Firstly, big apologies for not having blogged for a while. There’s a couple of reasons. First one is that my phone decided to reboot itself back to factory default. This happened a month exactly after I’d “left” the UK, and have been told I must have accidently hit on about 5 menus and sub-menus and approved an override to achieve this.

I had to rebuild the phone, which didn’t actually take that long, but it also meant I lost all my recent contacts and photos – so slowly rebuilding all those.

The other reason, and the main one, for me not being blogging is that I’ve been ill with – initially much vomiting – and then the other end. Its taken about a week to recover – I think it was some peanuts I ate (well that’s what kept coming up anyway) – but the good news is that I didn’t eat for four days !

As a result, I’ve not been out and about much. I did make to quiz night on Tuesday and this time I remembered my phone – so here are some photos (with captions).

The Prizes ! Everyhting an ex-pat misses from the UK.

Ten teams of ex-pats

The picture round

The bar the quiz is held in is called Le Terminus. It is the “trendy” bar in town with a huge backroom (where the quiz is held). It also has a new bar maid, who is English ! which makes it very confusing when ordering drinks.

Sadly this time we only came 5th (out of 10) – last time we were joint second 😦

Jim and Teresa from America – they sadly didn’t get the American question “What is the UK equivalent of the American popover ?” (answer below). Also, Teresa had brought a huge tub of …. peanuts to snack on – I declined.

Today I managed to do the walk to Cavirac for the first time in a week. It’s surprising how much difference a week can make and a lot of spring flowers and blossom are now coming out.

The weather has also – SADLY – changed. After three weeks of non-stop sunshine its turned a lot more “seasonal” – so I’ve put my jumper back on.

Lastly, thanks for your comments – I do read and appreciate them. And to answer some of them –

• Yes I am worried about getting my hair cut, and it will need to be soon !
• The person who sells housecoats has not been back at the market. I am keeping an eye out for them though.
• I’ve not drunk diet coke since the end of Feb.

And finally pictures of chickens, dogs and my feet – because you asked for them …

Huge dog just wandering around

Free range chickens

Sadly, yesterday my reliable and trusty Heineken phone took a turn for the worse. It kicked off a reboot to factory settings and is currently in limbo. I do hope that my work Help Desk can get it resolved. However, until then, although I can receive incoming calls, I have no way to access texts, WhatsApp messages or the camera !

I’ve put off the trip to Perpignan until I can get some resolution. However, the weather continues to be splendid, though I have been told it is to get a bit less so next week. And apparently there is a UK fish and chip van coming to town tomorrow – probably followed by a troupe of cockeneys and Morris dancers.

Speaking of which, I’d just like to mention that last Friday was the last day at Heineken for my erstwhile boss, Mr Dave Manning. I’d just like to thank Dave (again !) for helping make this sabbatical possible. I will miss his strange Cockney ways and wish him all the best for the next adventures in life.

Lastly, thanks to Davie C for sending me an old-fashioned letter – took me a while to make out the spidery hand writing (a long while !) but it was really nice to get.

I can’t believe it’s been a week since I last blogged. Apologies for that if you’ve been desperately waiting for the latest updates ! There’s no big reason for this, it’s just that the weather has been so good (just as it has in the UK), and my Scottish programming simply means that if the sun is shining I should be outside.

So what have I been up to ?

Mainly walking !

I am more or less doing the Cavirac walk 3 days out of 4 – and now making up sandwiches as well !

However, last Tuesday I went on a walk in the opposite direction – north up the Aude. I was looking forward to going to a “Magasin Bio” a health food shop which advertising also promised local produce ! Situated about 1km out of town, I was very excited by the time I got there. So imagine my disappointment when I entered and found it to be the same as a lot of those vegetarian type of shops – a few sad (but organic) vegetables, VERY expensive bread that does not contain flour (or taste) and aisles and aisles of vitamins and supplements (to compensate for a poor diet) – oh and some candles and crystals, which always cheer up vegetarians !

They did have a nice outside seating area which looked out on to the “We grow our own vegatables” piece of land.

I carried on walking until I got to the little hamlet of Brenac which had lots of barking dogs.

Two french horses

Blyue Shuttered house

A very nice pile of logs !

Tuesday night was again Quiz Night. And I forgot my camera again !!!

