Friday 29th September - Tough Times

We woke on Friday morning to some difficult news for Karen. It was anything but unexpected, but Karen's father had breathed his last overnight - 10am New Zealand time, 11pm French time. After the initial shock, her main reaction was relief. Ken had been becoming more and more frail for a while now, and had finally been admitted to hospital. He had become very weak in the last few days, and we all hoped that he wouldn't suffer much longer. As it happened, we needn't have worried. He passed away peacefully. 

We managed to Skype with Bella and Alastair during the morning. They already knew from Karen's brother due to time zone differences. The calls were not easy, but it was great for Karen to have support from the children. They have been brilliant. Unfortunately we couldn't get through to much of the rest of the family. We had already agreed with Ken that we would not go back to New Zealand, and had said a teary goodbye, both parties knowing that it was likely the last time, but not openly acknowledging it. 

I suggested to Karen that we leave Ceret for the day, and do a hard climb up to the Tour de Madeloc, away from people and the internet for a bit, to give her (and me) a chance to think things over. We quickly packed a few things and took off for the coast. 

It was a hot and strangely hazy day. The walk up to the Tour (tower) is pretty hard - all uphill, difficult footing and very sunny. Just what we needed to let our minds quietly work over what had happened.

We spent a full hour on the top. I'd packed a couple of apple pastries, in honour of Ken's love for them.

View from the Tour de Madeloc

We were pretty ruined by the time we got back to the car. It is a tough walk, even under less trying circumstances. Sixteen kilometres, but the perfect tonic for Karen.

Monday 24 - Thursday 28th September - Palamos, Sant Feliu with Jon & Jude

On our recent trip to Sant Feliu to Guixols we didn't have the chance to visit the promising exhibition we'd seen there. We knew that our friends Jon and Jude would be interested so we'd asked if they'd like to join us in visiting it. With a positive response we had booked one night in Palamos so we could go down, show them Palamos, and go to the exhibition the next day.

With Jon driving, we arrived at Palamos at a slightly early time for a Spanish lunch, i.e. before 1pm With the car parked on the beachfront, we sat down at Petit Bar. There are many restaurants along the beachfront, and we've only ever tried the one, but it has always given us great meals. This time around it was as good as ever. It's always struck us as odd that there is no seafood restaurant in Ceret. The Petit Bar once or twice a year makes up for it. One plate of piments padrons to be our token green vegetables, and the other three plates were chipirones, tiny fish and sardines. What a delight. The chipirones were spectacularly good - the right combination of crunchy and juicy.

The afternoon consisted of a bit of a walk through the old town, and a beer near the waterfront. After a full lunch, a big dinner was neither required or wanted. It was back to the tapas bars again. We started at Can Moni where we'd been previously. A shared bottle of cava and a few pieces of tapas were great. The portions are only 1.50E each, and with generous lumps of cheese or meat they were excellent. The bar was a bit too full of Brits this time, so we moved on. El Galeo was closed so we went to a Basque pintxos bar we'd passed earlier. El Txoco was great! The pintxos was really varied, and the service was excellent. There was a constant stream of new hot dishes coming out from the kitchens. My favourite was some delicious mushrooms in a rich onion jam. A nice glass of rioja complemented the food perfectly. 

Back at the hotel a coffee or cava finished the evening. What an excellent day. We felt like Ceret was days back, and it was a very welcome break from the stresses we've been under.

Wednesday started with an odd breakfast at our Hotel Marina. A large Scandinavian walking group had come down before us and scoffed much of the food, and the staff were a little tardy in replacing it. Not really a problem.

Morning coffee at Sant Feliu

St Feliu is only a quarter hour south, and we were soon checking out the exhibition. It was Van Gogh to Gauguin and Vasarely, mainly about landscapes. It was good but not outstanding - the title painters were represented by a single painting each. What was excellent was the accompanying Gerard Mas exhibition. There was a combination of marble carvings of sheep, alabaster busts, and wooden heads. All were delightful and beautifully executed, with a rich vein of humour running through them.  

Gerard Mas alabaster sculptures

More Gerard Mas, lovely expression on the victim

The exhibition was in the old Sant Feliu monastery, a fabulous building.The exhibition ticket allowed us to roam the monastery with all its odd towers and passages.

