The first few days after we arrived back in Ceret we were pretty weary, especially after the busy motorway driving of the last two days in the heat. Our tenants had left the apartment spotless, so it was very easy to unpack and set ourselves up again. A few treats were also left for us, e.g. some frozen Mars bars, which were very quickly dispatched.
We opted for a few of our routine walks, checking out the ripeness of the blackberry bushes which line some of the tracks we take. Surprisingly, they hadn't yet ripened to any significant extent, in fact, many were only just beginning to ripen up. We thought the season might have come and gone while we were away. We collected about a kilogram of smallish fruit, but will leave it another week before having another go. We enjoyed a swim at the pool one morning, especially when we retrieved the pull buoy we had unwittingly left behind last time we were there a month ago - the lifeguard had put it safely aside for us.
Our nephew Nick was due to arrive mid Wednesday afternoon, but the train was late arriving in Perpignan and he missed his bus connection to Ceret. There was another less than an hour later, but he soon discovered that, being Assumption Day, the schedule was changed and the next was not for another few hours. We jumped in the car and drove into Perpignan to collect him. It was great to catch up on all the news that night over a pizza and bottle of wine at the restaurant below our apartment.
The next day we drove the short distance over the Spanish border, a little slowly due to dense holiday traffic, and took Nick on the walk around the 17th century border fortress, lookout tower, 2000-year-old Roman Road (complete with deeply incised cart tracks), and other points of interest. Recently cropped cork oaks, with their rich red bark, were bright in the landscape. Feeling a bit hot and weary we backtracked a little to the old town of La Jonquera and settled down in a local restaurant we go to when we go there to get our haircuts. The food was as good as ever, particularly the huge cuts of tuna for the main dish. The traffic was heavier on the way home but we weren't in a hurry, arriving back about 5pm in time for a cold glass. John cooked boudin noir (blood sausage) for dinner. It has a very odd texture, quite unlike anything else.
It was forecast to rain during the night but it didn't arrive. We had a bit of a lie-in anyway, followed by an hour-long walk to gather another crop of blackberries, then retired to Bar Pablo for a hard-earned (?) coffee. A splendid thunderstorm in the afternoon heralded the start of some heavy rain, which was just wonderful to smell, hear and feel (our roof was leaking a little again). However it cleared by 5pm, in time for us to set off to Cafe de France to enjoy a last glass of wine together before Nick headed off the next morning.
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| Bar Pablo - John and Nick with coffee (and pastries waiting on the table) pre-lunch. |
We arrived at the local bus-stop in good time for his 8.15am departure, after first spending a little time at the Saturday morning market for Nick to stock up on veges to tide him over the next four days at the concert. It was great having some serious chill-out time with Nick. He was relishing his first trip by himself for ages, though it's lucky we worked out the night before that he was booked to catch a train at Perpignan at 10am, onwards to Barcelona, and not a bus, as he had thought!
After seeing Nick off, we caught up on fresh supplies of fruit and veges ourselves at the market. We bumped into lovely French friends from a nearby town, whom we hadn't seen for quite a while. It was great to share a coffee together and catch up on each others news. They have invited us to dinner at their home next week, which we are looking forward to.
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