Bize Bytes

Language class

debwesterberg@gmail.com (Deb) — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 16:54:00 +0000

I decided to give myself an early Christmas present a few weeks ago …. a week-long course in Montpellier of intensive French classes. I’m not sure it was much of a ‘present’ – it was fairly hard going, but I chose to do two afternoons of a cooking class at a local restaurant as an optional extra.

What can I say – it was intensive, but fortunately classes were held only in the mornings, with the afternoons free – to recuperate! And Montpellier is a fairly special city to do it in. I have to say it’s my favourite city in France, though I haven’t visited many.

It’s obviously the favourite city of many others too – it’s the fastest growing city in France and the one that most French people (according to a recently published survey) say they would like to move to.

Christmas tree in the Place de la Comedie, Montpellier

A side street off the beautiful Rue de l'ancien Courrier, Montpellier

Dog inside a jewellry store

It really did feel like being back at school again – most of the students were in their early twenties, and from many different countries (Saudi Arabia, Brazil, South Africa, Australia, Japan – and these are just the very few people I met).

However, there were a couple of people in my class of 5 who were closer to my age, which was very reassuring.

I'd like to think I'm now beyond making dreadful blunders, but I think not.

But I have to say, the highlight of the exercise was the cooking class at Msr Lyachi’s restaurant - Le Jardin des Pâtes.

Msr Lyachi and me (looking a little apprehensive) -
peering over our respective specs ....

So, while I’m not sure whether there’s much improvement in my French, my one week away in Montpellier has given me the impetus to continuing learning the language and to keep experimenting with new ideas in the kitchen. Let’s see how it all pans out!

And back here in Bize, the weather has finally turned. After months of unseasonal balmy weather, we’re in the middle of a cold snap, with a few flurries of snow today, and the outlook is more of the same.

There’s not been enough snow to stay on the ground, but certainly the temperature is way down there! So today’s activities have been somewhat centred around the fire.

Recently though, there has been a bit of activity at Nic’s – painting.

Indigo is very industrious and loves helping and so she joined in with much enthusiasm. Not only does she like to get stuck in with the painting side of things, she’s always enjoyed cooking. So she whipped up a batch of biscuits and brought them upstairs to share with us before getting well and truly dressed for the occasion, and mucking in ……. and I have to say she did a good job on the end of the roller.

And surprisingly, for a kid of her age, she didn’t get sick of it after 5 minutes. She was up for the same on day two!

A wildlife encounter

debwesterberg@gmail.com (Deb) — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 19:42:00 +0000

Yesterday I was coming back from Narbonne quite late and it was pitch black. I was about 5kms from Bize when something ran across the road in front of me – I had oncoming traffic and couldn’t avoid it. It looked like a small-ish dog, and unfortunately I hit it full-on.

I turned around when I could and went back to see that it wasn’t just injured, and had a quick look from the car. I couldn’t see very well from my side, but I had June in the car with me who said it was definitely dead, and that it was probably a small wild pig (sanglier). There are plenty of them around this area and they’re a real prize for the hunters.

As sad as it was, I figured that someone in the village would be delighted with the sanglier, so phoned to ask Duff to come back with me to collect it! I picked him up and we headed back, armed with a black plastic bag.

Pulled off to the side of the road, hazard lights on, and discovered it wasn’t a pig at all. It was a hare! The poor thing wasn’t too damaged at all, but appeared to have died instantly. It broke the bumper on my car – I certainly hit it full on and he didn’t stand a chance. And he was huge! I have never even seen a hare (un lièvre) – dead or alive - but I know they’re highly sought after by the hunters too.

So the plan was to offer it to my elderly neighbour, who often goes out hunting with his old dog. I’ve seen him come home with the odd pheasant, and take it inside for his wife to clean (I know this is how it works now!). And so we did offer it to him – he came into the garage to see it, and was very happy indeed to take it off my hands.

Now, unfortunately that wasn’t the end of the story. Ten minutes later, he was back with a few ‘désolées’ – and returned the hare.

Madame said it was too much work to clean it, and obviously cleaning wasn’t in his remit. His work apparently starts and finishes at the hunting stage! I know he was genuinely ‘désolé’. He’d been telling us the different ways he could cook it – roasted or casseroled – both delicious he said.

Next, I rang Claude and Ellyette – Claude’s sister who also lives in the village was visiting, and yes she would love it. So five minutes later, I had a very happy Rosemarie drop by and take it off my hands…..

And so mercifully we were spared the next option: having a go at cleaning it for ourselves – not something I was looking forward to!

Remembrance Day 2009

debwesterberg@gmail.com (Deb) — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 11:09:00 +0000

Bize-Minervois, 11th November 2009

Chestnuts & mushrooms

debwesterberg@gmail.com (Deb) — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 11:59:00 +0000

Two things that are in abundance just now. And while there may not be any mushroom festivals in the immediate area (that I’ve heard of, though I suspect that there very likely are!) - there are two chestnut festivals in the region held at this time of year. One is held in St Pons de Thomières and the other in Olargues.

The one in St Pons is called la fête de la Châtaigne and the one in Olargues is called Fête du marron.

Marron and châtaigne are both words for ‘chestnut’ and it was a bit confusing asking the vendors the difference. There was a rather convoluted conversation (of which I understood not a lot!) about the trees being grafted ….

However, I’ve since found out that although they are both types of chestnut trees, the main difference is that marroniers are cultivated chestnut trees, and châtaigniers are the wild variety. There is also a difference in the fruit - the prickly ‘shell’ of the marron usually contains only one ‘nut’ while the châtaigne normally has several.

