Road Trip 1

At Les Embiez, blue water

We left home Friday morning, the 12th, and arrived in Six-Fours (Le Brusc) early enough to start the catch-up conversation right from shutting the car door. Early enough to get the things from the car before the evening storm hit. Early enough to enjoy a fresh soup that G. had made that afternoon along with a light cake that reminded me of angel-food cake in all but the form. The events in Algeria were the main topic and that led to nostalgia as we opened Google Earth to find the site of the demonstrations, these days, and where the apartment was and where the lycée was.
Saturday morning we went for a long walk from Le Brusc to Les Embiez and back to the beach and the still excellent Italian restaurant, La Spiaggia. From there, it was just as easy to walk back to the house as it was to go back to where the car was parked. It was a beautiful day; the water, every shade of blue.
Sunday, the four of us went over to C & Y's for a homemade couscous -- copious and good. We didn't get up from the table until 4 and didn't leave until almost 7. Catching up used to mean how's the health and what are the children up to. Now, we add what are the grandchildren up to, so it really takes time, but that's the fun conversation -- who's in her 4th year of medical studies, who's already a working engineer, who's liking dentistry; who's studying law and who, finance; who's becoming an aircraft technician and who's in IT --- and then, ours, who are still in nursery, primary, and middle school.

A bit of the garden with the
fish pond and waterfalls

We left on Monday morning to visit T, Paul's American friend from before my time, who lives in Avignon. That's where we usually visit her, but not this year. Her wonderful parents, whom we loved seeing when we visited her, died last year. T has bought a house in Le Vigan, in the Cevennes. It's well located and, for T, it's a fantastic find. It's a house with lots of rooms and even some vacation rental apartments. And the house has enough space for her Feldenkrais workshops. In addition to the house, there are 21 hectares of garden and forest. She's still in the process of getting everything to her taste.
Le Vigan used to be the silk capital of France. T's house is where they had the mulberry trees and they dried the cocoons. Across the road is the factory where they made the fabric. It's not a big town, but it's very much alive. The Cevennes mountains are also known for apples and chestnuts. We had lunch on Monday at a little bistro that was open and then went back to the house for the appointment with an ironsmith to discuss some of the work to be done. It was that evening that we turned on the TV to hear what President Macron had to say. Instead, we discovered Notre Dame in flames. When the studio journalist's questions to the on-site journalists became ridiculous, inciting speculation, and the images were repetitive, we turned it off.
On Tuesday, after dropping our car off at a local garage because one of the tires had lost a lot of air and we thought it might need replacing, T drove us around the countryside. However, we ended up back in Le Vigan for an excellent lunch at La Lusette. Frankly, this is within walking distance from the house! At the end of the afternoon, we went back to the garage, where the mechanic informed us the tire was fine; the problem was in the valve. He charged only €10 for the time he spent taking the tire off, testing it, and putting it back. Then, we spent some more time discussing what car T should buy -- one that would not grate every pothole and would be easy to repair - a Dacia.