The Canadians are coming!

We were very excited on Wedneday as we prepared the apartment (by blowing up the mattress) for our niece and her boyfriend, who would be arriving from Vancouver, via Paris. We headed out to the airport for the 1:55 flight and we watched as people came through the doors from the plane, and who should we see, but friends Charlie and Jeanette, returning from a two week trip to the States. We could see a bit of puzzlement on Charlie's face and could almost see the wheels turning "Did we call Mary and Les to pick us up?". After the usual bisous, we expalined that we were there to pick up Amy and Tim. We had a nice chat and then we went back to looking at people continuing to come through the doors. After the pilot, co-pilot and flight attendants had all left the terminal, I decided it was time to go to the Air France desk and see if Amy and Tim were even on the flight. The attendant was so nice, called the lost lugage desk and confirmed that indeed, they were at the desk as one of the bags had not made it from Paris. She walked me over to a secure door, let me in and told me I could wait with Amy and try to sort things out. Amy looked unhappy and tired and Tim looked supportive and tired. We  soon had the paperwork done and all that had to happen was for me to return at 8pm to pick up the bag. No problem.

For Les and I, the job was to keep these two young people happily awake until 8pm so they would quickly adjust to the time change. As it was a beautiful sunny, hot day, we drove to Palavas, walked along the water by the fish boats, enjoyed ice cream and saw the beach, heavy with sunbathers and a few volleyball players. We then drove off to the Cathédrale de Maguelone for some history, peacefulness and found that the thick walls provided a cool refuge against the heat sun.

We arrived home shortly after 6 and I put together a leek quiche and small salad. After the strawberries and cream, Tim and Amy quickly crashed, and Les and I headed out to the airport for the backpack. Altthough there were plenty of cars in the airport, we were THE ONLY people in the building, apart from the woman at the information counter. The five employees from Air France were outside having a smoke, so we had to wait a bit to find someone to help us to retrieve the bag.

The next day we woke at a reasonable hour and proceeded, after breakfast to St-Guilhem-le-Désert for a 2-3 hour hike. It was hot (30C) and the views were fantastic.

We had lunch in the square and then headed home for a bit of a siesta as we had our pub night at 7pm with the British Cultural Assn. We dragged Tim and Amy with us and then the four of us went to the Bar de Fromage.  http://www.lafinemouche.fr     where we each had a plate of four cheeses, paired with four wines. It was educational and very very good!!

This morning, despite good intentions, we all woke just before 9 and found that there was a flea market in our square.

So  after breakfast:

we wandered around the market, before heading into town to explore Montpellier. Although it was cool at 10am, it gradually warmed up. We went to the Place de la Comédie and then to a photographic exhibit of "La Vie en Kodak", which was a terrific exhibit of photos advertising the new Colorama process that Kodak was using in the late '50's and early '60's. Manny of the photos captured the "ideal American life", including one shot of Ozzie and Harriet Nelson, Ed Sullivan and there were also some beautiful shots of Jasper and the lakes and mountains around. After another hour, we were all a bit hungry again, so went for tea, scones, clotted cream and jam at B'Cosse and it was quite wonderful. It's the kind of place where you chat with the owners and by the time you've left you feel like you've been to someone's home for tea.

Tomorrow is market day and we'll buy some fish to cook. We also have to stock up on jam to keep us going for the rest of the month.