Southern France 1 (Apr 16 - Apr 28)

Bonjour - on Apr 16 we flew with Ryanair (well-known European discount carrier) from London to Perpignan in the south of France. We rented a small car, re-adjusted ourselves to drive again on the right side of the road (after 2 months of driving on the left side in the UK and NZ), and then drove about an hour and a half to the small village of Villelongue dels-Monts, where we are pet and housesitting for a month. The homeowners, Erik and Anette (E & A) were originally from Norway and Austria, then lived in Denmark and Spain before moving to France about 20 years ago. They are a lovely couple who, like most Europeans we seem to meet, are multi-lingual including having an excellent command of English. They own a large house with a pool situated on an acreage that has vineyards and olive orchards on either side of their property. Their pets include 3 dogs, 6 chickens and about 10 semi-wild cats. Across the road from the property, where we walk Loupy (they took the 2 younger dogs with them) you can see the Pyrenees mountains, which this early in spring are still snow-covered.

E & A hosted us for supper and breakfast the next morning and gave us a glimpse into the importance the French put into enjoying good food and wine. They typically eat 2 meals a day, a large late morning breakfast and then a large evening meal. Before they left on their trip, they left us with maps and guide books of the area and Erik graciously took a couple of hours to take us on a quick tour of several nearby villages. Wow, what another amazing location to discover and experience.

House we are taking care of in Southern France

Back veranda where we eat when the sun is shining

Summer kitchen where we eat when the sun isn't shining

Sitting, dining and TV room

Back porch

Betty, Bianca, Laura, Molly, Maggie and Rosie provide fresh eggs daily

Loupy - our affectionate companion

View of the Pyrenees from the path where we walk Loupy each day 

Spotted from our bedroom window

Sunset over the Pyrenees

Vineyards with the Mediterranean Sea in the background

Fortress in Collioure

Someone's creative Easter decorations - taken on Easter Sunday

"Picture in a picture" of fortress in Collioure

What became obvious to us very quickly was that we could not assume that people would be able to communicate with us in English. For example, on the way from the airport to the house, we stopped to ask a man for directions and discovered that he had no knowledge of English. This should not have surprised us but made us realize that we need to learn some basic French ASAP. Olive is doing her best to try to remember any French from her early schooling days, we are both trying to figure out if we can use any words from a French song or two that we heard in the past (remember "Frere Jacques" and the lyrics in the song "Voulez-vous coucher avec moi, ce soir" - wow, good thing I looked this up before trying it out on someone!) and, we are trying to see how much French we know simply from reading the dual labeling of all products in Canada!

Now that we have been here for almost 2 weeks and have gone shopping several times, we are pleased that we have managed pretty well with very limited French. Fortunately, we have met people who have some English and the language translation app on our cellphone has helped.

Here's a few things we have experienced/enjoyed so far:

• visiting the farmers market held on Saturdays at the nearby village of Ceret. All the central streets are closed off to vehicle traffic and stalls are erected that offer all kinds of foods, wines, juices, arts and crafts, jewelery, plants and more.
• exploring a village on the Mediterranean called Collioure. There are several fortresses here including one still in use by the French military.
• wandering around another small village called Laroque des Alberes. This village  has an underground spring from where E & A get their drinking water.
• the peace and quiet of the property we are staying at. It is somewhat isolated as we are told the French tend to live in community in the villages, not on their farms so although there are neighbours, we hardly see them.
• the wines - available in grocery stores here, you can pick up a bottle of wine starting at around $5 and for $15 you get a really good bottle of wine!
• the breads and pasteries - we bought a cream-filled cake for Olive's birthday and have tried several different breads.
• the cheeses (the farmers market allows you to sample cheeses & sausages).
• being "settled" in one place for a longer period so that Olive can focus again on her writing.
• hearing the church bells from churches in 2 nearby villages on the hour and half hour.

Our plan is to stay here until May 15, then to catch a train to Barcelona.