Regardless, they’re delicious freshly roasted and I bought a kilo of them for Christmas and will roast some of them on the little bbq and keep some of them for the brussel sprout/chestnut/smoked bacon recipe I’m going to do for Christmas lunch this year.

Oh, and speaking of Christmas, Paul my son is coming over from Perth in December for a couple of weeks – it will be the first time that we’ve had a family Christmas (i.e. with Nic and family) since February 2003 when Steve and I went over to Canada for ‘Christmas in February’ and Paul joined us there.

We’re a fairly unconventional family as far as Christmas is concerned – not too worried about the actual day – but we do like the turkey thing. Last year I spent Christmas day at Singapore Airport on my way back to Perth – but managed to have a celebration of sorts with the family here on the 22nd, and then again with Paul back in Perth several days after my arrival.

But the turkey - this year we’ll be having a free-range one on order from a little organic veggie garden (he raises a few chickens, ducks and turkeys as well) on the outskirts of St Marcel.

Nic ordered it the other week, and beyond saying it was for 7 to 8 people, and asking for one that was ‘grosse’, we really don’t know how big it’s going to be. Nic said the eyebrows of the farmer shot up, so we’re thinking ‘big’.

However, I digress. Chestnuts. So the festival at Olargues ran for both days of the weekend, and I was there on the Sunday.

It’s a gorgeous little village and is rightly designated as one of the most beautiful villages in France (Les Plus Beaux Villages de France).

Bize-Minervois is not on this list (yet! – do we want to be?), but Minerve which is just up the road, is.

Patisserie in Olargues

I digress again – here’s a short video clip of Olargues on the day – a little stall set up outside a quirky little shop – I’m not sure what it was selling! Though I see behind the piano there are wine cartons, so I suspect that perhaps is what they sell. Maybe stuffed animals too?

And then the other week, there was the annual new wine/chestunut walk with the regular group. Nic and Elizabeth and I had planned only to go for the walk – busy with other things and didn’t think we would make the picnic lunch. We had [wrongly] assumed that the annual event of roasting of the chestnuts and tasting the first of the new season’s wine would be part of the lunch. I have been to this the previous two years, but had obviously forgotten the order of the day!

So we turned up at 2pm, went for the walk with the group, and were pleasantly surprised that the lunch event and chestnuts/wine were separate – i.e. the chestnuts and the wine were after the walk! How very civilized, and what a nice surprise.

There are different types of chestnut roasters available, the bigger of them being custom-made cages. Someone here however has been very resourceful and used the inside of an old washing machine. Worked a treat. The chestnuts were delicious, and the first of the 2009 new wine (a 100% cabernet sauvignon from the Argeliers Cooperative) was very good indeed.

Now the mushrooms:

At the walk last week, only a few kilometres from Bize, there was an abundance of mushrooms growing all along the side of the paths, under the pines. There were a couple of Australians on the walk (visiting an Australian couple who live in the nearby village of Mailhac) who collected quite a few, once they had been reassured by the locals that they weren’t poisonous.

Here in France you can take mushrooms to the pharmacy to be checked before eating them. I’m sure this has saved many lives.

Interesting though, despite Claude’s delight with this monster ….

…. the locals didn’t collect any of these, even though they are edible and were everywhere. Apparently they’re just so-so, and they have their favourites, the best they tell me are the ceps.

And they’re not about to tell me where to find them. Claude does tell me however when they’ve found some, and just how delicious they were!

Perhaps I’ll feel like I’ve really ‘made it’ here if I ever get invited on a mushroom picking expedition! Guess I’ll just have to buy them from the markets for now.

And just to finish off, some gorgeous autumn colours of the vines around Bize.

A weekend of Lodève and Joan Baez

debwesterberg@gmail.com (Deb) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 11:22:00 +0000

Friends from Fremantle - Ron and Gaye - who have an apartment in Lodève, have been in France these last couple of months. We’ve managed to catch up here in Bize a few times – and consequently had a very social time doing it.

Incidentally, they have been keeping a blog of their own about their stay here, with some lovely photos of Spain. They’ve convinced me that Bilbao and San Sebastian are a must-see, so that will have to go on my increasing list of ‘places I would like to visit’.

Last weekend I went over to Lodève and spent a very pleasant weekend in their stomping ground, so to speak. Doesn’t do me any harm at all to move out of my comfort zone!

Their apartment in Lodeve

And while I’m very biased about this region and this lovely village, of course I can accept that there are many beautiful places here in France – and Lodève and the surrounding countryside are just that.

Very different – the vines peter out as it’s a fair bit higher, and you actually get to see a bit of livestock – non-existent in most of the Languedoc of course. Here, it’s grapevines and then more grapevines. Now why did I decide to settle here…?

Lodève itself is a town of about 7,000 people with a great Saturday market. We wandered into the cathedral (Cathédrale Saint-Fulcran de Lodève) and were greatly amused to hear chopsticks being played by a young boy up the front of the church!

The highlight of the weekend was the Joan Baez concert in Montpellier – even better, it was a free concert being held outdoors, at the end of a week-long guitar festival.

We drove down to Montpellier – about a 40 minute trip, and did a park-and-tram ride into the centre of town. We were very organised – packed sandwiches for dinner, and arrived in plenty of time to get a space fairly close to the stage.

We were in fact just behind a small fence, on a grassed mound that was high enough for the vertically challenged (i.e. me) to get a great view across the sea of heads.

