France, Summer 2010: Week 5

Sunday 27 June - Saturday 3 July

On the Sunday we went to Sérignan Plage, most of the day, taking our lunch with us, although it was lunch time when we got there.  We left the beach at 6 pm.  Unfortunately so did everybody else because it went a bit cloudy, so it took quite a while to get away from that area.  Delia drove there for practice and Roger drove back.

After our day out we stayed in mostly for the next three days.  The hot weather seems to have set in.  On Monday Delia did a lot of cooking and food preparation.  We did  a bit of washing.  Delia went to the library to get some more books whilst she could.  It was Bérénice's last day and she was running her sewing class.  We ate early so we could go to an "end of term" show put on by the "Claquettes", a tap-dancing class.  Angela from Roujan, who comes to the Neffiès French group, is in this.  It was very short (30 minutes) then some of the audience were invited to have a go.  Afterwards there were drinks and nibbles outside.  Very hot still.

On Tuesday Delia spent some time fighting with the EDF website and I wrote up our diary blog and this weekly one.  Roger is also reading La Vie Outre-Manche.  It was Delia's French lesson at 4.15, then we had early dinner on the terrace.  After that we went for a little walk, along the Fontès road, down to the frog pond after a diversion to see where it goes if you keep straight on instead of turning to cross the stream.  Then past the mill and back home via the Caylus road.

We stayed at home on Wednesday, another hot one.  In the early evening Delia went to a "spectacle" at La Place de la Chapelle, basically a man and a woman telling stories aimed at the children - very well done and followed by free drinks and nibbles, ie "appero".  There was also a presentation to Bérénice.

Then we had a fairly quick dinner and a walk: along the Fontès road and to the frog pond again, then right at the farmers' road, across the Caux road and through the vineyards a bit before coming back into Neffiès opposite the Cave Cooperative.  We saw lots of snails at dusk (it had rained a little before the spectacle) and some strange insects a bit like small frogs.  The sky was some amazing colours, from a beautiful deep blue to light blue with pink tinges.  The hills look lovely too, in the pinkish evening light.

Thursday was another beach day, Serignan Plage again.  On the way (via Pézenas as is usual now) we went to the Carrefour supermarket at Pézenas, on Avenue de Verdun.  We needed some light bulbs and something to kill the paper wasps nesting above our terrace amongst other things.  The wasps build a beautiful nest, with open hexagonal compartments like a honeycomb.

They're not agressive but do sting if provoked so it's recommended that you get rid of a nest if it's near where people go.  And this nest was under the eaves above the doorway to the terrace.

We also bought a nice little suit as a present for Max, Michael & Becky's baby; and a spring stopper to keep champagne / fizzy wine fizzy.  On the way back from the beach we stopped at the Intermarché and bought things that would have died if we'd bought them in the morning and left them in the car all day.

Squirting the wasps' nest with the insectiside at dusk worked like magic; if you squirt it on lintels and around doors and things it's supposed to discourage insects from even coming near.  We shall see.

During the day on the Friday Delia got dinner sorted (carbonnade Nîmoise).  We also started a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) of what we're going to do with the rest of our lives.  Delia went to the Friday market, moved to Place de l'Ancien Couvent near the Mairie because of a disco & food at Place Jean Jaurès.  After dinner we went for a walk, bumping into Marie from next door on the way, who said were we going to the "spectacle" tomorrow (Saturday) to see the dancing girls.  She said we didn't have to go to the meal.

The walk was Chemin de la Marelle, Chemin des Geissières, left at the farm track near La Grange, along the Neffiès-Vailhan little road towards Neffiès, straight across the Neffiès-Roujan road, then through the vineyards to the old water mill and the Caylus road.  It was quite dark when we got back.

On Saturday, yet again, we did very little, staying at home reading, either a book or something to help with learning French.  Delia reads a book in French that does both, I read a book for fun and La Vie Outre-Manche to try to improve my vocabulary.  We had dinner early, about 7.00 pm, so that we could have a look at the "spectacle".  We might have done better to go to the meal as well, actually, it looked quite fun.  The show was very elaborately done, a minute stage but with all sorts of lighting and other effects and excellent sound.  There were even lasers.  So the wrapping was first class.  The content was girls singing or dancing or both, in some very good and elaborate costumes.  But the songs were either 1950s or sounded it and the girls' movements reminded me a bit of the Youth Club pantomime.  They simpered.  10 out of 10 for presentation but maybe only 3 for content.