other work and spend all our time on renovating all of next year. 

We brought the agent back to our apartment and asked her for a current valuation, and also one with the terrace and second bedroom installed upstairs. She gave us a realistic figure for the place and was adamant we would get back the money we would have to spend doing the work. That threw the cat amongst the pigeons. We had already written this off as an option. Back to Square One. We have decided (once and for all, at least for now) that we will stick with this apartment. Its location can't be beaten right the middle of the medieval quarter and the agent agrees the church square is certainly a premium location. We love how central we are. We are really part of the village life.

Ok, we then spent most of Monday night rethinking about upstairs and how we could cut the quoted price. We ran into a major stumbling block - we have realised rather belatedly there is not enough head height for the planned stairway through our storage room to access the terrace. This is definite and unfixable, and something our builder missed noting too. The only way to get access to the terrace would now be by using the public stairs in the lobby and going through/redesigning the second bedroom. We can't see how we could spend all this money and not have private access to the bedroom and terrace. Darn. 

Onto Plan C, we drop the idea of a second bedroom altogether and just build the terrace, but go halves with our next door neighbour. This will mean we can afford it and we will get the terrace which is the prime 'extra' we are after. Our neighbour who owns the apartment above us is only in residence about 3-4 weeks/year. He is ex-Céret, has a young family and was living in Korea but has just moved to Stuttgart. The family is living here for two weeks at the moment because it is holiday time. We have met them and they are lovely. We're hoping to ask for his hard-earned contribution towards the terrace before he returns to Stuttgart at the end of the week. It would add a lot of value to his apartment, and ours, for the expenditure of a relatively small amount. It would also give an outdoor space for his little kids to play. We shall see! We are running out of alternatives.

Because we've spend most of the last few weeks working on our laptops we haven't been out exploring at all. We remedied this a little by scooting into Perpignan on Friday afternoon. The wind was a little too vigorous for our liking but it certainly blew away the cobwebs. Two major successes. We ordered a new longer and slightly deeper laminated beech benchtop for our kitchen and we made a final decision on which new induction cooktop to go for. There are very good sales on at the moment, e.g. half-price for the cooktop. The super-cheap kitchen that we installed last year has worked out well but we always intended to buy a full-length benchtop and we are very keen to have decent cooking - the current heavy iron elements are too slow, too non-adjustable and altogether awful. We will take the benchtop to our local menuiserie (handyman store) who will be able to round off one corner for us and cut the holes for the sink and cooktop. Once we get the new bench and cooktop in place we'll put some tiles up on the wall behind and hey presto, the kitchen will be finished. The only other outstanding job is to have the tiles put down on the floor in the bathroom, but we are getting someone in to do this because it will be a very fiddly job, with lots of tiles needing to be cut. It will be great to finally be all shipshape.

Our First French Dinner Party

What can I say. Friday 5pm was not a good time for a tipple. Our Freebox was finally delivered by a courier. John danced his way up the stairs with it, opened the box, connected the bits and hey presto, it didn't work. I'm surprised if you didn't hear his response from NZ. Basically the 'box' isn't finding the ASDL line that the Telecom guy played with on Tuesday. The best fix offered by the Free website is that they will do a test within 7 working days 'or longer' to see if it is working. It could be weeks before we have a Telecom guy around again. John was pretty (very) furious.

However, Sat dawned yet another gorgeous sunny day. A quick run for me, lie-in for John, and we were off to the market for some vege shopping, and to Netto to collect the extras. We had a date on Sat night to host our new French friends for dinner. This is the retired couple who live half an hour away and who gave us an awesome 6 course meal after we swum in their pool and lounged poolside for a few hours. The challenge was on!

First things first, shopping and then a coffee at our little cafe beside the market before lunch. John did his usual Saturday morning trick of wearing his NZ T-shirt, and sure enough, about 15 minutes of sitting down a guy came over and asked where he had got the T-shirt from. He was a little blown away to hear we were actually NZers. He is an Egyptian but has been living in Christchurch for many years. He and his wife were actually in Céret for one day only, visiting another friend who also comes from Christchurch. The other friend (who we then met) is actually English be had lived in Christchurch for many years, but latterly has lived permanently in Céret for the last 12 years. We now have her address and will call around and see her soon. She is the only permanent NZ resident here that we know. A NZ guy owns a small apartment around the corner from the church - we met his parents who spend a few weeks a year in it.

Anyway, we had to drag ourselves away from chatting with everyone, get home for lunch and then start preparations for our meal. We had actually made a meat dish the day before, but we had to prepare the other five courses (and John also managed about five hours work). Here are the courses:

1. Muscat, nibbles - tomato tapenade on crunchy bread and fougasse (small pizza-type squares) to pick up with toothpicks.

