The kitchen table...I am sitting in the chair with my back to the cabinet waiting for the fig jam to finish. We went out before dinner and picked a basket full of figs some in our garden and some along side the road. The big brown figs are along the road everywhere. If the bush/tree/vine overhangs the road they are public property so you can pick what you can from the road.  There were some blackberries too but we would need snips to get them. They grow like grapes here but the crop has been not so good this year as we had little rain. I may go back tomorrow with my snippers and get those blackberries LOL

We went to marche today and picked up a few things.. I bought a beautiful reversable coat for 7 euro. It may come in handy when we go to Italy in a couple of weeks.

Michael made the corner on the bridge a little close yesterday and scraped the side of the car, that will be 700 euro to fix..and that seems a lot less than I expected as they may need to replace part of the door.. but maybe not.. It is a long scrape but not too deep..

They have been harvesting the grapes in the valley below us today. The picking machines have just stopped as it is too dark to see anymore. We harvested the last of our grapes..We had a lot but the heat and lack of water ruined most of them. We have both green and purple grapes in the garden. Before next year we will have some sort of hose set up. there is water to the garden, but no hose that works.

We are finding shopping very different here. You have to go to the specific location for the item that you need. NO Walmart!  You must go to the jardinier for your garden stuff, the eyeglass place for eye stuff, the pharmacy for most ointments and such and we just found a store that sells household stuff.

Now you can get some household stuff at the Carrefour,L'Clerk, Intermarche...grocery stores some somewhat like small walmarts...but the selection is small.  Now the Colorama(Lowes) wow I could spend the day there  LOL

We had sort of decided not to do too much to the house for now.. Tax bills came out and our friends Paulo and Didier got flogged for making improvements..the house was a complete gut..so anything is an improvement..and Paulo just finished a room that we had helped with. It went from a room full of rubble to a stunning bedroom...He has such vision, but do they ever have to pay for it...a 73% raise in taxes..ouch..

This house is quite comfortable, not fancy, just one WC, but 3 big bedrooms and a sleep sofa in the salon..a room downstairs that is now the storage room/cave..but could be emptied out, painted up and made into a nice sittling room for the time that it is too hot outside..it is always cool back there..It could even accomodate a futon and such to make a comfortable extra sleeping area...no window as it is built into the mountain, but when I am asleep I can's see out the window anyway..  but that is another time, and hopefully with no one noticing..HA HA

Well the figs are done, for now..I did not really have enough sugar so will finish tomorrow. While Kim and Billie were here I made
 two batches..Kim really loved it...and it just costs the sugar...

French lessons are progressing...ugh...  More later...

Castle adventure info

http://www.philipcoppens.com/perillos02.html   website about the castle that we found.

Monday

Wow, what a great day!  We went for an afternoon ride and ended up in castle...well it once was a castle..In the distance I saw a big round rock and said  hey look at that it looks like a giant round of brie...Michael said that it looked like a castle on one corner,  I could not see anything but we drove toward it and as we got closer you could see the shape better..then we were at a very narrow road going up the mountain and going up toward the castle. Up up up we went and finally there was a parking lot.. You could see for miles and miles and as we crested the hill you could see the Mediterranean  WOW it was beautiful..
Michael said  do you want to go up? and I said, we are here now so why not... It was well worth the climb..a huge space and the views magnificent.. there were a couple of rooms left and the well...what a find
We did not get home until almost eight...
It has gotten cool here and it is supposed to be dreary tomorrow.. right now I have to finish my homework, ha ha...got class tomorrow.. had to write something about myself..in French...She said it did not have to be true..ha ha... more later

Paris

It was a whirl wind trip, but I think Kim and Billie Kaye had a good time.. It started off a bit rough, our train was late making us miss the TGV so they had to put us on another train to meet with another TGV in Burgandy..but we had assigned seats on the origianal not so on the new one, so we did some seat hopping!
We got there and there was a LOT of walking, even to get to the Metro train..and Kim had to use a moving sidewalk, no easy trick for someone with one leg...but he did it fine...we got to the hotel that had advertised handicap accessable, but you had to go up one flight of stairs to the elevator(big enough for one person) and it only took him sort of to the third floor...after the first trip up he decided to use the stairs..it was easier LOL

this is the ridiculas to the sublime.....the KFC around the corner from us...and the pastry shop down the street!

anyway where was I?  It rained on the first day and I was so tired that I did not feel like eating...but Michael found an Indian restruant down the street and that was incentive for me to get out of the hotel....YUMMM

We went on a Battau Moouche...not spelled right but it is a boat on the Seine river, that serves dinner at night and you can see the lights of Paris...beautiful...I did not get any good pics from that but you can probably see them on facebook..

I am getting tired so will close now and complete tomorrow..
Unity I am glad that you like French class...keep in mind that it is good to take the class, but get your Mom or Dad to help you with the conversational part...that is important in everyday life...having someone to talk to is great! More later!!!

