After four weeks of never being in one place for more than three nights, it was a relaxing wind down to be 'at home' in Belesta for six days before heading back to Australia. Arrived at Toulouse airport from Athens and was met by a very nice young man, Bryan, at the car hire desk. It turned out he had spent two years in Australia and was hoping to be able to immigrate. It was a conversation that somehow seemed the wrong way around, with me extolling the virtues of France and he, of Australia. His biggest point was the difference in income, while i pointed to the higher cost of most things. And the awful humidity of Brisbane in summer. Anyway, off i drove in a huge suv upgrade.
I drove with a bit of care, since bryan had told me all the defaced/totally trashed speed cameras were getting repaired now. Saw one that had been burnt with car tyres and others still covered in bright yellow paint. The one between lavelanet and foix seems to have totally disappeared. But i did see one in working order. And the autoroute toll gates are back to work. You could never imagine this level of civil disobedience in Australia. And most of the hard core gilets jaunes are retirees. They're still there, at roundabouts with their marquees and little bonfires, but each weekend there are less of them mobilising. In one maybe backdown, there has been some talk of the government going back to 90 kmh from 80 on single lane out of town roads. Apparently I'm not the only one who has picked up loads of speeding fines. There are very few speed signs in France. You're just expected to know the speed limits.
It was nice to find everything in order in the house. Last time i got there, i discovered the kitchen tap had fallen apart resulting in a mad dash to the hardware to replace, so i could turn the water on.
I had two beautiful days to wander round exploring. On the first, i took a drive up to what is known as the pays de sault, a high plain above belesta. It's maybe at 1200 metres. I had seen that there was supposed to be a roman bridge in a little gorge. As usual, there was a gorgeous little village, flowers everywhere, complete silence and a delightful walk along the river to the bridge. It turned out to be damaged so had been closed off for safety, but i took a quick stroll across. Some of the stone work had crumbled along one side. After a high path through the forest to get there, the walk back was along the roman road from the bridge. The next day i took a scenic drive to and from decathlon, hoping for some hiking bargains, but realised i really don't need to buy anything. But the drive was lovely, one beautiful little village after the other.
Friday, i had a friend driving down from where i used to live, for a visit. It was an awful day out, pouring rain as if it was a queensland wet season. There were flood warnings, but while the river almost lapped the road i don't think any actual flooding occured. Last autumn a lot of people died when the nearby Aude river became a wall of water that crashed through a village near Carcassonne.
That evening, we dined at an excellent local restaurant, la maison. Its expensive, but worth the money for a treat. The big attraction is the buffet entree. Huge variety of shellfish, smoked fish, foie gras, hot dishes etc etc. Followed by typical country dishes like confit duck and cassoulet, and grilled meats they bbq over the open fire. Throw in a cheese board and dessert and you leave feeling very full. 35 euros for the lot.
Saturday was cloudy but the rain seemed to be gone, so we loaded our bikes into the suv and headed for the canal du midi for a test ride. I think i have pretty much convinced john it is a fun thing to do next year, to ride its length. It wasn't the best day to try it though. The path had become thick muddy sludge that made pedaling very hard work. Still, we had gone 6 kms when there was a sudden sound of something whacking into John's spokes and he ground to a halt. His derailleur had snapped off. Never seen that before. Luckily weren't far from a road so i rode back to the car and was back in under an hour. It did make us realise that we might need to know a bit of basic bike repair before doing a 500 km bike ride. We spent the evening watching the EU election results. In several hours of coverage on two channels they never once referred to the results in other countries. We had to resort to the guardian coverage for that. The french seem very insular in their news reporting. The results weren't as bad as in Australia, but having proto or just out and out fascist parties get the most votes in hungary, poland, italy, uk and france wasn't great. However, in reality, in the uk and france, that is still only 33 and 22 % of the votes. The problem in both those places was how the centre and left vote was split across so many parties. I thought it was hilarious hubris on the part of le pen to declare macron had lost all legitimacy and needed to call new elections. His party got barely more than one point less than hers, and had not existed until two years ago. And nearly 80 percent of france had voted against her fascist ideology. Sadly, not so in Belesta. It is each local maire's responsibilty to count votes so i looked on the belesta noticeboard and did a quick adding up. The national front ( i am going to keep using their old name), got over forty percent of the vote. The left vote was split across five parties!
Sunday was market day at Esperaza, 30 minutes away with the bonus of a vide grenier as well. It's a wonderful market full of young and old alternative types selling organic produce, a whole range of food from paella to vietnamese and indian. It's perfect for a slow Sunday morning. We moved on to limoux with the promise of another vide grenier but the clouds had kept everyone at home. There were three stall holders who obviously couldn't think of anything better to do with their Sunday. It was in the grounds of a beautiful church though, and looking at that was worth the trip.
That evening i finally found the craft brewery at puivert open. And discovered the unlikely little australian expat colony that lives in the village. Four different couples, i think. In fact, everyone in there was an english speaker, which was slightly disappointing. We moved on to saint colombe sur l'hers, to le stop pub, but it was shut. However, the bar just down from it was open. We went in, but in french we got informed it was a club prive so we disappointedly headed back to the car, before being called back. We went in and got a little interrogation in french. Where we were from, were we on holidays etc, before the only other customer says, in english, come on alex, stop torturing them. The owner is english, but is choosy about his clientele. We ended up having a good old chat with him and robert. During which i discovered i had better be careful about my skinny dipping habit. Alex now has a criminal record as a result of complaints to the police about him swimming nude in the river.
