"Épisode méditerranéen!":

When Greyrocks started writing this post we were in Montpellier and there was an orange alert for heavy rain and flooding.  Chris and Penny had left us a few days before, and we had about ten days ahead of us before the next migration. This would take us back to Fuerteventura where Neil and Maggie had been staying in our place and we would overlap by four nights. All of that happened, but getting keyboard time to finish the post didn't so here we are again, having just seen off our house guests and tomorrow No-booze-ember starts! This is therefore a place-holder which will be in the right month - if the whole is not exactly "hot off the press"!!

After the initial rain warning- which was itself impressive, overnight this rose to "red" status with the addition of high winds, dangerous seas nearby and the possibility of hail! None of this was unexpected. We had woken up to to torrential rain the day before and realised this would not be a day for outdoor activity. Unfortunately we are in a "running down" phase before the next migration, so the "cupboard was bare":- or almost! After hours of stormy weather, with occasional thunder and lightning, and a bodged lunch there was a lull and we dashed across the road to Monoprix for emergency supplies. Whilst we were in there it started again and we raced "home"  to hunker down once more, but better provisioned  This was a day when we were particularly grateful to TV Mucho!  (This is ironic as Ruth had earlier in the day been cursing their website as she wrestled with a subscription change!) In the evening we decided we could - with an umbrella -manage the short walks at either end of a tram ride in order to stick with the planned cote de boeuf at La Boucherie. We did get wet but the trams were on time, the meal exquisite and we carried away enough for the next day's lunch!

In all the foul weather lasted three days. In particular from 4,30 to 7 am  on the third day we were at the centre of a storm, and it was dramatic with almost continual thunder, intense lightning and - for Ruth - no possibility of sleep! The warning stayed in force until early evening, so an opportunity to blog - but not to finish the post! If you can read French this article explains the phenomenon of an Épisode méditerranéen. Greyrocks will use it as the title of an account of the latest three week stay in glorious Montpellier!

• Arrival and our base

We were in Catalunya for a mere seventeen hours! At the hotel next to the airport in Girona where we have often stayed they do an evening buffet, so that suited us well, and next morning we walked over to find Yvette clean and ready to go, then returned to the hotel to collect the luggage and check out, and set off France-wards on the AP7. Unfortunately an incident with a misplaced mobile phone meant the atmosphere inside the car was not as warm as that outside! The journey was uneventful and we had - as planned - time for a supermarket run and sandwich lunch in Lattes before check-in at our accommodation.

Our apartment is on the first floor

For the third time we were renting an apartment near Port Marianne, and this one is the best! It has everything we want and need, is quiet - except at school playtime - and is very close to the tramway station! Yvette was not been moved from her underground parking spot, until  refuelling on the last full day, and once w had sorted a password glitch we had fast WiFi, as well as satellite TV. We are now in the process of book the place for Spring! Also close-by is the centre where Ruth saw a physiotherapist three times a week to continue work on the shoulder. Sarah has fluent (American) English, and each session features a jolly chat about some aspect of Montpellier life. There are parts of the area that we don't know, and are in the midst of fast development - in particular linking Part Marianne with the new "Sud de France" rail station, and the shopping and entertainment mall at Odysseum. We went on a walk into the unknown in search of an advertised lab for Bob's blood test and traipsed through road works and barely complete complexes, but succeeded, and Bob went for several bike rides around this part again during our stay - as well as to the seaside. Ruth -of course - can't even think about cycling until the shoulder is behaving!

• Social whirl

After a few days of reacquainting ourselves with favourite spots, we welcomed our first pair of house guests:- Chris and Penny, who had been at the Venice biennale, and arrived by train via  Marseilles. They had to make do with the sofa bed for their four day stay, but said it was comfortable enough! We gave them space for their own activities, but together went to the cinema to see "Joker", declaring it a triumph, ate at Gazette during their swing evening (which included a dance tuition session for other punters), and on Sunday a tram ride to Lattes market and an excellent Moroccan lunch in Port Arianne followed by the long walk back to Marché du Lez.  This journey started a little late owing to travel disruption in the morning caused by the 10 km race. We needed to dodge some rainstorms during their stay, but fortunately they were on their way by the time the serious stuff arrived!

No sooner had they departed than we  had an evening rendezvous with James and Hannah, whom we know from Paleochora. Hannah teaches English and lives in Montpellier. We arranged to meet in a brasserie in town and then wanted to move on to eat together. We were not far from one of our current "top five", so introduced them to Brasserie Laissac, to which Hannah gave a seal of approval. Over the evening we covered a huge range of shared interests - including the possibility of getting more money back from Dax following the accident. One of those delightful intersections in the Venn diagram of "Friends and their settings!"

• Toussaint holiday reduces activities

Hannah had also told us that the school holiday that would soon start was a two week-er (for All Saints)! This began to explain the paucity of good films we had observed. We also found much less live music to our taste, with Gazette concentrating on chanson francais - presumably aimed at French tourists! Perturbed that Pleine Lune was advertising nothing we took a ride there and found it had changed its name and no longer had music! The cinema disappointment was cured by finding in the final few days of our stay that Ken Loach's "Sorry we missed you" was showing. This was n a horrible weather day with disrupted trams, but we made it just in time, and were so glad we did - despite its depressing theme and pessimistic ending! What an indictment of Tory cuts and deregulation in UK! What a country! Afterwards we uplifted our spirits a little with some excellent tapas at Café Riche, thus redeeming their reputation:- possibly tarnished for a handful of readers by a damning review last year!
School holidays also mean a change to the swimming pool timetable, and a less sympa experience in the leisure pool, so Greyrocks got in just the one session this time round. It was Ruth's first real attempt at sustained swimming since the Great Fall on 4th June, and was well worth it!