This time I was dumped from my previous team – last week was half term in south of England and there were quite a few people over visiting their holiday homes. I was bumped because my neighbours, teachers in Brighton, were over. However Louise found me a new team – Cam and her husband (originally from Yorkshire, but have been here 9 years), a lady with very thick hair whose husband was at choir (the choir is in Limoux, too far for me to join), and also a couple over for the week – very jolly. I think he was once a partner in a Document Management company, but sold up a few years ago. He now valets (washes) cars 2-3 days a week, but still allows him to have a French holiday home  🙂

Anyway, we came joint SECOND – joint with the team that had dumped me !

The rest of the week was filled with walking, and also speaking to Aberdeenshire Council about my Council Tax, and heating and energy people about arranging installation of a heating solution for my house in Strathdon.

Just as an aside, I have tenants starting in the Marchmont Road flat from the start of March, which should help me financially. The big question though is, Air Source or Ground Source heat pump for Strathdon ?

On Saturday evening went along with neighbours to watch the England v Wales games at the Cochon Volant. There were some VERY noisy welsh people there who had a very happy time.

Note my VERY old Castaway wallet !

Apologies that this is very light on new “stuff” – I am now into a happy routine. Looking to get the 1€ bus to Perpignan soon – as an adventure and blog content ! But that involves catching a bus at 07.50 !!

Now into the third week of sunshine and blue skies – the longest I’ve been able to enjoy this type of weather since I started work in 1985 !

British lorry driver enjoying the sun

Pink washing

A bust Saturday night in town

The Felafal Man Cometh ….

And with him came hummus – a big, huge pail of the stuff. I now have enough to fill my boots.

So on Saturday, after a quick run through the market, I decided to do my Cavirac walk again. I’ve worked out that its about 4km each way and I plan to do this walk (at least) 2-3 times a week.

The journey there was the same as before, but when I got there I looked around to see where to go after Cavirac – I have discounted Belvianes (up on the hill), as I’ve been told there is nothing there apart from a bunch of angry cats and dust.

But before I go on, I must comment more on Cavirac – when I showed Louise (my landlady) the washing line picture from the previous post, she was able to make out some Star Wars Storm Trooper boxer shorts (you can go back and check) on the washing line – and she knew who they belonged to !

So, to keep you interest in washing lines up, here was the display from Saturday (rather disappointing if you ask me) plus a few nice shots of the hamlet.

Saturday’s washing – so disappointing 😦

Everyone likes a good knocker

Here’s teh study

A wee house with all the furniture outside

Here’s the dining room

I went to Cavirac !

I decided not to follow the road (it goes to Perpignan !) instead I looped back round, and after seeing a condemned bridge, I came across my first cemetery – and the French certainly know how to fill one with lots of stone and plastic flowers.

On the way back, I decided on a detour. This picture shows the main route back to Quillan on the LEFT – but on the right there is a sneaky little sign saying Quillan. – to the RIGHT. I knew this would be a tougher route home, but I thought that I would only go up a little way to get some better photos.

Little did I realise that I would be going up, and up, and up for the best part of forever. After a LOT of stops (and I mean a lot) to rest and worry that I was going to be stuck on the hillside all night and would be eaten by foxes, I got to the top.

Belvianes – nothing moving. The place is dead.

Belvianes again – just from higher up.

I can no longer see Belvianes

And on top of the world, here in the Aude, the world is very green. I don’t think my photography really gives you a sense of just how green it was up there, but I can tell you it was VERY green.

Green

The path downwards

Who doesn’t like trees outlined on a hill ?

More green

From the top, I started to come down. I was so happy – “No more up” I thought, “I won’t be eaten by foxes tonight after all”. But, oh no, the sneaky path went down only a little but and then …. it went UP again. After a LOT more rests and trying to find a good stick to fend off foxes, the path eventually turned down and towards Quillan – which I could see occasionally through all the green stuff.

A spooky forest

Quillan in the distance

At last, a proper path

Finally, after a few more photo opportunities, and passing some nice houses with gardens, I made it back to fox-free Quillan.

A White Tree

Is this David Kennedy’s house ?

A lovely garden

Vines – nothing on them yet

Once back in town, I sat down at my usual bench by the Aude to recover and watched a young chap in boat flail up a down trying to get through the hanging gates.

In the evening, I went round to James and Louise’s for dinner.

• Cod with white bean (homemade) puree and pine nut dust (homemade)
• Artichoke pasta (pasta was homemade) – it’s the start of artichoke season apparently. They told me the variety of artichoke, but I’ve forgotten that.
• Lemon Tart (homemade pastry)
• All washed down with gin (which I’d brought) and lots of local sparkling wine.

All very, very nice – best pasta dish I’ve ever had I think.

Before I finish off, one last photo.