There was a young guy standing immediately in front of us. He smoked about 4 or 5 joints in the first hour or so of the concert and was enjoying himself immensely. And then he decided he could play a game of chess, and still have a great time. And that’s exactly what he did!

The archway (Arc de Triomphe or Porte du Peyrou),
leading to the Esplanade du Peyrou, the venue for the concert.

And as I’ve mentioned before, October has been (and is continuing to be) incredibly warm. A few weeks ago there was a frost, and we figured we’re well and truly into autumn weather, heading towards winter – and it all turned around again. We’ve been basking in mid- and sometimes high-twenties. A little bizarre really, but certainly no complaints.

Anyway, the weather on the night was amazing – we were all prepared for a cold evening, and ended up in shirt-sleeves for the duration. And Joan Baez gave a great concert to a very enthusiastic crowd of perhaps 20,000 people.

Fantastic ……………..

Can-O-Worms

debwesterberg@gmail.com (Deb) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 09:08:00 +0000

The latest addition to my garden (well, garage actually) – is a worm farm! I’ve wanted one for ages and did some research on the net and found a supplier in Pezenas. It was interesting to find that it’s the brand Can-O-Worms, designed and manufactured in Australia.

I called into the factory on the day we (Neil and Jane and I) were heading up to the Millau Bridge. The woman who served us spoke good English and told us the story of how she came to be importing them into France. She worked near Sydney for about five years, and came into contact with them there, and saw a business opportunity.

And now she has a successful recycling/composting business that employs five people, breeds worms and supplies them with the worm farms. She has also done the ground work to getting local communes (councils) and schools involved. A nice story.

So, as I was buying one for Margaret who lives in the village, it was a rather tight fit in the car with three adults and two of these things – they’re rather cumbersome. And it was Neil who ended up squashed in the back seat with the worms, hoping there weren't going to be any escapees…..

Because I bought two farms, I was given a book on worms as a bonus. So my bedtime reading at the moment is Worms Eat my Garbage !

And two weeks after set-up, mine seems to be going great guns. The instructions advise all the types of things that can be fed to them, and suggests that the smaller things are cut up, the easier it is for the worms.

Now Neil took this very seriously, and can be seen here carefully cutting avocado skin into manageable size pieces!!

He made a real good job of the cardboard insert of the toilet rolls, (the woman at the factory said it was a real treat for them!.....) Sadly, I didn’t get to record that on film. He and Jane and are so impressed with the setup, they’re going to buy themselves one in Scotland.

I debated about taking a photo of the worms at work, and decided that a picture of my kitchen scraps being composted probably wasn’t in good taste….

But I can report everything seems to be going according to plan, and hopefully soon I will have worm castings for the garden/pot plants, and liquid fertiliser on tap!

The Scots were in town . . . .

debwesterberg@gmail.com (Deb) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 04:42:00 +0000

I’ve just had a visit from my Scottish friends Jane and Neil. This is their second visit – they were here back in April 2007. They’re now back in Bonnie Scotland with instructions not to leave it such a long time between visits.

A few trips out and about – the Millau Bridge (failed to take any photos this time!) and a side trip to Roquefort where we bought – yes – blue cheeses!

We also managed to get to the medieval village of Mirepoix where the annual apple festival was being held. Each year there are sculptures made of apples, and this year the theme was 'music'.

Jane and I tried the most divine freshly squeezed apple juice, Neil preferring to take his fermented (cider) and then watched the apples being pressed the old-fashioned way.

And interestingly, there was also a bit of line dancing / boot scooting happening which kept us amused for a while!

Because we're having a run of beautiful weather – very warm for October – we decided to do a BBQ and have the family and a few friends around.

It was also a chance to say farewell to a few of those friends who are (fortunately temporarily) departing la belle France – Bonnie and Terry from the nearby village of Agel who have now left for States for a few months; Bernie and Shayne from Capestang who are soon headed back to Australia for a spell, and Duff who is returning to Algeria for his 4-weekly work rotation.

One loaf, with plenty left over for the freezer!

Now, Neil and Jane are the sort of guests who are not only great company, but are damned fine hands in the kitchen. They made hosting the bbq for 13 people a veritable doddle.

And here they are amongst the smoke – looking after the cooking side of things. And Neil’s overnight-marinated pieces of foil-wrapped salmon were a huge success.

Provence

debwesterberg@gmail.com (Deb) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 12:44:00 +0000

Each year, the village group do long-ish trip to another country, and then later in the year a shorter break to somewhere relatively close by. And last week, the short trip was across to Provence for 5 days.

Now even though I’ve visited a few times, each time was either a quick visit or just passing through, and I hadn’t really seen a great deal of the countryside or villages.

So, needless to say, it was a very busy few days, staying in the same hotel in the lovely coastal town of Sainte Maxime for four nights, and heading out in a different direction each day.

The company – as always – was convivial, and the weather was stunning. However, there was one day when we had a real taste of the infamous Mistral wind, but not bad enough to interfere with our day’s plans.

So what follows here is really a few ‘holiday snaps’ and video clips. I’m getting a bit behind the eight-ball with these posts, and have a few more to write up!

Moustiers-Sainte-Marie

Street name - Rompecul (or rompe cul) literally means
'break your backside' - to put it politely - and
is the name of the street in the photo above .....

This little boulangerie is actually in the village
of Olonzac, 10 mins from here - but just thought
I'd include it as it's such a great little shop.

How to lose 'street cred' when mooring
your boat near St Tropez ....

Port Grimaud

Gorges du Verdon (this great photo is from
Wikipedia - mine didn't turn out anywhere near
as good, and didn't do the scenery justice).

