153. Thoughts on midsummer

21st June 2011. We've arrived at the longest day of the year.. and no doubt Stonehenge will have been well & truly hugged this morning by touchy-feely New Age crystal gazers et al. There's a good cross-section of them here on this clip as well as the beginnings of that old hippy stand-by - the circle dance. (Where did I put my cloak..?!)

My reliable old BS Detector flicked straight into the RED zone and almost burnt out when I saw what Father Christmas gets up to in the above clip between January and November..! It keeps them off the streets I guess.

I visited Stonehenge about 20 years ago and it was a curious experience. Over the years these ancient stones have challenged us to come up with a convincing explanation for their purpose  and, standing as they do at the side of a busy main road, I found it difficult to separate them from the mundane everyday world that passes by. However, they continue to exert a fascination over us and they have intrigued each successive generation. Today, their mute silence seems to appeal more to those who hold more alternative views. So now we have druids there in some make-believe ceremony greeting the sunrise by chanting their mantras and accompanied by - and I'm guessing here - flutes and bongos at the very least..

There's another site at Carnac in Brittany with rows of standing stones that remains mysterious to this day. 

Another hot outing this evening in a beautifully built wooden shell coxed quad sculler.. I must admit to being glad to see the clubhouse again afterwards! 13km (Running Total: 779km).

There's the Fête de la Musique tonight in Bayonne.. and on Saturday, there's the Marché Montmartre where local artists exhibit their work in the streets around the cathedral.

22nd June 2011. We drove up to Condom in the Gers today to meet up with A & I for lunch (A is an old colleague and was on holiday up near Bergerac). France is a big country and that was brought home to us (I mean me!) as we had a long drive (almost 3 hours) in the rain to Condom (which hadn't looked that far on the map!) past vast fields of rustling corn - which, curiously, despite the rain, were still being watered. There were fields of sunflowers too, all focused on where the sun should have been. And then there were the vines. Row upon countless row of vines.

After driving through a largely empty landscape, we entered the small village of Montréal and there was a sudden clustering of a large number of creatively parked cars.. and the slightly surreal sight of a crowd of people who were all engaged in playing boules or pétanque (is there a difference?) - in the rain.

It was good to see A & I again and we enjoyed a nice little lunch here.. Tried some of the local white wine - Domaine de Monluc - which I'd like to be able to find locally but I don't think there's much chance of that. 

We went for a walk around Condom afterwards and visited the Musée de l'Armagnac - but not the Musée du Préservatif which celebrates the product for which Condom is perhaps better known. (I've kept you waiting a few paragraphs for this - in Condom, even the buses come in threes..!) If you really must, scroll down this link for an idea of what awaits you there if you decide to visit.

Finally, we hove upon La Librairie Gourmande (3 Place Bossuet) which is a bookshop-cum-tea shop on three floors and highly recommended! The menu featured page after page of various teas, coffees and hot chocolate - none of us had ever seen such a variety and choice. The friendly owner also serves her own cakes - which were moist and delectable - and the customer is invited to graze from the surrounding bookshelves at the same time. I needed dislodging with a pointèd stick! 

23rd June 2011. Another sultry evening on the river in the same boat we had on Tuesday.. 14km (Running Total: 793km)

24th June 2011. Went to Saint-Jean-de-Luz in the afternoon - which was girding its loins for celebrating its Fête.. many people in red and black.. with temporary bars set up in the streets ready for the evening. After, we called in at our friends' restaurant in 'our' village where we always used to stay. Had a sangria under the platanes outside and realised with something of a shock that it was 20 years ago this summer that we made our first visit there. Back then, we were staying at another small hotel in the village but it was quite noisy at night there as it overlooked the fronton.

Back then, we asked in the restaurant if they knew of anywhere else in the village where we could stay and next minute, the chef (the father of P, the current owner) emerged from the kitchen in his whites and his tall chef's hat and said he'd take us somewhere.. He jumped in his open-topped 2CV (right) and, with his chef's hat poking out through the roof in the breeze, he careered off at speed through the village - with me sticking to him like glue - before pulling up outside a white painted Basque house 5 minutes away. (only in France!) There, we were offered a spotless chambre d'hôte room (ie, B&B) for £10 a night - and this was in the height of the season. Many happy memories of summer holidays in that village.

25th June 2011. Warm out there on the river this morning - did 14km in a coxed quad sculler. Not the best outing of the week. (Running total: 807km)

It was hot out on our west-facing terrace last night so I made a couple of caipirinhas.. which really hit the spot. The Met lady is forecasting temps of 36C for here today and tomorrow.

26th June 2011. I've mentioned Tiens! before here - it's a privately produced free online magazine about South West France that, in my view, has set the standard for fascinating content, design & beautiful photography - and all accompanied by great music. Produced by Perry & Caroline Taylor (a creative Anglo-Dutch couple) in partnership with Marc & Jacqueline Receveur-van der Grinten as a labour of love, Tiens! reflects their view of life in la France profonde by scratching below the surface to reveal the old values, habits, customs and traditions of a rural France that are in danger of disappearing in the face of the relentless advance of modernity. As far as I know, no-one 'out there' is doing anything remotely similar that portrays these aspects of rural French life so lovingly.

Alas, no-one stepped forward to support their worthy endeavours and so they had to cease publication of Tiens! after Issue # 3.  

152. Saint-Jean-de-Luz in the late afternoon sunshine

18th June 2011. Late yesterday afternoon we decided to zip down to Saint-Jean-de-Luz (25 mins from Pipérade Towers) for some retail therapy (hold me back!). As we drove the few km south down the autoroute, the horizon opened up at one point to reveal a great expanse of the not-so-distant Pyrenees shimmering in a misty blue heat haze - this view never fails to inspire us.