The monastery, looking back over Sant Feliu de Guixols

Saturday and Sunday September 22 and 23 - Le Racou

On Friday we wanted to get in a decent walk. We chose the nice coastal walk from Le Racou to Collioure. It's a pleasant track, spoilt a little by one of the nicest sections being closed, requiring a detour behind the holiday park. The walk was pleasant, though by the time we had arrived at Collioure we realised we needed a small pastry to bridge the gap until our lunch in the back of the car at Le Racou. It took ages to track down the one boulangerie we knew about. 

Coastal Track

Back in Le Racou we enjoyed our picnic before parking ourselves on the beach for a bit over an hour. We chose to go to the far east end against the low cliffs, as it feels a bit less open and public. We were not the only ones, there were plenty of others. Some clearly come down to the beach most days, as there was a fair amount of bronze leather on show. A most enjoyable hour's reading and people-watching.

Saturday was the first market day by ourselves since we arrived in Ceret. It's funny how the market changes from week to week - this time was less crowded than last week. The peaches and nectarines we have been enjoying were almost non-existent, but apples are flooding the stalls. We did manage to find some peaches, but they no longer taste quite as good as before.

We woke on Sunday planning to do a good long walk above Laroque, but on hearing gunshots we decided a walk in the bush might not be such a good idea. Sunday is hunting day, and the season only opened last weekend. Also, the forecast was for 30 degrees, hence the walk was postponed. In the end, we spent two hours skyping with family in the morning, arriving at Pablo just before noon for a coffee, where a number of our friends wandered by and soon joined us. It was very pleasant chatting.

Another a quiet afternoon before we ventured out on a walk/run around 4pm. We're working hard trying to upgrade our fitness and are slowly feeling the results.

I'm in constant contact with my sister and brother about my father's deteriorating health. He is now home again but it's an ongoing major concern trying to make sense of the conflicting advice we're getting from health professionals.

Tuesday 19th to 21st September - Ceret

Our days have been very quiet since Jean and Lew left. After so much eating out and indulging ourselves we've basically lived on salads for lunch and dinner ever since. In addition to our daily walks we've now added back in some weights sessions and are basically trying to rachet ourselves back up to a higher level of fitness. The days have been very slow and relaxing, other than cleaning the apartment, stairwell, mending the dripping toilet cistern, and other miscellaneous maintenance.

The weather has returned to lovely sunny days, with temperatures in the early to mid-20s. We've been deliberately side-stepping a few of the social gatherings here to get a little time to ourselves. However, we bumped into Canadian friends on Wednesday, who we have met here during each of the last two or three years. They're a fun cheery couple and we ended up with a glass of wine together at our place in the late afternoon. Our good friend Liz then called in for a chat. On a short wander around town before dinner we bumped into other friends at Bar Pablo and then more outside another apartment. All in all we finally got back from our 'brief wander' at 8:15pm, having firmly declined the offers of staying on for longer socialising.

Thursday was another quiet day. We received word early in the morning that my Dad was very unwell. He had previously improved immensely with a blood transfusion, which lifted his wellbeing considerably for the last four weeks. He deteriorated again last week and was ambulanced to hospital for another transfusion. He was good again after that, but yesterday things appeared to turn downwards. He is in hospital now, apparently with a virus, but it's also likely his cancer is starting to take its toll. We should know more soon.

I spent some of the afternoon busying myself pulling the dead geraniums out of our flower boxes and replacing them with bright little succulents that might stand a better chance of surviving between our sojourns here.

Revitalised flower boxes to hang on our balustrades

Sunday & Monday 17-18 September - Costa Brava

Sunday saw the start of Lew and Jean's trip back to New Zealand. This was going to be a multi-day, multi-stage process - Costa Brava, Barcelona, London, Singapore, New Zealand.

On Sunday, we did our usual morning walk together, then watched the Ronde Ceretane - the annual 6km and 20km runs around Ceret. Again the semi-professional African-origin athletes were totally dominant. They are such smooth runners. We managed to get away a little before midday on our way south to Palamos. We'd suggested to Lew and Jean that we share a day on the Costa Brava on their way home, as it is such a lovely area to visit, for the food, the walks and the difference to France. 

When we arrived, we parked in the beachfront carpark, left our bags in the boot and went straight to the little beachfront restaurant where we'd enjoyed lovely seafood before. We presumed the car-alarm problem we'd had a few days ago has gone away. We haven't heard the horn beeping since though we've been seated close enough to do so a number of times. My guess that it was caused by a poor door switch contact seems to be accurate.