Olive grove Sunday

debwesterberg@gmail.com (Deb) — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 11:55:00 +0000

Last Sunday – grapes. This Sunday afternoon a visit to a small olive grove that belongs to friends Denis and Samira.

Just on the edge of the village, in the middle of a field down near the river. Idyllic – warm autumn afternoon – a bit of a lay-about in the hammock.

They’re busy clearing the undergrowth from around the bases of the olive trees – and because I wasn’t wearing suitable clothing, I was excused from helping with the work (!) but it was an excuse for us sit around for a while and chat – and watch the little stray kitten that seems to have adopted them.

Denis has constructed a small shack there amongst the olive trees – with all the comforts you could possibly want. The hammock, bbq, swing seat, and upstairs a little living area.

It’s their little ‘getaway’ from the buzzing metropolis of Bize!

La Vendange 2009

debwesterberg@gmail.com (Deb) — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 09:32:00 +0000

Last Sunday it was all hands on deck to pick the grapes from Olivier’s few parcels of vines, just up behind the village. Well, all hands on deck was a group of about ten of us – and the reward afterwards was lunch!

Mid-way through the morning, a little break and energizing ‘pick-me-up’ - glass of rosé mixed with Olivier’s fig syrup.

Now of course, Olivier being half of the Olivier and Marie restaurant/wine shop Les Raisins de Soleil – and Olivier being the chef – the food and especially the barbecued chickens we had were just delicious.

The chickens were from Robert the village butcher, cooked on a spit over an open fire, stuffed with home made stuffing (some of the guys were relieved of grape picking duties early, and sent up the hill behind the vines to pick the wild rosemary and thyme ……. ), and basted throughout cooking with pig fat. They smelled divine while they were cooking and tasted just like chicken should.

It wasn’t too hard going at all – lots of banter between filling up the buckets, and always the gorgeous views. Mind you, we only picked for three hours.

Day after day after day would have been an entirely different story. We’d either tip the grapes straight into the back of the tractor, or Olivier would come running – ‘Porter!’ and we’d tip into his big back basket.

After lunch, Fred brought out his guitar and he and Marion provided us with a few tunes. This was the first time most of us had met Fred and Marion, and now know that they have a house here in the village – and spend their time between here and Sheffield in the UK. They’re a cabaret act - The Lovers.

So what a nice way to spend a Sunday ………

An update of Aston – the deed has been done (at the vets) – and he’s none the worse for wear because of it. He does look a little peeved in these photos, but the bucket has long gone and he’s back to his usual self!

And while this in no way makes me ‘French’ – it does go a little way to making me feel more settled here – not that I don’t already – my new French driving licence......

Vive la France!

Aston

debwesterberg@gmail.com (Deb) — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 15:18:00 +0000

…not Martin.

Aston – le chien!

The kids were promised a dog long ago. And he has arrived - in the form of Aston, a rescue dog from the pound in Montpellier.

He appears to be a bit of a mix of a Jack Russell, whippet and perhaps some other small breeds. The locals look at him and say knowingly, ‘ah oui, un ratier’ (terrier) - he certainly has that look about him.

Even I’m taken with him – he’s 2 years old, house-trained, cute as a button, really good with the kids and is revelling in all the attention he’s getting!

Mind you, at the moment he is ‘entire’ – pretty well the norm here in France for boy dogs. So he is a bit prickly around some other dogs at the moment – but that should change after a soon-to-be-arranged visit to the vet.

So unless he acts real fast, he won’t be adding to the canine gene pool in Bize!

Given that we’re in the middle of a heat-wave here, we’ve been spending quite a bit of time at the river.

Now it would appear that Aston has not had a lot to do with water before – we’re thinking he’s been a city dog all his short life – and he’s certainly not taking to it like the proverbial duck. Think ‘wuss’.

He much prefers being carried …

Or keeping his feet dry ..

And when he’s put in the water, he heads straight for the bank.

Perhaps by next summer ….

97: Hot time in the old town . . . .

debwesterberg@gmail.com (Deb) — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 19:47:00 +0000

….. last night.

It was the annual Olive Festival – Fête de l'Olivier à Bize Minervois 2009! How quickly it seems to have come around again. And the crowds came again in huge numbers. It was a very social time in the village – and our evening didn’t wind up until very late.

We did give Nic and Duff’s house a test for the evening – given that the bands set up directly outside the windows! They’re pretty sure that next year, they’ll be making plans to spend these nights away ….

A selection of photos and videos from the day – most of them from either the roof terrace or one of the windows …. Things look quite different from this perspective!

The aioli-making competition

The roof tops / view from the roof terrace

Fireworks viewed from the roof terrace (a little weeding to be done…)

The band that played until 2am!

Banner in the small square in front of the church
(where all the wine producers set up their stalls)

Speaking of wine producers – here are Vincent and Brigitte Enaud who have the domain Monastrel right here in Bize. And here’s something funny – the bottle of rose that Brigitte is holding is from the vintage that we did a bit of grape picking for last year.

So we may have picked the very grapes that are in this bottle! Regardless, we took some home and would like to think they’re ‘our’ grapes we’ll be drinking!

96: A moving experience

debwesterberg@gmail.com (Deb) — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 12:14:00 +0000

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

debwesterberg@gmail.com (Deb) — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 11:36:00 +0000

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

debwesterberg@gmail.com (Deb) — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 11:10:00 +0000

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

debwesterberg@gmail.com (Deb) — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 12:57:00 +0000

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!

_________________________________

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.

