Friday, 7 April 2017 to Thursday, 13 April 2017
Today we read and relaxed most of the day, trying to recover our energy spent on our amazing trip to Beziers and the Canal du Midi yesterday. It was late afternoon, actually early evening, when we went for our first ever walk around the harbour area and along the breakwater all the way to the Saint Louis Lighthouse. To ones left is the marina stocked with plenty of yachts – some fancy some ordinary – and to ones right is the ocean. We have crisscrossed Séte over the past few weeks but for some or other reason have never come this way before, even though it is only a few hundred metres from our home.

The port of Sète was built in the late 1600s as the Mediterranean entrance of the Canal du Midi. The Saint Louis Lighthouse, which stands proudly at the end of the Saint Louis jetty, was built around 1680, was destroyed during World War 2 in 1944 and rebuilt in 1948. The lighthouse, at 25.78m high, was unfortunately all locked up so we could not climb its 116 steps to the top. I do believe one is allowed to do this although we did not see opening hours specified anywhere, but we’ll try again.

The GNV Atlas which is referred to as a Ro-Ro/Passenger Ship, essentially a ferry, was lying tied to the quay, readying itself for the next leg of its journey. This specific ferry sails between France and Morocco with stops sometimes in Barcelona. It was not long before the ferry started backing out of its position and then slowly steamed forward and off towards the harbour entrance. All the time it was flanked by a tug boat, hovering close alongside, like a fussing mother watching over and corralling her grosse enfant (large child).

There was a chill in the air when we started our way back home and getting close we heard a noise up the road and decided to investigate; rowdy music in the neighbourhood was a first for us. We came upon a party of sorts, there was music and wine and food on the street with people milling about; everybody was having a ball and a chat. People were coming in and out of the building behind the party and of course we had to take a closer look. It ended up being an art studio and an art exhibition was underway. We took the opportunity to check out the art and found some weird and some wonderful pieces on display, a totally enjoyable experience.

After supper we settled down for a touch of reading. Now I am sure you know the cartoon character Dick Dastardly as seen in the Wacky Races cartoons. And then you will probably also know his sidekick, a dog named Muttley, that has a distinctive snickering snicker. Now I have not seen nor thought of this cartoon in many years, but tonight when I watched Mike Pence on TV, Muttley came to mind, seriously. Check below whether you can see Pence in Muttley, with that sickening silly snickering look that he always wears, Pence I mean, as if he knows something that you and I don’t. And I guess he does but whatever it is, it can’t be good.

We had many plans for Saturday, amongst them a trip to Montpellier but Adri was way too tired. And of course there was rugby on so I placed myself in front of the TV for the larger part of the day, I was not to be moved. With beer in hand and barbecue chips at my side I whiled away a few hours in good company.

We had run out of bread. It was mid afternoon and during a lull in the games I tried to coerce Adri to go with me for a bread walk. All I got was a sleepy “Don’t you want to go on your own?” I went on my own.

I took a different route to our boulangerie thinking that I might find one closer, I did not. What I did find though was the Le Mole bus stop from where one can catch a bus to a little town called Marseillan, some 15km away. We intended to visit Marseillan tomorrow but, alas, this bus line does not operate on a Sunday.

I continued my search for a boulangerie but found none that were open on this Saturday afternoon. While strolling I found two restaurants though that we would have to visit, one Italian and one Indian, the menus looked rather delicious. In a roundabout way I finally stopped off at our by now favourite boulangerie, their stuff really is delicious.

From the outside peering in through their large windows I noticed that there were no baguettes left in their baskets. I was mortified. But just then I noticed an old lady get away with a baguette, holding it rather awkwardly, seemed like she was afraid it will snap at her. No awkwardness had ever put me off a baguette before, so I entered and ordered “Une baguette s’il vous plait” (one baguette please).

The lass reached not behind but below the counter to a basket there – hidden far away from any prying eyes – which contained a steaming batch of freshly baked baguettes. A paper bag was pulled over ones head that kept it from screaming, I mean steaming, money changed hands, and I was on my way home. And that’s when I realised the reason for the old lady’s fear of her baguette, that puppy was so hot, fresh out of the oven, it will burn blisters on your hand before you can blink. Like the old lady, I too awkwardly held onto my daily bread by the ears of its paper bag.