2. Stuffed peppers, filled with couscous, diced tomato and mushroom, rice, goat's cheese and spices.

3. Indian meat dish, rice, lightly fried courgette halves.

4. Greens.

5. Cheese platter.

6. Pièce de resistance - pavlova (with kiwifruit on top).

7. Lashings of red wine throughout.

We were quite proud of ourselves, and Pascale even asked for the pavlova recipe so we know that at least was a hit. They are a lovely easy-going couple. They've offered the use of their pool when Alastair joins us in a few weeks' time, and are also planning to have us around for dinner again and are also going to invite some of their French friends from Céret. It will be a great way to meet more French people. They are also contacting their own builder to see if perhaps he could provide a cheaper quote for the renovation work upstairs and Miquèl has offered to help with the plumbing and electrics. They have renovated a few houses in their time, including a complete wreck of a villa somewhere else in France.

Though they arrived at 7pm, the evening didn't wrap up until after midnight (typical for a long French dinner I guess) so Sunday morning was a lovely sleep-in. We were thinking about going for a bike ride but both of our bikes need fresh brake pads before we can do that. Most of Sunday was spent on work. John is managing to get most of his work done, some of it just takes 3 times longer because of the slow internet connection. I work on my book while John's doing his stuff.

Mid afternoon Saturday saw another wedding at our church. Incredible outfits, including a number of pairs of absolutely stunning heels. One woman had to have a hand on the side of the church to help her towards the front door!

The Good, The Bad and the VERY UGLY

You could say we've had a few ups and downs over the last few days. The major plus is that the internet box is now 'en route'. There has to be someone at the destination when it is delivered so we have been hanging around the apartment throughout each day in anticipation of it arriving 'any time between 9am and 7pm or possibly later' according to the email advice.

The bad news is that we walked the five minutes to the public carpark to retrieve the scooter where it had been 'safely' parked during the recent festive weeks in town and particularly in the square below us. 'Merde'! someone had knocked it over, though had put it back up on its stand. It now has a large scrape down the side of the helmet box and the left side mirror has broken off. We've since bought some silver tape to secure the side mirror but it was pretty annoying to find it like that. The scoot already has a few scrapes on it, it's second-hand after-all, but it's now not in great nick for resale. Over recent weeks we have had vague thoughts of selling it and buying a little car instead.

However, the VERY UGLY news is that we finally received the quote for renovating upstairs from our builder. 'Zut'! it is getting on for double what we were thinking, and we have to add another €10,000 on top of that to account for the electricity, plumbing, planning consents, works manager (required to get the consents through the two councils), notaire (legal paperwork), buying the two rooms from the body corporate, extra costs like paint (massively priced here) and then furnishing the bedroom and the terrace that we hope to gain from it all. All in all the project looks rather nobbled. 

We have looked at ways we might be able to reduce the cost, e.g. do as much work as possible ourselves, but it doesn't make much of a dent in the total. We are pretty (very) disappointed but at least we now know where we stand. Having mulled things over today, we are wondering if perhaps an option might be for the four apartments in the building to band together so a large shared terrace could be built. It would include both the rooms upstairs and give a combined floor of around 30m². This would split the cost, provide a big area for two groups to easily use the space at once, everyone would have access to a terrace where no-one does at present and the expense incurred would be recouped by the increase in value of each apartment. Anyway, it is just an idea and we could put it to the body corporate meeting in October. Failing that, John and I could just wait and see how we feel about it all next year. 

The temperatures are still averaging around 32-33° each day but the humidity is low so it is not too bad at all. I'm beavering away on my book, learning all the ins-and-outs about the Danes and Norwegians who came to NZ in the 1870s. John has eased up on his work quite a lot - pending a much anticipated ultra-fast weblink. 

Today we sent out an invitation to our French friends who had us around to dinner a few weeks ago. We are going to attempt a four-course meal with all the bells and whistles but NZ-style. It should be a challenge and fun.

Oh, some good fun news - the fun jazz band that used to play at the market every Saturday is back up and running. It's a very cheery group, whose membership fluctuates each time you see them. We have two of their CDs and very much enjoy their upbeat music and the pizazz they add to the market.

I have just finished reading a book about how French children eat, i.e. they eat everything from a very young age. It's very interesting finding out the differences in how French children are brought up compared to NZ/Aus/USA etc. Food is such a huge part of what you do, who you are and how you interact here. It still amazes me that public facilities like the swimming pool, tennis courts, council building and so on completely lock up shop for two hours in the middle of the day. It is a sacred time for family, eating and interacting. It all makes really good sense actually but can be a little frustrating when it catches you out somewhere.