It’s market day in Servian. Linda, Ron and I walk to town in the search of goodies. We first stop is at the bakery for bread. The owner’s wife is on duty; I’ve never met her. The baker says that his wife speaks English but we find out she speaks many languages! She tells me my French is good–hurray! She says that French people only want to speak French when they are traveling out of the country. I say that Americans only want to speak English wherever they go. She jokes that I’ve contradicted myself because I am speaking French. HA! I like this lady.
Bart and Nancy Frank arrive tomorrow. Bart and I worked together at UC Irvine when I was a research technician in a “different life.” They moved to Oklahoma many years ago and we were lucky that they looked us up a few years back when they were in town and we have stayed in touch ever since. Howard requested sausages to cook for the Frank’s first night’s dinner tomorrow. We find merguez sausage, a spicy, North African sausage, plus a mild sausage. I tell the man it’s for 6 people. He asks “how big are those people?” I indicate “like us.” We get a hell of a lot of sausage!
Maria arrives early and we are off to Collioure! We never tire of sharing our favorite French village with our friends. And they never fail to love it as much as we do. Our usual walk into town takes us on the lower portion of the ravine walk we took every day when we were in Collioure so many years ago. (We were lucky to have traveled there several years in a row for a month each time.) We point out Leo’s and Lucien’s footprints that are immortalized in the wet cement we traveled over. Then we meander through the alleyways lined with the colorful fisherman’s cottages–
3 story narrow buildings that are such an iconic symbol of Collioure. Then with flare we walk our friends to the harbor beach bookended by the picturesque church and the ancient chateau. At that point we find a harbor-side table and order Sangria.
Today is incredibly windy; there are ALWAYS strong winds in France! At one point the wind picks up a huge umbrella and smashes it onto a dining table breaking the glass and hopefully NOT injuring the patrons.
We decide to have lunch at this harbor side restaurant that we’re at so we move from the cafe into the restaurant. We are happily not on the exterior terrace; we are just inside the terrace away from the wind but still with a lovely view of the harbor and all that walk along the promenade.
We have the menu of the day. We start with a mixed seafood plate (oysters, shrimp, and sea snails). Our main course is scallops and monk fish. For dessert, Howard is happy to have his first Colonel (his favorite dessert in southern France, citrus sorbet in vodka).
We continue our exploration of Collioure, walking around the church and then taking a promenade around the chateau edging the harbor. We reminisce that Leo, one cold night, was hit by a rogue wave on this path on our way to dinner. I bundled him up in my coat and he spent dinner wrapped in warmth on the floor next to us.
We all are all interested in knives so we visit the shop Treillaud Gilles. The sales lady is very nice and helpful. They have an amazing selection of knives including knives from Laguiole, France; nice, handmade
Pallares Solsana kitchen knives from Catalonia (southeastern France and northeastern Spain); and one-of-kind knives including a knife that is fascinatingly beautiful until we find out it’s the knife to kill the bull in the bullfighting ring. Howard buys a Laguiole Forge pocket knife with a camel’s bone handle. We have traveled to the Laguiole Forge manufacturing plant to buy these incredible knives. This is probably Howard’s 6th or 7th Laguiole pocket knife plus we have a set of steak knives. A gentleman cannot have too many pocketknives, says Howard. We also buy a Pallares Solsana paring knife and Ron buys a Laguiole Forge knife. We all leave happy.
But the happiness does not last long because we must head back home. The drive is about 2 hours but well worth it. Linda cannot believe that we are saying her time in Collioure is up. We vow to come back together and rent that lovely condo that we loved so much in earlier years together. On the way out of town we stop at the wine shop and buy a magnum of rose for Sunday and some great champagne.