The car said it was 27°C and it certainly felt like summer when we arrived at Saint-Jean - the beach was quite crowded and a few people were swimming. We stopped at the Glaces Lopez concession on Boulevard Thiers - difficult not to - and 'people-watched' for a few minutes while we ate our ice creams (chocolat noir and stracciatella). We noticed that shop windows were full of red & black pants, shirts, foulards etc and, sure enough, it wasn't long before we saw a sign for the Fêtes Patronales de Saint-Jean-de-Luz. (above left)
It all kicks off next weekend when it's more or less de rigueur to wear red & black. The Fête Patronale usually combines all of these - dancing the fandango, confetti wars, strolling bands, eating, singing, sangria and usually the toro de fuego* to finish up with - which is totally bonkers!                               * It's not a real bull!

We had two English girls visiting us down here years ago and, at the height of the high jinks (the bands, the drums, the toro de fuego (!), the confetti wars etc etc) one of them turned to us and asked - a little plaintively - "Is it always this lively?" (that phrase has entered our vocabulary!)

Boulevard Thiers still runs along the sea front but it no longer looks like this (left) - only a couple of these elegant seaside villas remain - unfortunately the remainder were demolished long ago to be replaced by 60s-style multi-storey apartment blocks. And nowadays, both sides of the boulevard are lined with parked cars.

After finishing the shopping, we returned to Boulevard Thiers to stop off at the newly re-juvenated 'Bar Basque' (right) for a sangria. All the tables and chairs outside have been replaced with swish new ones, there's a new menu, the waiters are friendly and if you're ever at a loose end in St Jean, there are many worse places to twiddle it in than the 'Bar Basque'. Sitting with a drink under the trees in the late afternoon sunshine watching the world go by, I'd be hard-pushed to think of anywhere else I'd rather be. All the elemental colours of the Basque flag were there - the white of the buildings, the Basque red shutters and doors, the green of the trees under a burning blue sky. And while you're contemplating all that, their drinks list features some classic cocktails too..

The Boulevard Thiers runs through the chic part of St Jean de Luz. If your S.O. (significant other) feels her "Shopping Low Level Warning Light" come on, you could always volunteer to park yourself at the 'Bar Basque' thus leaving her free to ramble and roam without that nagging feeling that two steps behind her lurks Mr Grumpy who's got half an eye cocked on his wrist watch.

Boulevard...

..Thiers

And if you ever find a large bunch of keys to an apartment anywhere on Boulevard Thiers jangling in your pocket, you'll know that you've landed on your feet. Lined with well-groomed evergreen trees (I'm not sure if they're eucalyptus or magnolia - or neither), a few steps from the beach and handy for all parts of town, Boulevard Thiers really is the ne plus ultra as far as I'm concerned.   

Went down to the river this morning under heavy grey skies - it had rained overnight - and no sooner had we got out on the river in an VIII than it started raining again.. Ah well, it's only water (it says here). Did 14km (Running total: 766km).

A propos of nothing - this sign from European trains advising passengers not to lean out of the windows always used to amuse me - not entirely sure why though. The German phrase sounded to me as though it should be shouted, whereas in French it sounds like something a Frenchman might whisper to his girlfriend last thing at night. The Italian one comes straight from a menu.. "I'd like the pericoloso sporgersi and a bottle of San Pellegrino per favore." That's the danger of national stereotyping for you!

19th June 2011. The window's wide open, there's not a cloud in the sky and the birds are twittering (not tweeting!) outside.. Going to be warm today.

No lawn or hedge has been harmed in the writing of this post. 

Here are some tips for travellers dated 1937 - how times have changed:

151. An English lawn in the Pays Basque

As it was

15th June 2011. It's been a quiet week in the Pays Basque (with apologies to Garrison Keillor!) Starting a lawn from scratch here has proved trickier than I ever would have believed. When we moved in here in February 2008, the 'lawn' (such as it was) was a mess - it was choked with weeds and dandelions (pronounced by Madame in her own inimitable fashion as dan-delly-ons!) with many bare patches of hard-packed earth. I started pulling the weeds out one by one but, after I'd done a small area, I realised I would be wasting my time as there was hardly any grass remaining after the weeds had gone. After looking at the price of turf, I thought it would be cheaper to re-seed. This meant double-digging the whole area all over, putting in fertiliser and a lot of new soil, leveling it and re-seeding.

So - it was out with the spades and the forks. Digging it over took me a week as just below the surface lay a tangled web of roots from the surrounding trees and bushes. Heaving out as many of the firmly-entrenched roots as I could manage filled ten 50 litre sacks - and lopped 5 years off my three score years and ten.. I put in a lawn edging strip to try and contain the lawn neatly at the borders and then I started building up the level with soil. I've long lost count of how many 50 litre sacks of earth and fertiliser I've put in but it's well over a hundred. I seeded and then stood back to watch and wait.

Lawns flourish in England's mild & well-watered climate but that of the Pays Basque is more challenging with its fierce summer sun and infrequent but torrential downpours of rain. 

Early results were illusory (right) - the lawn looked promising but it gradually faded and we ended up with dead burnt patches. I think the tree's roots were sucking up much of the water and so a couple of years ago, we decided to have it removed. As it came down, we discovered that it had been dying on us - much of it was rotten. After re-seeding with different grass and achieving mixed results I bit the bullet and turfed the half at the far end. Madame has been raking it all and putting liquid fertiliser on it and I think we must be doing something right as this year it's finally starting to look pretty good. We've also been making good use of the water barrel to keep newly sown patches well-watered. The birds remain a problem though. For some reason, they keep pecking holes in it. The little treasures!

Did a search on YouTube for a suitable clip about mowing lawns and came up with this.. (don't ask!)