96: A moving experience

A little adventure the other day – involving transporting my new bed and mattress from Narbonne to Bize. I’ve been using one of Nic’s beds in the barn for nearly a year (I was one bed short when I moved across from the house – and by using one of theirs, it freed up a bit of space in the very crowded but soon-to-be-empty garage!). And now that they’re moving into their own house and reclaiming their bed, I needed a new one.

There are lots of sales on at the moment, so Nic and I headed down to Narbonne to pick up a bed.

Now, it was hot as hell this day, so by the time we’d packed the head and base board and other bits into the back of the car and tied it down, and wrestled with the mattress and tied it onto the roof, we were already a little frazzled.

We’d not gone far – on the ring road on the outskirts of Narbonne – lots of fast traffic – when I glanced in the rear vision and noticed the mattress was slipping backwards and sliding down the rear window!

Merde --- pulled into the emergency stopping lane, hazard lights on and crawled along slowly until we could pull over and fix the problem. Or so we thought.

Anyway, we headed off and got a few kilometres further up the road towards Bize. Cars are tooting and pointing.

Merde again ….. pull over again, and the mattress is now sliding off to one side! We weren't in a very good place here … busy road, and had to pull off onto the grass verge very close to the traffic.

And while we’re surveying the problem, we are still getting toots from cars.

Think very flustered by this stage.

So flustered in fact that we’d forgotten about the French breakdown laws – you MUST wear a fluorescent jacket while you’re out of the car if you’ve pulled over with a car problem. It’s a pretty strict law in fact – you must have the jacket within reach before you get out of the car. Mine (with 'British Airways' emblazoned across the back - oops) is stored under the driver’s seat.

You see quite a few people driving around with theirs slung over the back of one of the two front seats. It’s an offence to not have it ‘reachable’. Or more probably, the offence is to be caught without it, while rumaging around in the boot of the car looking for it!

And then there are the red warning triangles that you need to put 30 metres behind the vehicle. Well it took a few minutes for us to get this happening – and then the inevitable happened. A ridiculous attack of the giggles at our predicament.

It was hot, very hot, this was our second emergency stop, I was late for a 12 o’clock lunch at a friend’s house (had made the phone call and apologised and tried to explain what was happening), I was out of petrol and the warning light had been on for what seemed like forever – and this not helped by Nic trying to take a photo of me on her mobile phone!

However, eventually we made it home - everything was hurriedly unpacked and left on the garage floor, I raced off to get petrol and made it to lunch 45 minutes late, and enjoyed a very welcome glass of cold wine!

95: River things

Much of what happens in the village involves the beautiful River Cesse – the pool, the swimming in summer, the Cavalcade in February, the 14^th July fireworks and the motorbike event.

A few weeks ago, the machines started work on deepening the pool and building up the dam wall – at the same time the dirt mound was being built for the motocross event.

The water is pretty muddy and stirred up here, but several hours after they’d finished, it was back to its normal crystal clear state.

The freestyle motorbike night was held on the 13^th July and we had a beaut view from the front balcony of Nic and Duff’s new house overlooking the promenade – and managed to get a pretty good view of the jumps through the plane trees.

I got lots of shots of the single riders earlier in the event, but as the evening progressed, I was finding it increasingly difficult to juggle the camera and my glass of wine - and the wine won out.

Hence, no shots later when there were two bike riders jumping in unison, and doing complete somersaults in the air. Must do better next year. It was pretty amazing stuff.

This is the third year it’s been held, and each year the crowds are bigger – seems like it’s going to become a very popular event. There were thousands here!

Indigo managed to get an autograph on her arm from one of the young stunt riders – much to her delight. And to the amusement of all – when she woke the next morning, she’d slept on her hand and transferred it onto the side of her face!

The night before was a band set up under the trees, opposite the bar. And we did while away a few hours there in the evening. The kids did much better than us though – they were up on the stage dancing with other kids until midnight! The village is absolutely hopping at the moment.

And then of course there were the 14^th July celebrations which are celebrated in just about every village. Each year here in Bize, there’s live music, a meal on the promenade and fireworks down in the river.

The fireworks set up with the "Bize 2009" display
across the river - the motorcross mound on
the dry riverbed in the foreground

A very good time was had by all …..

94: New House

No, not mine - I feel I’m still settling into my new abode. It’s Nic and Duff’s house – they have bought a house right in the heart of the village, down near the river and are currently in the process of moving out of the gite.

So there’s been a frantic bit of painting and cleaning going on in the last couple of weeks.

And between swimming and playing, the kids have lent a helping hand too.

The house will be great when it’s been done up. It’s liveable now, but down the track when it’s had the renovations done to it, it will be fantastic. The windows look out onto the river, and the roof terrace has fantastic views across the village and the hills.

The view looking down at the market on the Promenade

The village dentist has his surgery on the ground floor, and is to stay there for a further two years - which makes things interesting at times.

The other day, Nic was going in the front door when one of the old ladies of the village handed her a clear plastic bag containing the casts for her dentures and asked her to hang them on the door knob of the surgery door ……… and only too pleased to oblige of course!

Now, they know it’s going to be noisy at times, because it really is in the thick of things down there near the bar – and the promenade is where everything happens. But it’s only a few times a year that there are big events in the village that go on until all hours.

It just happens that now is about the time where things are happening! And the front balcony is a perfect position to see all the goings-on.

93: A Tale of Two Gardens

Well, there’s not too much news from my little garden – except that I have picked my entire crop of kumquats! I had really only ever intended for it be decorative. And it certainly is that.

But there were so many of them I felt I should try to do something with them. So I’ve preserved them but have yet to taste them. If nothing else, they look delicious!

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However, there’s much more to say about Nic and Duff’s garden!