The pharmacy (chemist shop) in town was once the town bordello !

Back in the day, when Quillan was a big hat (and small hat) manufacturing place, the hat workers were kept amused here.

You wouldn’t know that now, unless you looked closely at the bespoke balustrade !

Before I kick off, thanks to everyone who enquired about the housecoats, mentioned in the last blog. They were not available at today’s market :-(, but on Wednesday I will

• Find out what the difference between a 20€a and 25€ housecoat is
• Find out what sizes they come in
• Confirm number of pockets, and whether there is enough room for a Mr Sheen and a duster.

So, you may also remember from my last post, that I took a walk south along the Aude on one side, and said I would try the other side – which is what I did on Thursday.

Instead of crossing “le pont pietonee”, I kept to the left hand side of the river and the path continued up the side of the hill. I trudged up this steep incline, swearing to just get to the top to see what was what.

Looking to Belvianes and Cavirac

The sign board at the view point

View from the top of the walk – to Belvianes

More Aude

From the viewpoint, you can see over to the town of Belvianes (I’ll go there another day). After the steep climb, the descent is fairly easy, down through a mini-forest, and ancient olive trees (one with a sign saying it could be 2000 years old – at least that’s what I think it says). Also, seeing the Aude like this, reminded me that we’d been told (in French of course) at French conversation class, that this part of France has had hydro-electric capability since 1900 (though what they used the electricity for back then, I have no idea)

The high path

Was wary in case there were bandits

An old Olive stump

Once back down, the path leads you into the tiny hamlet (hameau) of Cavirac. There was no-one around, except for some cats. Although, as there was washing hanging out, I guess someone at home.

I included the washing line, as I know washing lines can be very inspirational to any artists out there who are looking for some creativity. Also, for those who know him, don’t you think that that wee window is the type of window you would expect David Kennedy to put his head through and ask how your goats were today !

From Cavirac, you can look across the Aude at high up Belvianes – I’ll go there another day – as by this time I was exhausted and knew I had a long hard climb to get back to Quillan.

On Friday I went to the Post Office for the first time (its a bit like Post Offices used to be in the UK in the 1980s) to pick up my first Amazon.FR package ! I’ve now got a little rucksack.

After that, I had agreed to be a sitter for (landlord) James’ art class he runs on a Friday.

The people in the class were all English, all retired, all been in or around Quillan for years. I think the sitting was a one off (I hope so anyway)

Before I finish off here are some animal photos as I know they are very popular, including another photo of the dog from Café Du Fleuve (as requested by Alan H). Hopefully get more next week.

The sun came out again yesterday – I have almost forgotten what rain looks like !

After a quick run round the market to get six oeufs and my daily bread – this time I bought a loaf of pain de pommes – which was really very nice.

There was also an amazing selection of housecoats at the market – if any lady should want a new one, from chic France – please let me know !

After that, I headed out for walk. This time I took a right after crossing the blue bridge to follow the Aude upstream. There’s going to be an awful lot of pictures with river and trees in it now – so apologies if there’s just too many.

Within about 10 minutes, you are away from the town and rambling alongside the Aude. There are several walks, on each side of the river – today I might do the other side.

I managed to phone my mother during the walk – she is fine and getting ready to go a cousin’s (second) wedding on Friday – although she will not be wearing a hat as it is a second wedding. And while we are mentioning hats, good luck to Chris R, who is going to a hat themed 50th birthday party next week.

Along the route I found somewhere to start my daily workouts

The walk took about 2 hours for the round trip. As always you need to watch out for dog poo. I also saw a couple of owners “walk” their dogs – they park, let the dog out while they sit in the car and smoke !

It was actually a cold start to the day – there was ice on puddles and frost on a lot of the plants, but by the time I got back – just after midday – it was again about 15C.

When I got back, I had enough time to eat some pain de pomme and run the vacuum cleaner (how I miss my cordless !) round the flat before heading to French conversation.

This week we talked about the differences in verbs to walk – se promener, marcher and randonner – the last of which is for a hike or country walk.

During the class a (british) lady called Joy came in – although there was little Joy in her mission. She wanted to ask advice on renewing a French driving licence. Rather than help the poor woman, Patrick made her sit down and explain – in FRENCH – what her problem was. So Joy – in a HUGE coat which she did not take off – had to stutter her way through French words to explain (I think) that her husband needed to renew his French permit for driving a minibus, did he need a health certificate, and was this separate to his driving licence and where should she go ?

