Tuesday, 27 January 2015

Master the Argentine tango

Stages de tango argentin, salles des Fetes Caylus. Les samedis 28Feb, 7Mars,11 Avril, 9Mai, 6juin, 10-12h
Animés par Emilie et Pablo Tegli   20 euros   Contact Caylus tourism
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Come on in the sea is lovely

Playing on beaches then on to Calella Palafrugell for lunch by the sea. The cats which haunt the restaurants were still there in great numbers but did not risk coming near Bonny who enjoyed what was left of the " chipirones" deep fried baby squid.
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We should do this more often, says Bonny

Everyone enjoys a rock pool
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Begur, just like St. Antonin closed in January

Begur reminds us a little of St. Antonin especially the fact that it was mainly closed
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Bonny enjoying herself and an abundant lemon tree

Three beaches, one town and one cliff walk completed so far. Malc  and I are exhausted but Bonny is having " a whale of a time"
This morning in Begur we saw trees laden with oranges and lemons. In my head I have been singing
" Lemon tree very pretty
and the lemon flower is sweet
but the fruit of the poor lemon
is impossible to eat" ... but it does go very nicely squeezed on squid and calamari.
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Bonny having fun on the beach

Lemon tree very pretty, as is the house nearby
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Motorway tariffs will remain the same

The tariffs will remain the same on the motorways after February. The planned rise has been postponned.
Tolls on this  4 hour trip to Spain cost us just over 24 euros.
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Sunrise in Llafranc this morning

Is there anyone in the St. Antonin area at the moment?
Well I know my donkeys are there, although Malc says " can you be sure?"
4 degrees and foggy in Varen whilst it is sunny and 10 degrees here at the moment.
The Pyrenees with the snow topped mountains will be great today and some friends are there.
Many more are further south in Spain.
We will be back home tomorrow night and a bit of cold is not so bad if you are wrapped up warm. We love where we live, it is our  paradise.
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Sunrise in Llafranc this morning
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Thank you to all who remembered

Well here I am in our hotel room surrounded by cards and presents, not a special birthday till next year, but surely now everyone is special. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and I am sure Malc, my readers and pets see me with rose coloured specs and this is how I appear.
Have a lovely day all and thanks to family and good friends who have been so kind
x
PS have a laugh all who know me, I have visions of readers not in the know thinking " by gum Val is not bad is she? "
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TAG comes into its own this morning

JUST TRIED TO CONNECT TO Facebook with no result. I had thought it was the internet being slow here at the hotel but have just read in the Depeche that facebook is suffering from a virus
Impossible de vous connecter à Facebook ce mardi matin ? Vous n'êtes pas le seul ! En effet, le réseau social est actuellement victime d'une panne, semble-t-il générale, puisque des messages affluent du monde entier sur Twitter, sous le hashtag #facebookdow. Sa filiale Instagram est elle aussi inaccessible.
Pour l'heure, Facebook n'a fait aucun communiqué pour expliquer ce bug mais les services techniques seraient sur le pied de guerre pour rétablir les connexions.
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Roads blocked around Toulouse this morning

Val says I hate this part of " liberation" / freedom by blocking the motorways in " operation escargots" It just happens too often.

Opération escargot : plusieurs kilomètres de bouchons ce matin sur le périphérique

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Monday, 26 January 2015

Take it seriously drink driving

 Bernard Cazeneuve France's Interior Minister  whose government has vowed to cut the number of  drink driving incidents,  his biggest priority is to tackle those who get behind the wheel after drinking alcohol, given that alcohol is the number one cause of fatalities on French roads.
Val says did you hear that, the NUMBER one cause of deaths on the roads is alcohol, drinking and driving, well it is about as daft as smoking, one way or another you are going to kill yourself, or someone you love. Think about it before lighting up or getting behind a wheel.
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So pathetic, do you feel better now?

Offense à la mosquée d'Auch : des lardons jetés contre la façade

How utterly infantile and pathetic, driving past a mosque and throwing out a handful of lardons. Well I for one have better things to do with my lardons, making soup or adding to my spaghetti bolognaise.
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The rich and famous and ... us.

Llafranc is where we are staying. In the past the playground of the rich and famous. Truman Capote, Salvador Dali, Elizabeth Taylor, Kirk Douglas and now the plebs like Bonny Johnstone and Malc and I . The days of celebrity spotting in places like this and Portofino ( I know it is Italy)and Monte Carlo etc. are long gone. Now the stars and royalty all have immense estates where they can enjoy themselves out of the public gaze.
Well to us our Bonny is a star, she has walked around without a lead, been on the beach chased a few seagulls as you would if you were a golden retriever, knew instantly our hotel and found her way back in both front and back entrance, who needs stars when you have us!!!! Four and a half hours to this place from Tarn et Garonne, get your nostrils full of sea ozone, your shoes full of sand and be back home for Folk and Jazz on Thursday, really can you beat it.
The half bottle of red might be speaking for me in this post!
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Nous sommes mardi, le vingt sept

démangeaison​-​​​itching
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We know it is not over but we will prevail

The Islamic State jihadist group Isis urged Muslims on Monday to carry out new attacks similar to the Paris shooting at the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, where 17 people were killed. Abu Mohamed al-Adnani, referring to attacks in France, Australia, Canada and Belgium, urged "Muslims in Europe and the infidel West to attack the Crusaders where they are". "We promise that in the Christian bastions they will continue to live in a state of alert, of terror, of fear and insecurity... You have seen nothing yet," the recording said.He added that the group would consider as "enemies" those Muslims who were able to carry out such attacks but failed to do so.The threat is just the latest instance in which the jihadist group has urged Muslims to carry out attacks in the West.   
Val days I dislike them even more for threatening people to complete the attacks even if they have changed their minds or thought better of it. They threaten everybody and that is just not religion, it is sheer thuggery and brute terror. I dislike them because they give Islam a bad name and  devout law abiding Muslims are tarred by many with the same brush.      Comments to taglines82@gmail.com

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Demis Roussos has died

Not really French news but he did have song hits in France and his death has been reported here.  I thought he was called Dennis.
Le chanteur grec Demis Roussos est décédé dans la nuit de samedi à dimanche dans un hôpital d'Athènes. Il avait 68 ans, a annoncé ce lundi matin Nikos Aliagas sur son compte Twitter.