The Petit Bar is one of many restaurants that line the beach. We have little idea if it is any better or worse than the others, but the fresh fish was spot on. We chose a green salad, chipirones (super-tiny cuttlefish), fried sardines, and piments de padron (deep fried small salty green peppers). All were delicious, especially the lovely crunchy sardines. Exactly what we were all looking for. We hoped to have sonsos (like fried whitebait), but they were out of season again. Another time perhaps. Lunch being fashionably late - Spanish time - we were then able to check into the Hotel Marina. This was a nice surprise - very clean bright rooms and perfectly positioned.

Our wonderful fish lunch on the waterfront at Palamos

Having checked in we popped out again and finished off our lunch with a gelato each. By now it was about the right time for a bit of relaxing. This meant a beer at a bar facing out over the bay. Rather nice, and just what we needed. Having had a bit of a wander around Palamos, we retired to the hotel for a bit of catching up before the evening.

Enjoying a beer (after our gelato)

Lunch had been great, so we felt tapas would be right for dinner. Unfortunately being Sunday, some of Tripadvisor's recommended places were closed, but we didn't too too badly. We started at Can Moni, a funny little bar clearly popular with locals. The walls were completely covered with little tiles, newspaper cuttings, photos and more. The bar was covered with plates of tapas, paid for by the skewer - 1 skewer equals 1.50E. All pretty nice, but we had to stand at a table, and the atmosphere wasn't all we wanted. Next stop was El Galeo, where we had a little top-up tapas until we were content. There was a constant stream of new plates coming out from the kitchen - more than we could possibly have wanted! Last step was a little dessert which we chose to have at our own hotel, though I felt a glass of cava would suit me better, and it was indeed excellent. All up an excellent day.

Monday meant Lew and Jean heading back from Girona station to Barcelona for one night and then their flight out. As the train was in the late afternoon, we had plenty of time for a long walk in the morning. Breakfast was excellent - plenty to choose from. I think we'll be back to the Marina when we come back to Palamos. The weather looked a bit iffy, but we headed off regardless. From Palamos you can head both north and south along the coastal walks, but for today we felt the shorter northern version was safer given the weather. The 2hr walk went well, the weather held off nicely, and we were soon back at the hotel for showers and the nice late 12pm checkout.

Cala S'Alguer

Checking the map, we found we could easily visit Sant Feliu de Guixols on the way to Girona. Karen and I had the best chipirones ever there some years ago, but despite walking around the town many times using Google Street View, we'd yet been unable to re-find the tapas bar we'd been to. So we did have an ulterior motive for a repeat visit. The rain arrived just as we were getting into the car at Palamos, and it was heavy by the time we got to Sant Feliu. No problem, we found ourselves a simple restaurant for a menu del dia. Just 12 Euros for entree, main, bread, dessert and wine. Nice food, cheerful service and just what the doctor ordered. The rain having eased, we did a quick walk through town, starting with stumbling across our chipirone bar straight away - El Gallo for those who might turn up in Sant Feliu. Our GPS didn't do a great job of getting us to the station in Girona, but close enough. We finally found it and had a very quick 'love you and leave you' kiss as we were parked on a bus stop and had a bus bearing down on us.

It has been just lovely hosting Lew and Jean. They had been the easiest of guests, and we got to share many of our favourite things about Ceret and the area around us. We'd had some busy days, and some nice quiet relaxing days. We've also had some fabulous meals with them, each quite different. It started with the meal at La Vajol, a good honest Spanish-Catalan one. Next was the straightforward French relais, then the Michelin star meal in Perpignan. In Spain we enjoyed the seafood on the beach, then the basic meu del dia in Sant Feliu. They've none of them been expensive, but all have been very satisfying.

It was very nice arriving back at our little house in France that evening, only the two of us though for the first time since arriving nearly two weeks ago.

Thursday to Saturday 14-16 September

Everyone thought another fairly gentle day was in order, so after a leisurely breakfast we donned our walking gear and set off on a two hour walk up in the hills behind Ceret - Les Hauts de Ceret. It's a lovely walk that John and I have done many times, usually punctuated with a picnic beside the irrigation canal on the way back home. As so it was today. Complete with baguettes in the backpacks, we had an enjoyable walk, taking in the grand views up and across the valley on the way. It was nice to see some work being done on a tricky section of the track, with a couple of young Frenchmen using some clever kit to build up a new walkway in steel and wood.

