16-19 August - First Days Back

Despite the near 12-hour difference in time zones, we slept very well - Karen managing a full 11 hours! Friday was a busy day with the first of our car-related trials ahead of us. Each year we drop the car off in a garage in Le Boulou where it rests with the battery disconnected. The day began with an early morning walk to beat the heat. The convent that we had our eyes on a couple of years ago is clearly being renovated, starting with the chapel roof. We still look at it with some regret, but it was always going to be too expensive to do up.

Home to breakfast and then onto the bus to Boulou. It is always a relief after we get back to Boulou to open up the garage and reconnect the car battery to find it starts first kick! Since the car had become very dusty we pulled into Intermarche to give it a wash and pump up the tyres.

First stop back in Ceret was the Citroen garage where we booked it in for an aircon gas refill. There's clearly a small leak in the system, exacerbated by it being unused for many months, and it has become an annual chore to get it topped up. We thought this year we'd get them to do a full system check to see if the source of the leak can be identified, but unfortunately their technician is away on vacances, so it will have to be a refill first. Our main car trial will be on Monday when the controle technique takes place. Hopefully it will pass, as there will not be time to do any fixes if for example the new emission tests prove too hard.

Opposite Citroen is the recently refurbished Lidl supermarket where we spent a good hour doing a complete grocery shop. Lidl is very cheap, but doesn't always have the same range as other supermarkets. Our 130E shop bought us an awfully large load of groceries, and as always the quality of the fruit, veges and cheeses was superb.

Home again to Parking des Tins to park the car and then upstairs with full loads. Lunch of fresh cheeses and salad was an absolute treat. The flavour and ripeness of the fruit and vegetables puts NZ equivalents to shame. Here the customers are very fussy and expect food to be perfectly ripe and fresh, but perhaps in New Zealand it is the suppliers who are king, and they are more concerned with ease of supply than what the customers desire. Or maybe NZ customers simply don't demand the same quality as they do here. Either way, it results in a huge difference in flavour.

By evening, most of the house was back in order. It could do with a bit of a clean after our Spring guests, but that could wait.

After another good sleep, Saturday dawned warm and sunny again. We did our "fields" walk again, armed with plastic bags in case the blackberries were in season. They certainly were, and more numerous and more flavoursome than previous years. By the time we got back into Ceret we had 1.6kg - a very good start to our "hunting and gathering". We wandered back through the market, only needing to pick up some olives and peaches. The variety of ready-to-eat foods on offer is superb. Paella of many varieties, roast chicken with chips, all manner of peppers, anchovies and more on flatbread, cheeses and more. Our lunchtime baguette today was literally a minute out of the oven. So crispy and chewy.

Our bakery, Fournil Saint Ferreol

Ready-to-eat foods

Catalan pissaladiere or fougasse (bread topped with veges/cheese/anchovies etc)

The second leg of the Bledisloe Cup between the All Blacks and Australia was on, and our internet-based UK TV system was still running nicely, so we were able to enjoy the spectacle. Saturdays of course bring the Ceret market, and it was a delight to sit down at Le Comptoir and drink in the atmosphere. It was exceedingly busy and noisy, but totally unlike our Nelson Saturday market. There are so many people here taking time to sit down and enjoy a beer, coffee or a citron presse.

Though there are very few of our friends in Ceret at present, we found most of them and enjoyed a quick catch-up.

This morning we woke at around 5:30am, smelling the tantalising but rather over-rich aroma of roasting chickens. Many of the market stall owners set up really early, especially those needing to cook food. We would typically still be very much asleep at this hour, but we are still adjusting to the new time zone so it was definitely an unusual start to the day. It is very popular among the French to buy meals at the market, such as hot-roasted chicken and potatoes, quiches and fougasses.

We continued unpacking during the afternoon and had the place pretty shipshape by 6:30pm, when we met two friends for a glass of wine at Le Comptoir, our favourite cafe/bar. This English couple is so disillusioned with English politics, and the debacle over Brexit in particular, that they have decided to relocate permanently to Ceret.

On Sunday we slept through until 7:30am, so we definitely have our sleep pattern sorted now. The forecast temperature was 33 degrees, a little higher than the last few days so we decided to hit the local pool. We're hoping to get in 2-3 swims before we head to Italy in 8 days' time. The pool is lovely - outdoors, warm temperature and the two lanes provided for proper swimming only tend to have one or two other swimmers. John was chuffed to strike up a conversation by one of the lifeguards. He remembered us from last year. We spent a bit of time trying to pick up some rays to tone down our appallingly white bodies, then off home for another delicious lunch of baguette, cheese, tomatoes and fruit. 

The air-conditioning is working really well since John gave it a good cleanout, and it's keeping the temperature very palatable inside. However that didn't stop up working up a sweat during the afternoon when we cleaned the apartment and mopped the stairwell. 

In the early evening some French friends came around for apero. They are a Parisien couple who bought the apartment immediately below our first one in Place de l'Eglise (as a place to stay when regularly visiting family in Ceret). We have become good friends with them. We spent a few days at their holiday home in the Lot (middle of France) a few years ago, and one of their sons stayed with us in Nelson when he was touring NZ last summer. We had a wonderful few hours, with John excelling himself with his French language. I was pretty pleased with how much I understood. We are planning to all get together again when they return to Ceret in October.

Monday was an important day. Our little Hyundai Matrix was due for a new Controle Technique (the equivalent of a WOF) but we were very worried it wouldn't pass the new emissions testing brought in this year. We definitely need a car for the trip to Tuscany, so were reconciled to having to hire one if our car didn't pass the threshold. However, all was well. We didn't get the warrant because we needed two new back tyres, which we thought might be the case anyway, but the emissions are fine. We have two months to get the tyres sorted and verified by the garage. Phew! We were already planning to drive into Perpignan and get the new tyres installed on Thursday, so we have them on the car for the trip to Italy. We're also booked in for regassing the air-con unit in the car on Wednesday. We will feel well prepped for our stay here this year once we have these things ticked off. I'm sure we will be putting a fair few more 1000 kms on the clock over the coming months.

Home-made salad for lunch. Simply superb.

We know that the 'food theme' is already coming through loud and clear in the blog, but it's with seriously good reason.