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After the beach, a cliff top walk

"Well he was certainly going fast"said Malc as I said  "well that was the nearest thing to a go fast accident I have ever seen." As we were driving down the winding road just after the border I think it is called  La Jonquera, a car came behind us flashing and tooting just after we had overtaken another. We pulled over to let the lunatic past and he sped off. A lorry in front of him had just done the same manoevre but he could not get past so  the lunatic overtook on the inside lane, a most dangerous thing to do. Then it got really dangerous another lorry in front saw all of this happening so refused to let the car past swerving from one lane to another blocking off the  lunatic guy in the sports car. You would have thought "good on you" if it all had not been so dangerous. At the bottom of the  descending pass the guy left the motorway giving a one finger up sign out of his window to the lorry driver. 
Apart from that incident it was a lovely drive, not much traffic and after Carcassonne, scenery different to our lush green fields. We saw,  as you do, the lagoons as you turn off for Spain and we all had our noses in the air sniffing, it was the smell of the sea, not Bonny's odorous whiff this time.
When we arrived I immediately gave Bon a run on the beach where she performed silly running and Malc like the dutiful partner in life and TAG  unloaded the luggage.
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The cliff top walk just after arriving
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Unfortunate names

Dear Val
Our daughter was at school with a girl called Mini (or Minnie?) Driver.....
My wife was a schoolteacher for many years and talks of a fairly dim student called Luke Sharp
And once my secretary announced the arrival of the salesman from Phillips as "Mr Light is here to see you"
Robin
Malc says: when a I was a student there was a girl called Penny Knight - which seemed quite reasonable..
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Who likes Nutella?

It may be sweet, but a couple wanted to name their new baby "Nutella" and the family court has refused permission. In theory French parents can now call their children whatever they like, but the registrar can ask the family judges to rule in cases where they think the name may be prejudicial to the child's future. In this case the child is to be called Ella. Another girl was to be called "Fraise" -  strawberry - but it was refused on the grounds that a phrase ramène ta fraise would be used to mock her. Apparently it is aimed at people who talk pretentiously or irrelevantly (or more rudely, display their nipples). She is to be called "Fraisine" a name in use in the 19th century.
A few years ago, however, a couple called Renaud were allowed to call their daughter Megane...
Any examples of names that should not have been allowed, readers?
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A quick break on the cards

Up early to sort out the pets staying here, Bonny knows something is about to happen since she saw the suitcases. By gum will she be wagging her tale when she realises she is coming with us. This will be her third visit to the seaside and no spade needed for her for digging in the sand.
We will continue TAG news from the Costa Brava
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Rana hopes to rent

Hi Val
Greetings from the UK
I have been over here caring for my mother who has been unwell and have decided to rent my property in France for a year.
Can you pass the word around?
Perhaps you know of a family looking to rent a quiet place in the countryside with swimming pool, 8 acres including a magical wood.
The rent will be 800 pounds per month including bills.
I will be coming out when it is warmer to do some work in the garden to get the place ready.
Here are some photos of the place
I wish you a very happy 2015
Here is some more information about the property.
It is 15 minutes drive from St Antonin
Love Rana

Perfect Summer Retreat with Pool to rent per week or on a years contract for 800 pounds a month.

This secluded country house with pool is surrounded by its own eight acre patch of natural parkland and is a must for nature lovers.

It is the ideal place to 'recharge your batteries' after a stressful busy life as the tranquility of the place and the magic of the garden and woods uplift and restore the spirit.

The accomodation is simple and rustic but clean and well equipped with dishwasher, two fridge freezers, washing machine etc.

There are two double rooms and one room with two single beds.
All the rooms have french windows that open out into the garden and the place is friendly and wonderfully quiet.
The Alchemy Garden is a wonderful place to relax and recharge with all the gifts that nature brings.

It is set high up in the rugged plateau landscape of SW France and although in the heart of the countryside it is only a 15 minute drive to medieval St Antonin Noble Val with its famous Sunday market and Aveyron gorge popular for swimming and canoeing.

The delightful former "Bergerie" has been transformed into a spacious and comfortable single -storey rustic style house with immediate access to nature.

One of the most delightful features of the house – Igue – is the way it opens out through large French doors from every room to give immediate access to the garden, the swimming-pool area, the shady verandah and the outside fire-place/barbecue. Surrounded by shady trees, it is never too hot - even on the hottest days. The lettings are from a saturday to a saturday. We ask that visitors arrive after 5pm on a saturday and leave before 10am on the last day. This then gives us time to prepare the house, pool and gardens for the next visitors.

The name of the property in Occitan means "the watering hole that flows" and is named from a spring or "source" just off the grounds.

The land immediately surrounding the house and pool has been sensitively landscaped with shrubs, flower-beds , rock features and gardens. 
Rana can be contacted at    jenni.rodger@gmail.com
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