______________________________________________

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

debwesterberg@gmail.com (Deb) — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 11:20:00 +0000

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.

_______________________

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

debwesterberg@gmail.com (Deb) — Sun, 24 May 2009 19:23:00 +0000

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.

90: Back in France

debwesterberg@gmail.com (Deb) — Sun, 24 May 2009 18:42:00 +0000

It seems an age that I was away - but I got everything done that I set out to do. It was a very busy but productive time. I had hoped the weather would have been mild Perth autumn weather but no, all sorts of records were broken for that time of year, and cool it was not.

Anyway, my 8 weeks away was not all work - I managed to catch up with friends and family again which was great. This time I didn't take many photos or do any posting - but I did take a couple of video clips.

One day, unexpectly found a street festival happening in Fremantle - and got to see Lucky Diamond Rich - the world's most tattooed man who it seems now lives in Perth - doing a street performance ....... bizarre but entertaining!

.......... and then staying in Mandurah for a night with friends, found a Karaoke Championship happening in the pub next to the restaurant we had dinner in. So of course after dinner, we had to wander in for a look - and need I say how much fun this was!

I came back via Brisbane, to catch up with two very dear friends Marshall and Cameron, and managed to play the part of a tourist for a couple of days. I've only ever passed through Brisbane very briefly, a long time ago, and I must say it's a beautiful city. We had lunch at a lovely cafe up in the mountains behind Brisbane, on the aptly named Mount Glorious.

And here, I must admit, I did prompt them to introduce themselves (Marshall in his best French!)...

One of several out-takes ........

However I have to say how nice it was to arrive back here in France. My garden has come on a treat, the goldfish are doing well - though the warmer weather has caused an algal bloom, so things in that department are a little 'pea-soupy' at the moment.

The two tadpoles from the river are developing little legs. The idea (wishful thinking as it has turned out) was that I would have a colony of nice frogs in the garden.

Sadly, they're the ugliest and lumpiest tadpoles I've seen and I strongly suspect that they're soon going to turn into the rather unattractive toads that live in the vineyards!

So I'm thinking that they're probably going to find themselves back down at the river before they make a break for it out of the pond.....

Sage and Indigo are really enjoying life in the village lately - things are definitely looking up.

They have a freedom here that they've never really had before - they're safe playing out in the village and down by the river at all hours of the day - they ride their bikes everywhere and have made some nice friends here.

And speaking of kids on bikes - they've discovered a 'fun thing' to do - to make their bikes sound exactly like motorbikes. Nothing scientific here - but extremely effective.

Sage accidentally discovered this when she ran over an empty drink can and it got stuck on her wheel. And now they're all doing it......!

89: Aligot

debwesterberg@gmail.com (Deb) — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 06:27:00 +0000

And yes, another 'foodie' article - but this one was a little different. Nic, Duff and I went with friends Bonnie and Terry to an aligot evening in Agel.

Agel is a pretty village about 6 kilometres from here, and this is where Terry and Bonnie live - and they kindly arranged tickets for us for the evening. It's held every year in this village and tickets are sought after!

Aligot is basically a mixture of mashed potatoes and cheese, mixed until it's very elastic. On the evening, it was definitely made in bulk, by a specialist who took great pride in his work and was rewarded by lots of applause as he demonstrated its 'stretchability' - the sign of a successful aligot!

Now, we did not eat aligot alone. Oh no, this was a feast of local fare indeed. It was accompanied by Confit de Canard - and served by the man who raised and prepared the ducks himself.

Served at the table from rather large containers!

Need I say ' delicious' - also I must say - mercy! they forewent the cheese course.

An instance where it's perfectly

acceptable to play with your food....

It makes me laugh looking back on these photos - I cannot imagine anything like this in Australia - the food police (Health & Safety) would have a field day. Here it's par for the course to have food served like this at village functions.

Between courses there was dancing - a pause between courses is definitely required. And towards the end of the evening, something that I've seen at several other events - is where people sit on the floor and 'row' and then pass a willing participant (in this case an elegant - and perhaps not so willing - woman) backwards over their heads.

However, both Duff and Terry were most definitely willing!

There was [groan.....] yet another function in Bize a few weeks ago. And this one was for a very worthy cause indeed.

On Christmas eve, the village bakery suffered a bad fire. The bread ovens were destroyed and most of the building and upstairs living accommodation of the building was uninhabitable.

So not only was it a disaster for the baker and his young family, but also for the village, having to have bread brought in from another village (quelle horreur!). The repairs are only now being carried out.

So, there was a fundraising lunch, together with raffles - to help the family. Nearly 6000 Euros was raised and the turnout on the day was phenomenal. I've never seen the village hall packed so tight with tables. And all for only 15 euros a head - I think people would happily have paid more.

However it was a great result for the baker - who was so overcome he couldn't speak and his wife had to say a few words. What a lovely village this is - I'm sure the other villages have much the same community spirit - but this is the one I live in and I love it.

And to get away from the food theme - the recent strikes in France.

Thurday 19th was a national strike day here. Sarkozy's popularity seems to be on a definite slide downwards.

And the strike ...? To quote an article on the internet:

"What were they demonstrating about? Everything, as goes the cliche? Not quite. The French weren't protesting at the recession, they know very well that it is already and will soon be affecting almost everybody, everywhere. They were instead focusing their anger at the way Nicolas Sarkozy is dealing with the recession, pressing ahead with ill-advised, rushed and often ultra-liberal reforms that go against the course of history (less regulation, more privatisation), while favouring the richest with a fiscal bonus that has so far showed no sign of helping the economy as a whole and has increased an already abyssal public deficit. As for his most un-presidential style, it crowns their discontent. Yesterday showed in substance another massive anti-Sarkozy protest, and the latest poll suggests that the feeling is shared by 75% of the French."

