First there are the daily chores of caring for someone else's home. Paul opens the pool cover each morning and closes it at nightfall so that it gains about one degree (Celsius, of course) per day. He also untangles the pool vacuum cord, pushes any detritis off the stairs where the vacuum cannot tread, and nets small leaves and bugs. He pushes a button each night to prompt the irrigation system, and manually waters new plants our host calls "the babies." These are new responsibilities which Paul takes very seriously.
Meanwhile Danice has mastered the washing machine and sunshine powered drying rack,
watered the outdoor herbs, zealously learned local rules to lead the household in recycling and composting, and plays Miles, Chet Baker, Peggy Lee and Anita O'Day CDs.
We try to get plenty of exercise, especially to get Danice's new hip in shape for the upcoming 9 day hiking trip. If we're early enough or it isn't too hot, we walk at least an hour along a biking trail
or into the village. Best part of this hot exercise is diving into the pool when we return home. Mat exercises are in the yard instead of the JCC, aquatic exercises are in the pool.
But the big fun starts once we leave home. Anne pointed us toward the Intermarche in a nearby village for super market needs. But more important was finding the special "fruit and vegetable lady". (From the bakery go left, right a good way, then left, then right, then she'll be at the end of the dirt road. Voila there she was!) Here are the world class melons, cherries, best ever strawberries, salad greens and other fresh veggies; but alas it is still too early or cool for the really good tomatoes.
Anne and Claude showed us on a map the best bakery,
the butcher and twice weekly outdoor markets in the village, and tipped us off they have fresh oysters on Saturday. Here is Paul doing a great job of shucking a dozen using a regular kitchen knife;
we didn't locate the special shucker our hosts use; we are accustomed to not finding just the thing we're looking for and imagine the guests in our home going through the same.
We also bought at the outdoor market a casserole of beef stew that is so mouth watering when reheated that the whole house is aromatic . Paul enhanced it for Danice's love of veggies with farm fresh potatoes, carrots and shelled peas. It came out better than all but the 3 star restaurants serve.
Yesterday at the market Paul decided to cook a Lapin (rabbit), so we asked for it cut up (they kept the head so we could stay in denial about what it used to be). Here Paul has marinated it in red wine, garlic, shallots...
That and 6 fresh oeufs seemed pricey at 24E, but oh well. When we got home, Paul discovered we also had in our bag seven large patties of steak haiche (ground beef), Paul was off to take them back, but the receipt showed we had paid for them and our language deficit would make explaining difficult, so we kept them. Last night Paul grilled two luscious patties, placed on a fresh baguette with tomato and onion....we don't eat much ground beef, but these were the best hamburgers we've had in years.
Another new routine we are in love with is getting into Montpellier. There is a wonderful tram parking lot only about 5 minutes away where for 4.20E we park all day and receive two round-trip tram tickets. The tram cars are modern, clean, air conditioned, frequent and fast right into old town Montpellier.
The tram's interior colors are actually bright purple and chartreuse.
Our friend Bruce alerted us that Montpellier has the second best Summer Solstice festival in the world. So 21 June, after Paul's accidental super-burger dinner on the terrace, we trammed into Montpellier for the festival (Paul forgot the camera, sigh). We were able to push into a crowded tram and the cars were even more densely packed with each stop. Danice got a seat, but Paul had to suffer through being crushed by sparsely clad, beautiful young French women the whole trip; he handled it well.
The streets throughout the older section of the city were pedestrian only for the festival. We walked all over town, finding good music everywhere, from small blues bands to big rocking stage shows to DJs mixing and mashing multiple discs. Most of the blues and rock music was American. (I'm sure someone has studied why that is...wish I knew... maybe American music is our best export.)
Our favorite group was a "string quartet" with two guitars, a bass and an amazing talented violinist playing joyously inside a beautiful Romanesque Prefecture courtyard. They were playing jazzy old standards - fabulous. But the courtyard was small and packed - with more people pushing through the doorway and no other exit. Unfortunately Danice was claustrophobic recalling two out of control crowd scenes from her past, so after 2 great numbers we pushed our way back through the crowd and moved on.
By the time we headed back toward the tram a couple of hours later it seemed every street in the old town was filled with mostly 20-somethings, behaving rather well given the beers they were all holding. The trash cans were overflowing, but no one seemed to litter. Not sure what happened after the old folks went home, but from our bedroom on a hill 8 km away, we could hear the persistent throb of base notes.
Nice to get away from beautiful foggy San Francisco to enjoy warm summer evenings here in southern France.
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