We slept in, that’s what people do on a Sunday. We contemplated going further afield today but alas, it became too late. Just past midday we took a stroll along the beach road to Corniche, 2km away, it was a beautiful sunny blue-sky day. As we walked along the shoreline we noticed a number of yachts out at sea, some motoring, others sailing in the breeze that was up.

 

There were many cyclists utilising the bike lane, and then Lood came pedalling past. Lood!? I nearly screamed out for him to stop, but alas, the Lood lookalike disappeared before I could capture him on my camera, he was fast, he was in a hurry. Adri commented that, either way, it could not have been Lood, “He can’t ride a bike”. I put her right on that score when I regaled her with tales of Lood, whom I must admit was sometimes a reluctant cyclist, used to do a 10km run to school every day on that orange Peugeot 10-speed bike of his, every day that he didn’t bunk school, that is.

After Lood had disappeared we ducked into a small scruffy looking little beach but decided to look for sandier pastures. We then came upon the start of the larger Plage du Lazaret (Lazaret beach) and right there we found a small supermarket. We stocked up on a fresh baguette, jambon (ham), emmental cheese and of course an ice cold large tin of Heineken, this plage could not be wasted without a picnic. And by the way, we have not yet had breakfast.

 

Adri spotted an open cement bench under some trees which we found rather comfortable, from where we could watch the beach and its people enjoying the early summer sun. Some kids even dared go into the water… but only the kids.

 

 

 

Adri started preparing our baguette while I opened the Heineken and took a few long slugs… had Adri not stopped me I might have finished it in a few more, but she also needed some sustenance. The picnic was impeccable and after finishing it we sat there, drinking in the summer scene.

 

 

A man and his young daughter of around six years, sitting on the cement bench two up from us, had cycled there and was having a baguette crammed with goodies, as well as a bottle packed with long white stringy asparagus. The man poured the water out, poured in some fresh water, shook it up and then poured out the by now freshly contaminated water. Not sure what the contaminant was, but either way, between the two of them those asparagus disappeared before any further harm could come to them, the asparagus I mean.

Then two old ladies took up their position between us and team asparagus. The one drank water, the other ate a baguette that was filled with more goodies than what the imagination can imagine. Strange thing was, she opened up the baguette, took out a fork, and started eating all the goodies, leaving the whole baguette intact, which was later placed back in her bag… strange but true, but delicious it seemed.

A woman with a small white dog with a black head on a leash entered the beach area. She unleashed her troeteldier (pet), like I sometimes used to unleash Mikey, and this little dog started running, much faster than his little legs should allow. He was like a wispy white streak of busyness running around in ever increasing circles, man, this puppy could move!

Then a bicycle came past, it could have been a unicycle, but it was not. This guy was riding, as natural as anything, on his back wheel with front wheel high up in the air. He’s a friendly chap as well, smiling and waving at everybody as he goes on his way. Come to think of it, maybe the waving part is just his way of keeping his balance, and the smile might be a grimace, but I doubt it, he was having way too much fun! As he passed us he even took both his hands off the steering, still peddling along only on that back wheel. Wow what balance! We saw this same guy in town the other day (pictured) doing the same thing, this was not just a show, this is how he rides… normally. And all the locals seem to know and appreciate him as they still stop to stare in awe at this spectacle.

The asparagus team packed up and as the cute little girl pushed her little bike past us she looked me straight in the eyes and said a sweet “Bonjour monsieur” (Hello sir), how cute was that. Behind us four young guys, early twenties, were playing one-bounce, or rather no-bounce, with a soccer ball. At some point they lost control, of the ball, and it came rushing past me. I picked it up and threw it back to them and as if one voice, all four responded with a “Merci beacoup, monsieur!” (Thank you very much sir!) The people around here are just so damn decent and nice.

By now my beer was finished and I was wondering whether I was seeing things, but Adri also saw it. PW Botha floated by, die groot krokodil (the big crocodile), he had turned green by now. But it was time to leave; I would not be seen on the same beach as die groot krokodil.

 

 

We walked along the street that hugs the beach, past plage de la Corniche and its marina and on to plage des Quilles, the main beach, where people were milling about on this lovely warm and sunny Sunday afternoon. We walked along the Promenade du Lido until we reached an ice-cream shop which we could not ignore; it was too white and too pink. We ordered two soft serve ice-creams and sat our butts down watching the people go by. I suddenly noticed that there were many men out walking about in shorts and t-shirts. I made a mental note to unpack mine from the suitcase where it still was, protected from the wintery weather of the past few months.