They’ve been very fortunate in that they’ve kindly been offered the use of some space by a fellow-gardener in the village - in a large garden plot (potager) down near the river.

They did most of the hard work of getting the garden planted up and running while I was in Australia – my only involvement to date has been helping put up the trellises for the tomatoes, the odd bit of watering, and of course admiring and sampling the fruits (vegetables?) of their labour.

Early days

A few weeks later - looking the other way.

The bamboo stakes come from down at the edge of the river – it does the trick and doesn’t cost a cent.

They’ve been busy putting in loads of vegetables – potatoes, tomatoes, carrots, aubergine, green peppers, onions, garlic, basil, chillies, peas (a little late but they’re doing ok), beans, broad beans, strawberries, corn, courgettes, lettuces, gooseberries, radishes (instant veg – hot as hell – too many!), kale.

And then there’s the pumpkins – none other than Queensland Blues – I brought back a couple of packets of seeds with me from Australia. Yum.

And the bottle on the metal stick? Well, it’s supposed to rattle in the wind and scare away the MOLES! There were little raised mounds of earth meandering over a good part of the garden last week – they’d been busy overnight.

There’s now no sign of them - they don’t appear to have dug any more tunnels, so perhaps the bottle-on-a-stick is working?

The courgettes are growing like mad, and the inevitable glut is nearly upon us. And the funny thing is that none of us actually like them very much, having tried various ways to deal with them in the past.

However, I have one recipe that I often use – it’s very quick and simple, delicious, and looks great served on the plate. In fact, it’s SO delicious that I’m going to copy it here.

Cod in Prosciutto with Courgettes

2 fresh cod fillets (or other white fish), around 180g each

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 wide or 4 thin slices Prosciutto

1 tbsp olive oil

A few fresh flat parsley leaves

For the courgettes:

2 courgettes, washed

1 tsp butter

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 tbsp lemon juice

Half tsp fennel or caraway seeds

Method

1. Trim the fillets of cod into neat squares or rectangles, and season well.

2. Wrap them neatly in the Prosciutto.

3. Heat the olive oil in a non stick frying pan, and cook the fish presentation-side down first, until the Prosciutto is crisp. Turn once and cook until the fish is cooked through - about 3 or 4 minutes depending on the thickness of your fillet.

4. Coarsely grate the unpeeled courgettes. Heat the olive oil and butter in a second non stick frying pan, and toss the grated courgettes very quickly in the hot pan, adding lemon juice, fennel seeds, sea salt and pepper.

5. Arrange the courgettes on two warmed dinner plates, and top with the pan-fried cod and the parsley leaves.

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Down near the vegetable gardens, there are a few empty fields. A few weeks ago there was a new-born donkey – I didn’t get a photo, and now it’s no longer there.

However, there’s now a new-born foal – cute as a button and so tiny. Its mother doesn’t look like a Shetland pony but she sure is small – and so is the little filly – and they’re both very comfortable with people.

And as can be seen from these videos I’ve put up today – I’ve finally decided to fiddle with a video editing programme to try to get rid of the dreadful background noise on some of my previous efforts – mainly the noise of the wind on some of the outdoor clips.

I think perhaps I should have stopped at the ‘muting’ stage – but oh no, I pressed on and have put some background music to them.

Still a way to go, methinks.

92: Visitors and Walks

Recently our cousin Rhett (second cousin actually – there are plenty of us!) and his partner Michelle stayed for a few days. They’d done a big trip of the UK, Paris and Marseille and had few days of relaxing here before heading back to Australia.

They were lucky that their short stay managed to coincide with one of the Tuesday walks – and this particular one was to one of my favourite places – the hills around St Chinian up towards the Black Mountains.

Rhett ....... made it!

This walk's final destination was Chapelle Notre-Dame de Nazareth, and then to the rocky outcrop above the chapel.

There are many limestone formations and cliffs in this area – it’s spectacular – and at the end of the walk we climbed the summit above the chapel which gave 360 degree views of the whole region.



And while it had all the appearances of a pilgrimage, it wasn’t – as I was allowed to go!!






And of course at the end of it, the picnic lunch. And featured in this photo is Oscar – a friend’s dog from the village.

Now, it’s well known that I’m not really a dog person, but there are exceptions - he’s a cutie and best of all, he’s been trained and does as he’s told (mostly….). He loves coming for these walks, so he’s had a couple of good days out with the walking group.

And he’s well behaved in the car. I wonder if he's aware of just how privileged he is...?



And with the weather being so nice now, most of the eating is now done outdoors.

Our visitors had to try the local fare – so there was of course the confit de canard, Robert’s famous sausages on the barbie (Robert is the butcher in the village), fresh giant asparagus with Parmesan, and a first for me – escargots drenched in garlic butter.





I ate my first one ever, though Indigo out-did me with a grand total of three.



Rhett had found a bottle of wine of the region that we tried – not half bad either. Translated roughly as Lord of the Arse Estate.

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The school year is coming to an end here, and the other day Indigo’s school had a concert in the village hall. They made their way with their very own Pied Piper from the school, past my house and to the hall, playing their respective instruments – triangles, tin cans and wooden sticks….!

91: Spring: red and white

The Red

Absolutely stunning countryside, the poppies and wildflowers are the best I've ever seen them - because of the aforementioned amount of rain that's fallen in the region in recent months.

And here - well, a lovely gift for us from one of the ladies from the language class - from her own garden. How lucky are we!

The White

The other day, we had a companion for part of a walk up the Pech behind Bize - it was so funny, it seemed to just want to stay with us for a while and checked a few times to see if we were still following behind it. Sheep are a rarity in this region so it was a bit of a surprise to come across it.