Spain – October half term

As some readers will know, Sharon and I bought a share in a small apartment on the Costa del Sol last year. Furthermore, as we also have a good amount of air miles (which is a longer story than needs repeating here), we decided to visit during last week’s half term holiday.

We arrived in Spain fairly early on Monday, following a very early flight from Manchester. We’d left home at 4:30am, with less than three hours sleep (and I had a sore throat), so the overcast weather we saw upon our arrival was a little foreboding. Still, it wasn’t far to the car rental place, Malagacar.com, and we were quickly on our way in a Toyota Auris.

The first thing we did was park the car in front of the apartment block and unpack. Once we’d done that, I went and moved the car into the official car park but when I got back to the apartment the door-key wouldn’t work! Luckily, Sharon was still inside so we were able to strip the lock apart and to confirm the lock’s knackeredness. Luckily (again) we found ex apartment-partner (and close neighbour) Bernard in and he was able to tell us that there was a spare lock in a drawer (we’ve no idea why). So we found that and fitted it!

The cloud didn’t lift all day and my throat simply got worse, so after shopping we came home, had tea and went to bed (8:30pm – slept through to 7:30am).

Tuesday

We were much less tired by the time we awoke, and actually saw the sun rise for about 10 minutes, as it lifted itself out of the sea and then disappeared behind the shroud of cloud that had not left since yesterday. A sort of ‘hola’, ‘adios’!

Since we were too cold, we thought that we’d pop into Los Boliches and see what they had in the way of ‘appropriate’ clothing (this was our first autumn in southern Spain – so our guess at what was required was way out).

We found a chemist easily enough and bought a spray for my throat, then trawled round looking for something a little warmer than a shirt and some more socks. Sharon needed socks too, and something warm to sleep in. We DID manage (ish) but because of the rain that had started, we were drenched through to the skin by the time we got back to the car.

• Lunch was the same as last night’s tea: salad, anchovies, roast red peppers, Serrano ham, slices of Gouda cheese and crappy white bread squares.
• Tea was: pan-fried cod with honey and garlic (and peanuts), asparagus and a jar of chickpeas/spinach. Lovely.

And that was that for Tuesday. We just stayed in and read for the rest of the day – the rain never let up and although the temperature gauge said 20° we needed plenty of heating to dry our clothes and to stop our teeth from chattering.

Wednesday.

This was a much better start to the day. With very few clouds in the sky this morning, we had a magnificent sunrise once again.

We went into Los Boliches during the morning, to get new keys cut for the lock we replaced on Monday. There are ten partners in the apartment, each requiring two new keys, so when we found a fereteria we had to wait for twenty keys to be cut, filed and finished! €1.40 each. So that was the morning gone.

- Lunch was much the same as before and after eating, we drove back down the hill for a long walk along the front. It got colder as the afternoon wore on, so when we’d had enough and fancied a coffee, we decided to come back to the apartment and make our own!

- For tea, we ate at Pepe’s across the road – ok, nothing to write home about.

I stopped using the throat spray today. It HAD helped but it was ferocious. Each spray felt like someone had climbed inside my mouth and slashed it with a razor blade.

Thursday

Straight after breakfast we set off for Alcaidesa, to meet John and Carol at Michelle and James’s place. Now that Michelle (Jon and Carol’s daughter) is stationed in Gibraltar, they are setting up home there and John and Carol are visiting for the week. We’d arranged to stay there with them overnight and to have a trip around Gibraltar on Friday.

Once we got sorted out in the afternoon, we drove up the coast to a marina somewhere, where we had a drink and a nice walk in the hot sunshine. It had rained on the way to Alcaidesa, but was much better by the afternoon. In the evening, once James had got home from work, we all went into La Linier for tapas. James explained the difference between tapas and raciones, so whilst visiting a couple of places, we enjoyed a number of ‘raciones’. Lovely.

Friday

We had a steady start to the morning and after breakfast John and I cycled down to the beach at Alcaidesa for some wonderful views of the Rock. The ride back was MUCH harder!

Michelle had arranged for us to have a tour of ‘The Great North Road’, part of the 34 miles of tunnels to be found inside the Rock. We were met at 3:00pm by Gary Mitchell who then took us on a very interesting and informative tour of the longest straight road in Gibraltar. This area of tunnels is not normally open to the public and can only be arranged through the military. Thanks Michelle.

By now, it had started to rain so, following a drink and some snacks at Michelle and James’s house, we set off home. The weather was horrendous and resulted in a fairly nervous drive. This was the first time I’d driven a left-hand drive car in the dark, in such weather.