Just as we arrived back in Ceret the wind got up and it threatened to rain, as per the weather forecast. It did in fact hold off until later in the day but we enjoyed a nice quiet afternoon tucked up in the apartment anyway. Jean made a lovely meal of grain salad and stuffed peppers, a real treat, and we put our feet up to enjoy an evening movie - another rare treat.

Friday started with a bit of rain so we've opted for a 'pastry run' to a few of the boulangeries to show off the variety of delicious food that John and I have on tap here. We only have two days left for Jean and Lew to sample the local wares. We take all care but no responsibility for the breadth of their waistlines when they return to NZ. 

Two amorettes (we thought we only ordered one, honestly), a croissant almond and a fig tartelette.

Today was voting day for us. We can now vote in the NZ elections online so took some time to acquaint ourselves with what was happening in the electioneering world in NZ, but all four of us already had a pretty good idea who we wished to vote for. The election forms needed witnessing but it was an easy exercise for us to witness each other's votes.

In the evening, we all attended the 'blessing of the stove' at Sue and Jonathan's, an informal gathering to celebrate their installation of a nice new woodburning stove in their living room. Given that the temperature had plunged to 15 degrees, the timing couldn't have been better. True to form, Jonathon (big) and Jonathon (not so big) picked up their guitars and strummed and sang their way through some great songs, including their own compositions. It always makes for a very enjoyable and social evening, complete with the odd wine and nibbles.

The weekend saw the annual Ronde Ceretane. It's a running event comprising the Ronde Couleur when people get covered in bright powders, and on the Sunday the 6km and 20km loops. There's also quite a lot of other events on, and of course the normal Saturday morning market. Jean and Lew did our normal walk around the Ventouse early this morning, while we didn't! The market seemed specially good this time. One disappointment is that our normal olive man is retiring at the end of the month, so we'll need to find an alternative vendor. We bumped into J-P, a good French friend who we will no doubt catch up with later on.

This weekend was also the European Patrimony Festival when most national cultural buildings are open to the public for free. We showed Jean and Lew around our local archaeological museum, which includes a great model of the township of Ceret when it had been a fortified wall town in the 12thC. Unfortunately both the main Museum of Modern Art and the Musical Instruments Museum had declined to take part.

The Ronde Couleur (5km fun run) was held in the afternoon. We tried to watch it from a safe distance but John was spied by one of our 'friends' and was anointed with a heavy dash of blue. By the end of the fun run all the participants were completely multi-coloured from head to foot.

John with a colourful tinge

Other planned cultural events for the evening were unfortunately cancelled due to incoming rain, including the people towers (castles built by people standing on each others shoulders) and local sardanes dancing. However, we enjoyed a lovely lazy evening, drank a bit of wine, watched the latest episode of Grand Designs and cooked a wonderful meal of roasted veges (Jean) and duck (John). I forgot to mention that we watched the All Blacks vs South Africa game in the morning before heading to the market. It was a brilliant match, and I wore my NZ T-shirt with silver fern very prominently around the market, and particularly hoping to meet our ex-Zimbabwean friend who strongly supports South Africa.

As a part of the cultural fest this weekend one of the plazas was given over to multitudes of mainly women seated at tables doing lacemaking and tatting. Their work was simply staggering. How they skillfully weave the bobbins under and over one another is quite amazing to watch. It was quite a spectacle, all taking place in a large square surrounded by plane trees, dabbled light and lots of French and Ceretan babble. It was really fun to be in amongst.

Hundreds of lace bobbins are individually twirled in and out to create the lace

Hundreds of women hard at work and gossip

Wednesday September 13th - Birthday Two

Wednesday was Karen's birthday. A couple of Skype calls from our children started the day nicely, but a major feature was going to be lunch at La Galinette, the Michelin star restaurant in Perpignan. We've been there I think three times before, each time having a lovely meal.