I don’t think any of us gave her any (good) advice at all, and during it all Brigitte, the only French person in the class who should have been speaking in English, kept speaking to me in French asking if I was happy !

Afterwards we went as usual to the Café du Fleuve for coffee (I had a beer) and we were joined by the owner’s dog (who needs a good wash and brush). Joy did not join us – in fact, I think she was quite happy to get away from us.

So, dear Readers, after a dry spell of almost THREE weeks, the great hunt for hummus has come to an end.

I was goaded by Michelle who is in Helsinki, enjoying the One Thousand and One Hummus festival – lucky Michelle !

This morning I went with James (my landlord) to Carrefour and there I trapped the last remaining tubs of hummus in the Aude valley.

There were only three tubs left – I took two and James took one.

And thank you to everyone for their helpful suggestions (and recipes) that I make my own, using tahini, which is scarcer than hen’s teeth here.

The possibly even better news is that I have heard people speak of a “Felafel Man” or “Homme de Felafel” – who should soon be appearing at a stall on Market Days – selling (you’ve guessed it) Felafel AND HUMMUS.

You’ll also see that I managed to get Aigre-Douce – Sweet Chilli Sauce as well !

Today was also my first “check in call” back to the real world (Chris), and the only real comment was a request for fewer cats in my blog. I’ve decided to balance this request with a view of Heineken products in the Carrefour supermarket together with the duck that comes to chat with me when I’m reading and a one eyed cat who hunts near the Lavarie.

I didn’t notice it at the time, but next time I’ll pick up some “Wild Lager” as I’ve not heard about that one and is Goose IPA one of ours or should I have moved it from the shelf ? (sorry to non-Heineken readers for this aside)

Lastly, James has asked me to model (not life model thankfully) for his art class on Friday. I get to chat apparently.

Firstly, thank you so much to everyone who replied to my previous Blog, lamenting the lack of BBC, amongst other things. Some good news though,

• Big thanks to Alison and John Hunter for recommending windscribe which worked quickly and easily. I now have BBC !
• I have been told I just need to look harder for Sweet Chilli Sauce as it does exist here.

On Friday it was a really warm and sunny day – getting up to 14C – which is just as well as I started getting a cold that day. I sat down by the river and read

The bench on the left is the one I have claimed as my reading bench.

On the way back home (and stopping in a little square for a beer), I popped in to the church as it was one place I hadn’t been yet

The road to the church

Church Door

Inside

There are of course several Mary’s (some quite big) and a pretty good modern stain glass window of (I think it’s) a fish.

When I got home, I had a lovely surprise as I had mail !

It was from Fiona & Michelle and inside was written

Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful

Does this refer to my fifty pairs of odd socks ?

On Saturday it was Market Day – this time there were about twice as many stalls as last week.

Early start for the Market vans

The Poissonerie

The Boucherie

View of Stalls

The food stalls are at my end of town (i.e. 30 seconds from my front door is the boucherie and poissonerie).

The Market attracts all the locals – a lot of them in fashionable and chic hats – and some crazy stuff on the stalls, which given the card message above is a warning.

I have a lot more stall shots, but I’m sure you’ve had enough of this.

In the end, because of my crappy cold, I just bought some cheese from the dutch guy

Hate to say this, but I really like this

Poor Napoleon

IS the Owl a dinosaur ?

Later in the day, I met up with Louise, James and Jim (from the quiz team) and we went to watch the rugby game. The Cochon Volant was shut so we went to another pub on the square, where the manager told us the French word for a scrum (mêlée).

I’ve been told Alexander (of Eastwood, Dunkeld) was shown on screen – I think I saw him.

And so to the HUGE disappointment ….

For the last two weeks, I have been eating sparingly (to no effect) – bran flakes and yoghurt for breakfast and vegetables for tea (and bread and cheese and beer) – I’ve had meat once (remember the trip to the butcher’s for a sausage !), so thought I’d deserved something comforting (and I do have a cold) so I went to my local pizza takeaway and ordered a Tex-Mex.

Several points of disappointment

• It was 11€ – not cheap (and easily blew my already blown daily budget)
• It was small – half the size of my £11 pizza on Marchmont Road
• It was not Tex-Mex !

I will not be going back.

Hello again.

Many of you have asked what my initial thoughts and impressions are of my French sojourn. So instead of doing another round up of the previous day’s activities (and yesterday was another grey day – good news though is that its blue skies today)

But before I start, some photos not previously used

Dwarf House !

