Decorating!

After much discussion, and DIY store visits and tester pots we finally decided on the theme of a combination of biscuit and chocolate colours for the downstairs.  It must be all the lovely food here that has subconsciously influenced us!
We have tried for a feature wall, but its a bit tricky as none of our walls are exactly straight; so its a bit curvy, but the desired effect is still the same.

Next step for the downstairs is to get the parquet flooring and a wood burner installed, although sadly I think by the time it's installed we will be back in Perth. So we'll have a brand spanking new wood burner but will not be able to enjoy it! Ah well, something to look forward to for next time.

Before

During

After

Sexy sheer painter's outfit!

Mirepoix Monday market

Monday is market day.  Let’s face it, it’s always market day somewhere in the Ariège, but Mirepoix is probably the biggest in the region.  Its medieval town square along with most of the tributary streets that lead into it are transformed into canopies of colour.  Everything and anything is sold, with food of course, taking up pride of place.  I think I passed at least four cheese sellers, displaying their wares; huge rounds of cheese on display. Haunches of pork being expertly sliced, fruit by the bucket load, olives, bread, and sausages of every size and shape. I even saw a wooden crate of ducks.

We arrived at the market at about 9:30am, and should you want to visit I suggest you come early, as towards lunchtime the market and the traffic gets very busy.  The nearest SuperU (supermarket) car park soon fills up, and most of the side streets too.  We normally find a spot on the street which runs in front the main hotel called ‘Les minotiers’.  On most other days it’s pretty easy to park in one of the side streets that run off the main square.

We were interested in getting some cheese, bread and fruit. Quick tip, no point in asking for cent grammes of a cheese as by the time the seller cuts a wedge out of the round, even a small one its going to be at least 300 grams, (not that I am complaining - the more cheese on my plate the better!

If you are a bloke, Mirepoix provides a wonderful place for an alfresco wee!  They have a urinal – a pissoir - set up right in the middle of the market.  It has a sort of metal mesh from chest to knee to give the patron a sense of privacy, but I could have easily continued a conversation with whomever whilst relieving myself. For the ladies on the other side there is a modern toilet that takes 20cents and is self flushing. In fact if you put 50c instead by mistake it gives you your money back and opens for free! I can’t really comment on the cleanliness but Michelle says it was 'aromatic.'

Most the of bars and restaurants which make up the main square have Wi-Fi, and if your dongle doesn’t stretch very far (fnaaar, fnaaar) its always worth while sitting down with a beer or coffee and using the time to relax watch the world go by and check your mail, pay bills, etc. You may well find the atmosphere so inviting you end up having your lunch there!  I’m beginning to see a internet thread here appearing, but when you are used to the almost unlimited bandwidth we enjoyed back in Australia it’s hard to ration yourself. 

Our First Week

After nearly a week in La Bastide sur l'Hers, we are feeling tired but happy. We were so excited to have a good internet connection in our house this time with our Orange airbox (dongle) that we used up all of our allotted download in two days (it was meant to last a month!). We are now rationing our time on the internet otherwise it'll get very expensive. Fortunately, we have two nearby wifi hotspots where we can also suck up gigabytes - the local swimming pool and a café in Belesta called Le Palais Cathare.  

Our main problems with the house at the moment are plumbing ones. The kitchen sink is out of action as the pump needed to drain it (don't ask me why) refuses to work so we are having to wash up  in the bathroom. Our two showers have also sprung minor leaks - one we've fixed and the other we hope (especially as it's been fixed once by a plumber already) is an isolated incident caused by excessive splashing when I was cleaning it. Visitors be warned - no unnecessary splashing in the shower please! On the plus side, we now have a washing machine - ah, clean clothes again! We have also chosen the floating parquet floor for the ground floor kitchen/diner/living room (this will be laid by a builder in September as the floor is rather uneven and needs to be levelled). And we've started treating some damp patches on a wall in the stairwell and will be preparing this area and downstairs in the coming days for painting.

Here are some photos from some more leisurely moments.

View across to the village

Colourful riverbank

Soirée culturelle on the market place

Spit-roast farm chickens are a Sunday morning special at the local butchers

Are these the cheapest baguettes in France courtesy of Lidl?

Market night!

