Alison gets into the spirit of France...in more ways than one

It’s Alison’s second and final day in France. Tonight we have dinner plans with Jane and Tap, but what until then? So many options, so what shall we do? We decide to start by going to a local market town near Ginestas called Olonzac. The market is spread down two long streets. Down one winding street is the food and produce. As in so many markets here, this is an agricultural wonderland. Giant vats of spiced olives next to rows of freshly baked bread stacked like firewood next to colorful, fragrant bags full of spices next to stalls of cured meats of all kinds next to pyramids of fresh cheese. And on and on it goes. We took our time wandering through, comparing prices to the U.S., and getting a feel for how it would be shopping here.

At last we made our way back to where the two streets diverged and wandered down the “flea market” side, which to us is always substantially less interesting. Clothes, hats, toys, books, and all manner of miscellaneous, not much of which is of much quality. Having taken a quick turn past this side of the market, we then went back to the central square, where a whole host of people were seated with coffee or wine. It actually took us a while to find a seat, but we at last did, where we ordered two rosés, that cost a grand total of three euro. Looks like the Olonzac market will work out quite well for us in the future.

We next decided to head over the the town of Caunes-Minervois, which has a well-known 11th century abbey. I had been to Caunes before, but had not made it to the abbey, and I had enjoyed the town, so thought it would be a good choice to show Alison. Little did I know this would not work out well. We parked on the outskirts of town, and started wandering towards the abbey. Caunes is actually a very pretty medium-sized village, with hilly cobbled streets and a lot of well-maintained houses. We lost our way a bit, and so it took quite some time for us to get close to the abbey. As we wandered through street after street, Alison noticed that no one was out, despite the fact that it was nearing noon on a weekday. We also noticed that there were a large number of houses for sale. Alison began to get a sense of uneasiness, and noted that there just seemed that something was off in the town. I finally decided to plug the abbey into the GPS, and we began following its instructions, but it was lost as well. So we wandered back and forth through the still empty streets. Finally we saw a sign for a restaurant, so we decided to eat lunch before going to the abbey. Apparently, a large number of British folks have taken residence in Caunes and many of them were at the restaurant. We took some time to let Alison sit among lively people until she felt like she was returning to normal. And then, somehow, we made things worse.

After a leisurely lunch, we quickly found a sign directing us to the abbey, although it led us to the back side of the abbey. After we finally made it to the actual entrance to the abbey, we paid our entry fee and were given an overview of the path through the abbey, which included an underground section dating from the 8th century that had been discovered during renovations and excavations. The abbey is quite beautiful and well-preserved. After passing through the 11th and 12th century upper portions, we made our way down under the abbey into a small chamber where you could see the a small portion of the remnants of the apse of the old church. There were a couple of window wells extending down into the chamber, but they admitted little light. And as we were looking around, Alison said that something felt very odd and wrong and asked if we could go back up, which we did.

I should put this in a little context. Alison is not a superstitious person, not does she believe much in the supernatural, so this was actually quite odd behavior for her. Indeed, she generally scoffs at the rest of us when we make such suggestions about the unexplainable. A perfect example is a story many of you already know, but some of you may not yet. Many of us in the family are persuaded that we have a ghost in our house, and it is likely Alison’s father. In 2010, he unfortunately passed away in one of our basement bedrooms. Since that time a number of odd things have occurred in the house. One of our nephews seemingly saw the ghost when he was very, very young, and told us that the man had told him he should go to bed. When we asked him what man, he described Alison’s father. Lights will come on during the night without anyone being up to turn them on. This we might be able to explain by power surges in our home control system, but what we can’t explain is that the door to our storage room will often be open with no one having gone into it. And many people in our family who have stayed in the basement have experienced this. We have also had the door in the basement bedroom where he passed open in the middle of the night when people are staying in it. And many of us notice that the room has a very different smell than the rest of the basement. Do we actually have a ghost? I don’t know, but we certainly have a lot going on I can’t explain. But Alison doesn’t buy any of it. So for her to have such a strange feeling in this town and especially in the abbey meant that there was little chance I was going to ask here to stay there much longer. And fortunately, Caunes is a bit too far away from the bar for us to consider it for a permanent residence in the future. In any event, the abbey is well worth a visit, and I would be interested in hearing others’ experiences there.

Before leaving the subject of the abbey, I should add in an interesting experience we had in the garden area. They had some enormous flowering bushes which were in full bloom. As we drew near one of them, we saw huge bees darting in and out of the flowers. And then we saw something we couldn’t quite identify. At first, it looked like another large bee, but as we tried to get closer, we saw that it had what looked like a bird’s tail and a long nose. But it was only about 2 inches long. Were we seeing some sort of tiny European hummingbird? Despite my best efforts, I was never able to get a picture of it. So I had to Google “European hummingbird.” And what do you think I found? There are no hummingbirds in Europe. There is however something called the Hummingbird Hawk-Moth, which is what we had seen. Quite an interesting little beast. But unfortunately, I can’t add it to my birding life list!

That evening we had dinner plans with Jane and Tap. We initially had planned to go out, but they let us know that many places are closed on Tuesday night, so they very generously offered to host us for dinner. They live right down the street from the bar, but in getting to their house, we found out that we need to spend some time learning the streets of the town. There is a street that goes past the front door of the bar and there is another heading straight towards the front door of the bar, and I chose the wrong one because I didn’t look at the street signs. So we arrived at what we thought was the house, and as I was about to knock, the front window next to the door flew open and a man I did not know leaned out and asked what we wanted. I explained to him who we were looking for, and he said “No, no, you are looking for the house next door, number 1bis, not number 1.” I was fairly sure Jane had not told me 1bis, but clearly they were not at this house, so we went next door, which is an odd modern renovation with an above ground pool in the front yard. This didn’t seem to fit Jane and Tap’s personality very well, but, again, I clearly had not gone to the right place before, so we figured we would give it a try. But as we walked up the steps to the front door, it opened and an older man came out in his swimming trunks and nothing else. Once again, it was time for our explanation about who we were looking for, and this time we were referred to the bar. When we explained we were looking for their house, not the bar, he then said, “ah, go down to the bar, turn left and walk to the end of the street.” We thanked him, and as we were turning to leave, on the wall across from his house, I saw the street sign and realized we had been on the wrong road all along! But, its not like I have a business in this town or anything...

Finally, making our way down the right direction, we came to number 1 and saw that this time we were definitely at the right place as there was a name plate on the door. Jane and Tap have been working on a renovation of an older town house, and have done a wonderful job combining a modern feel and modern amenities, while retaining the charm of the building itself. Exposed original stone and old archways and beams serve as beautiful accents in the house. And they also provided some good examples of what we might be able to do with the upper floors of the bar. Jane had made a gorgeously-presented and delicious dinner, and we had a great time getting to know them a little better. The night was classically defined by good wine, good food, and good company. It certainly was good for Alison to get a chance to know the folks I will likely be relying on a lot in the coming year. And it was a perfect way to bring Alison’s whirlwind trip to a close.

Wednesday would be simply driving Alison back to Barcelona and then returning to Narbonne. We are going to figure out the train from Barcelona to Narbonne in the future, as it should make things easier for everyone, but we didn’t have time on this trip. Thursday I planned to do more exploring of areas I had not yet been to. It wouldn’t be nearly as much fun as when she was here, but doing things separately was something we would have to get used to for a while. Time, however, passes ever more quickly these days, and with all we each have to do, I’m sure a couple of years will pass before we know it. Let’s hope so.