We started off well by getting a spot in the public car park right outside. Being in France, you clearly shouldn't expect to pay over lunchtime, so parking from 12 until 2 is free. It's a fixed weekly menu for 25 Euros, definitely a bargain. This week it was a tomato tart for starters, dorado and fennel for main, and fruit salad with a cherry sorbet and drenched in sangria for dessert. As before the meal was excellent. Perfectly cooked, very tasty, and beautifully presented and served. Perhaps not as spectacular as previous visits, but a most enjoyable visit.

Tomato tart and parmesan

Dorado (sea-bream) fennel and puttanesca sauce

Seasonal fruit, cherry sorbet, almond cake, sangria

Birthday lunch at La Galinette, not feeling a day older, but slightly rounder

Back home to Ceret by 2pm, and finally a quiet afternoon, well-deserved and well-enjoyed. 

Sunday 10th to the 12th - Lew and Jean arrive

Sunday morning saw Sask and Willow back on the laptops doing research and sorting travel. It was a bit of a shame that they were so busy, as we had hoped to do a walk or two with them.

After lunch, Karen and I headed in to Perpignan to pick up Lew and Jean. Nice to have the little car in full readiness. We had even washed it on the way back from picking it up to remove the dust and grime of 9 months storage. It was a little odd at the train station, as the platform where they were due to arrive by TGV already had another TGV already sitting waiting. As it turned out, Lew and Jean's TGV from Barcelona attached itself to the other, and presumably both headed off north later.

Great to see L & J, who'd just come in from a few weeks in Portugal where they'd had a great time, and prior to that a couple of weeks in England/Ireland. A lot of catching up was done on the way back in the car! On arrival in Ceret, they handed over Saskia's new bank card which they had brought from my sister in Nelson, and Saskia and Willow took off for the hills to spend the night and do an early morning walk high up in the Pyrenees before starting their drive north.

On Monday we took off with a full day planned ahead of us. To start we headed off for the appalling touristy Spanish border town of La Jonquera. Unbeknownst to us, Monday was a Spanish holiday, and the crossing was pretty slow due to traffic. A turn left just after La Jonquera and we headed up to a loop track at Estanys where there were a series of dolmens and menhirs that we'd looked forward to seeing for some time.

As we stood looking at the first dolmen, we heard a car alarm that sounded suspiciously like ours. Since the car was a little isolated, we thought it best to zip back and see what was happening. Expecting a bust window, we were pleased to see nothing wrong at all. We relocated the car a little further along the track, and on relocking it, the alarm set off again. As we didn't want to leave it with an alarm going off, we tried to disconnect the horn, but after a lot of mucking about, including the help of some tourists who turned up, we decided we couldn't get the grille off to access the horn. I realised we could just lock the car without using the immobiliser (thereby disabling the alarm), so we left it like that and recommenced the walk, hoping for the best.

One of the dolmens (Stone-age tomb)

Unfortunately as we reached the second of the dozen or so dolmens, we came across a hunter in his bright orange gear, cradling a nasty-looking rifle. Another was in view a bit further on. We'd managed to stumble into a pig hunt! We attempted to chat to the hunter in French and Catalan, and deduced that if we kept to one side of our loop we'd be OK, but the other half might be risky. We followed our trail, enjoying the ancient stones, on what was a very pleasant warm day. A bit of a pity that we couldn't see the lot, but we had seen 3 menhirs and 4 dolmens by the time we reached the end. Not large ones by the standards of Brittany, but fun to see all the same.

A couple of years ago we'd had a fabulous genuine Catalan lunch at La Vajol, and we thought we'd take Lew and Jean to try it out again. So across La Jonquera township we went, and up the side of the valley to the pretty little village of La Vajol. Lunch was just as we remembered it. Absurd entrees - my Catalan salad consisted of an enormous plate of greens and vegetables, but came with second huge plate simply covered in charcuterie. All that for 4.95 Euros! I could easily have stopped there, but there was the main to come - cuttlefish, while Karen had a sanglier stew and Lew pork cutlets. Good honest tasty food. Quite a contrast to French fare - bigger portions, stronger flavours, less reliance on sauces.

Yes, those two plates in the foreground are one entree for me!

The day was by no means over. Next stop was the Vauban border fortress of Fort Bellegarde (18thC). A lap around that, and down to the French war cemetery, past the Spanish blockhouse and to the border where the Roman Via Domitia (1st Century BC) turns into the Via Augusta. We never tire of seeing the ancient cart tracks that cross over the ridge. Back to the car, and finally home to Ceret. A great day out - so much packed in but not too much. We were not all that hungry at dinnertime - so just had cheese, baguettes and salad, something we always enjoy.

