Gosh, how civilised

Spent a lovely day yesterday - woke up late, wandered into town for lunch at a local restaurant. Food was Catalan (boiled eggs with creamy spinach sauce for starter) and great quality. Plus we had three courses, wine, water and coffee all for the bargain price of 11 euros a head. Can't say fairer than that. The afternoon was spent reading by the pool or on a couch (Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, slightly cheesy, quite depressing but certainly enjoyed it) until the Spanish had finished their siesta. We wandered back into town to pick up food and wine. Had some jamon, bruschetta and other delicious tapas bits at a local bar. Came back to the house, more relaxation and then Harry cooked clams with white beans, followed by black squid ink risotto to celebrate the arrival of Gayden and Eagle about 11. Food, wine, pleasant conversaion and then bed by 2. Its a hard life.

Maybe Dali's not so crazy

Last day in France and I celebrated with an Almond croissant in the car (first and last pastry in France!) as we headed to Spain! Driving to a foreign country ... very exciting. After a few hours blasting down immaculate French motorways we were waved through and barrier by a smiling guard and into Spain, well, Catalonia really. all the signs were in Catalan and nobody seems to speak Spanish, plus I think I'm on the side of Catalan separatists. Just over the Spanish border we headed East to Cadaques, home of Salvador Dali. Such a pretty coastal town - turqoise waters lapping on a sandy beach with white washed houses clinging to the precarious hill sides all round. Simply stunning.

Even more special though was what we discovered as we headed East where Dali's house actually is. All the way East actually ... to the most eastern point in Spain Cap de Creus. Considering we drove through a landscape merely consisting of rock, plants and grass I can say I've never been anywhere more alien. Strange and exotic rock formations abound. They they repeatedly show in Dali's work and I can see why he was so inspired. Pictures I can google don't do it justice so I'm afraid you're just going to have to go and see it for yourself. I highly recommend it.

Later Andrew drove me to Harry's house near La Bisbal. I say house ... its more a paradise on earth. House, tower (designed by a Gaudi pupil and pictured above), olive grove, dovecot, swimming pool and all on top of a hill so the views are breathtaking. Things you want in a holiday ... a note on the kitchen table saying 'roast suckling pig in the fridge, Maria coming to cook dinner on Friday' and a phone conversation along the line of 'make yourself at home and I'd highly recommend going up the tower to watch the sunset'. Amazing. And I did ... and I cried. Simply stunning. Harry arrived from raving in Morocco, much booze was drunk, substances were freebased and I went to bed happy at about 2. Check out the house at www.torreronsat.com and feel free to die of jealousy. I might never leave

Monday Millau

Early start on Monday so we could head over to Millau and see the worlds tallest bridge. Drove through IMPENETRABLE fog for nigh on an hour. was insane, fog I'm used to ... it going on for miles and miles and miles and so thick you couldn't see more than 10ft out of the car was certainly a new experience. First stopped off in the gorgeous town of Millau and had a wander round. There's an old water mill on a bridge there that juts out over the side of the bridge and rests on supports. I WANT IT! Would live happily there for ever and ever. Loved the town. The bridge was incredible too and was certainly enhanced by the fog:



A very handsome bridge no doubt. So large that from a distance the scale is all wrong an you don't think its that big. As you get closer you realise its a lot further away than you thought and is actually enormous. Quick sandwich at the bridge then we headed of to Roquefort so see the cheese caves. Probably the most French experience of my life ... standing in a cheese cave listening to a talk about cheese in French while a group of French people made jokes about cheese around me. Unfortunately the cheese production is pretty uniform so there wasn't anything special there to buy, on the other hand it means the stuff you can get in Sainsburys is just as good as the stuff you can get in Roquefort itself.

Headed back to Montpellier, drinks in the square as the sun went down, dinner, more drinks. Lovely.

Avignon

Ended up drunker than a skunk last night in a bar just round the corner which happened to be stocked to the brim with hot guys. About 6 in a room holding 25 people, I like that ratio. Was up til 3am drinking red wine by myself, listening ipod and sending texts to people in London. Probably end up costing me a billion pounds or so.