Checking maps.me I was rather surprised that it was 3.7km back home, so all in all this little exercise was worth 7.4km, so no yoga required today. It was almost 17:00 when we started our trek back home and on the way we encountered so many more people out taking a walk, the whole of Séte seemed to be out for a late afternoon stroll, a very festive friendly family atmosphere.

Now you may remember the movie called Fargo from 1996, I really enjoyed it at the time. So I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered today that there was a series based on the movie called, not surprisingly, Fargo. We started watching it and the series is in the same vein as the movie, quite dark with some humour and some tongue in cheek scenes. We rather liked it and by the time we switched ourselves off we had finished the first four episodes of season one.

Monday I needed to get some work done and after our morning ritual as well as a yoga session, it was very late morning when I got started. I planned to do two hours of work, then one hour admin followed by another two hours of blogging.

After the two hours of work I started with admin and that’s when it happened… There was something wrong with my eyes, you see, I simply could not keep them open, so I relinquished my carefully laid out plans and succumbed to a snooze. This reminded me of the time when Cobus came into my office one morning and informed me that one of his staff members will be absent from work that day, there was something wrong with her eyes. Concerned, of course, I queried what had happened and whether we could assist in any way. He smiled, pulled out his phone and showed me the text message he received that read “I’m sorry boss, but I cannot see myself coming to work today”. We had a good chuckle about it.

I must have been in a snooze state for at least an hour and when I woke up from it the weather had turned all nasty. It was forecast to be a bright sunny day but now it was overcast, the wind was up and it was raining. I simply cannot leave this weather alone for even one hour, see what it does.

We were having the last of our latest batch of soupe de legumes (vegetable soup) tonight which lay frozen in the fridge for the last few days. This was now the right weather to have the soup but there was only one problem, we were fresh out of bread. Neither of us was mentally weak enough to volunteer to walk to the bakery for bread. We settled for that pre-packaged toast that I so despise. But, dipped into the soup it came into its own and I rather enjoyed it for once. The soup of course was excellent.

The coffee fumes that drifted in from the kitchen raised me to a half sleeping half sitting position in bed. When the coffee was delivered I was ready, willing and able to consume it, and the news. But, we could not linger longer, we had bus line 13 to catch, the one that will take us to the large Carrefour hypermarket.

Yup, today was shopping day again, we had run out of meat and stuff and needed to stock up. We arrived at the hypermarket just before noon and had an espresso at the little restaurant right by the main entrance of Carrefour, to plan our day.

Adri wanted, or rather needed, a haircut, I wanted to walk around the immediate vicinity as there are a number of interesting shops around. After our espresso shakeup we wandered outside and walked from shop to shop in the surrounding area. There was another grocery store where we eventually bought a few things. There was another grocery store that sells only frozen goods, this was a first for me, and it all looked delicious. The whole shop is littered with fancy chest freezers, arranged in such a way to form a natural path up and down their aisles. Quite amazing.

There was a sports shop as well with sports kit and clothes of every imaginable make, shape size and colour. I was looking for decent inner soles for my running shoes, but of course they were fresh out of my size, pity. We had seen a few coiffeurs (hairdressers) along the way but none where Adri felt comfortable. And then she found what she was looking for, she felt right at home and the lady could help her immediately.

I was sent away to entertain myself for 40 minutes and when I returned there was a new Adri on the block. We entered Carrefour and had to restrain ourselves. We made a conscious decision to buy meat and anything else we fancied, as long as it was not heavy, remember we had to carry these puppies home… uphill.

 

 

Anything tinned was out, Adri did not like that. Anything liquid was out, I did not like that. We got away with meat for the next few weeks, beef mince, pork chops, pork mince, pork loin and grilled chicken and more. I loaded up a 1kg readymade lasagne which Adri frowned upon. Well, it wasn’t in a tin and it wasn’t liquid, so what’s with the frown? A flan, which also weighed in at 1kg got approval from both Adri and I, there was no way we were going home without that. Stocked up for an apocalypse we headed home with the heavies, but at least the weight was contained, sort of, somewhat.

