So, we spent the last 2 weeks in Montséret, in the Aude département, in the Corbières region. It's a small village really, in the middle of vineyards and hills. It's really what I imagined rural France to be like - big houses with shutters, farmers on their little tractors going to their fields, coopératives, little shops where you can buy your baguette in the morning, ...
What I had not expected is that it would be so quiet. There was hardly any car going through the town, at any time of the day. And there were lots of swallows flying around, diving and swirling through the sky. And not too many holiday homes. It felt quite authentic, not overrun by the British, like other parts of France.
We flew to Carcassonne with Ryanair, an easy 2-hour flight. Everything ran like clockworks. The only drawback is that our outbound flight was at 6:20 am, not the greatest way to start the day, but, on the other hand, after our short drive from Carcassonne to Montséret, our room in the
Relais de Montséret was ready, so we were able to settle down straight away. And what better way to settle down than to have lunch? We had our first meal there - we chose the €24 menu - I had a starter of cassolette de sèches - a dish with something like squid (I can't remember the translation for sèche) in a rich bisque sauce, then I think I went for a veal main course, just perfectly cooked. Then we were presented with a cheese plate. I'm not normally a big cheese fan at the end of my meal, but these were 3 lovely small portions of the most delicious cheeses. And then, there was dessert! I can't remember what I had with that particular meal, but one of the days, I had a peach sorbet that was to die for - two different types of peaches, infused with delicate flavours (one of the flavours was lavender - so sweet!). The food was definitely a big highlight for me, who is normally quite happy with the plainest of foods.
After that, we relaxed by the pool and on our terrace, which had a nice view of the countryside behind the hotel. Our hotel room was lovely, at the top of a little tower, and we had great views of the surrounding town and countryside, like this view of the castle on top of the hill.
The following day, we moved to the house we had rented for the week,
Jasmin house, part of
Les Cigalous, a small development of 4 houses just a few minutes away from the hotel, on the road to Saint André de Roquelongue (isn't that a great name for a town?).
The house was excellent, bigger than we expected, with 3 bedrooms, a large kitchen/dining room/sitting room, swimming pool, outdoor kitchen with barbecue, and a generous private garden.
The house had everything you would need, and a good shower with plenty of hot water, excellent cooking facilities, TV (if, like me, you want to watch the météo every day) & DVD player (we had brought a few DVDs, which we watched in the evenings - there isn't much else to do in this town!).
The location was perfect, less than 20 minutes away from a large town (Lézignan-les-Corbières), with an Inter-Marché where you can buy all your food, 10 minutes from the Abbaye de Fontfroide, 20 minutes from Narbonne and the sea, and yet, it felt like you are in the middle of nowhere - it's not a through road like a lot of the other villages in the area, so it's just so quiet.
And we were lucky with the weather - while the rest of France was struggling with thunderstorms and floodings, we had sunshine most days. I think we had just 3 grey days in total. And the temperatures were lovely - up to 31 degrees in the first week (a bit too hot, even) and about 25 most days.
I must prepare a few pictures to show you in my next post.
Well - not quite our house! Mme Caparros's house, actually. This is a picture of the house we stayed in in Montséret.
Here is a view of Montséret taken from the top of the hill with the castle. Not a big town, as you can see.
I didn't do that much drawing or painting in the first week we were in France, but I did 3 little watercolours in the 2nd week (25 cm x 20 cm, the size of the block paper I generally bring with me when I'm away. It's very handy in that there is no need to stretch the paper before working). When I go away, I only bring my watercolour pencils (it's a set of 12 Derwent AquaTone pencils) with me. They are easy to bring along, with no risk of a mess in the luggage, and the colours I have are nice and vibrant, though the set lacks a good red, which I had to buy separately.
After that, we relaxed by the pool and on our terrace, which had a nice view of the countryside behind the hotel. Our hotel room was lovely, at the top of a little tower, and we had great views of the surrounding town and countryside, like this view of the castle on top of the hill.
We went to the Joe Jackson concert in the Olympia last night. We had found out about it by pure chance really, in a free magazine we got in a cinema a few weeks ago. I used to get updates about tour dates from the Joe Jackson website, but the emails stopped coming about 6 months ago.
To think that I nearly forgot!
OK, OK, this is the last one today. The truth is - I'm getting hungry, so that's my next priority!
Brendan is still asleep, it's bucketting rain outside, I'm waiting for paint to dry before I can add more colours to my current watercolour project, and I'm wide awake, so I might as well write another post.
You really have to see it to believe how calm the sheep are when the shearing starts. It's complete pandemonium all around, with sheep baaahing all around, but, as soon as the sheep-shearer gets his hands around the sheep, she gets really quiet, completely subdued, despite (or maybe because?) the less than graceful position she's put in. She just stares at you with those big eyes, and makes no attempt to move, as if caught in a parallel universe.
And not a nick! Clearly a very skilled sheep-shearer in action!
Did I tell you that last Wednesday, on the 29th, we had Mick over (he calls himself Mike, but Brendan always refers to him as Mick or even Mick Mac, so I'll call him Mick). He was visiting from South Africa, and we had a lovely meal in Indian Summer with Padraig and Mary. As it was Padraig's birthday, and we didn't know it, as per his wishes, it worked out beautifully.
In the last few days, we have noticed two magpies bullying Willow! Brendan had seen a pair of magpies picking at a squirrel a few days ago at the front of a neighbour's house. Yesterday, we heard the distinctive kak-kak-kak racket made by magpies, and we saw them on the ground, less than a meter from Willow, who was just lying in the backgarden, sunning himself.