So, things I really like

• Bread – Not unexpected, but it is super good. It doesn’t stay fresh long but it does make good toast for days after. I bought croissants in my first week, but to keep on a budget, these are now just weekend treats !
• Cheese – Mostly cheap and jolly good.
• The Town – The tiny streets in the old town are always fun to walk round.
• The Aude – It’s great hearing it from far off (though that will change as we move into Spring / Summer)
• Change – Most shops have a jar or box of 1c and 2c coins which they use if you do not have exact change.
• Being able to sit outside and have a beer.
• Walking every day.
• Starting to get smiles of recognition from shop workers as I become familiar.

And a list of things I don’t like

• Dog poo – Yes, there is dog poo. Not everyone picks up 😦 and you do need to watch the pavements. I’ve not fallen foul (!) of this yet, but kind of expect I will at some point.
• Pavements – Speaking of pavements, the French seem to just make a cursory attempt at pavements. Some streets have them, some have part pavements or really narrow pavements, which is all right for dwarves, but not much use for me.
• Smoking – Not bothering me as much as I’d have thought, but so many people smoke here – not seen any of those eCigarettes here. And because of the poor weather, people in bars tend to stay in the bar and just put their arm out the door as they smoke
• My Bank Account – watching my money disappear. Double 😦 😦 and realising how much this is costing me !
• Not being at Hawthorn Cottage (though that’s not really a French thing !)

And things I am missing (hints to anyone coming over)

• Hummus – Have not yet been able to get this. Or tahini.
• Sweet Chilli Sauce – Not found this yet either (plenty of mustard though)
• The BBC 😦
• Diet Coke – It’s available here but just does not taste the same. I have tried the Spar house diet coke and a couple of other brands, but it just doesn’t taste that great. Not a bad thing I suppose. The good thing is I am not missing diet Irn Bru.
• There are also things like a cordless vacuum, a dishwasher, large white towels and a cleaner which I thought I would miss more than I do.

Anyway, the sun is out and its warming up out there. So off I go …

Firstly, apologies for no blog yesterday. I know some of you get very worried when I don’t blog – have I died, have I been kidnapped, have I been struck down with the palsy ? No, is the answer (to those questions), Tuesday’s no-blog was a combination of grey skies and forgetting to take my phone with me when I went out (so there are no photos from Tuesday)

So, on Tuesday I finally went along to the Tourist Information. The building used to provide hot baths to the village and is shaped in a jolly way. The design also pays homage to the ancient hat industry that was used to big around here, but disappeared in the early 20th century as we all took to going hatless.

I now have bus timetables to Carcassonne and Perpignan – I will put these elsewhere on this site 🙂

In the evening, it was the every two weeks pub quiz run by and for ex-pats.

I was in a team with James and Louise and an American chap called Jim, who is an ex-cartographer.

You would think that would be useful when answering the question, Which European country in the largest in size. His answer of France was wrong – it’s Ukraine. However, he did get all the questions about American states correct, but it still didn’t stop us ending up 5th out of 8 teams. Some of the other questions were

• Which person has the most statues in the world ?
• How long did the Punic wars last ?

It was a good evening  out. I’ll take a camera next time as the population of ex-pats are an interesting bunch, and they do like to bring a dog along.

Answers below ….

So, Tuesday was grey (but no longer cold), but Wednesday felt like spring ! The temperature got up to 14C, and it was the first time I sat out at a café having a beer.

In the morning was the weekly Wednesday market – its less foody than the Saturday market, and a lot more “stuff” on offer.

The middle picture is the oeuf van – fresh eggs and you have to bring your own egg box !

The best stall was this one, and I suspect I’ll be back to haggle for one of these treasures at some point.

At lunchtime, I decided to go up to look round the 12th century castle / chateau as the weather was just changing. It’s a great view of the town from up there and there are also several walks leading from there too, which, once its not so muddy underfoot, I’ll have a go at.

You may remember from earlier blog that Wednesday is French conversation day. It wasn’t on yesterday as Patrick was at hospital getting a cataract done, however I still met up with Martin and Shirley for a beer – we didn’t really talk in French. They are from Ludlow (close to Hereford) and are quite interesting. They then took me to a “cheaper” supermarket called Leader Price, just outside town, as they said it stocked hummus – but it had sold out.

And the answers were

• Joan of Arc (there are 40,000 statues of her in France alone)
• 118 years

Lastly – if you see “Pas de Pub” on a door.

This does not mean that there is not a pub behind this door. It is not trying to deter you from knocking on the door and asking for a drink. Pub in this use is short for “publicite” i.e. advertising or marketing leaflets.

Took me a while to figure this out.