Today we drove to the medieval town of Avignon to see the Pope's palace. There are many reasons why there is one in Avignon as opposed to the Vatican but alas the audio guide was as tedious as dental surgery so I can't relay any pertinent information. The whole town itself is just insanely beautiful and lousy with history. Its a fortified town and pretty much all of the battlements are still standing. We had lunch in a pretty square (obviously) had ricard before the meal (obviously) and red wine from a carafe (obviously). For my main I had the special which was bull stew ... the bull having been recently dispatched in a local bull fight. Who knew there were bull fights in France? I'm glad there are - bull is delicious.

Tired now, early start tomorrow. Only had one bottle of wine between 4 people at dinner. Think I might be turning into a French person.

English weather, French behaviour

Had a lovely dinner last night in what was basically a French man's living room. The menu was described to us by the owner/waiter/chef and was limited in content but not in quality. The experience was significantly enhanced by Bérangère grabbing hold of a ceramic chicken and exclaiming 'Ah! C'est jolie ça!' it was literally a GCSE French class come to life. We didn't make the club since we arrived to catch the bus after 1 which is when the last bus departed. Instead spent a pleasent evening enjoying the delights of the bars of Montpellier.

Today it rained. ALL day. It's only just stopped and it's nearly 9. We drove down to Sete which is a lovely coastal town famous for its seafood. Had a too brief to a Carrefour and headed into town. Had a good look around but no seafood since the market was shut and we were between meals. As I type this Andrew is making pastry for an Aspargus and Cheese tart, four bottles of vin rouge to get through and company to be had in a bar later. Lovely.

I HATE FRANCE

I don't really but it's impossible to be here without quoting the inimitable words of Edwina Monsoon. I do, however, hate French keyboards. I'm typing this on a keyboard where you have to use the shift key to get a full stop, there's a Q where the A should be and a ù instead of an apostrophe. So apologies in advance for any nonsensical aspects. Flight passed without a hitch, I almost got to sit next to the hottest man in France but the woman in my aisle moved up rather than let him squeeze by. Very sad. Bumped into Isi in the airport briefly though, which was great. Was picked up by Andrew in his comedy French persons car, this isn't it but his is VERY similar, just blue:

Stayed up til 3 drinking wine and Pastis, listening to depressing music and setting the world to rights. Trés Français. At least its easy to do the correct accents with a French keyboard. Just had a long walk round the hilly medieaval streets of Montpellier, lunch in a small square with a carafe of wine and stopped in a glorious cheese shop on the way home. Tonight its Moroccon food in the Arab quater then clubbing. Clubbing. In France. Clubbing. Behold the Techno.

The one blot on Montpellier is the Antigone built in the 70s by blind, almost certainly insane people. A little slice of Saudi Arabia in the south of France. Judge for yourself:


It's on the postcards which implies they're proud of it. Hmmmmmmm I'm clearly missing something:

Hello? *peeps nervously round door*

Having recently endured the horror of being made redundant and staring infinite time in the face, I thought it was about time to reignite the blog.  I stopped because my boss pulled me into a meeting and said 'We can tell from the time of your blog posts that you've been writing it at work'!!!  I was all 'and you can tell from the content that my life goals revolve around illegal drugs and falling down when drunk' so my writing career came to a swift end.  Now I'm free, FREE!

The credit crunch, redundancy, unemployment.  Words of horror and terror.  Let me speak to you of my experiences of the world economic crisis: I went from being miserable, incarcerated in a prison camp 9 hours a day five days a week, to being set adrift into a world of near constant sunshine, limitless free time and £11,000 to enjoy it all.  LET MY TALE BE A WARNING TO YOU ALL.  Governments beware ... I went from enslaved, productive member of society, safely contained within the rat race to a free thinking, whirling, happy free spirit ... liable to dash off on holiday, kick up my heels for joy or do something entirely unexpected.  Is that what you want from your populations?!  IS IT?  Who's going to do all the photocopying if everyone's too busy enjoying themselves?  I suggest fixing the world economy immediately or risk total societal breakdown and an unstoppable outbreak of picnics.

So I guess the theme of my blog from now on is going to be my search for a new job/career and, by extension, self.  More of that later though, for now the theme of my blog is going on holiday cause that's what I'm doing tomorrow - Montpellier, Barcelona, Madrid.  I'm hoping I might never return from this trip but instead it'll be the jumping off point for a lifetime of adventures and opportunities.  However, since most of my holiday plans revolve around wine (France, no explanation needed plus Spain = Sangria) I'll probably just be back in three weeks as planned - unemployed, hungover and significantly poorer.