And inadvertently, I found myself in the midst of it. I had an appointment in Carcassonne at 4pm on Thursday, and had forgotten completely that it was the day of the strikes. I ended up in downtown Carcassonne well and truly caught up in the parade. I nearly made it through before a gendarme put his hand up to stop traffic. Hence, I was the first car in a very long line of traffic - and had the front view of the entire parade.

And there were thousands. It took over half an hour for it to pass by, and I ended up being 45 minutes late for my appointment.

This will be my last post in France for a couple of months. I am heading back to Australia in a few days as I have a few things to attend to there. Well, one thing really - I'm selling my house there, for various reasons. And it's had tenants in it for some time, it's become rather run down and the garden is in bad shape.

The truth is that I'd much rather be here right now - the weather is warming up and things are starting to green up and look beautiful around the countryside - my garden here is happening too. And I'm happy here at the moment. I loved being back in Australia in the new year and catching up with family and friends but right now, it's here that I want to be. And of course it's not to say that it won't be nice to be back in Oz again - I have a wedding to attend on my arrival that I'm looking forward to.

But basically, while I'm there I will move back into the house, paint all the interior walls and ceilings and do whatever DIY I can and get the garden back into some sort of shape. I suspect it will be mainly pruning and tidying as it's autumn there now and not the best time to be putting in new plants. Thank goodness it's not the height of summer!

And finally, the English lessons are still going well - in my absence, Nic is taking over. The 'students' are really keen and it's good to keep the momentum going. I'm still thoroughly enjoying it too - and so are they. Last week I was presented with a lovely bunch of mimosa - gorgeous.

88: Carnival Bize Minervois 2009

debwesterberg@gmail.com (Deb) — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 15:56:00 +0000

Yes, it's that time of year again – many villages, many festivals. And our very own annual cavalcade here in Bize. And for the second year, I was involved in the Troisieme Age float.

The theme this year was 'All the World' – easy for costumes! I returned from Australia to find out I was to be 'un homme Mexicain' – and so out came the needle and threads to put together a poncho of sorts............

et …. VOILA!

(avec mono-brow.....)

And lots of other floats and costumes - identities of some obvious - some not so.

Oh, and last week, the annual Maire's lunch and afternoon entertainment for the over-50s of the village ….. always a good show. I was a little lax on the day in the photo/video department (obviously giving my full attention to the five courses). But I did manage to get a few clips:

However, Margaret's given the event a good coverage in her blog, and more can be read and seen here!

Oh, and for the three days of the carnival, the boules ground was turned into a fairground. For the first time, the kids tried the dodgem cars – after that, it was hard to get them off.

- - - - - - - -

I have another little project under way. Late last year, I was having French / English conversations with someone in the village, but that seems to have fallen by the wayside.

I happened to mention this to some friends in the troisieme age walking group before Christmas, and immediately interest was shown by a few people in having conversation classes with me.

Which was great. But …….. it threatened to become bigger than Ben Hur!

In no time at all, I had people saying they would like to participate, and Claude was offering me a choice of rooms in the clubhouse to run English lessons!

I panicked a little and said I need to start off slowly, and in my own house.

And that's exactly what I've been doing.

Just a small group, and with the help of a CD, we're going great guns. And it's certainly mutually beneficial – I'm getting a lot out of it.

I try to explain things in French (can you imagine!) - and that in itself leads to me being constantly corrected by native speakers. Fantastic. And it's such fun that although I thought we'd start out with half hour lessons, each time we've gone on for an hour and a half.

Here's hoping they continue …

87: Down Under II

debwesterberg@gmail.com (Deb) — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 14:13:00 +0000

A belated post, having been back in France for a few weeks now …. but better late than never….

One of the days in Perth, there was a bush fire in Kings Park, right at the edge of down-town Perth. Obviously nothing in comparison to the dreadful fires in Victoria that have occurred since, but it did burn a considerable amount of the park, and ironically – also thought to be the work of an arsonist. And from the balcony of the apartment, a bird’s eye view.

And these two photos show of a complete change of wind direction in a fairly short period of time.

I was also there for the first time in about ten years for Australia Day (26th January). Before it got dark, there were fly-overs from groups of planes and also a huge flag being flown all over the metro area by a helicopter.

A good day – followed by a BBQ on the balcony, watching the fireworks down at the river.

And I also did a (slower) trip down south – catching up with people – and also making a day trip to Cheyne Beach (56 kilometres east of Albany).

This is where we grew up as kids and where spent a lot of our holidays and weekends later – Dad was a professional fisherman all his life.

The house where we grew up

And although there was seaweed in the water and quite a bit washed up on the beach on the day we visited, it’s still as beautiful as ever.

And back in Albany – down to Emu Point to watch the pelicans getting a free feed:

Paul sometimes takes one of his bikes out to the Barbagello Race Track north of Perth to do laps. He doesn’t do the competitive racing (yet) – just joins other groups in doing timed laps. Basically, they get to go around the track very fast! – in a controlled environment.

I was nervous just watching – but at least they have all the protective gear and other safeguards in place. So I guess they’re as safe as they can be. And at least there’s not vehicle traffic to contend with here.

Having come from the winter vineyards of the Languedoc, it was interesting seeing all the vineyards in full leaf, and laden with grapes.

