As our hostess in
Lezignan is a single woman, there are always a number of maintenance jobs which
she can’t manage alone, which we had decided to try and get done for her during
the time spent in her house. So on Monday morning we started to install some
lights in the grandly named ‘Garden Room’. In reality it is a small building at
the bottom end of the garden with a built-in barbecue alongside. One half of
the room already had dear little blue star lights installed in the ceiling but
our job was to complete the installation of four down-lighters in the rest of
the ceiling and a fluorescent strip in the little store room, and to connect up
all the switches and so forth. The section under the blue stars will one day
have a Jacuzzi in it so care had to be taken that everything was properly
earthed in case of accident! It was quite a complicated job and took us most of
Monday and Tuesday but looked rather impressive when it was finished.
Wednesday is market day
in Lezignan and is a huge one so we just
had to go. Apart from the usual fruit and vegetable stalls, cheap clothing and
hardware, there was also a stall selling ready-made paella which the stall
holder was cooking in a huge pan about a meter across, another that was selling
materials by the meter and a large stall of cell phones, computer accessories
and other electronic bits and pieces. The whole market stretched up and down
the main street and extended into a number of side streets too. It was well
attended and the townspeople were busy buying and chatting to each other and to
the stall holders, while some of the sellers were calling out the bargains that
they were offering, in loud voices. It was a very lively scene.
That afternoon, our
hostess took us on a lovely drive around to show us some of the area that we
had not seen before, which also took in Paziols, the village we will be going
to while the family are visiting. I am really excited about this village. It
has a small hill in the middle of the town, with an old church perched on top
of it. The house we will be staying in is near the top of the hill and
fortunately has a road which goes all the way up to it. Apart from that, most
of the spaces between the houses are no more than passages and twist and turn
in all directions, with little steps up and steps down here and there. I hope
the family is going to love it as much as we do.
On Thursday we took a
whole day off from working and went off to Narbonne, mainly to buy some airtime
for my cell phone, which can only be bought at a branch of a particular
supermarket chain. From there, not wanting to fight our way through traffic to
the city centre, we went out into the country and inevitably found our way to
the Canal du Midi where we stopped and had lunch. Being next to the canal,
lined with magnificent plane trees, with boats going up and down sounds like a
place anyone would want to be, but the weather was not good and the wind was
freezing.
That night, guests were
expected for dinner and both of us were extremely nervous about the whole
event. Of the three people invited, one speaks English anyway, one can speak
English but is normally French-speaking and the third cannot speak English at
all. This was to be a test for the South Africans! In the end, it turned out to
be a most enjoyable evening. Both of the French speakers spoke especially
slowly for our benefit and with a bit of help here and there on both sides, we
managed to converse adequately. I am sure that the amount of wine consumed
helped to lubricate our brains!
On Friday it was back to
work. This time it was turn a door around! There is a small store room off the
conservatory at the back of the house with its door almost in the corner of the
room. Unfortunately, the original builder or house owner had installed the door
so that it opened from left to right. This means that to get into the store
room, one had to open the door and more or less step around it to get into the
room. So we swapped it around. Now the door opens from the right and it is a
simple matter to open the door a fraction and reach in to get a broom, or
whatever.
Saturday was work of
another kind but not before we had had lunch. Between Lezignan and the coast is
a large area of marshland with a number of lakes or sea-lagoons. We went to a
place called Peyriac de Mer which is on one of these lakes, known as etangs, and found a lovely little
restaurant at which to eat. The weather was still misbehaving but we were very
cosy indoors. After lunch we continued on to Sigean where our hostess has a
second property – an old barn with a courtyard behind it. The barn conversion
is a retirement project, but in the meantime the courtyard has to be kept clear
of weeds, something which hadn’t been done for some time. It was a complete
jungle when we arrived, but a couple of hours later after dodging in and out of
the frequent rain squalls, definite progress had been made and we called it a
day.
On Sunday we had been invited, by a friend who lives in Salles d'Aude, to lunch - later changed to dinner. So we took a picnic lunch and went first to the market in Narbonne, followed by an couple of hours wandering around the city admiring the wonderful old architecture. Lunch was eaten on a bench at side of a canal before we continued on along the road to the sea, coming out at St. Pierre de Mer where we enjoyed ice creams sitting by the beach. It is quite strange to see beach and sea but no waves. This is, of course, the Mediterranean. After that we slowly made our way to the friend's house arriving mid-afternoon and well in time to make use of his WiFi to receive our mail and send off this chapter of the blog.
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