Monday, post-Ronde-Ceretane race day (even though we weren't competing), necessitated a rest day. It was pretty full-on yesterday so today was just grocery shopping, posting a few postcards to elderly family members, a quiet coffee at Le Comptoir and catching up on bits and bobs on the computer.
We've been waiting for Tuesday, because it's D-Day for our little car. We had an appointment to visit Hyundai in Perpignan at 3pm. The mechanic was going to see if the tracer, which he'd put into our air-con unit in July, had shown up a leak in the system somewhere. We had fingers and toes crossed that it would reveal just a minor leak, e.g. at a joint, that could be easily fixed. The worst case scenario was that the compressor would need changing, at a cost of perhaps 500E, i.e. a significant part of the value of the car. If that was the case, we'd have to consider potentially selling the car, either replacing it with something newer, and therefore more costly, or perhaps hiring a car when we needed one instead.
We opted to drive into Perpignan in the late morning so we could lunch at our favourite French-Moroccan restaurant in the centre of the city. It never fails to disappoint, and the three course menu, for just 16.50E, was superb. My tuna fricassé was delicious and John's confit duck was wonderfully tender. It was such a shame to see that we were the only customers for lunch. Typically there might be a few other tables filled, but clearly trade has dropped off even more now that summer is on the wane. The restaurant is open in the evenings, so we just hope that it does well then. We'd hate to see it close down from lack of patronage. The Moroccan owner is a lovely man, and we virtually always end up chatting.
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| Espresso in a lovely cup at the Moroccan restaurant |
With half an hour to spare before the car was due for its check-up, we nipped into the huge Leroy Merlin store in the southern part of Perpignan. This is essentially a Placemakers or Bunnings on steroids. We found the fine grade waterproof sandpaper we were after fairly quickly, hopped back in the car and arrived at Hyundai bang on time. For once they didn't seem to be busy, and the guy on the front desk was very helpful. The car was whipped straight into the service area. Fifteen minutes later it reappeared. The receptionist guy hopped out, and we feared what he was going to tell us. What a surprise. There was no longer a leak! The air-con unit was still full, even after our recent 3500km trip. This was not something we had expected. The guy suggested that perhaps the tracer, which has an element of filler in it, had infiltrated the microleaks and completely blocked them. Hence, the air-con is now in tip-top shape. Wow. He didn't even bill us for doing the check. We were all smiles as we drove out of the place, mightily pleased that our little 'shopping trolley' has another lease of life. We gave it a little pat and promised not to talk about selling it again in its hearing.
But wait, there's more. The vibration from one or both of our 'square' wheels, which was obvious after we picked it up from its long-term storage, appears to have virtually disappeared. It's taken over 3500km to do the trick, but we are very happy that the ride is now vibration-free. No need to replace the two front tyres just yet then. We're hoping we can eke another year or more out of the little Matrix, and it's looking pretty good now.
We caught up with friends for a coffee/pastis in the evening to celebrate.
There was no need to head off on a pre-breakfast walk/run session this morning because we planned to go to the pool in the afternoon. It is still open on Wednesday afternoons and on the weekend until the end of September. We haven't swum since before we left for Tuscany, so were looking forward to a splash today. It's also 28 degrees again, as it has been all this week. The lower temperatures we had for a while have crept back up again.
After a leisurely morning we picked up tickets at Art San Roch for a guitar performance tomorrow night. A great mate of one of our artist friends here was to be giving a one-off concert at the art gallery, so we thought we should show our support. We enjoyed our swim in the pool, making the most of the warm sun and the outdoor pool environs.
We decided to treat ourselves today to a daytrip out of Ceret. We opted for a drive up the Tech Valley (our valley) to Prats-de-Mollo, the little town at the valley head. If you continue driving you end up crossing the Pyrenees and arrive in Spain. There are two small French towns further up the valley from Ceret. When we were looking at potentially buying in this region we looked around these, but local real estate agents warned us off, with the possibility of one or both of them waning over time. We have never regretted buying in Ceret and one of these towns (Arles sur Tech) appears to have seriously gone backwards in the last 3-4 years. It is a wonderfully historic town, full of 13th and 14th century buildings, encircling a very odd and supremely gorgeous abbey (founded in the 8th century) and cloister complex.
