It doesn’t seem two weeks ago that it was impossible to drive along our road because of the snow. It was beautiful to see the countryside covered in a white blanket but it was treacherous to walk on. Our two kittens loved it, Bruno in particular. They chased the snowflakes and ploughed the snow into snowballs.

As our cats love climbing, we had a dilemma this year whether to buy a real Christmas tree or an artificial one. We opted for the latter and it was probably a good choice as we have had to retrieve Bruno from the top many times. He has even taken a liking to chewing the fairy lights!

Christmas has been busy with the usual Christmas preparations, parties and apéros. Our daughter Sally was able to join us for a few days at Christmas as Duncan was away with his regiment.

Carcassonne has again been holding La Magie de Noël. Since we have been here we have never ventured on the Grande Roue. As Sunday was such a glorious day, we decided to give it a go. It was absolutely fantastic. We could see the snow covered Pyrenees in the distance and the castle walls of the Cité.

2009 is finally coming to an end. We have had another lovely year in France. I hope that 2010 holds as much excitement, the highlight of which will be Sally and Duncan’s wedding in the summer.


I would like to wish everyone a very happy, healthy and prosperous New Year! May 2010 be a good one.

The Hand of Henry

You may find this amusing and addictive.

One Hundred and Eighty!

Friday night is Flechettes night!

Since la Rentrée, we have gathered in the bowels of the foyer at 8:30 ready for a 9 o’clock start. The evening consists of 4 games of 501. The winner gets 4 points, 2nd place gets 3 points , 3rd gets 2 points and 1 point for 4th place. (Fortunately we don’t have to finish with a double otherwise we would be there all night!) This season there have been prizes donated by members of the group. There have been a variety so far ranging from home-made sanglier pate, a pizza from the van that comes to the village on a Friday night and last night the prizes were a bottle of sparkling wine for the person who came second and a bag of escargots as first prize. The amusing thing was that we had seen the man who had given the snails, collecting them in the lanes earlier in the week. I enjoy the snails that I buy from the shops, though I am not so sure I would be quite so confident cooking and eating ones gathered from the hedgerows. Anyhow, we didn't win but I must look out for a recipe just in case.

St Bruno's Day

Today is St Bruno’s day and this gives me an very good excuse to show off our new kittens Bruno and Mimi.

Unfortunately we had to have our 12 year old cat put to sleep last month as she was suffering from a liver infection. Since then, the house had not been the same, so when the Carcassonne S.P.A. had an open day on Sunday, we decided to go and see if they had any kittens. We fell in love with them as soon as we saw them.

I had really forgoten how time-consuming (and adorable) kittens can be.

Wine Tasting

We have just returned from a very pleasant afternoon sampling wines at Château de Cointes - one of our local vineyards

As we tasted a wide range of wines under the large pine trees, we were entertained by Jeff’H, who played a variety of Rock, Blues and Country music. It was a lovely setting with views over the vineyards and the Malepère Hills. Needless to say, the wine we liked the best was the most expensive!

Fête Locale

The lorries and trailers that were here for the Fête Locale this week have finally left Arzens. The stage has been dismantled and everyone is getting ready for the Rentrée and vendange.

The fête ran its usual course. On Saturday we went to the repas at the Arzenais, which was Paëlla. It was lovely to meet 2 Irish families who were staying in the village and were taking part in the village activities.

Over the four evenings there were a variety of groups which followed meals or tapas at the Arzenais and apéros in front of the foyer. If you didn’t feel inspired to dance, you could go on the dodgems or any of the other attractions that were on the road.

On Sunday, members of the Comité des Fête came round the houses giving out plants. We were entertained by a piano-accordionist who played a melody of tunes. As soon as he realized we were English, he played ‘God save Our Gracious Queen’!

***************

The other evening, as we were getting ready for bed, we noticed that a scorpion had walked into the dining-room. We managed to put the offending beastie in a glass and took it down the road. Our reference books told us that scorpions here are not dangerous to humans, but we weren’t going to take any chances.

Summer Storms

Yesterday the weather was amazingly hot, 34 degrees! It was lovely sitting by the pool doing crosswords, Sudokus and reading my book then dipping into the water to cool off. We ate dinner outside and just before bed had a lovely refreshing swim. As we swam the most amazing full moon appeared. According to the forecast, we were to have a clear night and the same weather today – no, (we should know the France météo forecasts by now). At 3 o’clock we could hear the distant rumble of thunder over the mountains. Gradually the thunder and lightening grew closer until it was right overhead. The noise was incredible. Once the storm had blown over, the rain arrived. Fortunately it didn’t last long and we were able to get back to sleep.