We had pizza for tea, from downstairs – it was coolish by the time we got it up to the apartment (ninth floor), but tasty enough.

Saturday.        

Today was an absolutely appalling day weather-wise. We drifted into Los Boliches for some last minute stuff and then came home and festered in the apartment with all of the heating on. By now, we had the sense to wear shorts and sandals in the rain – so there was much less drying off required when we returned.

For lunch we had sautéed new potatoes and chorizo with pueblo bread

For tea, we had tuna steak, poached in garlic butter, with fresh asparagus and sauté potatoes. Yummy.

Sunday

Had a lazy start to what turned out to be a cloudy day.

Then, as it hadn’t rained, we walked down the hill to Torreblanca and along the front through Los Boliches. The cloud did disperse a little down on the front, so it was nice to walk (and have a couple of beers) on the front. It’s quite a steep climb back up to our apartment block, but not unpleasant, given the way the weather stayed fine.

For tea, we visited the pizza place underneath the apartment block and had an enjoyable, filling meal.

Week two – no internet

We spent the second week of our holiday in St. Gengoux Le National. The entire area is only serviced with ‘Edge‘ and what there is only flittered in and out of the town intermittently. So, I kept notes and the entire second week follows on below. ;-(

Saturday

We managed to get packed up and ‘out’ by just after 9.15am today and set off in the rain for Saint Gengoux le National, in Burgundy. Despite my fears about travelling on a national ‘fete’ day, we saw very little traffic but passed through several interesting towns that were celebrating the day.

I’m not exactly sure what it is about Bastille Day that causes so much excitement, but they do like to put on a show over here. We stopped off in one town [Château-Chinon] where they were parading up and down and dancing exactly like Morris Men. Some of the dancers were wearing stilts, some were not and some of the stilt dancers were dressed sheep – bless ‘em. In Autun, where we’d hoped to stop and have a coffee (had we not had one in Chateau Chinon) we thought about lunch, but it was pouring down, so we gave it a miss. However, we did manage to see a troop of Roman soldiers marching through the upper part of town!

Lunch was therefore al fresco at the first place we found where it wasn’t raining, wasn’t windy, had some sunshine and moderate toilet facilities.

We arrived at our destination two hours early, so we had a walk around and then drove to the next town [Cormatin] and had another walk around – this town was much busier and parking was a feat!

The gite is excellent in many ways. Its downsides (so far) are the amount of flies outside on the terrace and the number of towels we’ve been left. Neither are big problems, but niggly when you’re tired. Chicken in Ratatouille Soup for tea, with spuds and buttered yellow beans and broccoli.

Sunday

A nice light shone through the bedroom window this morning, promising a nice day – it lied, but it was a nice thought. The gite has two terraces; one, just by the entrance will be ideal for eating breakfast as it catches the early morning sun, but this morning, the bedroom had caught the sun then hidden it! We ate indoors.

When we went out for a walk later, we had to wear our full ‘warm’ gear. I wore the one long-sleeved shirt I’d brought with me, long pants and my raincoat as is was so cold. Sharon was similarly attired – luckily, as it began to pour down as we started walking though the main street, where a flea market (vide grenier) was taking place. We tried again after lunch and had a good bit more success as the clouds gradually moved away and left the late afternoon warm and cozy.

We spent a good bit of the late afternoon on the main terrace – half covered decking that goes from front to back of the house. This particular piece of deck is south facing and captures pretty much all of the afternoon and evening sun – which was very pleasant. I started to read Ian Rankin’s Knots and Crosses last night – finished it today!

We had mustard pork steak for tea with sauté Lyonnaise potatoes and buttered yellow beans with broccoli.

Monday

We’d decided yesterday that we should venture out today and do a little supermarket shopping and buy some diesel – we probably have enough but we have to fill the tank right up and I don’t want to have to fill up on Friday and then add just a few litres on Saturday.

So we decided to visit Tournus and Cluny, each one about 15 miles away, probably a 45-50 mile round trip. Surely there would be a big supermarché in one of those towns (there wasn’t).

Tournus is a little way north of Macon; I’ve passed it lots of times en route to the south on the now prohibitively expensive A6 but until today, had never been. It’s not a pretty town – it’s old, but not pretty. Except the riverside, the riverside looks like it’s had some attention and it does look and feel nice; it reminded me of the Glasgow Clydeside/City centre waterfront. We drove on to Cluny.

If I had access to the Internet as I write this (I don’t) I would write so much more about the town. IT IS pretty and it does have a nice atmosphere. It’s just a little off my beaten track so I’d never heard of it before. It is very old and there is lots of roman ‘stuff’ here. We spent quite a few hours here, walking around, eating lunch al fresco, and doing some shopping – in an ATAC (another new one for me!).