Well it's all kicking off in the town square.  Thursday night is marché gourmand night.  A number of food vans have collected around the square and the wonderful smells of chicken and beef and sausage and galette and roast veggies have wafted up to our house. I had planned on a baguette with salad for dinner but whatever is cooking outside is far more inviting.
We took the 30 second walk to get down there and had a glass of wine from an old converted Citroën van. Suitably lubricated we bought a cooked rotisserie chicken and found a spot amongst those sitting at the trestle table to eat it.
Certainly beats going to the supermarket and no dishes as its all on paper plates. Next week I'm going to remember to bring my own wine as that's what all the locals were doing.

First stop - wine van

Food hall

Gathering to eat and drink together

French Connection

Boutique Orange

Walking into the Foix Orange store was a...unique experience.  Its all très trendy inside with lots of unfathomable gadgets and the latest in widgets, dongles and handsets.  They like to use English names for their products, such as airbox and homelive.  It must sound more modern or techie or something.

We were there last year and wanted to recharge our airbox (dongle) and the same with the mobile phone. I anticipated it taking 5 minutes; going in, say hello and here's my French orange mobile number, here is the sim card,  quick recharge, out the door, done.

Non...

'Monsieur, yur zim card az expired and yoo must 'ave anozer.'  Quoi?

Apparently because I hadn't used the mobile for a year it was disconnected.  Now bearing in mind they had all my details I thought it a simple task of reconnecting.  But no.  Yes they could sell me a new sim card (couldn't have the existing one) but not without doing the ID check again, despite having all my details on file.  So I took my wallet out and showed them the photo ID of my driver's licence.  Malheuresement, that was not enough, they required my passport.  So we had to drive 35km back home to get the passport.  Anyway all sorted now and proud owner of a new French mobile number.  I am, of course, now dreading that anyone French phones me as stumbling through grammar is bad enough face to face!

Chez Nous

We are now chez nous, back in our house in La Bastide sur l'Hers. With two full days behind us, we have had time to feel overwhelmed by the work that needs doing to the house, discover some new problems with it (more about that later), swim in the local swimming pool (daytime temperatures have been over 30 degrees since we arrived in France), explore more of our village on foot, drink at the bar (and at home!), buy fresh pizza from a 'pop up' van, enjoy the peace and quiet, and soak up the slow pace of life. We've also made two trips to Foix in two days - two visits to boutique Orange to re-establish our internet connection and mobile phone (that famous French bureaucracy meant we didn't have all the necessary paperwork to do it all in one day - more about that later too). During our second trip today, we also put down a deposit on a washing machine (this will mean a third trip to Foix in three days as we have to go back tomorrow to pay for it) and visited the Château de Foix, the oldest part of which dates from the 11th century. Here are some Foix photos.

Artisan's market

Chateau de Foix

View of Foix from Chateau

First Stop - Lodève

Some photos from a few days spent relaxing in Lodève after our journey.

View from Michelle's parents' house

Walking in the hills

Lodève at night

Cathedral

A new toy

Following a hitch-free journey from Perth to Nice via Dubai with Emirates (we were lucky to have a whole row of seats each to ourselves on both flights!) and a safe night in Nice, we were ready to collect our lease car - a silver Peugeot 208 - from Nice airport on Thursday morning. Interestingly, the car is not a regular hire but what is called in French, a transit temporaire (TT). In effect, this means that we have bought the car for two months (we even have registration papers for it in our name), after which time, Peugeot will buy it back from us, and re-sell it to a new owner, still as a new car but at a reduced rate of tax. This means a cheaper new car for the next owner and a car that is easier to sell for Peugeot. Apparently this is a common scheme in France, albeit available only to non EU residents, and all the French car manufacturers - Peugeot, Citroen and Renault - do it. The benefit for us is a brand new car (it had only 2km on the clock), fully comprehensive insurance with no excess, it was slightly better value than hiring a car, and they threw in free sat nav. Pas mal!

Collecting the car from Nice airport

First stop at Michelle's parents house in Lodeve in the Herault

The Next Chapter: Summer 2016 Begins

With only one week to go before the next instalment of our Ariège adventure begins, it's time to move on from past reminiscences and bring this blog into the present. Having realised that the house we bought in La Bastide sur l'Hers is more of a project than we anticipated, we're spending two months in France to crack into the work it requires - that's if we can resist the temptation of just having a lovely long summer holiday instead! At the moment we are busy packing up our rented accommodation in Perth and putting all our belongings into storage. We have also found temporary homes for our cat (Kitty), and the cars.

Packing up the house

Storage locker full and we're ready to go!

Kitty remains oblivious to her approaching 'holiday'