Summer in the South of France

This is a photograph of the field opposite our house. To me, sunflowers are synonymous with Summer in the south of France.

The Tour 2009

Thézan des Corbières was our closest place to watch Stage 5 of the Tour de France. We took out friends Von (who had never seen it before) and Mark. The day ran true to form (see my blog this time last year). The caravan came through throwing the usual goodies and then an hour later came the riders. Six cyclists were ahead of the peloton who all rushed past in a large group. I was amazed how close they were to us.

Mark Cavendish in the green jersey and Fabian Cancellara in yellow

The only thing that was different this year was the troop of soldiers who had turned up. About 60 militaires with guns, stood at the side of the road watching the race. (We weren’t sure if they were there to protect Lance or take him out.) I am glad they weren’t there when the caravan came through as we wouldn’t have got anything!

Happy Birthday to the Cave La Malepère

It has been very interesting living in a village where most of the inhabitants are employed in the wine industry either the growing, making or selling of wine. Years ago wine was made by individual wine growers or small domains around the village but 60 years ago this all changed and the Co-operative, La Cave la Malepère was formed.

To celebrate this anniversary, the Cave had had an open day. All during the day, amongst many other attractions, there were donkey rides for the children, cart rides around the village, wine tasting (bien sûr), a vide grenier, old and new machinery and tours around the cave and the chai or wine storage. The latter was most interesting. One of the vignerons explained the stages of the making of the wine from the arrival of the grapes all the way though to the finished product.

Waiting for customers

Having a rest before finishing the ploughing between the vines

Casks full of the Révolution Cabardès Wine produced in Arzens

Like all good French events, it wasn't complete without food. There was a lunch for those who wanted at 12 o’clock. We decided to go to the evening repas, which as all meals we have been to in Arzens, was excellent. There were aperitifs before the meal then when the tables were ready everyone sat down to eat. It was lovely being out in the evening sunshine though the wind was quite chilling. The President gave a short speech about how the Co-operative was started, then the food was served. We had six courses washed down with some superb wines. Whilst we ate, we listened to a variety of singers including Geoffrey Not.

Our Own Springwatch

The hedges and trees around our garden provide homes for a variety of birds. We have found discarded egg shells on the ground which we think have been goldfinch and red-starts. For the last couple of days, as we have eaten in our dining-room, we have had the lovely spectacle of a couple of adult blue-tits feeding their five little babies. The parents bring the family to our palm trees and the fledglings sit dotted about on the tree. Mum and Dad collect the food from the fat balls or seed holders that are hanging on the tree then fly to the little ones.

The babies look so small and vulnerable.

An Exhausting Sunday

Sunday was quite a day for sport lovers!

England beat the West Indies the one day cricket match. Paul Casey won the PGA at Wentworth by one stroke. Andy Murray defeated Juan Chela at Roland Garros in Paris. The football Premier League finished its season with many happy and sad football fans around the country and Jensen Button won the Monaco Grand Prix. Our television remote control was getting quite hot with all the channel hopping.

One thing that we did do live was watch the end of the final stage of the Tour de l’Aude in Limoux. The speed that they all crossed the line was amazing. The German Claudia Hausler won the overall Tour and Nicole Cooke finished fifth. All the results can be found on the Tour de LAude site.

Les Estivales de la Malepère

For a small French village, Arzens is very active.

For the last 20 years, the village has held Les Estivales de la Malepère. This year it runs from 2nd until 12^th June and consists of a variety of deep, thought provoking lectures and discussions. On Sunday 7^th June there is a musical programme by the Chorale de la Malepère and a mixture of musical pieces by Henry and Marina.

Each lecture is free and begins at 21:00, except for Sunday 7^th June which starts at 16:00.

The full programme can be seen on Les Estivales web site.

Tour de L'Aude

For the last 10 days Aude has been hosting “La Tour de l’Aude Cycliste Féminin”. The 114 women started last Friday in Guissan and they have been progressing through the Département. Friday’s stage started in Saint-Hilaire and after 60 kilometers came through our village, Arzens, before cycling back into the Malepère hills. According to the timetable they were due to arrive at 15:43 but they were cycling so fast they came through 15 minutes ahead of schedule. Before they arrived, numerous gendarmes on motor bikes with sirens wailing and blue lights flashing, followed by press and support vehicles drove through the village. The speed they were travelling at was amazing. There had been an intermediate sprint in Arzens and the girls were cycling as fast as they could to score bonus time points in this section. As they crossed the sprint line, the British Olympic Champion Nicole Cooke was 3^rd.