As good as it was to be back in Australia, I was looking forward to getting back ‘home’ to my own place. I arrived back to really cold weather but some beautiful clear blue skies. Bliss.

The goldfish in the pond are doing fine – although they’re definitely sluggish. They seem to have shut down somewhat for the winter. And while the water didn’t freeze because of the filter keeping the water moving, it’s frigid.

My garden did really well during the snow and freezing weather around Christmas – I haven’t lost a thing. However, back in November, I thought I should perhaps bring my hibiscus indoors.

Before, it looked like this:

After a week or so of being INdoors, it looked like this:

And then a French friend told me it should be outdoors and would survive the winter. So that’s where I put it. And now it looks like this!

However, it’s not dead – and I have great hopes for a good revival, especially now that the weather seems to be becoming a bit milder. Some of the trees are even budding and there are already blossoms on some of the fruit trees.

Roll on spring!

86: Notes from Down Under

debwesterberg@gmail.com (Deb) — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 08:09:00 +0000

It's been beaut being back here and catching up with friends and family. It's been two years and I'm really noticing the development and changes that have been happening in Perth. It's certainly been a boom town (up until recently!), mostly owing to the overseas demand for the State's mineral, and Perth's gone ahead in leaps and bounds. Still as beautiful as I remember it.

Although I am struggling with the heat - there's been somewhat of a heatwave happening here the last two weeks. I have been following closely the weather conditions in France, and indeed the rest of Europe, and there've been times when I've been a little envious of the cold.

While I'm in Perth, I'm staying mainly in a lovely apartment where Paul (my son) and Hunna are living with gorgeous views across the Swan River towards Perth. Paul is now the proud owner of not one, but two motorbikes, plus THE yellow car (more of that later). And not long after arriving, I went for a ride (pillion) on the yellow bike.

Let's just say it was hot, and my old knees suffered from being scrunched up and not being able to stretch out, and I was a little nervous! But a quick spin around Kings Park and taking in the views was worth it.

I used to sometimes ride a (very much smaller) motorbike many many moons ago - unlicensed and only off-road - and I have to say that I much prefer that to being a pillion passenger. In fact we still laugh about it – when Paul was little, I used to take him sitting on the petrol tank in front of me!

Things are now the other way around – he takes me. Though I don't sit on the petrol tank!

I've been up and down the coast around Perth, taking in all the new developments happening in the seaside suburbs. A couple of times, went to a lovely cafe overlooking Cottesloe Beach.

Sadly there was a fatal shark attack at a beach not far from there, the day after boxing day, and since then there have been numerous shark sightings in the vicinity. White pointers (great whites) are a protected species – and unless they're proved to be a menace, they cannot be killed. The family of the shark attack victim did not want this shark hunted down.

There have been constant sightings of sharks since then, and barely a day goes by without reports from different beaches. One of the days we were there, another one was sighted not far offshore from the cafe, as were sitting on the balcony. Three helicopters headed to where it was, hovered over it until the shark watch boat arrived to try to herd it out to sea.

I caught up with my old friend Sue who is back in Australia temporarily from Bulgaria and working at the ABC (Radio) in Geraldton. And that's where I've just been for the last week. What an adventurous five days that's been.

Pit stop - Caterby Roadhouse

Paul kindly put my name on the insurance policy for his car, so this is what Thelma and Louis headed up the west coast in.

Admittedly I did have to have a few test drives with him, six gears, dash board like a Boeing 747 and more horses under bonnet than I've ever dealt with.

And very expensive wheels that under threat of death I wasn't to crush up against the kerbs. Hence, we nearly found it necessary to take a cab to the kerb when I parked up.

It's a HSV SV6000 – and let me say that when overtaking cars and road trains on those long long stretches of open road between Perth and Geraldton, it goes like the proverbial off a shovel.

We SHOULD have made really good time on the trip north, but the GPS let us down in a new suburb of Perth that neither of us was familiar with, and we spent a half hour going around in circles.

Finally we asked someone who said that GPS systems lost the signal in this area, and we had to get directions to the Brand Highway the old fashioned way. And then of course any 'street cred' us two old girls in the sporty car thought we may have had, went right out the window.

Anyway, we made it and had a great time catching up and for the first time in a long while. And for a change, it was me being shown around as a tourist - very different from my last two years in France!

I've only passed through Geraldton once before, and know nothing of the area.It's one of the windiest places I've ever been too, and it apparently is like this pretty much all year round. And proof of the incessant winds are the bent trees all over the place -

Downtown Geraldton - a street tree on such a lean
that it's growing under the powerlines....

The coastline is beautiful, there are miles and miles of white beaches – and some literally metres from the centre of town. It's a very progressive town and it's looking good. Main industry has always been crayfishing (western rock lobster), sheep,cattle, wheat, but now it's also mining, tourism. Also, olive groves are springing up in the region, albeit all the trees have a definite slant to them!

The countryside is fairly flat - large paddocks, sand dunes near the coast and some rolling hills. Sue took me to Ellendale Pool, which is a little gem. It's a little gorge and swimming pool, more like you'd find further north at Kalbarri.

And if you felt you'd be better off swimming in a fresh-water environment, after all the shark scares in the ocean, there's this to consider!

And the highlight of my stay in Geraldton? Well, we decided to give ourselves a Christmas present – a half day plane trip out to the Abrolhos Islands, landing on one of the islands and time for a bit of snorkelling on the reefs. What an fantastic experience that was.

Not a road - the airstrip

And we had company in the form of a sea eagle that kept doing fly-bys and checking us out.