The Roman road cuts right through this site, though a medieval abbey had been built over part of it.

Given the good weather outlook, we thought we'd try to get in another big day out on the Tuesday. Instead of heading south, we took off for the north. The intended itinerary consisted of the pilgrim chapel of Nostra Senora de Penes, a coffee at Estagel, the castle of Queribus, lunch at the Relais des Corbieres, the Hermitage within the Gorge de Galamus, and finally the fabulous Cathar castle of Peyrepertuse.

All went to plan, except we couldn't find parking at Estagel so skipped that. The cacti heading up to little chapel up above Penes were spectacular - enormous numbers of cacti fruit.

The pilgrim chapel of Nostra Senora de Penes

Velvety red cacti flowers

After the one very hot day when we arrived in France, the weather has been just right, with temperatures in the mid to highish 20s. Today had been quite windy at times, but we've met that before in the Corbieres. Lew and Jean really enjoyed their day.

The 'Cathar" castle of Queribus 

The "Cathar" castle of Peyrepertuse lining the ridgeline

Looking down on the castle alignment. A stunning feat of engineering.

Back in Ceret in the evening Maggie and Sam had organised drinks, so we cooked a pizza and wandered around the corner when it was done. Most of the normal crew was in town, as they always are at the start of September. It's always nice to catch up with them, though it is also nice when we have the town to ourselves later on.

So a lot of travelling and things seen over the last couple of days. I was looking forward to a bit of time off driving. It's not a problem, but it's always a little of an effort for the first little while as I swap from left side of the road to the right!

September 7th and 8th - Birthday One , Saskia & Will

Thursday the 7th of September was my birthday. It had been such a fraught and busy time leading up to arriving in France, we'd not even thought about our two birthdays. We started the morning off with a lie-in, some unpacking, then had ourselves a nice birthday menu du jour (menu of the day) at Can Jordi restaurant. The rest of the day was unfortunately spent cleaning, unpacking and tidying.

Friday we had to get up reasonably early to take the car down to Citroen for its aircon gas. Right next door was Ceret's LIDL supermarket, known for its cheap wine and odd selection of one-off specials. We filled a couple of bags and a box with a full selection of groceries. We were staggered yet again at the low prices. Entire French cheeses for 1.39E, 3 peppers for 99 centimes. It really made us realise how expensive New Zealand has become. As we packed away our haul back in the apartment, I did a quick totting up of what the shopping trip might have cost in NZ, and guessed our 75 Euros (NZD125) might have cost $280 back in NZ. Ouch! It seems mad that we have to pay $13/kg for "tasty" but in fact rather ordinary cheddar in NZ, whereas we can get a Comte or Cantal for much less here, and even the French king of blue cheeses, Roquefort, was just $20/kg.

A small selection of the cheeses available at the superette.

Our 75E haul

Anyway by lunchtime we had the house in good condition, the beds ready, the car prepped for tripping, the fridge full of goodies, and everything in full readiness for Saskia and Will's arrival. It was lovely to see them around midday, and to sit and share an excellent lunch of fresh local produce. They were enroute to drop off their van in Frankfurt before flying to India for several months. They needed to do a lot of arranging of flight, transport, visas and accommodation, so it was upstairs for them onto our laptops and four screens for the rest of the day.

Many moons ago we'd arranged to meet Andrew and Marijke for a birthday dinner in the evening. We chose to try a new restaurant, Le Jardin, which had replaced Le Percheron. It turned out to be excellent. Service was slow, which suited us fine as we caught up with our friends' lives. Sadly, they were moving to a new house in Montpellier on Tuesday (2hrs away by motorway). We will no doubt catch up with them again, but it is a pity that they won't be quite so close by.

More of the same the next day, though we did find time to go out to the patisserie where we let Will and Sask choose a pastry each. The choice is of course superb. Saturday was internet research and washing for Sask and Will, not a lot for us.

September 5th to 6th - Arrival in Ceret

We were met at Perpignan Gare with a really lovely warm welcome from our friend Marijke, and dropped back outside Bar le Pablo. So good being back in Ceret. It seems to have taken an age to get back to France - it felt every bit of the 260 days it actually has been since landing back in New Zealand in December 2016. 