I drove with a bit of care, since bryan had told me all the defaced/totally trashed speed cameras were getting repaired now. Saw one that had been burnt with car tyres and others still covered in bright yellow paint. The one between lavelanet and foix seems to have totally disappeared. But i did see one in working order. And the autoroute toll gates are back to work. You could never imagine this level of civil disobedience in Australia. And most of the hard core gilets jaunes are retirees. They're still there, at roundabouts with their marquees and little bonfires, but each weekend there are less of them mobilising. In one maybe backdown, there has been some talk of the government going back to 90 kmh from 80 on single lane out of town roads. Apparently I'm not the only one who has picked up loads of speeding fines. There are very few speed signs in France. You're just expected to know the speed limits.
It was nice to find everything in order in the house. Last time i got there, i discovered the kitchen tap had fallen apart resulting in a mad dash to the hardware to replace, so i could turn the water on.
I had two beautiful days to wander round exploring. On the first, i took a drive up to what is known as the pays de sault, a high plain above belesta. It's maybe at 1200 metres. I had seen that there was supposed to be a roman bridge in a little gorge. As usual, there was a gorgeous little village, flowers everywhere, complete silence and a delightful walk along the river to the bridge. It turned out to be damaged so had been closed off for safety, but i took a quick stroll across. Some of the stone work had crumbled along one side. After a high path through the forest to get there, the walk back was along the roman road from the bridge. The next day i took a scenic drive to and from decathlon, hoping for some hiking bargains, but realised i really don't need to buy anything. But the drive was lovely, one beautiful little village after the other.
Friday, i had a friend driving down from where i used to live, for a visit. It was an awful day out, pouring rain as if it was a queensland wet season. There were flood warnings, but while the river almost lapped the road i don't think any actual flooding occured. Last autumn a lot of people died when the nearby Aude river became a wall of water that crashed through a village near Carcassonne.
That evening, we dined at an excellent local restaurant, la maison. Its expensive, but worth the money for a treat. The big attraction is the buffet entree. Huge variety of shellfish, smoked fish, foie gras, hot dishes etc etc. Followed by typical country dishes like confit duck and cassoulet, and grilled meats they bbq over the open fire. Throw in a cheese board and dessert and you leave feeling very full. 35 euros for the lot.
Saturday was cloudy but the rain seemed to be gone, so we loaded our bikes into the suv and headed for the canal du midi for a test ride. I think i have pretty much convinced john it is a fun thing to do next year, to ride its length. It wasn't the best day to try it though. The path had become thick muddy sludge that made pedaling very hard work. Still, we had gone 6 kms when there was a sudden sound of something whacking into John's spokes and he ground to a halt. His derailleur had snapped off. Never seen that before. Luckily weren't far from a road so i rode back to the car and was back in under an hour. It did make us realise that we might need to know a bit of basic bike repair before doing a 500 km bike ride. We spent the evening watching the EU election results. In several hours of coverage on two channels they never once referred to the results in other countries. We had to resort to the guardian coverage for that. The french seem very insular in their news reporting. The results weren't as bad as in Australia, but having proto or just out and out fascist parties get the most votes in hungary, poland, italy, uk and france wasn't great. However, in reality, in the uk and france, that is still only 33 and 22 % of the votes. The problem in both those places was how the centre and left vote was split across so many parties. I thought it was hilarious hubris on the part of le pen to declare macron had lost all legitimacy and needed to call new elections. His party got barely more than one point less than hers, and had not existed until two years ago. And nearly 80 percent of france had voted against her fascist ideology. Sadly, not so in Belesta. It is each local maire's responsibilty to count votes so i looked on the belesta noticeboard and did a quick adding up. The national front ( i am going to keep using their old name), got over forty percent of the vote. The left vote was split across five parties!
Sunday was market day at Esperaza, 30 minutes away with the bonus of a vide grenier as well. It's a wonderful market full of young and old alternative types selling organic produce, a whole range of food from paella to vietnamese and indian. It's perfect for a slow Sunday morning. We moved on to limoux with the promise of another vide grenier but the clouds had kept everyone at home. There were three stall holders who obviously couldn't think of anything better to do with their Sunday. It was in the grounds of a beautiful church though, and looking at that was worth the trip.
That evening i finally found the craft brewery at puivert open. And discovered the unlikely little australian expat colony that lives in the village. Four different couples, i think. In fact, everyone in there was an english speaker, which was slightly disappointing. We moved on to saint colombe sur l'hers, to le stop pub, but it was shut. However, the bar just down from it was open. We went in, but in french we got informed it was a club prive so we disappointedly headed back to the car, before being called back. We went in and got a little interrogation in french. Where we were from, were we on holidays etc, before the only other customer says, in english, come on alex, stop torturing them. The owner is english, but is choosy about his clientele. We ended up having a good old chat with him and robert. During which i discovered i had better be careful about my skinny dipping habit. Alex now has a criminal record as a result of complaints to the police about him swimming nude in the river.
Monday saw John motor off and after he left I did a bit of cleaning up, finally taking all the old bits of beds from the attic to the dump. I love going there. the employees are so helpful, almost running to the car to check what you have and then helping you unload it into the appropriate bins. The fact that it is free helps too.
and that was it. the next day involved driving to Toulouse airport, taking a flight to Barcelona, waiting four hours, flying to Zurich, then to Singapore and finally to Brisbane and la vie quotidienne.
a few pics here:
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