Monday

Today I spent the cool part of the morning in the kitchen. Potato salad, cole slaw, all home made..no such thing as store bought here...roasted the last pork roast for the barbecue..strange, there is no smoked pork shoulder, or boston butt here it would seem. If you ask for a pork shoulder you get a center cut roast...and the price is always right.  anyway..the barbecue was a great success, most here had never had it.. We had 14 in all, Marion(American) brought corn bread, Jo brought a greek salad, Val brought cruditeies, all brought wine...and Aurie(Spain) brought a wonderful cake, and for us figs, fig jam and blackberry syrup that she made while here. She and Pete will head back to Alicante Spain on Friday. Sad to see them go, but Michael and I will visit with them when we stop in Alicante in Nov. It is cool tonight with a hint of autumn in the air. The dinner went really well, and everyone got plenty to eat and the conversation was flowing everywhere. Our guests were Mike the American Jazz man been here 10 years, Marion the American who came for a month and didn't go home3 years ago, Jo and Stewart from Brighton, been here 2 years, Val and Martin ? British, Paulo and Didier, Jean Loui,Pete and Aurie, Alicante Spain,  cool lots of different experiences around the tables tonight. We ate on the terrace, it was wonderfully cool, I am tired... I made baked beans, something new and different to many here and what a hit..I had to go from scratch with the only bean in town  Harricott blanc..but a little brown sugar and molassas will make it work...LOL   tomorrow I will clean the house and get ready to go to Barcelona for Kim and Billie Kaye. can't wait...

Sunday August 28?

I never know what the date is, I am lucky that I know the day...oh well I had plenty of years that I had to mark the day so I am just going with the flow. This summer has flown by...it seems that it was just a few days ago that I arrived in France and now the summer has passed and Autumn is upon us.  On Wed. Sept. 1, Kim and Billie Kaye Robinette will arrive for a two week visit..I can hardly wait..on Sept. 8 we will take the train to Montpelier and there catch the TGV (fast train)to Paris. Exciting times..I am sure
Today our friends Gerard and Monique came for lunch...it was a lovely visit, even though I was the only one not talking...though Gerard trys to teach me Spanish, I am having enough trouble with the French thank you..LOL  Gerard is a jeweler in Quillan and Perpignan and all over the place really..he makes some wonderful pieces, especially with amber.  Monique brought an apricot tart and two hugh bouquets of lavender from her garden..the house smells great...I guess someone told her that Michael put the gas can for the scooter in the kitchen last night and it smelled to high heaven this morning..I does not anymore..
We went blackberry picking after they left, but the weather has been soooooo dry, no rain for weeks, so the berries have dried up..down the road there are some hanging like grapes, but up so high on the side of  the hill that noone can reach them..I want to take the "loppers" down and just cut the whole thing..they are all ripe, hundreds of them if we could just get to them..ughhhh..
We picked plums from the roadside last week and I made jam and plum cobbler...it was great..and didn't cost anything...you might find most any fruit or nut growing along side the road here...thought they did cut down alllll of the pomegranates on the Rue de Pomegranates making it now the Rue not of the Pomegranates!! disgusting...I will say..
Great weather , hot during the day and cool at night...loving it...
On a sad note, I found out that my friend Nancy Williams Brown passed away in late July, I am glad that I was able to meet with her before I left. We were friends since about the 4th grade, maybe even before...Nancy was born with a heart defect, she was not expected to live for 6 hours, then 6 days, and 6 months or 6 years..when we were in grade school, she was slender and willowy..huge blue eyes, but a lot of times dark circles under them due to here condition..Well Nancy made it well past the 6 hours into the 60s, Bravo...She was good and kind and will be missed by her family and friends.  Her death is a reminder to spend your life living not waiting to die...
Tomorrow whe have a crowd coming for barbecue...most probably have never had it...will be interesting... barbecue, potato salad, cole slaw, baked beans, a lot of work...ha ha...but fun
Yesterday I made zucchini bread...no one has ever heard of it here and wild about it..Didier said if I could make it he could sell 10 loaves a day...but in this tiny oven it would take all day to make 10 loaves..ha ha....very few ovens here large enough to cook a turkey in for sure...maybe a chicken...  anyway  that was cool...something new....squash here is translated to courgette. sounds so much nicer than squash..ha ha   I have been eating a lot of it since it is in season and plentiful...zucchini, tomatoes,onions in a little olive oil....a little garlic....ummmmmm.... off to bed now, tomorrow is a busy day...more later

Riding along

I like to just ride and see where the road takes me...so does Michael  so along we go..Monday we went to pick up the car from the safe spot in Couisa and he said "do you have somewhere to be?' and I said no...so off we went, through a couple of villages we had not visited and up the mountain,,,and up and up and up!!!
at one point we came to a curve on this road that was just wide enough for one car..and there on the other side of the road was  a bus stop!! Oh no I hope we don't meet a bus coming down....but we did not. Yeah.
We did meet several cars and at the top of the mountain way way way up there was a RV, how in the heck he got up is a mystery to me..we then went down the mountain and into another village with a beatiful stream and a castle and all the surrounding buildings...awwww for the money to buy...
Today was an exciting trip to the grocery store...Wow..  oh well some days are more exciting than others!!