Tonight we had that wonderfully freshly grilled chicken with freshly fried chips, and next to that was placed a mean green side salad. Supper was superb!

We finished watching season 1 of the Fargo series which I rather enjoyed. Adri was the one that pushed for us to start season 2 and, with a break from most series, it was a completely different story line with a completely different cast, with a completely different feel to it. Hmm, I was expecting more of the same but we’ll see how this one pans out.

Wednesday morning and yoga was on the menu, a stretching session which stretches the mind and body beyond recognition. Maybe all will return to its original shape, maybe it won’t.

We were still not really hungry after last night’s substantial, and may I say rather late meal, that breakfast this morning was a cup of coffee with a pain au chocolate which was ample, a true European type breakfast for a change.

I was having the last dregs of my second cup of coffee out on the balcony and enjoying the amazingly fresh sun on my skin. Four French tourists walked past below and all greeted with a friendly “Bonjour”. I replied in kind but then they rambled off a serious French conversation at me, pointing ahead of them. Of course I did not understand a thing but fortunately the conversation ended with a question mark. So I replied “Qui, qui” and pointed in the same direction as them, nodding my head in agreement. I really do hope I was right.

I started blogging while Adri got ready to go to the Wednesday fresh produce market. I would have loved to have joined her but I was now really far behind and needed to play catch-up once again.

Adri came back with stuff, I continued with my stuff. Later on Adri went for a walk to the marina where she got comfortable with a book, while I slogged away. It was after supper and at around 20:30 that I finally published the latest blog post… slowly I am catching up, too slowly though.

We were thinking of going to Carcassonne today but we woke up too late. Actually, we woke up early enough; it’s just that we got up too late. Carcassonne is about 90 minutes away by train so a day trip with a late start would not be worth the effort. This trip was rescheduled for next week Sunday.

I tried to blog but ended up doing admin all day and it was late afternoon when we decided to go for a drink. The weather was simply amazing, it was a 25°C blue-sky day, people were out in shorts and t-shirts, the sea was a beautiful dark blue, there was no wind… just gorgeous. This particular day was the best weather we have had since, oh… mid December last year just before we hit the rainy weather on Koh Samui.

We shuffled down to the Korner Cafe – situated right opposite the main canal – which we have passed so many times before and it always seemed rather festive…and they served Grimbergen on tap. Adri ordered an espresso. I could choose between Grimbergen Blanche ou Rouge, I chose the latter thinking it was the same darkish variety we once had in Belgrade, which was impeccable.

 

The beer was delivered and this thing was red, really red, they don’t seem to play around with the word rouge around here. It ended up being a cherry flavoured beer and rather too sweet for my liking. But, truth be told, it was not all bad although I’ll surely skip it next time, not really my kinda thing. In fact, next time we’ll skip this restaurant altogether, it had to wifi. Well, it had, apparently, but it was not working, and that is no excuse… and you know how I feel about my wifi.

From there we were off to Monoprix for a few odds and ends. One of the ends was a six-pack of Stella Artois beer, and I do so love my Stella. I have not noticed it there before; I suspect they must have been out of stock. Unfortunately they only had the tin variety but that was probably a blessing in disguise, made the walk uphill back home less arduous. Back at home I happened to check the till slip and noticed that the price of the Stella must be wrong in their system, the price that was scanned was €0,98, probably the price of a single beer. Anyways, next time I’m there I’ll tell them to correct it; the actual price should have been around €4.

And this pricing error reminded me of the time when Marc and I – it must have been circa 1982 – went to the Germiston Makro to buy beer. There was a Portuguese beer called Sagres that they had imported for the first time and we thought it good to buy a case of 24 of the stuff. Going through the checkout counter we noticed that the price in their system was obviously wrong, the case was priced at the price of a six-pack. Being young and reckless, we went back and eventually left with four cases of the stuff, at a price never to be repeated again!

Supper tonight was a treat. On Tuesday we bought a 1kg freshly prepared lasagne from Carrefour which we dared give a try. Well, this stuff was simply amazing with loads of meat and cheese oozing out of corners where there were none. This item will definitely make it onto our future shopping lists. And by the way, we tried to remember when last we had lasagne and would you believe, we could not remember having it once since leaving SA in June 2015.

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