Again I go to the AVF group every Wednesday morning, in an attempt to learn to speak better French, or even any French! A lot of the time there is spent looking at written work, which is good, but doesn't help with my spoken French.
Also now I have begun to go with another boater, Tricia, to aquagym, an aerobic class in the super new swimming pool just opened this year, here in Castelnaudary. It is very useful to go with Tricia as she interpretes the finer points of the exercises I dont understand about what we are supposed to be doing with our feet underwater. The instructor is quite good and the main movements, but he doesn't show the details. Also Marie-Therese, my French teacher from the first year we were here, attends the class. And she tells me also what to do. The first week I went Tricia and I had a problem with the locker key, and I ended up locking my arm, with the key, to the locker! This week a French lady told Tricia that she thought her English friend (me) was going to drown in the deeper water of the pool. Poor Tricia, I am a liability to her!
Friday 16th we joined 14 other boaters to have a meal at the Chinese restaurant, The Dragon, here in town. It didn't quite live up to our expectations, but was fun with the group.
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| Well we had wine, but the food was a bit longer in coming. |
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| Nigel's flamebaded pineapple was quite spectacular. |
Saturday 17th began the road blocks in protest at the fuel price increases. The town was grid locked and in siege. You couldn't get into nor out of town. It was the same on the following Tuesday; Intermarche blocked off, Geant also. And the queues for petrol were very long. It is reported that some shops don't have fresh food available which is going to cause panic and lead to hoarding and complete shortages. Already it is difficult to get fuel for the car!
On Sunday 11th we drove to Saisaac to view some of the houses for sale, as they have a lot of properties for sale possibly in our price range. But disappointingly Ni says the streets there are far too steep for him to contemplate living there. So that's one place ruled out.
A French lady from the AVF group was a theatre set designer, now textile artiste, and she held an open day in her atelier on Sunday 18th to which we were invited. She creates some fantastic things, with most ideas envisaged from nature. Not necessarily to Ni's taste!
On Friday 23rd, Alain bar owner, sent an invitation to his Fete Adieu, entitling it Auberge Espanol. Which basically meant bring your own food and buy my wine! Lots of locals were also there. It turned out not to be Farewell, as the paperwork hasn't gone through to finalise the deal. He now says 20th December will be handover time. We told him that we're not taking party food every Friday until then. Although most weeks we take a plate anyway!
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| Cake baked by Robyn. |
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| A bottle of English wine, brought by Elaine, and wrapped in a Union Jack! |
Alain also invited Mathieu to come and entertain us.
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| NB all the empty wine shelves! |
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| Le Grand Bassin, Castelnaudary. |
Its going to be hell come the spring if the canal isnt open towards Carcassonne, as all these hire boats will be heading in the direction of Toulouse!
Saturday 24th saw the monthly visit of the English Fish & Chip van. As usual they were delicious! We took ours back to the boat, not joining others in the bar L'Industrie for more booze! We drank our own, its cheaper.
Sally organised a Ladies Wot Lunch at La Dolce Vita on Thursday 29th November. It was well attended. Mixed reviews. However all seemed happy enough when the Maitre De took this photo!