We came back and strolled around Saint Gengoux before coming back for a sit-down and read on the still sunny back terrace. We had a 5% fat, shop-bought (very tasty) burger for tea, with salad – lovely. Why oh why, can’t we but radishes at home like we can here? Still with it’s greenery, in huge bunches, hot, crisp and peppery – Mmmmm.

Tuesday

Tuesday is market day in Saint Gengoux le National, so after breakfast (we were in no hurry) we walked into the centre and ‘did’ the market. The market took up quite a bit of the town, with the main road being closed to traffic and we saw all the usual stalls we would expect to find in a French market, except those selling live animals and those ‘own grown’ stalls we always see in Normandy. An elderly lady or gent would be sat on a chair with one or two bowls of homegrown produce for sale. We’ve seen all sorts: cabbage, beans, strawberries, onions, redcurrants, potatoes etc. But no such stalls were to be seen here.

After lunch I went for a walk. Sharon wasn’t feeling well, so I went on my own. I’d decided on day-1 that I would tackle the huge cairn on top of an adjacent hill. It turned out that the cairn was in fact a statue of the Madonna set on top of a cairn-like concrete mound and which could be seen for miles around. The views were terrific, not as far reaching as those from Sancerre but pretty good nevertheless.

And that was that, apart from tea we did pretty much nothing else except read in the late afternoon and evening sun. Finished ‘no wonder I take a drink’ by Laura Marney.

Tea was a tin of Tartiflette! Ok – tinned food, so what? I’d never seen this tinned product before and wanted once and for all to see the difference between Tartiflette and Dauphinoise!  To be honest, I’ve only ever seen tartiflette on the menu at the tapas bar in Slaithwaite before, so it hadn’t really been part of my ‘ken’. Yet, on this year’s visit to France I’ve seen it on a number of menus and even ate it with lunch in Cluny. It seems to be dauphinoise without the cheese and with lardons of bacon added instead. I doctored it by adding some chopped up saucisson and then, just before serving, adding a piece of dry bread topped with camembert to create a crunchy top. Mmmmm again.

Wednesday

Another gorgeous day! We’re not too far from the Montchannin TGV station here so we set off after breakfast to check it out. I’d been curious to know what the frequency and cost of a trip to Paris (or Avignon) might be. Well, although there were adverts for €35 1^st Class trips to Paris, there were no similar returns and not that much availability this week. It would have cost us €320 to go at 10:36am on Friday and come back 19:30ish – too much! But worth a look on ‘t’internet if we stay close to a TGV station again.

We then drove on to Chalon sur Saone. We didn’t like. Hard to say why, but lack of public loos, poor food and well – not sure, we were back in Saint Gengoux by mid-afternoon. We had a coffee in the other bar (the green bar) and just like the other (the red bar); they took money off us at service time. I find this distasteful in France, it’s not normal but it’s the third bar this fortnight!

Tarte flambé for tea, with salad and lashings of beer

Today was the first time we’ve eaten all three meals al fresco. Nice and hot…

Thursday

Today was much cloudier so after breakfast we went for a walk. It wasn’t cold but was certainly cooler than yesterday. We arrived back in the village just before 12:30pm closing time – even the boulangeries close then!

I decided that I was a big boy now and that I would ‘brave’ the boucherie rather than buying tea at the supermarket (which has a pretty poor selection anyway). I wouldn’t have gone in if no one else had been queuing but by being behind others, I was able to acclimatise to the ‘French’ being spoken. I’d decided that I wanted two veal cutlets, I could see the joint they would come from, but worried that I had enough cash! I had €20-30 with me, but two of those beauties could have easily cost €20 on their own – however, we never see veal at home and we’ve not been ‘out’ much this holiday … Anyway, the guy in front of me asked for a veal escalope and when I saw where the butcher cut it from, I decided that that was what I would ask for – two veal escalopes instead. By the time it was my turn I’d heard and remembered enough ‘French’ to buy the escalopes and two quiche d’epinard without a problem. Whayayyy!

We walked again in the afternoon, had a coffee on the main street and came back to read. I decided this morning that I was getting through ‘Breaking Dawn’ too fast so I picked a book (my third this week!) from the gite library: “Piece of My Heart”, by Peter Robinison. As write this I’m a third of the way through … touch and go whether I finish it. (I did – 24 hours!)

Guess what tea was! (with penne pasta and tomato sauce concocted from our lunchtime soup).

