2 - 5 November Back into Ceret

Our flight from Rome into Barcelona was fine. Being Ryanair it was no-frills, but again the legroom was appreciably better for me than with many other carriers. A bit of a drag when we arrived as the pickup for our off-site car parking was very slow - 20 minutes quoted when we rang, but 45 minutes had gone by before the shuttle arrived. We won't be using them again.

The drive through the early night was fine, until about 40 minutes out from home when the heavens decided to open and we had to drive carefully through torrential rain. We finally got into bed back in Ceret not long after midnight. So nice to be in our own comfortable bed with a nice down duvet and feather pillows!

We slept pretty well, to wake in time for breakfast and a trip around the Saturday morning market. One of the main issues we saw with the new possible Cortona house, and indeed the previous one, is that it is quite remote from the main town and opportunities for interacting with the locals would be limited. In Ceret it is impossible to carry out life without bumping into people constantly. Indeed in the morning we headed off to our favourite baker for a croquise loaf, meeting two friends during the 200m walk. We got a few veges at the market, talked to more friends and had a coffee in the lovely bright sunshine. During coffee we got a call from our winter renters and friends who had seen us pass by, and we ended up spending a delightful 2 hours talking to them. So all in all a lovely social morning.

Our coffee spot at the market

Saturday morning market 

We had both been battling colds, with John also having a temperature and feeling pretty awful at times during the past few days. He survived on regular doses of Panadol rather than much food. On Saturday afternoon I went quickly downhill and felt simply terrible for 24hrs. We'd already rung up French friends a few days before to decline a kind invitation to lunch on Sunday, and just as well. By late Sunday I managed to toddle to the local cafe to sit in the sun for half an hour. 

We had booked the car in at 9am at the local mechanic's for Monday morning to get its suspension and steering improved. When he arrived he asked if we could bring it back on Tuesday instead. Back home to rest up. We tried again on Tuesday, and left the car there all day, but on returning to collect it at 6pm found he wasn't able to do any work on it because he needed more parts. Darn! We'd ordered what he'd requested, but he needed more, so we started the process of doing that. The car should drive immensely better afterwards, and with fewer audible clunks, than it does now. Hopefully it will all be sorted by the end of next week. 

Clearly it's been a very quiet time for us. We wandered the 100m to sit at Bar Pablo on Monday afternoon in the sun and ended up sheltering inside when an almighty cloudburst put paid to any rays of sun. So much for needing sunglasses. However, the weather has been pretty mild (low 20s) and mostly fine and sunny. This is always a lovely time of year here.