• Two art gallery tours 

In our absence Mo.Co. has opened - the Contemporary Art Gallery near the station. we had heard some negative comments, but planned to go round it with Chris and Penny, after they had "done" the sister gallery La Panacée . Unfortunately it was unexpectedly closed, so we drank too much wine and beer instead in Brasserie Laissac!  After their departure we took advantage of the poor weather and unappealing cultural calendar, and spent time in two exhibitions. The first - small, free and temporary - was in the little building near the (mostly) photographic gallery on the Esplanade. we knew nothing about the artist, but his emphasis on sun and seaside with their light and colour was a delight!



The second - where we spent the most windy afternoon of the storm, and so did a good few others - was at the prestigious Musée Fabre. It is huge - and only slightly easier to navigate than London's National Gallery, which defeated us earlier in the year - so we had been advised to attempt only a part. A good plan! We eschewed for this time the Old Masters and some specialised areas, and had a great time. We also found ourselves, somehow, in a temporary exhibition that should have cost extra. This was centred around a famous painting, and explored all facets of its composition and works in many media and styles inspired thereby! Here is a link to an extensive article about it in French, or try the English Facebook site.

With the weather, and impact of the school holiday this was not the most stunning of stays, but still had some high spots. Greyrocks looks forward to the next one - April 2020.

A bit of a detour en route to Montpellier!

By the time we set off on October 2nd there was a sense of "end of season" although the days were beautifully sunny. Friends were peeling off, but John W was back and kindly helped us transport the sunbeds from "our tree" to their winter resting place! This gave us a day without so we made a fairly chaotically arranged trip out to Houmas, where we arrived in time for lunch and then took a brief dip in the sea, and dropped in at the cantina which was deserted! That evening we hosted dinner at the Seagull,and stayed late at Cosmogonia.

The onward journey started with the 3.30 bus to Chania, We fought and won a battle with the left luggage system, and wandered down to see a few sights and have a light meal at The Red Bicycle, where the main waiter always recognises us and asks about Paleo. The airport bus we had chosen was probably one too late as it was a tight schedule to get checked-in and onto a totally full flight to Thessaloniki.

Why there? A - we have heard it is a beautiful and interesting city, and B- we needed a Ryanair hub, so that we could fly eventually into Girona airport to reclaim Yvette without tangling with Barcelona, and this was the obvious choice! It gave us a day and a half for sightseeing.

We stayed the two nights at an airport hotel:- in part as we landed around 11pm. Plans to use busses to get into the city next morning were abandoned when we saw the location, so we took a taxi and were dropped somewhere near where we had in mind. Fellow-blogger Mick - a real Thessaloniki enthusiast - had furnished us with a list of things to see and restaurants. We melded this with a suggested walking tour, which would cover the most famous sites.
Once we had established where we were we set off towards the sea and were soon admiring the spacious squares and elegant buildings bout which we had heard so much. We were also impressed by the cycle paths, but less so by the rented scooters! At the old port Bob took a look at the museums, and then we tried to find the area known as Ladadika , described by one person as a "lovely place for great restaurants" and another as "overpriced tourist trap"! Greyrocks' opinion will have to wait as we never got to its heart or even its periphery, being under-prepared! Instead we ended up on the busiest commercial street gasping for a drink one could consume without sitting on a bar stool! We felt like country bumpkins dodging traffic, holding on tight to bags and clutching our pathetic little map! We were less impressed by this bit of the city!

We then negotiated road works and renovations to historic buildings to find Agia Sofia cathedral. we thought were insufficiently modestly attired, but nobody was policing this, so we had a brief look inside! Impressive - even to atheists!
Now the weather started to deteriorate. We walked to the Arch of Galerius and Rotunda, and then decided we needed a rest and, after a hunt for the right place, found ourselves in the University area, and in a bar where we were the oldest clients by about fifty years! This didn't seem to matter, and as the rain started we moved inside and stayed a long time. This left the White Tower on the list of "must see", and us cold and tired of walking! Unsurprisingly a cab driver refused to take us there, so we did struggle there, and were pleased we did!

We remembered Rick Stein saying he had a long-standing arrangement to meet old friends at the tower many years after a first visit. It is, indeed, very striking. After circumnavigating it and reading plenty about its history we decided not to seek out the recommended restaurants this time round, but eat early in one the many places nearby, and then take a cab straight back to the hotel. More or less at random we chose a simple place with no English menus on display, and thus had a delicious meal with friendly service. It might make it to Trip Advisor! Afterwards we stepped straight into a taxi with a helpful driver, and felt we had done our best, given the weather and our advanced age! After all we would definitely be back!

In the morning it was pouring with rain, so we decided not to spend the morning in the city, but kill time till check-out and then at the airport. The latter we thought would be bound to have decent facilities for catering and resting! How wrong we were! It is - currently - a shambolic overcrowded hell-hole! Unable to drop our luggage for hours and go through to the more civilised airside part we lurked in Arrivals with a can of beer, surrounded by riotous German children. Eventually we did find something to eat and some wine, then onto the full flight to Girona, featuring all the comfort for which Ryanair is famed! And that was the conclusion of our truncated Greek summer!