Friday

I’ll write up the end of our holiday later – when we’ve caught up with all the ‘stuff’ returning from holiday presents us with.

et maintenant nous avon terminé

Well, by the time I post this, we will have finished our week-long course at the Coeur de France school of languages in Sancerre.

Although I’m beginning to write this the night before we finish, I know I can say that I have enjoyed it. It has been hard work – although we both slipped into English much more than we should have, I reckon that we’ve learned a lot. Certainly, much of the vocabulary I already have has not been utilised, so once I manage to revise and absorb everything I’ve learned this week – I should be a little more conversant (ha ha) with the French language.

My problem has been, and remains, listening. Understanding what has been said to me – mainly by shopkeepers – is still a little hard. However, I am understanding much, much more than I did.

Earlier in the week, we visited a chévererie [see blog post] and bought three crottins. Last night (Mercredi) we had the youngest – jeunne - for tea, crumbled onto a salad. I also tried grilling the oldest – affine - and managed to create a lovely golden colour on the top of it, but it still didn’t melt through. Apparently, when left long enough, it becomes as hard as Parmesan and no less tasty (even my failed attempt to melt it was tres tres tasty!)

Today (Jeudi) we visited the market in Saint Satur, which is just at the bottom of the hill from Sancerre. It is a small but busy market with long queues at most of the vegetable stores. Queuing to make our purchases (on behalf of the teacher) allowed me to ‘listen’ to the questions and responses being made, which was both informative and enlightening. I bought a ‘fine’ piece of Morbier and on instruction from the teacher, Sharon bought twelve apricots and three peaches

Thursday night was spent with a teacher and two small families. The nine of us prepared and cooked dinner together, which despite my earlier reservations, went well. The menu included amuse gueule, prepared by the youngsters (consisted of dried apricots stuffed with Roquefort cheese and pieces of crottin de chevre); Quiche Lorraine (prepared by one of the mums), Clafoutis aux cerises (made by me and the missus) and chocolate mousse made by another couple (but interfered with by me).

I’ve never made clafoutis before, so the fact that it came out tasty and looking good was a great sensation! The mousse had lost all of its volume and consisted of nothing more than eggs, butter and chocolate – but ‘boy’ did it taste good! The company was good and we had a pleasant time, despite me earlier reservations.

We’re off on our way to St. Gengoux-les-National tomorrow (Saturday) for a rest and for our real holiday. We’re told that we will have NO INTERNET – this may be the last post for a while.

Our last day at school was concluded successfully and we said our goodbyes some hours ago now.

On reflection, I have not covered any more this week than I’ve covered on previously unsuccessful attempts at learning the language: the difference has been that we have covered two terms work in a week – without having to wait a week between each bit. We also had individual, pointed and firm instruction, with mistakes being picked up immediately – according to need. Today (Friday) we touched on past tense and future tense as well as practicing dialogue and getting involved in longer/deeper conversation.

I’ve enjoyed my week here and despite her absolute lack of any French at the outset – I think that Sharon has too. At least she’s smiling

More info at:

http://www.coeurdefrance.com/

Jeudi

The week has got colder day by day.

We arrived on Saturday in bright sunshine, but each day has seen a deterioration in the weather.

It still hasn’t rained (much) but it’s noticeably colder, especially as we didn’t pack our usual summer-at-home gear. Brrr.

Nevertheless, that didn’t stop us visiting the market in St. Satur this morning, as part of our class, to exercise our speaking and listening skills. It is surprising how much you do understand, when the teacher is saying “listen – he saying ‘x’, ‘y’ and ‘z‘, and look – she’s asking such and such a thing.”

By now, we are expanding our speech and conjugating our verbs – now, that’s a ball-ache!

At least here, our teacher did not start by saying that there are regular verbs and irregular verbs (and then concentrating on the irregular as has happened in previous classes that I’ve attended in the UK); instead she taught us ‘to be‘ and ‘to have‘ simply as two important verbs that needed conjugating, as part of the class’s development. When she eventually (day three) introduced the conjugation of verbs as a subject we realised that those two (être and avoir) were in fact irregulars, along with the just recently introduced aller. But it was not a big thing – simply “you must remember these.“

We’re attending a cook-in tonight! One teacher and six students (a family of four and the two of us) will prepare and eat dinner together.  I’d not realised that when I booked us in. I’d thought we were just going somewhere to eat and that there would be conversation at the table. It’s bad enough doing that (I am not  great conversationalist in English, never mind my poor French) but to also have to prepare it – with others – fills me with dread.

