Well, our plan for experiencing a northern hemisphere Christmas, with all its trimmings, didn't quite go according to plan. Of course one of the hopes was to fluke a snowy Xmas here in Céret, or at least snow close by. Despite a good dump of snow in the ranges in November, and cold temperatures, the weather then warmed up a little and the skies have stayed mostly blue and sunny throughout. No more snow to lowish levels and certainly none in Céret. Not to worry, we could still hit a skifield 2 hours away if we wanted to.
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| Our Xmas tree and 'warming' fire. Alastair put out a healthy offering of fruit, chocolate and water for Father Christmas |
Another wish was to see lots of Xmas decorations and festivities around about. Unfortunately we didn't get to a bigger centre like Montpellier, and the few days we spent in Barcelona just before Xmas didn't provide a lot in the way of Xmas fare. However, Céret put on quite a good show itself, including lots of decorations inside and outside shops, Xmas lights over the streets, hot chocolate on market days, some group carol singing, dancing and even (dreadful) carols over the public loud speaker system during the day.
One of the things that has impressed us is the children's activities that have been set up around the town (dodgems, Zorbs on water, trampolining on safety harnesses and so on) that are free for everyone. They've been popular all through the festive season. We imagine they are paid for by council, as are various occasions when there is free wine and cookies on offer. Did I mention the large (polystyrene) animals council has placed strategically around town? Turn a corner and you will come across a host of penguins standing in a park, a bunch of foxes, the odd seal or walrus nestled amongst ripples of polyester wool, or the odd stray deer parked beside the post office. Not to be outdone, one of the local storekeepers has placed a full sized electric bear outside her shop, which, when you wave your foot in front of it, comes to life, wiggles and jiggles and sings a Xmas song. All good fun, if slightly wacky.
The highlight of our Xmas season was of course having Alastair to stay for 12 days. The lowlight was both John and I coming down with rotten head colds the day before he arrived. Despite this, we had a nice cruisy time in Barcelona together, and when we returned to Ceret continued our quiet relaxed theme with lots of chatting over coffee, short walks and small expeditions. It was very enjoyable and relaxing. Unfortunately, neither John nor I were well enough to contemplate a few days' skiing, so it was to no avail that Alastair had carted his snowboard and gear all the way here. The weather in the mountains was apparently pretty windy a lot of the time anyway, but we could probably have got up for a day if we had been well.
The last day before Alastair left we made a day trip to the Cathar castles that John and I had explored a few weeks earlier and which we had enjoyed so much. It turned out to be another spectacular day. We managed to squeeze in two short walks to hermitages, morning coffee stop, leisurely lunch, a narrow gorge road and spend three or so hours exploring two ridgeline castles. During the day the weather grew progressively more threatening, so that when we were at the highest point of the second castle, storm clouds and a double rainbow provided a spectacular backdrop. Alastair was pretty much in raptures, as were we. A brilliant day all round.
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| Chapel on the pilgrim route |
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| Hermitage |
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| Inside the cliff-face hermitage |
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| Alastair catching the rainbow |
A very early start on the 30th and we delivered Ali to the airport at Barcelona by 9am for his flight to Stockholm. We had a pretty slow drive back to Céret, through the alpine areas of Spain, coming back into France through a minor pass in the Pyrenees.
Since then we've coughed and spluttered our way back to nearly full health, over three weeks after I first came down with it. Unfortunately, it wasn't in time to participate in the New Year's Eve party/sleepover we had been invited to with friends. That was gutting. We were in bed by 9.40pm and only woke briefly to hear the cheering and whistles of the locals here at midnight.
However we had a superb day a couple of days ago catching up with our French friends. On a short walk up the hill yesterday we bumped into Jean-Pierre and ended up being invited for an apéritif with him and Véronique. That turned into a full picnic lunch and coffee out on their terrace. We weren't home for long after that before we set off for a dinner at the home of other French friends. We enjoyed yet another stunning French meal and lively conversation for another 6 hours!
We haven't been speaking much French to each other over recent weeks so were quite chuffed with how well we coped with the lingo. We really want to keep working on it and be another step along before we return later this year if possible.
Yesterday was another stunning display of food at lunchtime. The friends we were to spend New Year's Eve with gathered again for a repeat performance that John and I could participate in. Lunch started at 1pm and we left at 5pm. It was lovely and warm and sunny so we could eat out on the top terrace and had a wonderful time together.
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| Wally looks a bit like Father Christmas |
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| Strawberries Father Christmases we made for the occasion |
