Month: April 2014

It is the Friday before Easter. Easter is a holiday but the Monday after Easter is also a holiday. So we must think ahead and shop for Friday through Monday. Howard visits the local street market and buys cheese, sausage (for dinner today), and two rabbits for tomorrow’s lunch. We hope our lunch of rabbit… Continue reading 18 April — Servian

We have the perfect breakfast: great croissants from the lady’s bakery and bread “traditional” from the man’s bakery. I worked up the nerve to ask him what bread he had given me the last time and he remembered. Today, Thursday, is the big market day in the square. They have a horse butcher! They must… Continue reading 17 April – Arrogant Frog

Bill and I walk to the village square first thing to try another bakery for croissants and bread. I consider the new bakery’s croissants PERFECT: moist on the inside and flakey on the outside. The bread at this bakery, however, it nothing special. One more bakery to go! Our destination today is Collioure!! It’s probably… Continue reading 12 April – Collioure

For our guests I must serve croissants for breakfast! Some good bread, butter and jelly would be great too. I go to the bakery I’ve tried one other time. It’s not terrible but not my idea of great croissants and bread. So it’s my mission to find the best croissants and bread in Servian! It… Continue reading 11 April – Servian

We are to pick up Karen and Bill Donovan at the Montpellier airport at 2:30. We met Karen and Bill on our Patagonia photography trip 2 years ago. We really liked them and have been in touch since then. They live in Houston and we share a few coincidences. They went to high school in… Continue reading 10 Apr – friends arriving

This morning early we helped our neighbor, Laurent, rescue his cute 1 year old cat from a tall vine against the wall in our garden. This started last evening when I kept hearing someone calling a name; I think it was “Lillie.” When I realized the problem, Laurent and I tried a bunch of different… Continue reading 9 April – lunch at le Vesuvio

Stephen warned us it would rain and it is. Howard makes a fire in the wood burning stove. We need to get the dogs to the vet for their vaccinations against a tick-born parasite that is in France but not in the US. I am not looking forward to a stressful language barrier problem. I… Continue reading 8 April – The vétérinaire

  Stephen is taking us on a winery tour today. Before he arrives I take the dogs on a short walk. On our walk a man asks how the dogs lost their legs. I need to get this story straight in proper French. Or maybe I don’t need to be detailed; I just say “Toby… Continue reading 7 April – Servian and wineries

The “what the hell are we doing here” feeling is diminishing, thank goodness. It’s Sunday and either the shops are closed or, if a shop is open, it closes at noon. So I hop out of bed and get on the road to Pézenas (the Servian market is closed). It takes me forever to find everything… Continue reading 6 April – Servian

We have been invited to Catherine and Stephen Hartley’s beautiful home for what will certainly be an incredible lunch. (That’s what clean livin’ does for you–you get all the good things in life!) We met the Hartleys when we rented their seaside condo in Collioure for several years in a row. We were incredibly lucky… Continue reading 5 April – Hartley’s for lunch