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| Abbey Cloisters in Arles sur Tech |
When we stopped off for a morning coffee, we found that the place seemed far too quiet. The last remaining restaurant/cafe in the central square had closed, there were a lot of houses for sale and, with serious disquiet, realised there are only two functioning cafe/bars left in the whole town. We tried one out and the coffee, apart from being barely lukewarm, was just about undrinkable. We were very sad to see that such a historic old town, which was at one time a very important hub in the valley, was going through bad times. Wandering around through the inner town lanes, John spied a fantastic place for sale - its high terrace or loggia on the top floor looked just the ticket. The date on the building was 1343. Alas, there is no point buying in a town that is suffering major economic woes.
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| Gorgeous loggia in an ancient building. Dated 1343, it was for sale. |
So, it was back to the car and the 20-minute drive to Prats-de-Mollo. This is a lovely small place, an attractive day-trip destination for tourists who want to walk around the Vauban fort above the town, then sat down to lunch at one of the number of restaurants. The walk up to Fort Lagarde is mostly by way of an above-ground tunnel, made by the government defenders who could use the passage to negotiate the route between the town and fort whilst remaining hidden and safe from those who may be attacking them. Apparently the fort was held by the French for a long time, and the soldiers were stationed there to force the local Catalan people in the town to remain French rather than opt into becoming Spanish. The border with Spain is very close.
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| Tunnel entrance to the fort |
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| Fort Lagarde |
Exploring around the fort was fun, and is something we have already done at least 2 or 3 times over the years. We've taken both Sally and Alastair there, as well as friends from NZ. The restaurant John had read a glowing review about was unfortunately fully booked at lunchtime, not something we expected on a Thursday in the off-season. Not to worry, a few doors down we found a little place offering some nice dishes for lunch. With those under our belts, we set off back to Ceret and were home by 3pm.
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| Trompe-l'oeil (painted window and figures as an optical illusion) on a lane in Prats-de-Mollo |
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| 14th century well, with a sculpture of a maid coming from the communal well behind the building |
After eating a snack at 5:45pm, we met up with our lovely Swedish friend Magdalena for a drink at Le Comptoir at 6pm. Magdalena bought our first apartment in Place de l'Eglise, and she has remained a firm friend ever since. It was a lot of fun catching up with her. She is nearly 10 years older than us, and is now mulling over whether to sell up. Her two sons have now returned from America and elsewhere to Stockholm, and she is determined to live where she can see a lot of her grandchildren.
Magdalena was going to the guitar concert as well, so we walked together. Virtually everyone else we know in Céret was also there. The performance started with the musician playing a 20-minute Bach movement on a ukulele. It was fantastic. Over the next 90 minutes he had us all spellbound with his guitar, some of it being music he composed himself. What a great night - under the stars in an open courtyard in the art gallery, with smalls bats flitting about and owls hooting.
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| Guitar concert |
Up for a run on Friday morning, the old joints were creaking a bit after Wednesday's swim, and the stiff climb up to Fort Lagarde yesterday, but we still managed to throw in the odd sprint. Given today is fine and sunny and the forecast for the next 4-5 days is wet, we set to on some much needed remedial work on the car. Many years ago we'd had a go at patch-painting the door handles and other odd patches where the paint was flaking or had been scraped off. Unfortunately, the colour match we had hoped for was poor. However, at the end of our last summer here (2019) we'd got our act together and sourced some correct Hyundai green paint, plus the appropriate undercoat.
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| Patch-painting the door handles after sanding them |
So armed, we set to on the car this afternoon taping around the handles, danding with super-fine 1000-grit sandpaper, and plenty of water. The handles sanded really well. It was all set to paint, except that the wind came up. We were doing this in the public carpark, which is now 3/4 empty since the council introduced parking fees a few weeks ago.
Saturday started with the market as usual. This, and then more work on the car door handles, filled in most of the day. In the evening we headed to the apartment of an older British couple for apero. Their apartment building has a lift, so it was very easy for everyone who was coming for the evening. It was very pleasant nibbling hors d'oeuvres, chatting and watching a lightning display that startled us all at 8pm. It wasn't a late evening though.
We walked on one of our circuits around the back of Céret on Sunday morning, then settled down at Le Comptoir for a coffee. Magdalena soon spied us and joined us. She was so excited and was bursting with some news. She had just had a phone call from her youngest son to tell her that he and his girlfriend had got engaged. It was a surprise to her, and she was thrilled. Of course she showed us the photos they had sent of the ring. It was fun and Magdalena suggested that we share a bottle of bubbles the next time we meet up with her. In our turn, John and I had a long Skype with Ali and Sophie on Sunday afternoon and enjoyed catching up on all their news.