After cycling another 40 kilometers, they finished in Montréal. The winner was the Dutch girl, Marianne Vos, who was riding for the DSB team.

Nicole Cooke was 6^th. Once everyone had crossed the line, shirts of a variety of colours and bunches of flowers, were given to the winning riders.

At the moment, the German, Claudia Hausler, riding for Cervelo Test Team is just over 2 minutes ahead of next rider.

Come on Nicole!

Three Little Maids From School

We have just had a lovely weekend entertaining our daughter Sally and two of her best friends, Cassie and Louisa from Aylesbury High School. It has been fun wining and dining them and tasting some of the potential local varieties that might be going to the UK for Sally and Duncan’s wedding next year. The weather on Saturday and Sunday were gorgeous and they all managed a very brief swim, even though the pool had only just reached 21 degrees.

A Change in the Weather

Five weeks ago I was lying on the lounger in the warm spring sunshine, looking at the dull winter cover on the pool. The next day, we rang M. Herbert and asked him to open the pool ready for the summer. The day he arrived it started raining and since then there haven’t been many days it hasn’t rained since!

Yesterday was Lundi de Pâques and the Randonneurs celebrated it with the usual repas. This year it was held in the Village foyer. It began with the customary apéros. Everyone brought entrées which were shared around. Following that, a variety of omelettes were distributed which had been made by the ‘older ladies’ of the club. It was a very lively occasion. By the time we left at 5 o’clock the sun was beginning to shine.

Because I am a rather “fair weather” walker, today was the first walk I had been on for four weeks. The sun was shinning and there was very little wind. It was a lovely afternoon. The ballade began in Montolieu and walked past the Chapelle de St Roch and then for a further 8 kilometres around the town. As we set off I heard my first cuckoo of the season. The walk was lovely. We saw lots of spring flowers, sanglier tracks, a small herd of goats eating the garrigue. There were even black kites (merlin noir) and hen harriers (Busard Saint-Martin) soaring in the sky.

It was a lovely walk and I hope that the weather we have had today is the start of more sunny days to come but looking at the météo for the next week, I am not quite so sure.

Picnics

As we are getting a bit older and having picnics sitting on the ground are not as comfortable as they used to be, so we decided to buy a collapsible picnic table. We have had nearly two weeks of beautiful blue skies with some daytime temperatures reaching 20 degrees, (which isn’t bad for the end of March) we thought we would make the most of the weather and take a picnic up to the Minervois.

We found a most fantastic spot. We sat looking at the snow-capped Pyrenees with only the sound of birds and insects and not a car engine to be heard. It was beautiful. After our lunch, we had a lovely walk around the area. There were some pretty miniature daffodils and orchids growing amongst the stones and rocks.

One thing that did amaze us was the amount of “tent caterpillars” or Les chenilles processionaires we saw in the pine trees. These web-like cocoons swinging from the tree tops are in fact caterpillar nests, constructed by the ‘chenille processionnaire’ larva which live in large "tents" and march out at night in single file (hence the name) to feed on the pine needles, leaving behind them a pheromone trail (a kind of chemical message), which enables them to find their way back to the nest after feeding.

When we first moved into our house, we had a couple of nests in our pine trees and were quite intrigued by the lines of caterpillars we saw walking across our garden. We now realize the risks that that carry. Quite apart from the damage caused to the trees, the caterpillars have fine hairs on their back containing a poison which causes severe irritation and dermatitis, and in some cases an allergic reaction (anaphylactic shock) to both humans and animals. Even after the caterpillar is dead, the hairs remain toxic. Take care when walking your dog in areas where the caterpillars may be, or have been. Initial symptoms to watch out for in your pet may include vomiting and tongue swelling.

As we were heading home, we saw a signpost for Curiosité de Lauriole. As we were curious we decided to follow the directions. We drove the road looking out for a geological site or religious monument – nothing! We even passed a car driving in the opposite direction obviously looking as well. When we got home we searched on the internet and found the answer. Apparently the road is an optical illusion - balls, bottles and cars will seem to travel UPHILL!. Even water, poured onto the road surface flows the wrong way! This has got us intrigued and the next time we are in the Minervois we will have a closer look.