Remember my original trade – knocking up eight meals is nothing, but knocking up eight meals with seven others contributing? …… AND talking French too … I need to lie down

un Crottin de Chavignol

Tuesday was hard work. We had booked in for the ‘optional’ group pronunciation class at 8.30am and followed that immediately with our personal 9.00am – 12.15pm course-class.

There are just the two of us in our own classes and we progress at a pace that suits us – yet it’s evident that there is such a lot to learn. We spent most of the afternoon just revising and re-writing what we’d done in the morning. Today, Wednesday we’ve already done a group pronunciation class but we’re not expected back ‘in’ until 13.30pm.

So that’s more revision then …

Our apartment, provided by the school (at a cost) is on the edge of town, overlooking the valley which surrounds Sancerre. It consists of a large entrance lobby that runs through the entire building, with a small w.c. off to the right and then a large bath/shower room with windows open to the fairly busy road. We keep them and their shutters closed.

At the back, there are room-wide windows to the kitchen/living room giving us the very open aspect over this part of France. [Cher - 18]. sandwiched between the bathroom and the living room is the airy bedroom, which has large windows that open into the living room! This allows us to have natural light in the bedroom and lots of evening sunlight right through until sundown. Lovely.

There was an organised trip on Tuesday evening; we all drove en convoy to a chèvrerie about 10k away. The region is famous for its goat’s cheese and has its own AOC mark. The farm was interesting enough and may have looked cruel to some as the goats were being herded onto a moving merry-go-round milking machine.

However, the goats seemed happy enough (eager in fact) to queue up and be relieved of their heavy looking burden when their time came around.

The cheeses themselves are delightful. We were given three to taste and although all of the evening’s explanations went right over my head, I think they were ‘freshly made’ (jeune), ‘about two weeks old’ (bleuté) and ‘finished – mature’ (affiné) – who knows. At least one of these will be devoured tonight

We had pizza for tea, not bad to say the one guy was serving everyone as well as cooking the food (as well as take-aways). The dessert was crap though. Anyway – back to it …

 

Early classes

On Monday evening we drove to Cosne Sur Loire (known locally as Cone) to pick up an emergency triangle and ‘an’ emergency vest!

Our professeur’ Marianne had phoned AVIS on our behalf, as none of the numbers we had been given could/would go through.

We later realised that they were not accessible from the UK – and although we are in France we have UK based phones! It beggars belief then, that they give you (us) those numbers? After all, they expect you to have a mobile phone with you in the car, because they require your mobile phone number on the contract.

It was a such a palaver: Marianne had to insist on being put through to AVIS at Lyon airport and then to further insist that they arranged for the goods to be available for collection at the nearest agency and that they take full responsibility for the lack of legally required ‘stuff’ [I wasn't convinced by this agreement, but ...] whilst we drove there.

Then today, Tuesday, I finally received a reply from AVIS to the email (marked URGENT) I sent on Saturday. Well, it was cc of that email, which they had forwarded (finally) to AVIS Europe.

At 5.45pm tonight AVIS Europe rang me to say that I shouldn’t worry, it was their problem and that they would be the one who would get into trouble (fined) – AND – if I felt unsafe without the kit, I should buy it and they would give me the money upon the car’s return! As if!

Talk about the left hand not knowing what the right hand has already done. AVIS.

More holiday later …

Je suis un élève à l’école de langues à Sancerre

Classes start this afternoon but we’ve just returned from an informal meeting with the teachers and other students, at the school itself.

My head hurts

The school specialises in immersive language learning, so despite my meagre and hitherto untested french vocabulary, we only heard french being spoken. This afternoon we will have over three hours of it. 

Still, that’s what I wanted; to finally be able to listen and converse in french, so that I might be able to better understand what’s being said to me and that I might better make myself understood whenever I’m over here.

Sharon and I will have classes together – just the two of us and a teacher, so that should be OK. There are plenty of other students though, mainly from Canada or the USA, all being taught in their family units. This sort of makes socialising difficult as they (like us I suppose) gain confidence from being in those family groups. We’ll see how the week pans out.

We’ve signed up for a number of out-of-class activities too, which will add variety to the course. Watch this space.At the time of writing, we are still no further on with our AVIS rental car problem. We have spoken to UK AVIS and they have said that they will also try to contact the AVIS-Lyon airport – but we get no answer from the published number, or the extra number given by the UK. Neither have we yet had a reply from our emails.

We cannot drive the car right now because it is illegal!

AVIS did not provide the necessary yellow vests or the emergency triangle required  by French law. There are no ‘recommended’ spare light bulbs, there is no recommended first aid kit or any sign of the recommended fire extinguisher.

Stop Press – Breathalyser also required – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-18662555 (thanks James)

POOR SHOW AVIS.