Ceret was toasty warm, and there was a very familiar warm smell of hot buildings and cooking. So nice. Climbing up the stairs to the apartment was almost a pleasure, and it was perfect to open the door and fling open the French windows onto Place des 9 Jets. Home again!

We'd arrived just before 7pm, so there was just time to nip back down to Netto to get some bread, cheeses, milk and fruit, although our good friend Liz had kindly stocked our fridge with a few things. We did the minimum of unpacking and were able to sit down at 7:45 pm for a dinner of cheeses on baguette! Delicious. Being a bit tired we retired a little early, feeling most content.

Some basic necessities

Our apartment had been rented for a month in July/August, so the next day was spent doing washing, rather more cleaning than we would have hoped, tidying and unpacking. Not the ideal things to be doing when a bit of relaxing would have been in order, but it had to be done as a niece and her boyfriend were arriving the next day. I must add here that Karen required her necessary fix of coffee at Pablo, followed by our first pastries of the year from Jean-Louis, the baker under the arch - an amourette  and a tartelette myrtille. Start as you intend to continue! Actually we are well aware that a pastry a day would lead to the buying of new larger clothes, so we do indulge sparingly, but being on the first day back demanded a treat!

The other major requirement for the day was to pick up our little car from its storage in Le Boulou, a nearby town. Our normal contact turned out to be in Sweden, and he thought he had the keys to both the car and the garage, in his Ceret house. Thankfully we did have the right car key, but didn't have a garage key. On arrival at the Hotel Richelieu, the garage owner also was out of town, but another contact lived nearby, and we were able to just catch him as he left home after lunch. We found our way to the garage, opened the door and reconnected the car battery. In went the key, a few lights went on but no starter motor. Oh dear! A bit of fiddling with the keys, use of the button to unlock the car (and thus the immobiliser) and the next attempt saw our little Hyundai Matrix spring into life. Woohoo! Given we had a pair of friends arriving in another two days, we needed to have the car going, so that was big relief.

Next step was to get it a new controle technique - a warrant of fitness or MoT. We'd checked out the garage online and knew they had spaces, so next stop was to drop it off there to be picked up, hopefully with the CT, by 7pm. Some of our friends were already in Ceret - September is very popular because of the lovely settled weather - and we were able to re-meet a number at Bar le Pablo in the evening. I did a quick walk back to the garage where the car was waiting with its new sticker, thus nearly ready for the trips we'd need it for in the next week or so. 

The last step was to book it in for some more aircon gas, as we'd noticed that the aircon was no longer working, and having a car in the south of France in summer sans aircon is not a good thing.

Prologue

It’s time to kick off another blog. We arrived in France much later this year than in previous years. The reasons were very good though. In fact, it was really because of one event – the arrival of our second grandchild. John and I wanted to stay south until the birth of Bella and Nic’s second child, due in mid-August. However, true to form, like her sister, mother and uncle, baby Violet wasn't prepared to wait until full term and put in her appearance in late July. John and I flew to Melbourne soon after and spent a week helping out, especially since Violet was a caesarean and a few extra hands on deck were much appreciated by Bella and Nic.

Little Violet

Family developments on another front, the deteriorating health of my 94-year-old father, caused us much concern from May onwards, and necessitated some unplanned visits to Auckland. However, he has defied the odds and is still on deck, in good cheer and in no pain. Hence John and I were able to start on our long-planned trip back to France via Melbourne, where we spent another wonderful week with Bella and Nic’s little family. We were also there in May for Mother's' Day and managed being there this time for Father's Day, so we’ve had some great family celebrations.

At Short Straw, Bella and Nic's favourite cafe, for Fathers' Day

Unfortunately Melbourne was in the grips of a gastro outbreak, and John caught his version a couple of days before our departure to France. The thought of a gastro problem on a 3-leg 24-hour flight didn't bear thinking about! As it turned out, we had an excellent trip. We flew Emirates again. The economy-class legroom for John was excellent, more than any other airline we have flown, and the food was superb. A huge contrast to the Qantas-flown codeshare we used from Auckland to Melbourne where the food was near the most awful we've eaten. The three 8-hour legs with minimal stops between in Singapore and Dubai airports went extremely well, and after we finally arrived at Barcelona airport, we took the train to Barcelona Sants for the easy 75 minute TGV trip to Perpignan.