It was our last Sunday in Ceret for quite a while - so it deserved a lie-in. After a coffee we set to a few jobs, e.g. updating the house manual, cleaning the kitchen cupboards etc. Jobs that need doing every year before we shut up the apartment for months.
We'd contacted some French friends to invite them for lunch on Monday. They replied yes so we did some food preparation in the afternoon. It's an obvious fact that making a pavlova would be much easier with an electric beater, but unfortunately we only have a manual one! Anyway, it seemed to turn out well.
We invited English friends around for apero, and spent an enjoyable few hours gossiping over a glass of bubbles and lightly cooked padron peppers. They have opted to live in France permanently, though still have a house in Portsmouth. They are considering potentially moving back at some stage in the future. John is a successful artist here.
Monday dawned lovely and sunny again, and not quite as cold. Our French guests arrived after noon and we spent a lovely afternoon together, eating and merrily chatting away. It was very enjoyable, as always.With them leaving at 5pm, we didn't need to eat much for a simple dinner afterwards.
Tuesday was the day for putting our car to bed for the next 9 or 10 months. First, we drove over the border to La Jonquera, where we were booked in for a haircut each. Unfortunately our favoured female hairdresser was away on holiday so we ended up with a young guy instead. The next stop was a quirky little art cafe/boutique where we'd had a delightful coffee before. Its name is Artigas. It's full of retro clothes and and art. The coffee is served in gorgeous crockery and comes with a wafer. My cortado (a larger version of a macchiato) comes with a tiny bottle of heated milk. It's just a cool experience and really fun.
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| Artigas Cafe |
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| Our coffees and mini chocolate croissants |
On any trip to La Jonquera we usually indulge in a leisurely Spanish lunch in the old town, however neither of us were feeling very hungry on this occasion. Recrossing the border on the 30 minute drive back, we drove past a group of perhaps eight Spanish national guard soldiers, armed with scary looking weapons and standing menacingly on each side of the road. One had a chain of road spikes in his hand so we wonder if they were on standby to try and stop a vehicle.
Just over the border in France is the small town of Le Boulou, where we overwinter the car. Our long standing arrangement with the owner of Le Richelieu Hotel continues to work very well, allowing us to park our car in his huge garage for a minimal monthly fee. A friend put us onto it. We caught the bus back to Ceret and were home by mid-afternoon, in time for another yoga session.
The next few days (Wed-Thurs) have been spent giving the apartment a thorough clean, packing gear away and packing our bags for the trip home. On a few last walks around the town we tried to soak up the atmosphere as much as possible. With our last coffee at Le Comptoir this morning we got a very cheery Bon Voyage from Sebastian.
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| Xmas decorations are appearing around Ceret |
The last items of food from our fridge found their way to our good English friends who live here year-round, then it was time to finish off the last bits of cleaning. We managed to fit in a last yoga session, though have fallen short of completing the full 30 session course. We've got as far as 23, so did pretty well. Perhaps we'll manage to do the last seven sessions before Xmas.
The trip homeward is going to be exciting and challenging, kicking off with likely sub-zero temperatures in the Czech Republic.....