The islands are low-lying atolls spread roughly north to south for about 100 kilometres, and about 50 kilometres off the coast in the Indian Ocean. Because of all the reefs surrounding the islands, there have been numerous shipwrecks over the years.

The whole of the region on the mainland north and south of Geraldton is called The Batavia Coast because of the famous shipwreck of the Batavia and the mutiny that followed. Such an interesting (and rather gruesome) story.

These days some of the islands have fishermen's huts on them, and are occupied for about 3 months of the year during the crayfishing (rock lobster) season. And as our pilot pointed out – he figures that it's the wives of the fishermen who have brightened things up a bit with the different colours of paint!

And how good was this - after snorkling, fruit, sandwiches and coffee were served by our multi-tasking pilot on the guano-covered jetty - while being paid close attention by the sea eagle!

There was a slight downside to the end of my trip though. The yellow car got away from me a little on the return trip to Perth and I ended up with a rather expensive speeding ticket. All that power under the bonnet and such long open roads – the temptation proved a little too much and I am now paying dearly. Oops.

It will definitely be a slower ride for my next trip – down south to my home town of Albany, staying with Col and Hass (who visited me in France recently – previously featured here doing a little grape picking) and other family and friends.

Je vais conduire plus lentement!

85: Noël en France

debwesterberg@gmail.com (Deb) — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 10:26:00 +0000

Bize-Minervois is gearing up for Christmas - this year the decorations seem to be a little sparce. I think perhaps it's because the village is so pretty, not many decorations are needed!

The other night Indigo and two school friends, India and Elisa, decided to do some carolling - sadly my camera battery went flat but I managed get these ....

Outside Chez Robert, the butcher,
who in fact has gone to quite a bit of trouble
with his Christmas decorations!

And a little video clip, including a fit of the giggles when they recognised someone!

There have been Christmas markets in many of the villages - Bize had a small market / vide grenier last week. There was a stall selling dried meats and sausages - with an interesting marketing ploy - the vendor admitted that lots of people stopped to enquire! It translates literally as 'the cousin's loaves' but in fact means the cousin's boobs .....

The main square in Narbonne is always decorated beautifully at this time of year - this year they've erected a temporary ice skating rink directly over top of the old Roman road, Via Domitia, in front of the Archbishop's palace.

We had the Christmas lunch with the village walking group the other day - in the new restaurant La Grange which has opened on the outskirts of the village.

It's a lovely new building and a good time was had by all, and there were even gifts for everyone. Such a lot of people - it seemed that it needed four Santas to give them out.

And then of course, a little stage show - these folk really love to dress up. And some of the men - like blokes everywhere - really don't mind slipping into a frock when the occasion calls for it!

Unlike me (known far and wide as Bah Humbug), Nic actually has put up a tree and decorations in the lounge room. And the kids are so looking forward to their first Christmas in France. They're definitely on count-down to present-opening time....

The Sibanda family: Indigo, Sage and Julia .....

84: Wine tasting Westerberg-style

debwesterberg@gmail.com (Deb) — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 09:31:00 +0000

And here's a little story I wasn't going to write up, but a friend (thanks Mags ....) has insisted I must relate it .....

A few weeks ago now, Nic and I were talking to Claude, a friend and resident of Bize, about different wine domains in the area. He recommended one we should visit, about 20 minutes from here (and I'm certainly not naming it or saying exactly where it is...).

He wrote out the vigneron's name, address, directions, and the name and year of the wine we should ask to taste.

We found the little hamlet, no worries, and saw a sign on the big door of a wine cave - in French and English - saying if it was unattended, we should enquire at the house.

Now we'd passed this house about 50 metres back, and saw a wine sign outside of it. So we parked, walked back down to the house and knocked on the door.

A teenage boy answered, and I told him in my stumbling French that we'd like to taste some wine.

He looked a little puzzled, so I repeated myself.

"Now?" he asked.

"Oui, merci", I replied......

He looked a little flustered. At this stage the three of us were standing in the hallway of the house. He spoke to his three teenage friends who were sitting on the sofa watching a DVD, which our arrival had obviously interrupted.

They turned the DVD off, got up and left the room, and the young boy started removing all the folded up laundry from the dining room table and the back of chairs.

I think his friends had been despatched to find some wine.

It was about then that I had this awful moment of doubt - things didn't seem right!

In fact, we were both beginning to realise that perhaps we'd invited ourselves into someone's home and asked to drink their wine!

Deargod .... we had.

I brought out Claude's hand-written note, and showed it to him, and sure enough, he confirmed that we were in the wrong place. It was about 100 metres away!

It was just one of those awful moments when you think - this cannot be happening. Surely we haven't made this awful mistake. But we had.

My voice was very squeaky (read 'verging on hysteria') as I struggled to apologise profusely. And we made our exit - with no dignity whatsoever.

But this certainly says a lot about the amazing French hospitality .... I'm not sure I can imagine that happening in many other places!

But later, to make matters worse, when we finally arrived at the correct establishment we were told that the vigneron had recently been taken to hospital and so we weren't able to taste or buy any wine anyway. And no, we've not yet been back - but definitely will. Because of course, we know exactly where to go now!

Jeez, an experience like that's nearly enough to make a person leave the country!

And in fact I am - but only temporarily. I'm very excited to say that I'm heading back to Australia on Christmas Eve for about five weeks. Christmas Day at Singapore Airport (!) arriving into Perth on Boxing Day afternoon. It will be two years since I was there last, and I'm very much looking forward to catching up with family and friends.

Anyone up for a bit of wine tasting with me in Western Australia......?