Rest-of-Year News

July. We had decided to have a lunch party for Canada Day again and invited 19 people. Some could not attend due to other commitments, but 15 of us sat down to a splendid lunch of salmon, barbecued beef and the usual goodies, followed by Pecan Pie, pecans brought back from the US as we can't get them here. We had as guests French, Belgians, and expat Brits, and we had two tables, one of which became the bilingual table and the other the English one, so it was a lot of fun and I think everyone enjoyed it.

Beryl and I went to UK for a week in July, to join Caroline and Francesco on their tenth anniversary, and to see the grandchildren and my brother. The weather was lovely for the first couple of days but it then went cloudy and cool, but we had a warm welcome and enjoyed seeing everyone.

August. This month we were delighted to welcome our neighbours of many years in Kanata, Hella and Rick Bertrand, for a short stay. We had a great time together, visited a number of places of interest and they hit several more on their own. It was Rick who coined the expression "another sh…. Day in Paradise" as he gazed at the morning sunshine lighting up the hills and mountains around us. While they were here we all went to an evening concert at the Chateau de Berne. It was the All Souls Orchestra, which we gathered is a subset of a BBC Symphony Orchestra which supports religious causes. The concert was in aid of children of the third world. The setting at the Chateau for concerts is idyllic, as the orchestra is seated on an island in the middle of an artificial lake, with the audience seated around the shoreline on concrete terraces, a bit like an ancient Greek arena. The moon was shining and the stars were out, and it was beautiful. We had gone with a group of friends and we picnicked in the grounds before the concert. The Chateau provides good picnicking places, the only condition for use is that you buy your wine from them, no hardship as it is good wine at a reasonable price. The programme was a mixture of classical favourites and popular items like The Saints and Porgy and Bess, but the piece de resistance was undoubtedly the duet between the soprano, Sarah Ownsworth, and the orchestra's principal trumpet, who performed Let the Bright Seraphim, by Handel. Truly a memorable evening.

September - full house this month! Caroline and family arived by car on August 27th. It was lovely to see Anna and Julia and how much they had grown even in the few weeks since we had seen them. The pool was popular as it was quite hot, and Anna enjoyed swinging on a tire suspended on a rope. They also had a great time at the beach at La Nartelle, but our ability to get around was constrained for a week due to the strikes and blockades over the price of gasoline, but we were all able to go to the Jazz Picnics a couple of times at the Chateau de Berne. On Sept 14, Beryl's friend from Eaton's days, Audrey Farish, arrived, causing some moving around to accommodate everyone, until Caroline and family left for home on Sept 19th. We took Audrey back to Nice on 25th for her flight back to Ottawa via Rome.

Alan has been persuaded to help giving a course on The Internet at the Informatique Club Plantourien (the local computer club) which has been very interesting and a definite boost for his French! As part of the course is showing people how to do their own web site, I had to do one to find out myself, you can find it at the address given at the end of this letter. At the end of September we hosted our friends from Kanata, Ken and Gill Round for a few days until they moved on to stay with another friend in Menton. It was great to catch up on all that had happened to friends and Kanata.

October. On the 1st October it was the day of the Vin Cuit followed by an Aioli Monstre in the village. Vin Cuit is grape juice heated over a fire, all done from scratch including macerating and then pressing the grapes with portable presses. By the time you get to drink it, the vin cuit has been fortified with something which definitely contained alcohol. The aioli is a traditional dish of boiled cod with various vegetables with a pot of garlic mayonnaise to spread over whatever you fancy, and is quite delicious. It was partaken by quite a good assembly of people, seated at trestle tables under the plane trees in Place Foch in the centre of the village, and liberally supported with bottles of (real)wine.

On 9 October we left for a few days in Tuscany, staying with Francesco's father and stepmother. We had a good trip and they made us very welcome, but the weather did not cooperate, which was unfortunate, as the area is very pretty. We returned on 12th, in pouring rain most of the way. The rainy season had commenced!

Beryl left for UK on October 19th, to spend some time with her mother. She found her very weak, and the doctor indicated that he did not expect her to live very long, so Beryl postponed her return. Just as well, as her mother died very peacefully two days later. Beryl's sisters Pam and Kay joined her as soon as they could so that the estate details could all be handled. Beryl returned to France on Nov 7th.

November. The weather has been very unsettled for the past six weeks or so, with lots of rain. I have recorded 337 mm rain in the past four weeks. Everything looks very green but the deciduous trees are slowly turning and losing their leaves. On 19 Nov we went to the Taradeau wine festival, to taste and celebrate the new wine. You buy a glass for 20F and this entitles you to unlimited refills throughout the day. At 1 pm there was a lunch in the village hall (for about 700 people!) which went on till about 5 pm, with entertainment as well. This consisted of Provencal dancing and songs, an acrobatic team, a stand-up comic (not much use to the Anglais!) and the Transhumance Jazz Band, which was excellent and very popular. It helped make up the intervals between courses. A great day.

The following Sunday was the annual British Christmas Fair, where you can buy mince pies and Christmas cards among other things. It is held at the Maison des Vins at Les Arcs, who keep 670 wines of Cotes de Provence, so there is some useful tasting to be done if the fair fails to attract. This coming weekend there is another Christmas fair at the Chateau de Berne. Plan de la Tour has big plans for Christmas festivities, involving recreating the trades of a century ago. It will be interesting to see how that works out.

Its the time of year when sitting down before a log fire has a lot to welcome it, even though it isn't exactly cold outside! Dec 1st 2000